I just finished reading the third (and last) Cemeteries of Amalo book the Tomb of Dragons! (This is the third Thara Celehar mystery, set in the world of The Goblin Emperor.) I have mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed it a great deal, but I can definitely see why other people didn't, and also it feels like a case of "this is the author's most popular series, and it's what the publisher wanted to pay for, but the author did not want to write it and didn't have any real inspiration for it and forced it out anyways." (Which dovetails with how Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette has talked about it in interviews--she hasn't said that outright, but she's danced around the edge of it a bit.) It's a bit rough around the edges, and I think there was a lot that could have been handled better to make the book hang together better. There's lots of scope for fanfic! Also, a lot of places where I would have had notes for the author if I was editing it. But I still enjoyed reading it, and will doubtless enjoy re-reading it.
(Here be spoilers)
Unlike the other two Cemeteries books, there is no great mystery to be solved here, or at least, the great mystery is not Thara's job to solve, it's Tomasaran's job, which he occasionally advises her on but spends very little of the book thinking about or anything. This book is more of an adventure novel. There is a problem to solve, but it's not a mystery; Thara knows exactly whodunnit from the moment he learns of it. The problem is "how do you get justice for people who were murdered a long time ago, when the perpetrators are dead, their descendants are filthy rich and powerful, and their corporation is legitimately a large portion of the Imperial economy?" And these are not Thara's problems to solve. His problem is staying alive long enough to get the information to someone who can and will do something about it, and take responsibility for solving it. So it's more of an adventure novel than a mystery, but there's also a lot of interesting worldbuilding and character moments and healing for Thara. Which would be fine ... if the worldbuilding and character moments in the first part of the book connected to the big adventure part in the second, and if the character moments were either better integrated into the character arcs of the previous two books or handled better in this book. (Or, at least, from the fandom's perspective, connected enough with what fandom was expecting that they were willing to paper over the gaps, instead of violently wrenching the relationships into a different direction than was previously foreshadowed.)
To be clear: I like all of the bits, and I am not bothered by the relationship/characterization changes. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. But I can see why others wouldn't.
In the other two books, there was always at least one clear case that provided a thread around which all the other cases and character moments was woven. This provided a unity of plot that kept everything feeling like it worked as a whole. This book has a central case but it isn't Thara's case. He's not the one investigating it; he's watching and helping from the sidelines and working on other things for things for the first part of the book, then gets his own case which doesn't look like it's connected until the very end, and then it turns out (through the investigations of OTHER people) that it actually is connected. Which gives Thara the odd position of being both the main character and a spectator to several of the crucial plot moments.
The plot is, of course, the escape of Coralis Clunethar from relegation, and the question of "what sort of treason is he planning and what are his accomplices and how close is he to achieving it." Not that anyone knows that's connected to Othala Tomasaran's investigation into the death at the Opera house, or to Thara's witnessing for the dragons; that only comes out towards the end.
Now, one would think that this would leave a lot of space to do character work for Thara and help him heal! He could be spending the time grieving and figuring out how to work with his disability, the removal of his calling, etc. Except nope! The focus is on him doing a job for the Archprelate that has very low stakes: getting one of the municipal cemeteries functional again after 50 years of the prelates in charge of it not doing their jobs. It's not a make-work task for Thara, it's something that has to be done and which he is qualified to do. I find the worldbuilding we get of how ulimeires work and what a prelate's actual job is to be very interesting, but it also sort of feels like a distraction because it doesn't tie in to the rest of the book in either plot or theme. I think the reason I had that reaction to this and not to the side quests in the other books is that those feel like they're side quests. Thara does things besides handle The Main Investigation Of The Book, but the main investigation keeps chugging along even as he performs other Witnessing in addition to it. This ... it's too big to be a side quest, the book spends a lot of time focusing on it, but it's just kind of ... there. I kept expecting it to either turn into a huge mystery or tie in somehow to the rest of the book. And it doesn't! Now, for me this is not a drawback, because this type of worldbuilding is catnip to me, but it does make the book feel a bit unbalanced plot-wise.
