The Tomb of Dragons

by Katherine Addison

Synopsis:

Thara Celehar has lost his ability to speak with the dead. When that title of Witness for the Dead is gone, what defines him?

While his title may be gone, his duties are not. Celehar contends with a municipal cemetery with fifty years of secrets, the damage of a revethavar he’s terrified to remember, and a group of miners who are more than willing to trade Celehar’s life for a chance at what they feel they’re owed.

Celehar does not have to face these impossible tasks alone. Joining him are his mentee Velhiro Tomasaran, still finding her footing with the investigative nature of their job; Iäna Pel-Thenhior, his beloved opera director friend and avid supporter; and the valiant guard captain Hanu Olgarezh.

Amidst the backdrop of a murder and a brewing political uprising, Celehar must seek justice for those who cannot find it themselves under a tense political system. The repercussions of his quest are never as simple they seem, and Celehar’s own life and happiness hang in the balance.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Oof, I feel conflicted about Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons. There’s a lot in it to love, with Celehar’s emotional journey seeing some progress, a peek back at the court and at some of the characters (including Maia, yes), and some lovely additions to the world-building. Characters recur, depth is added, and I broadly enjoyed the reading experience.

My criticism is, however, that as a reader I felt there was something being built up that Addison absolutely dropped and spilled all over the floor. It was, I’ll be frank, clunky. It’s like when a series realises that two male characters are being shipped together, and hastily introduces a love interest for each in order to head that off. It feels like a “no homo” moment (even though Celehar does remain gay, and does have a potential romantic interest in this book whom I don’t dislike). It felt like emotionally we were leading up to a particular relationship taking a romantic turn, and we not only didn’t, but we didn’t in such a clunky way that it didn’t feel right.

I can’t speculate on why that narrative thread wasn’t followed through, and I know that other people may not have felt invested in it, or may not feel as attached to it… but to me, it went a fair way to souring my enjoyment, because it just made no sense to me narratively or as part of the characters’ relationships. I think there are few things about this book that could have broken my enjoyment so thoroughly as that did — other than messing up characterisation, like having Maia do something cruel (or at least, do so and not then act to right the wrong), I think this is the only thing that could have come so close to ruining the whole experience.

As it is, I sort of feel like removing this book from my mental canon and thinking aw, what a shame that this series was never finished.

That probably sounds dramatic, to people with low investment in that relationship, or who disagree with me that the narrative was logically building to that. And that’s fine, I’m sure there will be others who love this novel. There is much to love. But for me, it was a disappointment.

Rating: 2/5