Review of "The Grief of Stones" by Katherine Addison

I received an ARC of this book from Tor in exchange for an honest review.

Having enjoyed both The Goblin Emperor and The Witness for the Dead, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a direct sequel to the latter was arriving with minimal fanfare over the summer, and even more delighted to snag an advance copy a week ahead of release. Witness was a beautifully-crafted slice-of-life mystery, rich with Thara Celehar's voice and personality and packed with small digressions that always revealed its characters' inner lives even when they did not advance the "main" plot. The Grief of Stones delivers more of those same joys and sets up a presumed third novel to complete the post-Goblin Emperor trilogy. 

After seeing Celehar struggle and suffer and ultimately open up and form friendships with a few residents of Amalo, I was pleased to see most of that cast return, especially the prelate Anora, the opera composer Iana Pel-Thenhior, and the members of the postal service and Mapmaker's Guild. As someone with a strong place-memory and fondness for walking through winding side-streets, the latter two and their emphasis on careful directions and details of the tangled geography of Amalo are always engaging to read and lend insight to Celehar's thought process as he goes about (or deviates from) his daily routine. The evolution of Celehar's relationship with Pel-Thenhior was expected (perhaps, despite Celehar's reluctance to confide in others and their differing occupations and personalities, I even expected it to move faster than it did) but still beautifully handled, and the shift in language from formal to informal as they came to know each other better was a well-chosen detail. In general, while the consonant-heavy character names can sometimes be tricky to keep straight, I appreciate the linguistic details Addison has included--the prefixes and suffixes that attach place names to certain offices or different ranks to the prelates, the prefix "rev-" for rites and creatures related to death, the consistency of the ending-in-i plurals, and more. These elements of structure fit well with Celehar's meticulousness and use of formality as a defense and coping mechanism, and also give the world a rich texture. 

Celehar spends much of Witness being stepped on by various local politicians and, out of a sense of duty, refusing to speak up for himself or shy away from the increasingly onerous burdens he is made to face. in Grief, he is pushed to a breaking point emotionally and spiritually, not only by the circumstances of the murder he is investigating but also by the growing realization that he has found a place and people worth standing up for. Watching Celehar struggle to place his own needs above his religious compulsion to sacrifice everything for those he is Witness to is tragic, but tempered with more hope and optimism here than in the first book of this growing series. I look forward to seeing what he makes of his new circumstances, his new apprentice Velhiro Tomasaran, and his growing willingness to make room for himself in his own life.

Four and a half out of five stars. Like a second steeping of a fine cup of tea, The Grief of Stones brings back the same flavors and themes as The Witness for the Dead, but with subtle differences and an air of progress.