Side note: I have no clue why Vernezar didn't want the Ulnemenee cemetery to be fixed. It feels like that is made up purely to give Celehar more trouble. Yeah, sure, if nothing changes it's not causing Vernezar any trouble ... but if it were working properly it also wouldn't be causing him any trouble. And sure, if it were working, the prelate of it would be doing the work of the cemetery instead of unpaid secretarial work for Vernezar, but also, schlepping the paperwork from Vernezar's office to the cemetery and back has got to be a hassle and it's not like Vernezar is hurting for cash. He interferes multiple times to prevent (or at least slow down) Thara from fixing the problem, and that feels like way more effort for him than the issue is worth. It left me waiting to find out what grand conspiracy or secret there was in the cemetery that Vernezar was benefiting from ... and nothing. Sure, there's a secret--a secret murder, even!--but that doesn't come to anything. There were rumors about that murder for years, and the perpetrator had been dead for years, so all that happened when they found the body was giving it back to the family for a proper burial.
Anyway, Tomasaran is investigating the death of Mer Dravenezh, the guy who was killed at the opera, and who it turns out was the lover of the murderer who committed suicide in the first book. By the end, it turns out that he was killed because he was getting cold feet as part of a conspiracy to support Coralis Clunethar trying to usurp Prince Orchenis. And Thara helps her figure out what to do, and goes with her a couple of times. But it's not his investigation, and while it feels sort of like that for the first bit (as he's holding Tomasaran's hand and telling her what to do), then it stops being a focus for the book. The beginning of the book feels like the plot is going to be about Thara teaching Tomasaran (and possibly realizing that investigation is a skill, and a very important one even if you can talk to the dead) except that nope, that plot thread abruptly stops taking up much of Thara's time or thoughts as soon as he gets kidnapped and ends up at the tomb of dragons. Which is understandable! ... except that the action plot runs aground pretty quickly.
(The other thing that causes a problem for the Clunethar The Traitor plot is timing. What the heck is he DOING all this time? Is he raising an army? Is he hiring assassins? From what we can tell he's just sitting there! He breaks out of relegation, putting a HUGE target on his back and incurring a great deal of risk for himself and his supporters as Prince Orchenis scours the city to find him. What is it for? Sure, he's planning on supplanting Orchenis, but then he doesn't actually do anything! He just sits there! For months! If he wasn't going to do anything immediately, why bother to break out? It seems an unnecessary risk. It makes no sense to me, and the further we got in the book without any action on the part of the conspiracy trying to put him on the throne of the principate, the less sense it made.)
Then the action plot begins! Thara is kidnapped, and taken to a mine in a mountain to quiet what the miners think is a ghoul that's killing them. Actually, it's the spirit of a dead dragon that was killed by a mining company a century ago in a massacre/genocide, and wants vengeance. Thara's gift pops out just soon enough that he can talk to it and convince it to let him go so he can Witness for it and hopefully get some justice. And then there's a scramble and an action plot as he has to escape and get back to Amalo and then to the Emperor because only the Emperor can help him! It's very exciting! And I was all, oh, so this is an action/adventure book, cool.
... Then the action is over, and there's a long period of waiting, and Thara goes back to Amalo and basically waits for several months, and we're no longer in an adventure book we're back to all the threads that got dropped when Thara got kidnapped, except now he's got a guard and is doing even less of the work himself. There's still interesting character work and worldbuilding, and he is useful consulting, but it's a shift in the type of story that feels a bit jarring. And it feels sort of like Thara is a spectator as other people do interesting and important things. Which is realistic, but atypical for the main character of a book.
Then Maia shows up to judge things as Emperor, and that's very satisfying ... but only a little bit because of things in this book, it's mostly satisfying because I love Maia so much from his own book, and it's good to see him being such a good emperor.
Then we have the neat wrapping up of everything, and it all ties up in such a nice little bow! Everything in this book and the first Cemeteries book is all part of the same conspiracy! The mining company who wants Thara dead because he got the Emperor to intervene and get justice for the dragons they slaughtered is also financing a traitor, so conveniently Maia can just nationalize it as punishment and declare by fiat that he's going to close all the dragon mines! It's so neat and tidy it's terribly unrealistic. I mean, I'm glad that all the dragon mines are being closed, but at the same time ... the whole idea of "yeah, there really is one Giant Hidden Conspiracy Of Evil and All The Bad Guys Are Connected and if you just Reveal The Truth, you can Fix Everything!" is. not really to my taste. This is a minor note, for me, but YMMV.
And then, abruptly, right at the end, we get dumped back into an action adventure book! It didn't quite give me tonal whiplash, but also, I noted that it wasn't as smooth as it could be. The Clenverada are finally coming after Thara for vengeance (conveniently after he's finished his Witnessing by returning the skull and seeing the mine sealed and helping the dragon's spirit to rest), and so he and his guard Captain Olgarezh head off cross-country to escape! And during their escape Thara has to quiet a ghoul! And the book ends before they get back to Cetho where they're headed, so it almost feels like they're still mid-adventure.
Now that we've talked about the plot issues, let's talk about the problems with characterization and theme consistency.
There is a notable thread of character interactions throughout the book of people trying to get Thara to dress better--mostly by helping him mend things or outright giving him things--and that's entertaining and gratifying, because boy does Thara need it. And it's not that it feels superficial. But there is a lot more emphasis in this book on Thara's friends and acquaintances showing him they care for him and that he has connections to the city, which then makes it feel much worse when he has to leave at the end. Which would normally make him having to leave a tragedy: this character who is so isolated and lonely and has so many troubles reaching out and building relationships has finally realized he has a community of people who care about him and now he has to leave and be alone again! ... except that the tone of the last bit of the book where Thara is having to flee for his life feels ... more matter-of fact? Like, oh, I can't go back to Amalo, but there's work elsewhere, and yeah sure I'll miss people but it's not that big a deal, I can write letters! ... it's a bit disconnected.
There is a tiny thread of "Thara's neurological healing and regaining his calling" but it feels very disconnected and deus-ex-machina. He gets one session with the healer and maza who are trying to help him--they say they do something, but Thara doesn't feel anything except a headache. He also does a little bit of meditation, which we don't get any details of, just a note that it happens. Then bam! miracle from Ulis, he has his gift back! And sure, miracles come from out of nowhere and the very nature of them is that you can't predict them or count on them, but also, on a narrative level, it feels like a plot contrivance. It's not only that there hasn't been much plot by that point in the book about healing; it's also that ... Thara's loss of his calling isn't treated like it's very important! In the end of the last book, he's absolutely devastated when he has lost his gift. In Tomb of Dragons, it's just .. a fact of life. It has practical repercussions, but no emotional ones. Thara doesn't feel like he's grieving, nor does he feel like he's repressing his grief, nor does he have a strong emotional reaction to receiving it back except "great! now I can talk to the dragon ghost and bargain with it so it doesn't kill me." Which sort of kills the momentum and character work that was built up around Thara's loss of his calling--his injury, his spiritual disabling--in the last book. It could have been a really core moment of the book and worked if we'd had either more work leading up to it or more emotional dealing with the fallout of becoming disabled, or more emotional reaction afterward at the miraculous healing (or preferably all three), but as it is, it just ... feels very contrived and random.
Then there is What The Hell Is Going On With Thara's Love Life. Books one and two had a lot of subtext that Thara and Iäna were going to become lovers. Then Katherine Addison changed her mind--or, more accurately, according to an interview she gave, she got to the scene where she was going to have them get together and instead the characters in her head went "OH no, we're not going to do that, we're not sexually interested in each other." Which, okay, fine, it happens, and some authors just can't force their hindbrain/writer's intuition to bend to their will. But at the same time ... that does not explain the scene in which they actually talk about whether they're attracted to each other. It felt very awkward, and not in a "realistically awkward conversation" way, but rather in a "this feels like the author is phoning it in" way. On the other hand, I'm aroace and have had extremely few relationship conversations in my life, and none that involved being uncertain about the other person's sexuality, so I'm hardly a good judge of things. On the discord,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
laurajv 's reaction to Iäna's explanation of his sexuality and what he wants out of a relationship with Thara is "That's Bisexual Man Backstory #3." As in, she has talked with a lot of bisexual men who, at some point in their lives, thought something along the lines of what Iäna says here. So I may be wrong about this.
