Tomb of Dragons

I’m a big fan of Katherine Addison’s Witness for the Dead books, so I immediately pounced on the new one when it came out. The title, Tomb of Dragons, is a bit of a spoiler, given that Celahar is always involved with the dead, but there is a lot more going on in the book.

Those of you who remember the previous book in the series, The Grief of Stones, will remember that Celahar has lost his ability to speak to the dead. Obviously he’s going to get it back at some point, because that’s the primary basis for the stories, but I will leave you to find out for yourselves how and why it happens. In the meantime, Celahar is busy.

The book starts with him being rousted out of bed by guardsmen searching for an escaped political prisoner. Then he gets a letter from the Archprelate giving him a mission, given that he can’t be a Witness for the Dead any more. And shortly after that there is a murder of an important person at the opera, which takes us back to the events of Witness for the Dead because the deceased turns out to have been the lover that Tura Olora was trying to protect. All of this happens before we get anywhere near any dead dragons, the story of which begins when Celahar gets kidnapped.

So yes, there is a lot going on. But what is the book about? Primarily it is about capitalist exploitation. Dragons, you see, live in caves in mountains. And these are often places where you also find deposits of valuable minerals. You can’t run a mine if there is a live dragon in it, so if you are a wealthy businessman who owns a mining company you really need any local dragons to be dead. Hence Celahar’s involvement, and in this case a witnessing involving people of such wealth and power that he has to get the Emperor involved.

That’s the basis of the book, which is all very heartwarming and progressive. I’m pleased to say that there is no simplistic resolution. After all, emperors rely on access to gold and the like to run their empires. But there is another aspect to these books that I’m also very pleased about: their treatment of religion.

Those of you who read my essay in Follow Me, the Luna Press Publishing book on religion in fantasy, or who came to the panel on the same topic at Worldcon last year, will know that this is something I tend to rant about. I’m pleased to say that Addison does a fine job of portraying a real religion in a fantasy setting. Celahar is a priest of the god, Ulis. There is no doubt that Ulis exists, and that he has powers with which he influences the lives (and deaths) of mortals. But no one, least of all his clergy, really understands him. They just know that he exists and needs worshipping.

In this book Celahar visits some doctors at the university who hope to be able to restore his ability to speak to the dead. They try a treatment. Nothing happens immediately. Then Celahar gets kidnapped and we get to the point where he gets his abilities back. Is this because the treatment took time to take effect? Is it a miracle? No one knows. It is ineffable.

The other major thing that happens in the book concerns Celahar’s love life, which has been pretty much dead since the terrible events of The Goblin Emperor. He has some good close friends, but none of them seem that way inclined. The new book see Celahar mooning over a handsome guard captain in the service of Prince Orchenis. Imagine our surprise (not) when said soldier is appointed as Celahar’s personal guard because people involved in the dragon case are trying to kill him. It is a very slow burn romance, but it gets there in the end, and it looks like it will be developed more in the next book.

Title: Tomb of Dragons
By: Katherine Addison
Publisher: Solaris
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
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