Bone: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border by Jeff Smith

Fone and Smiley Bone have decided to return a baby rat-creature to his kin, as they cannot keep him on their farm, mainly because the rat-creatures have been trying to kill and eat most of the people in the valley, and the other villagers are prejudiced against it. Fone Bone thinks they should just leave the creature, which his cousin Smiley has named Bartleby, in the mountains and let his kin find him, but Smiley won't settle for anything less than actually giving him to his relatives.

On the way, however, they are both attacked by two rat-creatures who are looking for food, and think that Fone and Smiley would make delicious snacks. Fone, Smiley and Bartleby flee the creatures and end up meeting a huge mountain lion named Rocque Ja, who claims to be master of the Eastern Border, hates both the Rat-creatures and the Dragons, but wants to turn Fone and Smiley over to the leader of the Rat Creatures, Kingdok. He claims that all must serve either the rat-creatures or the dragons, that there are only two sides, and everyone must pick one.

The Bone Cousins are saved when three mice track them down from the farm and trick the rat-creatures into chasing them back to where Roque Ja has the Bones. They get the two rat-creatures and the cat out on a tree trunk which cannot hold the combined weight of the monsters, which sends them rocketing down the mountainside. But Roque Ja isn't hurt by the fall, and he chases the Bones, and the mice, along with their new friend, a raccoon, into a hole to hide. Luckily, the hole is too small for the mountain lion to fit in, and has a passage that comes out further down the mountain. The Bones and Bartleby escape through an old temple which may actually be the body of the Queen of the Dragons, turned to stone long ago.

From there, they re-encounter the two Rat-Creatures, and the leader of the Rat-Creatures, Kingdok. This confrontation reveals that the Rat-Creatures are actually deserters from Kingdok's army, and have at least as much to fear from their leader as the Bones do. But the encounter is revealed to be nothing but a nightmare fueled by the power of the temple stones, and another confrontation with Roque Ja brings in the real Kingdok, who attacks Roque Ja. In the confusion, the Bones escape, but Bartleby is left behind, and returns to the Rat-creatures and joins them while Smiley and Fone escape. They have a lot of information to bring back to their friends and neighbors, and Grandma Ben and Princess Thorn.

I'm not a big fan of the Bone Comics. I hever just never really gotten into them despite their apparent ubiquity. But this volume was just short enough to hold together well, while telling a story you didn't have to be intimately involved with the series to enjoy. While the early stories in the Bone universe are more light-hearted, the series seems to have taken a darker turn, and while that is only hinted at in this story, readers can delve deeper in other books if they so desire.

While this was not necessarily an amusing story, it was good, and showed the forces gathering against the people of the valley. Is Roque Ja correct in that they will have to pick one side or the other to survive, and that power demands that they do so? Or can they choose... not to choose, and hold themselves neutral? Experience says not so, but I suppose we will see... and the valley people will do what they must to survive.

Not really my cup of tea, this book, but it did hold my attention and tell a well-concieved story, so I suppose I'd recommend it.