The Tomb of Dragons

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

2025’s The Tomb of Dragons is the fourth book in Kate Addison’s CHRONICLES OF OSRETH. The Goblin Emperor has retroactively been designated Book One. The Tomb of Dragons, like the two books before it, features Thera Celehar, a Witness for the Dead, as he tries to bring justice to his world in large and small ways.

In The Goblin Emperor, Celehar, Prelate of Ulis, God of the Dead, was the Witness who uncovered the truth of the assassination of Maia’s father and brothers. Now, he is basically a Witness at Large. In The Grief of Stones, while confronting a revenant, Celehar had his ability to hear the dead ripped away from him, possibly permanently. Fortunately, he has an apprentice. Tomasaran is a woman, and women Witnesses are rare. She and Celehar are both, in different ways, outsiders, and each still finding their way.

Celehar has been given an assignment to get a municipal cemetery functional—something that is not exactly easy, given the state of disrepair and the incompetence of the person in charge. Soon this assignment takes a back seat to a murder in an opera house, the house run by Celehar’s good friend, Pel-Thenior. In the background swirls a local scandal; an aristocrat accused of treason has escaped from custody.

As with the other books in the series, these stories intertwine. Before he is done, Celehar will find a mummified body in a closet, narrowly escape death more than once, and will advocate for the spirits of over a hundred murdered dragons before the emperor, Edrihasivar VII, otherwise known as Maia.

What makes Celehar a great character to read is his complete and dogged determination to serve his god. When Celehar takes an assignment, he will not stop until he completes it, or he is dead himself. In this book, at least two groups are happy with that second option. His uncompromising vision makes him a thorn in the sides of his superiors. Like Maia, Celehar judges himself by the harshest measurement, and doesn’t fully understand how valued he is and how many true, good friends he has. It’s always a delight to see them come through for him.

I found this book a bit slow to get started, although I was entertained by the comic-theater aspect of Celehar’s bureaucratic obstacle course as he struggles to deal with the cemetery. However, once the dragon revenant showed up, I could not put the book down. An added treat, for me, was the appearance of the Emperor, who we haven’t seen in these books since The Goblin Emperor.

As with the other books, Addison’s world-building is thorough. Each book has expanded our view of the world, and each one has offered a bit more of a critique of this successful but far-from-perfect society. In the ARC I read, I felt that the point about the inequality for women was overdone. The argument that the same reasons used to show that “dragons aren’t people” could apply to women is made twice— once more than necessary. I don’t want the issue dodged, but I would have appreciated a new argument offered in place of a platitude. Still, this is a quibble.

The story resolves all three of its storylines while still managing to leave Celehar, if not literally hanging from a cliff, at least in a precarious situation. If you enjoyed The Witness for the Dead, or if, like me, you were always curious about the dragons in this world, treat yourself and pick up The Tomb of Dragons.

~Marion Deeds

According to the publisher’s website, Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons is either the third and final book in her CEMETERIES OF AMALO trilogy or “Volume 3” in her CHRONICLES OF OSRETH series (no mention if it is the end) or the fourth book “within” her CHRONICLES OF OSRETH series with The Goblin Emperor added as the first. Honestly, it’s all a bit muddy. But what is not muddy is the world Addison has so masterfully created in this series, crafting a detailed, immersive world filled with engaging characters, most especially the character at its center, Thera Celehar. Though I had more of an issue with pace in this novel than the prior ones, Celehar remains a fantastic creation, a gentle, humble, lonely soul one cannot help but root for, and despite the publisher calling it the “wrap up” to the trilogy, I for one hope we haven’t seen the last of this character. A few inevitable spoilers for previous books follow

Celehar is a Witness for the Dead, someone with the ability to speak with the recently deceased and bring them a measure of justice and closure. In the past, Celehar has used this ability to solve several murders as well as “quiet” dangerous undead such as ghouls and revenants. In the last book, The Grief of Stones, Celehar lost his ability to communicate with the dead, something that causes him great pain at the start of The Tomb of Dragons and also has him questioning his purpose in life if he cannot continue in his calling. Currently Celehar is keeping busy by assisting his apprentice Witness Tomasaran and fulfilling more mundane duties for the Archprelate, specifically, returning an abysmally run city cemetery to working order, as it hasn’t functioned at all for fifty years, with paperwork and bones literally piling up.

