The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

The Tomb of Dragons is the third book in The Cemeteries of Amalo series (fifth overall), and after two fairly gloomy books, Thara Celehar is finally showing signs of recovering from the tragedy of his past of sending his lover to death with his witnessing. The beginning isn’t auspicious though. Having lost his ability to speak with the death, he’s at loss for what he’s supposed to do now.

The purpose comes from his unique sponsor, the Archprelate, who tasks him with sorting out a cemetery that hasn’t been functioning for fifty years. What seems like an administrative task turns out to be an uncontrollable mess that has begun decades ago. But Thara Celehar is good at cleaning up messes.

His mentee Velhiro Tomasaran also keeps him busy. She’s now given the full status of the Witness for the Dead, but she’s never investigated on behalf of a murdered person before, and constantly relies on Thara for advice. It’s an odd murder, with seemingly no suspects, as the victim didn’t have time to notice they were being killed. Only one memory guiding Tomasaran, she slowly unravels a conspiracy.

Thara’s main story begins when he’s kidnapped and forcefully transported into a mine where the miners say a ghoul of a dragon remains, killing the workers. But the joke’s on them, because he can’t speak with the dead anymore and can’t banish ghouls, so he’s left for dead. But he’s not alone; his god, Ulis, seems to have a purpose for him and so he’s saved. What he learns is that 192 dragons were brutally killed in the mines, with one of them remaining as a guardian. She wants him to witness for them, and he accepts.

But the mining company is powerful, its tentacles reaching everywhere in the society. Thara has only one option: pleading with the emperor. Good thing he knows him personally. But it brings the ire of the company on him. After an attempt on his life, he agrees with his friends that he needs a guard.

Enter Captain Hanu Olgarezh. He’s caught Thara’s eye early in the book, but as Thara isn’t used to being interested in anyone except his dead lover, he doesn’t really pay attention. But now that they spend a long winter together, the pain inside him begins to ease and he starts to hope that the captain might be interested in him too.

He opens with his other friends too. Instead of pushing everyone away so he wouldn’t be a nuisance, he accepts their help and interest in him. That especially applies to Iäna Pel-Thenhior, the opera director who I thought would be the long-term romantic interest (not that I entirely agreed). But the two have an open conversation and it turns out Iäna isn’t even interested in men, nor is Thara interested in him. You could’ve fooled me.

The emperor gives his ruling on the Tomb of Dragons and the matter should be settled. But the mining company isn’t about to give up on having their revenge on Thara. He can’t stay in Amalo, a fate he and his friends had discussed of so they know he’s not abandoning them.

And he’s not alone in his exile. Captain Olgarezh is with him and eager for adventures. He’s an old soldier with his own troubled past and perfect for Thara. The book ends with the two on the run, and I very much hope there will be many books of them sorting out troubles for the Archprelate all over the empire.

This was a great book. It wasn’t as heart-wrenching or scary as the earlier books, but I loved the healing arc Thara was on here. The world is as brilliantly rich and complicated as ever, with only a surface showing to the readers. The reader has no idea what people are talking about half the time, but it’s always very interesting. With a world like this and a character as wonderful as Thara, there’s material for exploring for many books to come.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison

The Orb of Cairado wasn’t on my reading list for this month, solely because I didn’t know it existed. It came out at the end of January and I’d completely managed to miss all mentions of it beforehand whilst waiting for The Tomb of Dragons to be published in March. It’s book 1.1 in The Chronicles of Osreth series, aka The Goblin Emperor world, a novella that takes place at the same time as the first book.

The explosion of airship Wisdom of Choharo that kills the emperor at the beginning of The Goblin Emperor also kills its captain Mara Lilana, the best friend since their childhood of Ulcetha Zhorvena. His widow finds a random map in an envelope addressed to Ulcetha, who after a brief bemusement realises it’s the first clue of a mystery.

Ulcetha is a former historian second class at the University of Cairado, but he was accused of stealing a priceless artefact and was thrown out of academia. Mara’s clues lead him to where the artefact had been hiding all these years, which only leads to another puzzle: how did Mara know it’s there when he’s not an academic nor knows anyone in academia.

