stuckinpermafrost 's review for:

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

4.5

adventurous emotional mysterious

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

I feel like the pacing of all three of these books is a bit odd in a way The Goblin Emperor wasn’t, but it’s by design, not because of bad writing. Thara chases different plot threads which may or may not be related in the end, and some of them are definitely less adventurous than others — how much of the book was centered around cleaning a room?

I ESPECIALLY loved seeing Maia/Edrehasivar again, plus Csevet and some of the others! I’ve loved seeing what the empire is like outside Cetho, but it was nice to briefly see the capital again too.

I have somewhat mixed feelings on the ending, particularly regarding Thara’s relationship with Iäna.

I’m not mad about it, exactly — it’s good to have very close platonic friendships in fiction! Iäna can care deeply for Thara without being attracted to him (and vice versa)! Also, in modern terms it kind of sounded like he’s aromantic too, which is quite nice as someone who’s probably aromantic myself. But it really, really felt like the previous books were setting up a relationship between the two, and I’m kind of bewildered that it didn’t happen. I was honestly quite disappointed at first by that reveal, but after finishing the book I’m more okay with it.

As far as I know, The Cemeteries of Amalo is over — it says it’s a trilogy on the back cover of my copy — but it really did seem to leave things open for future entries. Not so much setting up future plots as leaving the possibility open. I’d be very happy to see more Chronicles of Osreth books, especially ones that show us other parts of this world!