A few weeks back, I wrote a review for Katherine Addison’s The Angel of the Crows. Reading this book was actually a bit of tangent for me; I had been meaning to hunt down the third book in her Cemeteries of Amalo series, The Tomb of Dragons. And then I got distracted by the book whose existence became as a surprise. And a massive library hold time.
The Tomb of Dragons is the third book in the Cemeteries of Amalo set, which are, in turn, set in the aftermath of yet another book, The Goblin Emperor. I don’t think I have reviewed any of those here, so I have made things harder than they should have been for myself. If you have not read any of these books previously—stop. Go back and do so. This is not one of those series where you can jump in at any point. If you have read the previous books though, you’ll be happy to hear that The Tomb of Dragons is mostly what you would want in a sequel.
Not to give too much away, but Cemeteries of Amalo series focuses on a minor character from The Dragon Emperor, Thara Celehar. Thara is a Witness for the Dead; a sort of medium-cleric hybrid who can communicate with the spirits to see their last moments of life. Unsurprisingly, Thara gets caught up in a lot of disputes regarding the wills and estates of the recently deceased. And, of course, the odd murder mystery. But while murder-mysteries play a role in each of the books, they are not necessarily the central part of the story; Thara has a lot of personal demons and he is slowly reconnecting with people.
At the start of The Tomb of Dragons. Thara’s personal life has hit both a personal and spiritual low and he feels he is no longer able fulfill his duties. While it seems that he knew on some level that he would not be working as a Witness for the Dead forever—the job does take its toll—this abrupt end is a huge shock. He also feels that he’s been cut off from his god, Ulis, which is even worse.
So Thaler finds himself performing a colossal administrative task that has been left by the wayside; tending for Amalo’s main cemetery for the poor. But then he find himself kidnapped and talking to a revenant of a dragon. We have not heard much about dragons in the Cemeteries of Amalo series, and, again, I really don’t want to give too much away, but here we learn why.
Like the rest of the books in the series, the world building here is impeccable; the setting of Osreth is incredibly well realized. And again, just like the last two entries in the series, we’re given front row seats to Thara trying to recalibrate himself and stabilize his emotional well-being. The man has been through a lot, and the events of the previous book really set him back. This had the potential to become tedious, but since Thara frames his own struggles under building self worth rather than wallowing in self pity, it becomes meditative instead.
The subplot concerning the literal Tomb of the Dragons though is quite dark, and I am saying this in light of the fact that this trilogy deals extensively with the unquiet dead. The parallels are not spelt out explicitly—that would take you out of the fantasy setting after all—but the fate of the dragons really reminds me of what happened to the indigenous Australians once the British arrived on their shores. I appreciate where the author is going here, but there seems to be a conflict between having to deal such a heavy theme, and keeping the mediative, somewhat hopeful feel of the novel (and really, the rest of series as a whole) intact. It just gave me the feeling that the ends of the darker plot had to be tied up a little too nicely to maintain the overall vibe .
On a more positive note though? Slight spoiler, but we do get to see Maia again, for those of us that sometimes forget that Thara is actually quite personally close to the Goblin Emperor (Sorry, I just can’t call him Edrehasivar, he’s Maia to me). But with his reappearance, I do wonder where the Osreth books might go next? I think The Tomb of Dragons makes it clear that the Cemeteries of Amalo series will stay as a trilogy, but some of the things Thara agreed to here would have a pretty strong ripple effect on the Empire. It’s what the dragon plot would deserve.
(I really do think Addison has left an opening here, I hope she takes it)
For cbr17bingo, this is TBR. As stated above. And then the library took the book back before I remembered to snap a photo!
And another bingo on the second horizontal