Ulcetha also faces the dilemma of returning the artefact so that he’s not accused of stealing it again. The historian first class he contacts is very helpful though. The artefact is a map to The Orb of Cairado, a relic of great importance, and together they travel to unearth it and a treasure buried with it. As a reward, Ulcetha gets his academic position back.

But the original mystery won’t leave him alone. Who stole the artefact in the first place? Because it could only have been one of his fellow historians. Finding the answer changes his life forever.

This was an amazing novella in a sense that events that could’ve easily filled a full-length book took place during nine chapters and about a hundred pages, effortlessly and without rushing. It has a satisfying three act structure, and nothing was lacking, information or descriptions. The mystery was perhaps easily solved, once Ulcetha put his mind to it, and key witnesses didn’t waste anyone’s time by denying knowledge, but even that came across as the way it should be. And while the thief was easy to guess, I for one didn’t foresee the answer to how Mara had known about it.

Ulcetha was like all the main characters in this series, an underdog trodden by life, but kind, resilient, and just (even if he worked as a forger). In a world of elves and goblins, it would’ve been nice to know which one he was (or I missed the clues), but in the end it was more important to know that he wasn’t an aristocrat like the other historians, the reason they so willingly believed he was the thief. The ending sets him on a new path. Maybe we encounter him later again. I would like that.

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

The Grief of Stones is the third book in The Goblin Emperor, Addison’s wonderfully unique steampunkish world of goblins and elves, and the second in The Cemeteries of Amalo starring Thara Celehar, the Witness for the Dead. He’s a goblin priest whose job it is to communicate with the recently, and not so recently, departed on behalf of their families or the authorities to find out how they died, or to settle disputes.

The book starts soon after the previous ended. A marquise wants to know if his wife was murdered and Celehar sets to investigate. A case follows another and soon he is trying to figure out how to save foundling girls from an unscrupulous person.

The cases weren’t complicated, and the overall tone was that of a cosy mystery. But the latter lead to an encounter that changed Celehar’s life, maybe forever. The rest of the book deals with the aftermath and the never-ending politics of Amalo.

Celehar is not alone with his investigations. Out of the blue, he’s sent an apprentice, a widow who has had no formal training as a priest but who can also communicate with the dead. And he has the friends he made in the previous book that he can turn to, and does, despite being much of a loner.

The city of Amalo is as huge, strange, and complicated as ever. I never knew where anything was in relation to other places, but it didn’t really matter, though I would’ve welcomed a map (I don’t know if final versions come with those). There are trams and air travel, pneumatic tubes and photographing, but the overall impression is of a highly hierarchical society where traditions matter more than innovations. And nothing matters more than funeral traditions.

This was a sad book, much more so than the previous ones. Celehar is maybe ready to open a little after the tragedy in his past, but the rigid norms of the society make him afraid of even contemplating friendship, let alone love. He’s lonely. The cases of exploited girls were sad, and Celehar’s fate saddest of all, even though the book ends in a hopeful note.

The book wasn’t as much about the belief in humanity and decency as the previous ones, but it left me feeling positive in the end. And the hints about changes for Celehar make me eager to read the next book.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

Katherine Addison returns to the world of her wonderful The Goblin Emperor in a stand-alone sequel, The Witness for the Dead. The protagonist is Thara Celehar who featured in the first book as the investigator solving the previous emperor’s assassination. It made him unpopular in the court, and the Emperor relocated him to a remote industrial city of Amalo to serve as the witness for the dead there.

Celehar is a priest who can communicate with the recently departed, to stand witness for them in this life. As naturally reticent, he prefers the company of the dead too. But being a witness often means investigating the lives of the dead, to find justice for them after death. It makes him a de facto criminal investigator, the only one in Amalo.

