Wyrmeweald: The Bone Trail

Micah is Kith, and knows it: he belongs to the race of men who have invaded the Wyrmeweald for years. But he has been in love with a Kin, one of those who live in harmony with Wyrmes; and he knows that when the Kith establish themselves fully in the Weald there will be no Wyrmes any more and no Weald itself, just despoliation and exploitation and the end of the old magic. But the Kith are coming, and deep in the caves of the Weald, the WhiteWyrme has sent out a call to arms. The Wyrmes are uniting for one last pitched battle against the pioneers who are encroaching on their ancestral home. Micha and his old friend Eli Halfwinter, the scarred and weary old backwoodsman, must find their way through a world where magic and modernity, Kith and Kin, Wyrme and Wyrme are approaching their final, climactic battle.

The Bone Trail is the final instalment Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's acclaimed Wyrmeweald trilogy. As always, Stewart and Riddell's storytelling instincts are sure: Micah and Eli, the beautiful Kingirl Thrace and the mysterious, troubled Cara spring off the page like real people. And the Weald is a character in itself: the huge wilderness of snowy high plains and gullies, volcanoes and forests and dragons is the kind of setting you won't want to leave, testifying to a skill in world-building that sets Wyrmeweald high above the YA fantasy competition. Combining page-turning tension and stay-up-all-night plot with timely themes of colonialism and resource wars, bending the American pioneer myth into something richer and stranger, mixing old magic and young love, the Wyrmeweald trilogy is a modern classic. It's just a shame to see it end.