Author: Katherine Addison

Review – The Tomb of Dragons

Posted April 21, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Tomb of Dragons

The Tomb of Dragons

by Katherine Addison

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 334
Series: The Chronicles of Osreth #3
Rating: two-stars
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

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Review – The Orb of Cairado

Posted February 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Orb of Cairado

The Orb of Cairado

by Katherine Addison

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 85
Series: The Goblin Emperor
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Set in the world of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee The Goblin Emperor, The Orb of Cairado offers an unlikely hero in historian Ulcetha Zhorvena.

Five years ago, Ulcetha was studying at the University of Cairado, working his way toward becoming a scholar first-class in the Department of History. Then a prize artifact disappeared and Ulcetha, deftly framed, was kicked out. Now he works for a crooked importer, using his knowledge of elven history to write provenances for the fake artifacts Salathgarad sells.

When the airship Wisdom of Choharo explodes, killing the emperor and three of his four sons, it takes with it Ulcetha’s best friend, Mara Lilana. But Mara leaves behind a puzzle—the one thing Ulcetha can’t resist. And the puzzle leads Ulcetha back to the Department of History…and maybe the chance to clear his name.

The Orb of Cairado is another addition to the world Katherine Addison began in The Goblin Emperor, set at around the same time as that book, though the events overlap very little — a character dies “off-screen” in the same accident that kills Maia’s father, which precipitates the events of this book… but mostly it’s about Ulcetha, his disgrace, and this work to solve the mystery and finally dig himself back out of the disgrace.

Like the books focusing on Thara Celehar, this novella gives us another different angle of the world, this one a scholar’s angle. We see a bit of that in Celehar’s interactions with scholars in The Grief of Stones, but it’s not his world. It’s always fascinating to see more of this world because there’s clearly so much of it to explore, and Addison’s been careful to mind that people like Ulcetha don’t speak like the Emperor must, that different classes have their own troubles, preoccupations, etc.

The storyline itself is also fun, since it involves exploration of ancient ruins, a formerly respectable scholar sneaking around like a thief (for the greater good), and of course, treasure. In the space of the novella I didn’t get terribly attached to Ulcetha per se; I wouldn’t object to reading more about him, but I was more interested in the expansion of the world.

Rating: 4/5

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