Bone Dance: A Fantasy for Technophiles is a 1991
urban fantasy/
cyber punk novel written by Emma Bull. The protagonist Sparrow makes a living by selling pre-war artifacts in a post-nuclear war North American city, until being caught in the power struggle against the secret ruler of the city. Contains a lot of Voodoo, Tarot and popular culture reference. Nominated for Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.
Contains examples of:
- After the End: The western hemisphere has been largely destroyed by a nuclear war. No one mentions what happens to the other half of the world though.
- The All Concealing I
- Angst Coma: Happens to Sparrow after being tortured by Beano.
- Anyone Can Die: About half of the characters are killed off, in chronicle order: Cass, Dana, Mick, Tom and Dusty.
- The Atoner: Frances, to the point of being a Death Seeker
- Body Snatcher: The Horsemen.
- Brother-Sister Team: Dusty and Myra. Until she kills him.
- City Noir: The setting.
- City With No Name: The setting is only referred to as The City, though there are enough locations specified to indicate that it used to be Minneapolis, where Bull was living at the time.
- Fighting From The Inside
- Grey and Grey Morality: The Big Bad Tom Worecski keeps his host alive, while Frances, while being one of the good guys, has already killed her current host.
- I Should Write a Book About This
- Missing Time: That's where Sparrow realizes there's something strange happening.
- Sex by Proxy: Due to a post-possession mental link, Sparrow gets to—very unwillingly—eavesdrop on Frances and Mick.
- Shout Out: At one point Sparrow listens to an old album; it isn't named, but the lyrics are from Another Way to Travel by Cats Laughing, of which Bull was a member.
- Tarot Motifs: All chapters are named after a Tarot card, and Tarot readings are sometimes used to foreshadow the fate of characters.
- Watching Troy Burn
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