The Tomb of Dragons

The Tomb of Dragons, by Katherine Addison

Addison is doing some really interesting things with social structures and governance in the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy, and I think this is the book that really brought that into focus for me. I've seen THE GOBLIN EMPEROR included on lists of, like, 'progressive' fantasy, and even included in groupings with anarchist and revolutionary work. That's weird to me--the book is atypical, certainly, but the emperor is an actual emperor. This world isn't even democratic, let alone progressive, and there are no revolutions here.

What there is, though--and what I think readers are picking up on that moves them to categorize these books as revolutionary--is a focus on the checks and balances that keep power from becoming absolute. The emperor does not have absolute authority, as we see here: he cannot order dozens of mines be shut down in order to appease some long-dead dragons, or even because he thinks it's right and just. The clan who owns the mine would stop supporting him as emperor, and the empire would fall; he has to accede to their demands in order to remain in his position.

This is obviously what Addison had in mind when she designed the position of Witness for the Dead: it is a church post, not a government one, although it does have a formal role in legal proceedings. Witnesses have to be properly petitioned, cannot lie or use ruses to elicite information, and--crucially--are not allowed to use force of any kind to detain people or compell their obedience. It's a set of constraints that should set up really really interesting conflicts, and I think the biggest letdown in The Tomb of Dragons is the scene where Celehar mentions that he can't use violence or force, then turns to the cop beside him and is like, oh, but you can, so let's interrogate this dude together.

Such a missed opportunity, and one that I think speaks to the fundamentally conservative nature of the 'coziness' of this world. Addison doesn't seem interested in why Witnesses would have a prohibition on using state power to coerce confessions, and doesn't focus the eye of the narrative on the costs or benefits of these checks on power. Everywhere Celehar looks are people who are poor, discriminated against, trapped in marriages to bad men, exploited by powerful business interests, literally genocided so a company can make money, and yet the constraint of Witnessing that he side-steps is the one on using force on suspects, and that simply because it is convenient.

When I started writing this review on Goodreads, I had given Tomb of Dragons 4/5 stars, but man, I think I convinced myself that in spite of all its genuine charms--which are real and valid!--it might only deserve 3/5. It is lovely in many ways, but...