Thara, after daydreaming about what characteristics he wants in a lover (and noting that Iäna has all of them!) for two books straight is suddenly "oh, that's a relief, I would much rather be your friend than your lover." ? I mean, he does angst about What Does Iäna Want, but also, it's pretty easy to come out of the first two books thinking he's pining for Iäna and now all of a sudden no, he's never actually wanted that at all!
And then we have Captain Olgarezh, and from the spoilers on the Discord I thought he and Thara were going to be either in a relationship or openly headed for one by the end of the book, and no, they're just friends heading off to have adventures together. (I do like Olgarezh.)
I think part of the issue is that one of KA's great strengths throughout the other Osreiath books is her ability to write her characters' interior emotional lives in a very compelling way. Maia's fears and anxieties, Thara's grief and guilt, etc. ... and that skill was just not on display here. Maybe she's good at angst in all its flavors, but has problems with writing people who are more healed? And yet there was a LOT of scope for angst in the first part of the book when Thara is still dealing with the loss of his calling which was so devastating to him!
All of this sounds really critical of the book, but I have to point out: I like the book a lot! I liked all the parts! I just don't think it fits together very well structurally, either plot wise or character wise. If this was a fic I was betaing, I would have a lot of comments for the author.
It was a great book for giving fanfic ideas, though. Things I'd love to see include:
Thara and Olgarezh's future adventures around the Ethuveraz
Maia's perspective of the book
Prince Orchenis' view of the book
an AU where Thara didn't get his calling back and has to deal with it as a disability
What the hell Vernezar was thinking as he was trying to interfere in Thara fixing the municipal cemetery and was he involved in the conspiracy on some level
Tomasaran's investigation from her POV. (For example, why didn't she get the names of everybody who had been in a box the night Mer Dravenezh was murdered, after she realized that would have been the easiest way to accomplish it.)
I wouldn't want to read it or write it (horror is not my thing) but you could have a great horror story about those miners getting picked off by the dragon's spirit one by one, and the survivors getting more and more obsessed ...
(Here be spoilers)
Unlike the other two Cemeteries books, there is no great mystery to be solved here, or at least, the great mystery is not Thara's job to solve, it's Tomasaran's job, which he occasionally advises her on but spends very little of the book thinking about or anything. This book is more of an adventure novel. There is a problem to solve, but it's not a mystery; Thara knows exactly whodunnit from the moment he learns of it. The problem is "how do you get justice for people who were murdered a long time ago, when the perpetrators are dead, their descendants are filthy rich and powerful, and their corporation is legitimately a large portion of the Imperial economy?" And these are not Thara's problems to solve. His problem is staying alive long enough to get the information to someone who can and will do something about it, and take responsibility for solving it. So it's more of an adventure novel than a mystery, but there's also a lot of interesting worldbuilding and character moments and healing for Thara. Which would be fine ... if the worldbuilding and character moments in the first part of the book connected to the big adventure part in the second, and if the character moments were either better integrated into the character arcs of the previous two books or handled better in this book. (Or, at least, from the fandom's perspective, connected enough with what fandom was expecting that they were willing to paper over the gaps, instead of violently wrenching the relationships into a different direction than was previously foreshadowed.)
To be clear: I like all of the bits, and I am not bothered by the relationship/characterization changes. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. But I can see why others wouldn't.
In the other two books, there was always at least one clear case that provided a thread around which all the other cases and character moments was woven. This provided a unity of plot that kept everything feeling like it worked as a whole. This book has a central case but it isn't Thara's case. He's not the one investigating it; he's watching and helping from the sidelines and working on other things for things for the first part of the book, then gets his own case which doesn't look like it's connected until the very end, and then it turns out (through the investigations of OTHER people) that it actually is connected. Which gives Thara the odd position of being both the main character and a spectator to several of the crucial plot moments.
