2019 Dragon Award Finalist, Best Science Fiction: "Tiamat's Wrath"

For those with ad blockers:

And the link!

For the condensed version, go to Goodreads. Also check out the Amazon link, when it posts.

Greetings to all my internet friends and neighbors, and for those of you who came here hoping to get another Dragon Award finalist review, you are in LUCK! Which I suppose comes as no surprise, given the title of the blog.  And for those family who stopped by, Happy Birthday, Wendy! I remember the first day I met you; I was seven years old, and I cried.

Today is Saturday, and I had intended to spend it ripping through Dragon material. I didn't have a specific goal in mind, but I did imagine a two-book day. Nay, nay, such was not to be the case. The passing of the late and lamented Maytag drier required action, and, as I had yesterday gotten the formerly-broken truck truck out of hock, I was able to drive places with my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA. Fortunately, she had done the homework, and Parkway Used Appliances, 5088 Canton Rd, Marietta, GA 30066 ,  (770) 516-0191, turned out to be a pretty fantastic place. I HIGHLY recommend them. They delivered and installed and truly made an easy transaction for us. No website, it ain't that kind of place.

It DID take time, though, and I was only able to clear one book off the list. Even so, I MAY be able to get 23 of these reviewed by the deadline. The 24th is NOT going to happen; it's a $15 Kindle purchase, and you have to draw the line somewhere.

“Tiamat's Wrath,” by James S. A. Corey, is a great read, with a single flaw: It's book 8 in a 9 book series. As such, there is a great deal of background material that an obsessively dedicated bookworm would have to cover before reaching full appreciation of this work. If you aren't obsessive about it, though, you'll find much to enjoy.

The POV shifts throughout the book, beginning and ending with Holden. We meet him as a prisoner of the ruling Laconians, under the leadership of High Consul Winston Duarte, at a festive funeral ceremony for the late secretary-general of the UN. Despite his prisoner status, he is able to circulate through the crowd, and those brave enough to risk being seen with him are pleased to chat.

And in this Prologue, I discover a MOST commendable skill of the writing duo using the pen-name of James S. A. Corey: despite this being book 8 in a planned 9 book series, they really DO manage to communicate quite a lot of the important background without going into endless data dumps. I have no prior experience with this series, which I discovered is related to the television series “The Expanse,” so I don't know of the significance of Holden. However, the way the story is written instantly lets me know that he is a Big Deal Character. In his conversations, I discover that the Laconians run things, a LOT of things (as in 1300 star systems), with an iron fist in a velvet glove, and that a Resistance exists.

As I progressed through the book, other key plot points are  referenced, not through flashbacks, or the technique of explaining things to kids or novices, but through the present-time interactions of the POV characters with others in their environment. 

An example can be found in the next POV character, Elvi. Admittedly, on seeing her name, an old Saturday Night Live skit came to mind, and I considered that this might be a plural form of Elvis, but I was soon disabused of that idea. She is a scientist who researched exobiology, and almost by accident, became the Laconian Empire's premier authority of a very strange substance referred to as the “protomolecule.” As such, they drafted her, and sent her on an exploration of the universe.  Again, through natural communications with her comrades, we discover that this substance has the ability to transform, even destroy solar systems, that the originators are all mysteriously extinct, that whoever killed them is still out there, and that the purpose of the mission is not pure science, which all of the science staff onboard desire, but a search to find a weapon against the killers, if and when they return. And, we also discover that the substance somehow transforms human beings who contact it, removing their memories, and giving them the ability to communicate with other alien technology. This is a gruesome technique, and it repulses Elvi, but she still makes use of the results of the process.

Other POV characters include Naomi, who is running secret missions to bring about peaceful rebellion against the  Laconians, Bobbie and Alex, her former shipmates who pursue active military action, and Teresa, the teen-age daughter of Consul Duarte, who is being groomed to become the ruler of the universe upon his death.

As the Papa of a girl just a bit younger than Teresa, I found myself following her story the closest. It grew clear to me quickly that the person writing her POV had a clear understanding of what's important to 14-year-old girls, even if they are the designated heir. Teresa has a crush on a boy she takes classes with, and she is horrified when one of the girls confesses that she and the boy kissed on a recent camping trip. Yup, right reaction; show nothing in public, but consider means of revenge in private. She understands that she wouldn't even have to order the others killed; she can get her way by simply mentioning that she doesn't feel comfortable around the girl, and that she's like to see the boy around the palace more often. To her credit, though, she does none of those things. It's also to the credit of her father; he may be (he is) a tyrant, but he has prepared her to carefully consider her decisions, with an eye to the future. 

Science is happening, military things are happening, but the main thing that is happening is that all of the attempts, on everyone's part, to exert control over people and empires, are steadily failing. And I suppose that's a good lesson to learn.

I'm giving this four stars, because it really is written well, and I enjoyed reading it. However, despite the admirable efforts of the authors to incorporate the backstory into this installment, I'm not sure that's possible. As a result, there were too many times that I simply didn't understand what was going on, or what was driving the characters to act in the way they did. Still, it's a very good read.

And now, for The Question: Is “Tiamat's Wrath” a worthy candidate for the 2019 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel?

Despite its' superior characteristics, it just tells too narrow a section of a story arc to win me over to that opinion. I think Best Novel ought to tell an entire story, or at least create enough of its' own story that it can stand on its' own. While “Tiamat's Wrath” comes a lot closer than some of the other series books I've reviewed, and actually shines a LOT brighter than at least three of the stand-alones, I just don't think it's got the horsepower to deserve the Dragon. YMMV.

Peace be on your household.