The Valley of Bones is the seventh novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume series A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1964, it is the first of the war trilogy. The novel is separated into four chapters. The concluding sections of the previous novel, The Kindly Ones, show series protagonist Nick Jenkins trying to join the army. At the beginning of this novel, it is early in 1940 and the reader sees that he has succeeded.