Read April 2024
Recommended for fans of Gideon
★ ★ ★ ★
When I heard Djèlí Clark was coming out with a new stand-alone book (novella?) I was immediately on board. Although Dead Cat Tail wasn't quite what I hoped for, it didn't disappoint, either.*
Assassins have become popular anti-heroes in modern fantasy literature, and Eveen's sect is even odder and colder than the norm--the assassins are members of the formerly alive who have been resurrected through magic and their relationship to their goddess.. It is perhaps one of the most interesting use of zombies-excuse me, the undead; zombies is a pejorative--I have yet seen. As with all religions, there's all sorts of constraints around the practicing of the work, and Eveen finds herself in a conundrum when the person she is contracted to kill seems eerily familiar.
The narration is third person, primarily Eveen's perspective. Eveen herself has a decidedly modern youth feel, putting me very much in mind of Gideon the Ninth. Plotting, while slightly less bananas, does get a little dizzying by the end. I would say that Djèlí Clark does a fair job of gradually setting the reader up with the world-building and the constraints that proves so difficult to manage.
There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Interesting, if somewhat florid, world-building that is well-used in context of the story. Intriguing character arcs and characters wrestling with mission and duty. A straight-forward plot that keeps the pace moving. Solid atmosphere that lends itself to the plot. The majority of characters have shades of brown skin, and it is always nice to see representation in fantasy. On that note, I will mention that Djèlí Clark is one of the few male authors that writes women like people. It's a wonder to behold.
I found it a story that was interesting and very hard to put down. That said, three issues prevent me from an easy 5 star rating. Wording could be tightened up, and quite possibly will be by final edition. I felt like for a matter-of-fact character voice, some of the adjectives seemed excessive, and some of the phrasing needed trimming. Second, a dialect is brought into the story near the end, and ended up being jarring enough that it threw me out of the story. Looking back, I think it would be about the same if someone had reached under a bed and pulled out an AK-47. It was weirdly specific to particular culture we hadn't been exposed to when nothing else in the story was contextually appropriate. Lastly, and most significantly, is the epilogue. While the ending worked (much like Briar Rabbit, you knew some fancy trick was coming), I have ethical problems with the wrap-up. It was an unsettling and harsh end to what was essentially a fairly harmless (but high stakes) story. Summation then: while certainly better than the last book, doesn't reach my favorites.
*while there are assassins, there are no cat tails or cats, dead or otherwise.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an electronic advanced reader copy. Unsurprisingly, opinions are my own.
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