The plot is, of course, the escape of Coralis Clunethar from relegation, and the question of "what sort of treason is he planning and what are his accomplices and how close is he to achieving it." Not that anyone knows that's connected to Othala Tomasaran's investigation into the death at the Opera house, or to Thara's witnessing for the dragons; that only comes out towards the end.
Now, one would think that this would leave a lot of space to do character work for Thara and help him heal! He could be spending the time grieving and figuring out how to work with his disability, the removal of his calling, etc. Except nope! The focus is on him doing a job for the Archprelate that has very low stakes: getting one of the municipal cemeteries functional again after 50 years of the prelates in charge of it not doing their jobs. It's not a make-work task for Thara, it's something that has to be done and which he is qualified to do. I find the worldbuilding we get of how ulimeires work and what a prelate's actual job is to be very interesting, but it also sort of feels like a distraction because it doesn't tie in to the rest of the book in either plot or theme. I think the reason I had that reaction to this and not to the side quests in the other books is that those feel like they're side quests. Thara does things besides handle The Main Investigation Of The Book, but the main investigation keeps chugging along even as he performs other Witnessing in addition to it. This ... it's too big to be a side quest, the book spends a lot of time focusing on it, but it's just kind of ... there. I kept expecting it to either turn into a huge mystery or tie in somehow to the rest of the book. And it doesn't! Now, for me this is not a drawback, because this type of worldbuilding is catnip to me, but it does make the book feel a bit unbalanced plot-wise.
Side note: I have no clue why Vernezar didn't want the Ulnemenee cemetery to be fixed. It feels like that is made up purely to give Celehar more trouble. Yeah, sure, if nothing changes it's not causing Vernezar any trouble ... but if it were working properly it also wouldn't be causing him any trouble. And sure, if it were working, the prelate of it would be doing the work of the cemetery instead of unpaid secretarial work for Vernezar, but also, schlepping the paperwork from Vernezar's office to the cemetery and back has got to be a hassle and it's not like Vernezar is hurting for cash. He interferes multiple times to prevent (or at least slow down) Thara from fixing the problem, and that feels like way more effort for him than the issue is worth. It left me waiting to find out what grand conspiracy or secret there was in the cemetery that Vernezar was benefiting from ... and nothing. Sure, there's a secret--a secret murder, even!--but that doesn't come to anything. There were rumors about that murder for years, and the perpetrator had been dead for years, so all that happened when they found the body was giving it back to the family for a proper burial.
Anyway, Tomasaran is investigating the death of Mer Dravenezh, the guy who was killed at the opera, and who it turns out was the lover of the murderer who committed suicide in the first book. By the end, it turns out that he was killed because he was getting cold feet as part of a conspiracy to support Coralis Clunethar trying to usurp Prince Orchenis. And Thara helps her figure out what to do, and goes with her a couple of times. But it's not his investigation, and while it feels sort of like that for the first bit (as he's holding Tomasaran's hand and telling her what to do), then it stops being a focus for the book. The beginning of the book feels like the plot is going to be about Thara teaching Tomasaran (and possibly realizing that investigation is a skill, and a very important one even if you can talk to the dead) except that nope, that plot thread abruptly stops taking up much of Thara's time or thoughts as soon as he gets kidnapped and ends up at the tomb of dragons. Which is understandable! ... except that the action plot runs aground pretty quickly.
(The other thing that causes a problem for the Clunethar The Traitor plot is timing. What the heck is he DOING all this time? Is he raising an army? Is he hiring assassins? From what we can tell he's just sitting there! He breaks out of relegation, putting a HUGE target on his back and incurring a great deal of risk for himself and his supporters as Prince Orchenis scours the city to find him. What is it for? Sure, he's planning on supplanting Orchenis, but then he doesn't actually do anything! He just sits there! For months! If he wasn't going to do anything immediately, why bother to break out? It seems an unnecessary risk. It makes no sense to me, and the further we got in the book without any action on the part of the conspiracy trying to put him on the throne of the principate, the less sense it made.)
