of dragons, feasts, and murders
Jun. 8th, 2020 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulaThough Aliette de Bodard's novella Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders, which I read in an ARC provided by the author, falls after the main action of her Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, you could read it at any point after meeting the dragon prince Thuan and his fallen angel husband Asmodeus. The story, set in the underwater dragon kingdom in the days leading up to the holiday of Tết, is in many ways an excuse to spend more time with the couple. Thuan is responsible, kind, and has a history of using books to hide from politics. Asmodeus is compelling, ruthless, and fiercely protective of his household, but he doesn't have the contacts or expertise needed to navigate the dragon kingdom. I am personally more interested in Thuan than in Asmodeus, and I enjoyed the moments when he displays his insight. I particularly liked the conversation where Thuan dresses Asmodeus down for dismissing a problem that's about projecting an image of power as superstition. I also liked the disgraced official Van. She is a little bit of a crab in the same way that Thuan is a little bit of an underwater dragon, or that a threatening imperial consort has the white eye-spots of an orca.
As in many of de Bodard's stories, there is a mystery. Here, the central threat involves careful maneuvering for imperial power, but dead bodies accumulate around the edges. Thuan is a diffident detective, and the more confident Asmodeus would prefer to leave this gently molding kingdom behind and go back to his own territory, so the investigation proceeds in fits and starts. This fragmented path is worth it, though, for the details: an official robe tailored to fit an undersea creature's inconvenient carapace, Asmodeus's bond with Thuan's most terror-inducing grandmother, or Thuan himself in full serpent form, half-swimming and half-flying to a rescue.
As in many of de Bodard's stories, there is a mystery. Here, the central threat involves careful maneuvering for imperial power, but dead bodies accumulate around the edges. Thuan is a diffident detective, and the more confident Asmodeus would prefer to leave this gently molding kingdom behind and go back to his own territory, so the investigation proceeds in fits and starts. This fragmented path is worth it, though, for the details: an official robe tailored to fit an undersea creature's inconvenient carapace, Asmodeus's bond with Thuan's most terror-inducing grandmother, or Thuan himself in full serpent form, half-swimming and half-flying to a rescue.