Celehar has a lot on his plate. A young woman’s family wants to find out how she died, which leads him on the trail of a serial killer. Another family wants to learn the patriarch’s true last will, which plunges him back into the political machinations he left the court to escape. And an opera singer has been murdered, and there is no dearth of potential suspects. Add to that a ghoul, an industrial accident, and a personable opera director who serves to remind him that one cannot be true to who one loves in the empire of elves and goblins, and it’s not a wonder he doesn’t sleep well at nights.

This was an utterly wonderful book. The world is rich to a fault, yet the story is small in scope; a cosy mystery in its truest form. Celehar, like Maia in the first book, is a deeply humane character who strives to do his duty, but who isn’t without small faults that make him all the more likeable when he overcomes them. The focus is on solving the mysteries, and although Celehar finds a way to forgive himself for the events of the past (told already in the first book), the book ends with him pretty much in the same place than in the beginning. Only a few experiences richer and with a new friend.

With a world this wonderful and characters as great as Celehar and Maia, I hope the author will write many more books set there.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

I’ve had The Goblin Emperor waiting on my e-reader for a long time for a suitable time to read it. Now that I have, I wish I’d read it sooner—and that I could instantly read it again.

The book takes place in the Elfish Empire, in a world with clockworks and airships, magic and swords—and no humans. The emperor and his sons die in a tragic airship accident, leaving the youngest son Maia to inherit the throne. Maia is a half goblin, despised and ostracised by his father to a remote farm. He doesn’t know the first thing about being a ruler, the court, or how to conduct himself around other people. He doesn’t want to be a ruler, but instead of rueing his fate, he sets out to do his best.

Told solely from Maia’s perspective, the book follows him through the first bewildering days of his reign to when he finally starts to feel comfortable in his new life. In between there are power struggles, coup and assassination attempts, an investigation to his father’s death, and marriage negotiations where women aren’t given a say in who they want to marry—a state of affairs that Maia wishes to remedy, but finds nearly impossible to do.

At first, it seems like he’s alone facing the world, but little by little he realises that there are people around him that wish him good and are willing to help him to achieve his goals. The ending is hopeful yet wistful, as he realises that the one thing he cannot really have is genuine friendship.

Maia was a wonderful character. Thoroughly decent, and willing to be the best he can, not just as a ruler but as a person. He had many insecurities that he made a conscious effort to overcome, an ability to find good people to rely on, and a skill to bring out the best in people around him. He wasn’t perfect, but he was willing to apologise and make amends when he succumbed to anger or weakness. It was wonderful to watch him grow to become a great ruler.

The writing style was immersive even though it didn’t dwell on details, glossing over days and events, and often relying on telling instead of showing. The moments when the narrative paused to give a closer look on Maia’s life were all the sharper for it. The only confusing thing was the names. Everyone had honorifics that sounded similar from person to person, and given names that weren’t used, except occasionally, plus combinations of the same that made them seem like different persons. I was constantly lost, but even that didn’t mar my enjoyment of the book. The world would be a better place if we had more people like Maia in it.

 

The Angel of Crows by Katherine Addison: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Angel of Crows by Katherine Addison

 

Sarah Monette is a fantasy author who blew my mind with Mélusine and the Doctrine of Labyrinths series that followed fifteen years ago. Since then, I’ve kept expecting new books from her, but it was years later until she returned to my radar, now writing as Katherine Addison. The Goblin Emperor is waiting on my to-be-read pile, but the sample chapters were truly interesting. When I noticed The Angel of Crows on NetGalley, I instantly made a request for it, and to my absolute delight, I was given an early copy.

The book description promised an alternate Victorian London where angels rule and everyone lives in a constant fear of one of them falling, which would be like “a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds”. Seldom has a book description been so off. What I got was a Sherlock Holmes retelling. I don’t like retellings and Sherlock Holmes retellings are the most tired of them all. If I’d known it was one, I probably would’ve skipped this, no matter how much I like the author.

This is basically a collection of Holmes’ most famous cases bound together with a superficial plot about Jack the Ripper—a case Holmes famously never tackled. There were some minor changes, but none of them made the stories truly fresh. The newness, therefore, rests solely on the world-building.