Then the action plot begins! Thara is kidnapped, and taken to a mine in a mountain to quiet what the miners think is a ghoul that's killing them. Actually, it's the spirit of a dead dragon that was killed by a mining company a century ago in a massacre/genocide, and wants vengeance. Thara's gift pops out just soon enough that he can talk to it and convince it to let him go so he can Witness for it and hopefully get some justice. And then there's a scramble and an action plot as he has to escape and get back to Amalo and then to the Emperor because only the Emperor can help him! It's very exciting! And I was all, oh, so this is an action/adventure book, cool.
... Then the action is over, and there's a long period of waiting, and Thara goes back to Amalo and basically waits for several months, and we're no longer in an adventure book we're back to all the threads that got dropped when Thara got kidnapped, except now he's got a guard and is doing even less of the work himself. There's still interesting character work and worldbuilding, and he is useful consulting, but it's a shift in the type of story that feels a bit jarring. And it feels sort of like Thara is a spectator as other people do interesting and important things. Which is realistic, but atypical for the main character of a book.
Then Maia shows up to judge things as Emperor, and that's very satisfying ... but only a little bit because of things in this book, it's mostly satisfying because I love Maia so much from his own book, and it's good to see him being such a good emperor.
Then we have the neat wrapping up of everything, and it all ties up in such a nice little bow! Everything in this book and the first Cemeteries book is all part of the same conspiracy! The mining company who wants Thara dead because he got the Emperor to intervene and get justice for the dragons they slaughtered is also financing a traitor, so conveniently Maia can just nationalize it as punishment and declare by fiat that he's going to close all the dragon mines! It's so neat and tidy it's terribly unrealistic. I mean, I'm glad that all the dragon mines are being closed, but at the same time ... the whole idea of "yeah, there really is one Giant Hidden Conspiracy Of Evil and All The Bad Guys Are Connected and if you just Reveal The Truth, you can Fix Everything!" is. not really to my taste. This is a minor note, for me, but YMMV.
And then, abruptly, right at the end, we get dumped back into an action adventure book! It didn't quite give me tonal whiplash, but also, I noted that it wasn't as smooth as it could be. The Clenverada are finally coming after Thara for vengeance (conveniently after he's finished his Witnessing by returning the skull and seeing the mine sealed and helping the dragon's spirit to rest), and so he and his guard Captain Olgarezh head off cross-country to escape! And during their escape Thara has to quiet a ghoul! And the book ends before they get back to Cetho where they're headed, so it almost feels like they're still mid-adventure.
Now that we've talked about the plot issues, let's talk about the problems with characterization and theme consistency.
There is a notable thread of character interactions throughout the book of people trying to get Thara to dress better--mostly by helping him mend things or outright giving him things--and that's entertaining and gratifying, because boy does Thara need it. And it's not that it feels superficial. But there is a lot more emphasis in this book on Thara's friends and acquaintances showing him they care for him and that he has connections to the city, which then makes it feel much worse when he has to leave at the end. Which would normally make him having to leave a tragedy: this character who is so isolated and lonely and has so many troubles reaching out and building relationships has finally realized he has a community of people who care about him and now he has to leave and be alone again! ... except that the tone of the last bit of the book where Thara is having to flee for his life feels ... more matter-of fact? Like, oh, I can't go back to Amalo, but there's work elsewhere, and yeah sure I'll miss people but it's not that big a deal, I can write letters! ... it's a bit disconnected.
