The Witness for the Dead: Book One of the Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy

Katherine Addison

Jun 2021 · The Chronicles of Osreth Book 1 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

"At once intimate and literally operatic, it's everything I love about Katherine Addison's writing, in ways I didn't know to expect. I loved it." —John Scalzi

Katherine Addison returns to the glittering world she created for her beloved novel, The Goblin Emperor, with book one of the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy

Locus Award Finalist and Mythopoeic Award Finalist!

When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had set the bombs that killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his father’s Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin.

Now Celehar lives in the city of Amalo, far from the Court though not exactly in exile. He has not escaped from politics, but his position gives him the ability to serve the common people of the city, which is his preference. He lives modestly, but his decency and fundamental honesty will not permit him to live quietly. As a Witness for the Dead, he can, sometimes, speak to the recently dead: see the last thing they saw, know the last thought they had, experience the last thing they felt. It is his duty use that ability to resolve disputes, to ascertain the intent of the dead, to find the killers of the murdered.

Celehar’s skills now lead him out of the quiet and into a morass of treachery, murder, and injustice. No matter his own background with the imperial house, Celehar will stand with the commoners, and possibly find a light in the darkness.

Katherine Addison has created a fantastic world for these books – wide and deep and true.

Within THE CHRONICLES OF OSRETH

The Goblin Emperor

The Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy
The Witness for the Dead
The Grief of Stones
The Tomb of Dragons

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed this book, as well as the Goblin Emperor. But it's quite short for the price - more of a novella - and reads mostly as a framing device for a Sherlock Holmes-style set of problems to overcome. Our protagonist addresses several mysteries, with his life within his religious order and past history serving as a world building mechanism. These mysteries are also rather too neatly solved - more like pulp adventure fiction than the messy consequence-focused world we would expect from the Goblin Emperor. I suspect this was written quickly, and finished in a hurry. Enjoyable, but probably best divided into 3 short stories and provided as an anthology - which they will surely become. I would wait to read these stories until they are made more widely available as the Goblin Emperor series continues - or pick this up on sale.

Her writing style is warm and uncomplicated yet wholly engaging.

About the author

KATHERINE ADDISON’s short fiction has been selected by The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Her novel, The Goblin Emperor, won a Locus Award. As Sarah Monette, she is the author of the Doctrine of Labyrinths series and co-author, with Elizabeth Bear, of the Iskryne series. She lives near Madison, Wisconsin.