It’s an alternate Victorian London with everything. There are both steampunk elements, like airships and automatons, and all manner of supernatural creatures from vampires and werewolves to ghosts and hellhounds. And angels. There are three kinds of angels: those bound to a building and thus worthy of a name, the Nameless who wander about without a mind and purpose of their own, and the Fallen who are vicious creatures who kill and inflict supernatural diseases. We actually never meet the latter.

Holmes is an angel called Crow. He is different from other angels because he is not bound to a building, but isn’t a Nameless or a Fallen either—a fact that the author didn’t fully explain until about midway to the book, which left me constantly baffled with people’s reactions to him. He likes to solve crimes, and he is very good at deductive reasoning. Unlike Holmes, he doesn’t have any vices—he doesn’t even eat—or irritating habits, and he is actually very endearing in his constant awe of humanity.

Dr Watson is Dr Doyle who has survived an attack by a Fallen in Afghanistan and is suffering from the consequences, which will lead to a metamorphosis. Since the actual flavour of the change is kept as a secret for a while, I’ll discuss it in the spoiler section at the end of the post. It plays some role in solving the cases; perhaps the only worthwhile alteration the author has made to the stories. The good doctor has another secret too, even more tightly guarded. Considering the importance given to it, I would’ve wished it actually had some sort of impact—it definitely would’ve opened the story to a whole new level—but it was glossed over and life went on like it didn’t even exist. More about that in the spoiler section.

Considering the interesting world the author has created, it seems criminal that she’s wasted it on Sherlock Holmes. The angels had a fascinating society that could’ve formed a basis to a completely unique plot, and Crow had such an interesting backstory that he could’ve carried a book on that alone. The alterations don’t even really influence the original stories. It wasn’t until midway to the book that they started to have any effect on the cases, and the suspects remained ordinary humans in pretty much all of them.

This being said, I found the book interesting enough to keep reading. I even gave it four stars. The author has recreated the atmosphere of Conan-Doyle’s originals well, the narrative style works and never wavers, and I liked both Crow and Dr Doyle. If there’s ever a follow-up, I hope the author goes to town with the world and gives the two a proper plot and a unique story.

And now to the spoilers.

***

You have been warned.

The first spoiler concerns what Dr Doyle is changing into. A hellhound. It’s a somewhat helpful change, as it gives Doyle an ability to smell both natural and supernatural traces. It also allows the author to play with the story of the Hound of Baskerville and add fresh scenes about them trying to find a cure for it with Crow. In the end, it allows the doctor to find Jack the Ripper too. However, it reveals the secret to the police who rush in to arrest Doyle, as unregistered creatures are illegal—though the author fails to explain why this is.

Being a hellhound is surprisingly easy for Doyle. There’s some pain and some shame, but at no point in the narrative does the doctor mourn or berate the change. The author is too tied with the original Holmes stories to give room to such ruminations. And just when the story got interesting, a deus ex machina allows the doctor to remain free.

The other secret is bigger and an even greater wasted opportunity for the author. At the mid-point of the book, out of the blue—there are literally no hints whatsoever—it turns out, that Dr Doyle is in fact a woman. I’d say my mind was blown, and it kind of was, but it would’ve made a greater impact if it had been at least hinted at.

And it would’ve mattered more, if this new reality had been incorporated into the story somehow. But life goes on like before. We don’t learn why Dr Doyle pretends to be a man. Is it for purely practical reasons, as it’s the only way she can practice medicine? Or does she in fact identify as a man? She seems to be attracted to women, but then nothing comes of that. And how does it work? She’s spent decades as a military doctor on campaigns and no one even guessed until she ended up in hospital after being attacked by the Fallen angel. Does she have a naturally manly body? A low voice? And what about the periods? How does she deal with them? So many questions and not a single answer given. So I don’t understand why the author felt necessary to make such a change. Being a hellhound was bad enough for the poor doctor. Why did he need to be inflicted with being a woman too?