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Tales from the Black Chamber #4
Daggers in Darkness
Book 1 of the Treasures of Tartary trilogy
Black Chamber alternate history universe
Teddy Roosevelt has steered the Progressive Republican Party and the United States through the Mexican insurrection, and what would have been World War I. Mexico has become a part of the United States, but Europe has been destroyed by the Kaiser’s v-gas. Japan, Germany, and what’s left of the British Commonwealth are struggling for supremacy in the new world of the Twentieth Century.
Roosevelt has created a spy agency called the Black Chamber, and two of his best Black Chamber agents are Luz O’Malley and her lover, Ciara Whelan. Luz and Ciara are tasked to figure out where all the Chinese antiquities being smuggled into the USA are coming from. As they dig deeper and deeper, bodies keep turning up all over Chinatown and it is no better in Shanghai. Luz and Ciara have to watch out for daggers in the dark.
Black Chamber alternate history universe
Teddy Roosevelt has steered the Progressive Republican Party and the United States through the Mexican insurrection, and what would have been World War I. Mexico has become a part of the United States, but Europe has been destroyed by the Kaiser’s v-gas. Japan, Germany, and what’s left of the British Commonwealth are struggling for supremacy in the new world of the Twentieth Century.
Roosevelt has created a spy agency called the Black Chamber, and two of his best Black Chamber agents are Luz O’Malley and her lover, Ciara Whelan. