Rating: 
Summary: A treachorous tale of evil sorcery and mankind
Review: I've read this book twice and everytime i've read it gets better and better.The Dragone Chair by Tad Williams is a strange and wonderfully detailed book about Simon, an apprentice to the wizard Morgenes and a kitchen boy, discovers the truth to the secret of Orten Ard when Morgenes dies after the king's soldier's attacked his room and Simon manages to escape ;Simon then discovers the terrible secret of the underworld. Through soceries and dank evil battling the good of mankind,this book brings adventure books to a new level
Rating:
Summary: A terriffic book with a complex plot in a fantasy world.
Review: This book is one of the best I have ever read. I purchased it late January in 1996. It had been sitting on the shelf since
the late '80s. I was bored and had just come back from skiing with
a friend of mine and had a long trip home. So I bought it.
I finished that 766 page book that same day. In fact, it kept
me up most of the night. It told the story of Simon, a 15 year-old
scullion in the great castle, Hayholt. The Hayholt was the
center of the entire world of Osten Ard. But when Old King John
dies and his son takes over, things start to get strange. Simon's
mentor, The good Doctor Morgenes, is killed by the new king's soldiers for harboring
the king's brother Josua, Simon must flee the only home he's ever had.
But Simon witnesses a sight that he should not see. He sees the king
all but sell his soul to the powers of evil.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The life of Simon is played out over four books: The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone Of Farewell, and To Green angel Tower Parts One and Two.
Rating:
Summary: GET IT NOW!!!!
Review: One of the best books that I have ever read. (Believe me, that is no small amount)
Very well written. It will keep you up until early the next morning, because you WILL
NOT be able to put it down. Oh yeah, you had better go ahead and pick up the other two
books in the series, because when you finish this one you will hardly be able to wait
to read them too.
Rating: 
Summary: A message of forgiveness
Review: I originally became interested in Tad Williams' trilogy after reading his short story "The Burning Man" in Legends, and then discovering on the Internet that this series was very popular. What intrigued me most was that his fantasy world has a version of the Catholic Church -- in his books, Jesus Christ becomes "Usires Aedon," the Cross becomes "the Tree," etc., and priest and monk characters (some holy, some fallen) play a significant role. That said, I actually found it very difficult to get into this series. I never felt like I really empathized with the main character, Simon -- and I think the author realized his failure in the second book, when he began to transform some of the background characters into main characters -- all of whom were more satisfying to read about. I think the most troublesome thing, though, was that the author tended to be extremely verbose, and constantly repeated the same information to the reader, over, and over, and over -- from a different character's viewpoint, for example. Very often -- even up to the very last pages -- I found myself skimming over large sections of redundant information. (Possible spoiler warning:) Although I found the ending rushed and generally unsatisfying, it did have an interestingly unique message: that hatred and revenge are ultimately useless. At the end, the Sauron-like enemy is defeated when Simon and Camaris *forgive* him. It's a powerful moment, but ultimately marred by the author's inability to integrate their choice with the series' earlier pseudo-Christian moral messages.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but tend to get slow and annoying
Review: It could be an interesting trilogy but for few things. Tad Williams tends to lose threads of the story and then tries to tie them together without much success. Characters are clueless and do not have sufficient depth seeming to spend most of their time in self-whipping. Many dialogs span pages with nothing except "I'll tell you the story but later/after you eat/after you sleep/when I feel like it" To show the differences between races Tad Williams distorts their speech and that gets more than annoying especially in Binabik's case.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing character development
Review: Tad Williams stands out from a lot of authors because he develops characters really well, we really get to know these characters, we care for Simon, Morgenes, we are scared of Pyrates, curious about Joshua and Elias past, a good author will draw you in with their characters and influence you to want to know what is going to happen to them. Of course the action is there, morality issues are discussed, basically this is fun. YOu will be entertained, curious, and I have one warning: you might lose sleep. Thats about the only drawback.
Rating: 
Summary: A good start to a wonderful series.
Review: I started this series with a few trepidations. I trudged through the first part of the book thinking is this going to get any better, then the action starts. You get into the true workings of the story and why everything is unfolding as it is. You start to see why certain things were said, and why others were left kinda in the dark. It leaves the reader thinking about what the story will tell you in later books. They are an excellent read. I have read hundreds of science fiction and fantasy books, and these are going on the shelf to be read again. Young Simon, or Seomon depending on the race that is reagarding him is viewed in the beginning as a "mooncalf", as you get further into the series it shows the growth of the young boy into a man as he goes through his trials, and comes out on top for the most part. I will not go into more detail cause you must read this book. You will be pleased with what you find with the series.
Rating:
Summary: My thoughts on "The Dragonbone Chair"
Review: Before reading this book I had read William's Otherland series which was absoluted phenomenal. Then I went on to read "War of the Flowers" which was equally impressive, though in a totally different vein of science/fantasy fiction. After being so impressed with those 5 books, I went out and bought the first in the Memory, Sorry and Thorn series "Dragonbone Chair". Compared to his other works, it was a disappointment. Granted this is his earlier work, so maybe he wasn't quite as developed as a writer. Also, I still have about 200 pages to go and from other reviews I have read, the book gets much better in those last 100 pages. I still want to finish the book because it is a very interesting story line, but it has developed very very slowly.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, slow
Review: This is a good story, however it moves very slowely and is very complicated. I have about 50 pages left till I'm finished. I usually like epic and complicated tales, as I have read the Lord of the Rings 3 times, but this one is very long and boring at times. Hopefully the next two will be better.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow
Review: It takes a certain amount of originality and talent to make an epic fantasy series worth reading. Tad Williams has that originality and talent in his richly-written "Dragonbone Chair," but his glacial plot and prose could use some speeding up.
The High King Prester John is dying, and the land of Osten Ard is just waiting for the inevitable. Down in the kitchens, dreamy scullery boy Simon drifts through his work, and sometimes goes to the wizard Dr. Morgenes for lessons. But those visits allow Simon to see that not all is well: the new king Elias is weak-willed and petulant, and his advisor is the evil priest Pyrates.
When Simon learns that Elias has imprisoned his tormented brother Josua, and helps the prince to escape, he becomes a hunted man -- all the worse when his closest ally is killed. Desperately, Simon tries to find a sanctuary. But now Pyrates is resurrecting the evil Sithi monarch Storm King, and no one may be safe...
Tad Williams gives a lofty spin to the old favorites in his fantasy: smallish trolls (more like hobbits), elvish Sithi, a strong-willed princess, and a kitchen boy who blossoms into a hero. By mixing in some real civilizations like Vikins, and a parallel version of Christianity, he adds to the realistic flavor of his invented world. There are even references to the old Norse and Celtic religions, when someone refers to the old gods.
Williams has an undeniably lovely way of writing -- rich, detailed, and with a kind of medieval grandeur. Unfortunately it moves VERY slowly. It takes hundreds of pages for major events to happen, at which point Williams seems to realize that he needs to get moving, and hits the gas. We even get a detailed stagger-by-stagger description of Simon bumbling through some caves.
Simon is a bit immature and annoying at first, just as he should be. But his painful ascent to manhood is delicately handled by Williams. Dr. Morgenes is a pleasant spin on the wise-old-kindly-wizard type, and even minor characters like the Sitha Simon rescues are given individual personalities. The villains are a little less interesting, since Elias is a childish pain and Pyrates is pure evil.
Tad Williams' "Dragonbone Chair" is a richly-imagined, beautifully-written epic fantasy that leaves you wishing for more. If only Williams had pared down a couple hundred pages and gotten the plot moving faster.
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