A review by factandfables
Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh

3.0

This trilogy, which is a historical ensemble fiction about the opium wars, is truly epic. The cast of characters is diverse and super interesting, and in the first two books, I felt like Ghosh had a fairly adept hand in controlling his narrative. The first book has a LOT of characters, but the limits of the Ibis as a location keep it in control. Even in the second book, although I wanted to know what was happening to everyone, I appreciated the limited focus on Canton.

When focusing on Hong Kong and the characters themselves, this book is great, and there is one party scene where all these characters come together in a really fun way. However, this book loses control of the narrative a bit too much for me, and at times, it is too focused on details about locations, guns and other military formation stuff I just didn't care enough about to enjoy.

Also, I wanted way more Deeti and Paulette and I really struggled with Zachary's character development. Authors get to make their own decisions about character development, but in this case, the Zachary side of things affected my enjoyment of the book in a way I cannot quite forgive.

Overall, this is an epic trilogy about a really interesting period in history. I just wish it had wrapped up in a more satisfying way.