There is a tiny thread of "Thara's neurological healing and regaining his calling" but it feels very disconnected and deus-ex-machina. He gets one session with the healer and maza who are trying to help him--they say they do something, but Thara doesn't feel anything except a headache. He also does a little bit of meditation, which we don't get any details of, just a note that it happens. Then bam! miracle from Ulis, he has his gift back! And sure, miracles come from out of nowhere and the very nature of them is that you can't predict them or count on them, but also, on a narrative level, it feels like a plot contrivance. It's not only that there hasn't been much plot by that point in the book about healing; it's also that ... Thara's loss of his calling isn't treated like it's very important! In the end of the last book, he's absolutely devastated when he has lost his gift. In Tomb of Dragons, it's just .. a fact of life. It has practical repercussions, but no emotional ones. Thara doesn't feel like he's grieving, nor does he feel like he's repressing his grief, nor does he have a strong emotional reaction to receiving it back except "great! now I can talk to the dragon ghost and bargain with it so it doesn't kill me." Which sort of kills the momentum and character work that was built up around Thara's loss of his calling--his injury, his spiritual disabling--in the last book. It could have been a really core moment of the book and worked if we'd had either more work leading up to it or more emotional dealing with the fallout of becoming disabled, or more emotional reaction afterward at the miraculous healing (or preferably all three), but as it is, it just ... feels very contrived and random.
Then there is What The Hell Is Going On With Thara's Love Life. Books one and two had a lot of subtext that Thara and Iäna were going to become lovers. Then Katherine Addison changed her mind--or, more accurately, according to an interview she gave, she got to the scene where she was going to have them get together and instead the characters in her head went "OH no, we're not going to do that, we're not sexually interested in each other." Which, okay, fine, it happens, and some authors just can't force their hindbrain/writer's intuition to bend to their will. But at the same time ... that does not explain the scene in which they actually talk about whether they're attracted to each other. It felt very awkward, and not in a "realistically awkward conversation" way, but rather in a "this feels like the author is phoning it in" way. On the other hand, I'm aroace and have had extremely few relationship conversations in my life, and none that involved being uncertain about the other person's sexuality, so I'm hardly a good judge of things. On the discord,
laurajv 's reaction to Iäna's explanation of his sexuality and what he wants out of a relationship with Thara is "That's Bisexual Man Backstory #3." As in, she has talked with a lot of bisexual men who, at some point in their lives, thought something along the lines of what Iäna says here. So I may be wrong about this.Thara, after daydreaming about what characteristics he wants in a lover (and noting that Iäna has all of them!) for two books straight is suddenly "oh, that's a relief, I would much rather be your friend than your lover." ? I mean, he does angst about What Does Iäna Want, but also, it's pretty easy to come out of the first two books thinking he's pining for Iäna and now all of a sudden no, he's never actually wanted that at all!
And then we have Captain Olgarezh, and from the spoilers on the Discord I thought he and Thara were going to be either in a relationship or openly headed for one by the end of the book, and no, they're just friends heading off to have adventures together. (I do like Olgarezh.)
I think part of the issue is that one of KA's great strengths throughout the other Osreiath books is her ability to write her characters' interior emotional lives in a very compelling way. Maia's fears and anxieties, Thara's grief and guilt, etc. ... and that skill was just not on display here. Maybe she's good at angst in all its flavors, but has problems with writing people who are more healed? And yet there was a LOT of scope for angst in the first part of the book when Thara is still dealing with the loss of his calling which was so devastating to him!
All of this sounds really critical of the book, but I have to point out: I like the book a lot! I liked all the parts! I just don't think it fits together very well structurally, either plot wise or character wise. If this was a fic I was betaing, I would have a lot of comments for the author.
It was a great book for giving fanfic ideas, though. Things I'd love to see include:
Thara and Olgarezh's future adventures around the Ethuveraz
Maia's perspective of the book
Prince Orchenis' view of the book
an AU where Thara didn't get his calling back and has to deal with it as a disability
What the hell Vernezar was thinking as he was trying to interfere in Thara fixing the municipal cemetery and was he involved in the conspiracy on some level
Tomasaran's investigation from her POV. (For example, why didn't she get the names of everybody who had been in a box the night Mer Dravenezh was murdered, after she realized that would have been the easiest way to accomplish it.)
I wouldn't want to read it or write it (horror is not my thing) but you could have a great horror story about those miners getting picked off by the dragon's spirit one by one, and the survivors getting more and more obsessed ...
no subject
Date: 2025-03-25 11:08 am (UTC)From:I spent the visit to the Emperor bi
Edit: didn't realize this had posted, my apologies, I had meant to consider and rewrite!
no subject
Date: 2025-03-25 10:57 pm (UTC)From: