# Bone Dance > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bone_Dance > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bone_Dance.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Dance > Source revision: 1354717988 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|1991 fantasy novel by Emma Bull}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | | name = Bone Dance | image = BoneDance Cover.jpg | caption = First paperback edition | author = [Emma Bull](/source/Emma_Bull) | cover_artist = Jean Targete | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = [Fantasy](/source/Fantasy_fiction), [science fiction](/source/science_fiction) | publisher = [Ace Books](/source/Ace_Books) | release_date = May 1991 | media_type = Print (paperback) | pages = 278 pp (first edition, paperbound) | isbn = 0-441-57457-2 | oclc= 23612899 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''Bone Dance''' is a 1991 novel by American writer [Emma Bull](/source/Emma_Bull), described variously as [fantasy](/source/fantasy), [hard science fiction](/source/hard_science_fiction) and [cyberpunk](/source/cyberpunk). It was nominated for the [Hugo](/source/Hugo_Award), [Nebula](/source/Nebula_Award) and [World Fantasy Award](/source/World_Fantasy_Award)s in 1992. ==Setting== Although the city in which ''Bone Dance ''is set is not named, it appears to be a climate-modified [Minneapolis](/source/Minneapolis), the author's setting for her first novel, ''[War for the Oaks](/source/War_for_the_Oaks)''. The novel features references to [Tarot](/source/Tarot) (each of ten sections is named for a card) and [Louisiana Voodoo](/source/Louisiana_Voodoo). It is subtitled "A Fantasy for Technophiles" and the central place of devices generally, and electronics specifically, justifies that label. Since the time is a post-nuclear-clash future following a war between the Americas, North and South, skill at maintaining and repairing salvaged artifacts is valuable. So are pre-collapse artifacts themselves. Sparrow, the point-of-view character, makes a living by bartering such skill, along with occasional sales of scavenged artifacts. Sparrow is a bioengineered human, though that case is not plainly stated until half-way through the story. ==Plot summary== In a brief opening scene, Sparrow sells a rare videotape to a wealthy collector. In the scene that follows, we suddenly find Sparrow waking in a confusing place with new injuries and no memory of the preceding 36 hours. On the way to enlightenment we meet many of Sparrow's friends and experience the Night Market, a large section of the city only open during darkness, ruled by "The Deal": everything is transactional. After a cryptic Tarot reading from friend Sherrea, abduction by a dead man animated by what might as well be a Loa, and introduction to a Vodun-based community that is dedicated to replacing, by coup if necessary, the status quo in the city. That includes the man most responsible for the inter-continental war, now at the city's power apex, a character who is also the revenge target of another survivor from his kind. Those are the "Horsemen", modified people who can [move their consciousness from body to body](/source/body_hopping). The second half of the story shows Sparrow's awkward progress toward a fully human condition and becoming a valued member of a community, and is capped by a closing conceit: that the whole telling has been an autobiography. ==Reception== ''Bone Dance'' is regarded by scholars as defying genre and gender conventions: its setting blends fantasy with hard science fiction, while its protagonist blurs gender boundaries.{{sfnp|Donawerth|1997|pp=170-174}}{{sfnp|Hollinger|2003|pp=130-131}} Academic [Veronica Hollinger](/source/Veronica_Hollinger) termed the book "a feminist revision of 1980s cyberpunk", noting that its hard-boiled tone shared similarities to William Gibson's ''[Neuromancer](/source/Neuromancer)''.{{sfnp|Hollinger|2003|pp=130-131}} The novel employs cyberpunk motifs such as mind control and genetic engineering to explore themes of gender identity.{{sfnp|Wolmark|1999|p=234}}{{sfnp|Booker|Thomas|2009|p=117}} The construction of Sparrow's self-identity was described by academic Jane Donawerth as reminiscent of Mary Shelley's ''[Frankenstein](/source/Frankenstein)''.{{sfnp|Donawerth|1997|p=172}} ''Bone Dance'' was nominated for numerous awards, including the [Hugo](/source/Hugo_Award), [Locus](/source/Locus_Award), [Nebula](/source/Nebula_Award) and [World Fantasy Award](/source/World_Fantasy_Award)s, and received a special citation at the [Philip K. Dick Award](/source/Philip_K._Dick_Award). ==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= {{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/Emma_Bull |title=Emma Bull Awards |work=[Science Fiction Awards Database](/source/Science_Fiction_Awards_Database) |publisher=Locus Science Fiction Foundation |access-date=November 28, 2021}} }} ==Sources== {{refbegin|30em}} * {{cite book |title=The Science Fiction Handbook |last1=Booker |first1=M. Keith |last2=Thomas |first2=Anne-Marie |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4443-1035-1}} * {{cite book |title=Frankenstein's Daughters |last=Donawerth |first=Jane |year=1997 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2686-2}} * {{cite book |chapter=Feminist Theory and Science Fiction |last=Hollinger |first=Veronica |title=The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction |editor1-last=James |editor1-first=Edward |editor1-link=Edward James (historian) |editor2-last=Mendlesohn |editor2-first=Farah |editor2-link=Farah Mendlesohn |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01657-5}} * {{cite book |chapter=The Postmodern Romances of Feminist Science Fiction |title=Cybersexualities |last=Wolmark |first=Jenny |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7486-1118-8}} {{refend}} {{Authority control}} Category:1991 American novels Category:1991 English-language novels Category:1991 science fiction novels Category:1991 fantasy novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Science fantasy novels Category:Contemporary fantasy novels Category:Cyberpunk novels Category:Hard science fiction novels Category:Novels set in Minneapolis Category:Fiction about body swapping Category:Fiction about Louisiana Voodoo --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bone Dance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Dance) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Dance?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.