Old Man's Cave
First US edition cover
|
|
| Author | Jeff Smith |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Jeff Smith |
| Cover artist | Jeff Smith Elizabeth Lewis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Bone |
| Genre | Fantasy, comedy |
| Publisher | Cartoon Books, Scholastic |
|
Publication date
|
July 1, 1999 (black & white), 2007 (colour) |
| Media type | Hardback and paperback |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | (hardback) ISBN (paperback) |
| OCLC | 42438963 |
| Preceded by | Rock Jaw: Master of the Eastern Border |
| Followed by | Ghost Circles |
Old Man's Cave is the sixth book in the Bone series. It collects issues 33-37 of Jeff Smith's self-published Bone comic book series. It marks the conclusion of the second part of the saga, entitled Solstice. The book was published by Cartoon Books in its original black-and-white form in 1999, and in color by Scholastic Press in 2007.
This book reveals more of the plotting between The Hooded One and the Lord of the Locusts, and follows the inhabitants of the valley as they pick up the pieces after the attacks by the Rat Creature army.
Fone Bone is trying to climb a tree so he can see the whole valley while Smiley Bone is at the bottom to catch Fone Bone. A groundhog starts to complain that Smiley is in his hole. then Fone Bone falls into the groundhog's hole. Ted finds them and the groundhog gets scared about rumors going around that Fone Bone had killed Kingdok. Fone Bone is outraged by this, so he, Smiley, and Ted go to warn Thorn.
The villagers are with Phoney Bone and Thorn, who save the other villagers before the rat creatures come. When they do come, they talk about "the one who bears the star." Wendell, still mad about Phoney's dragonslayer scheme, starts to threaten Phoney.
Thorn has left in the night in search of Fone Bone, while Phoney Bone and three of the villagers head for Old Man's Cave, where they are met by Gran'ma Ben and Lucius. Meanwhile, Fone and Smiley have made it down from the mountains. They are ambushed by Rat Creatures, but Thorn scares the Rat Creatures off.
Deep in the mountains, the Lord of the Locusts has doubts that “the one who bears the star” (Phoney Bone), with whom the Hooded One seems obsessed, is as powerful as the Hooded One believes, but allows the search for him to continue.
Thorn, Fone, and Smiley lie low for a few days while planning an attack on The Hooded One. Thorn explains how she believes The Hooded One plans to use her and Phoney to speed the release of the Lord of the Locusts from the stone of the mountains. She also explains her mistrust of Gran'ma Ben - Thorn believes the tale of how her parents were betrayed by the nursemaid is a lie; she never had a nursemaid. Meanwhile, The Hooded One approaches Roque Ja and asks him to recapture the Bones.
At Old Man's Cave, the survivors of the Rat Creature attack are gathered, along with a large group of Veni Yan warriors. Gran'ma Ben tells Phoney Bone that the dragons' Queen, Mim, kept the Dreaming in balance until the Lord of the Locusts drove her insane, and the other dragons were forced to turn Mim to stone. The Hooded One, she tells him, wants to sacrifice him to free the Lord of the Locusts.
...
Wikipedia