Celehar though has never been destined for mundanity, and eventually becomes entangled in helping solve a murder at the opera house run by his good friend Ilan, political intrigue centering around an escaped traitor hoping to overthrow the current regime, trying to right a century-old atrocity involving the murder of nearly 200 dragons, avoiding violent retribution from the powerful corporation responsible for said atrocity, uncovering a possible decades-old murder at that urban cemetery he’s trying to fix, and trying to heal his loss of Witness ability. And perhaps more frightening than all of that —learning how to allow those who care for him, and they are many, more fully into his life.

The strength of the novel, as with the others, is Celehar’s character. Beyond being gentle and humble, he is bound by principle, a deep sense of ethics, a sincere belief in his god and his own calling/purpose, and an implacable persistence to see justice done with little regard for his own safety or convenience, but without the less-laudable self-righteousness that often goes hand in hand with such traits. There is also a deep vulnerability to Celehar, an abiding loneliness, and a persistent inability to see his own worth. Taken together, as I’ve noted in prior reviews, it’s impossible not to root for this character or for the efforts of his friends to assist Celehar any way they can, whether it’s offering a place to stay, a better coat (but not a new one and certainly not a bright one!), or simply making sure he remembers to eat. Celehar’s friend Ilan, who is in many ways an exact opposite, is a wonderful figure and the most developed, and the two have a touching moment together late in the novel when Celehar expresses confusion over Ilan’s solicitousness:

“What does thou want from me?”

“I beg thy pardon?”

“This! . … Thou com’st and worriest about whether I eat, thou givest me a place to hide, thou brokest into Osmin Temin’s school with me! And I do not know what thou wantst.”

“I thought it was obvious,” Ilana said warily.

“Art thou Marnis?” I had not meant to ask so directly — Indeed, I had not meant to ask at all.

“No,” he said. “Can I not simply be thy friend?”

“Thou art very … intense about it?”

“I promise I have no desire to have sexual relations … I love thee, and it grieves me greatly to see thee hurt. And, to tell the truth, it worries me more than a little that thou findst this so unfathomable. Do thy other friends not love thee?”

“I have very few close friends,” I said. “I suppose I don’t know how the thing is done … Thy friendship warms something in me that had been cold for a very long time.”

Other characters are less developed more due to lack of page time than poor characterization. I do wish we had seen more of several of them, particularly Celehar’s apprentice.

The plot is variable in its impact. As with the earlier books, the murder mystery isn’t all that compelling and isn’t really a driving force in the story. The same can be said about the political intrigue. Honestly, I’m not sure the book would have suffered at all by their absence. The urban cemetery issue does show Celehar’s diligence and sense of duty, something heightened by the contrast between Celehar and the person in charge of the cemetery (the same for their different attitudes toward the idea of a religious calling), and also some ongoing humor to the story, though I’d say we probably spend a little too much time on it. The issue with his loss of Witness ability, meanwhile, I thought begged for further exploration. By far, the most compelling plot element for me was the dragon storyline. The dragon revenant herself is a wonderful character, the storyline both infuriating and deeply moving, and there is, sadly enough, a topicality to the issue that resonates in our modern day and age. And on a strict narrative level, it creates a number of opportunities for suspense and action.

That said, this series has always been what I’d label a low-plot-stakes kind of writing, with a focus much more on character and particularly an inner focus. The stories take a meandering, mediative, introspective path toward their end point and though the balance felt a little bit more off than in earlier books, I still couldn’t help but be pulled along in the wake of Celehar’s endearing personality. While the publisher does say this “wraps up” the trilogy, and the book does come to a solid resolution, Addison certainly leaves the door wide open for a return, and if this does end one series, there’s nothing preventing a return to this world and this character. A trip I’d be happy to take.

~Bill Capossere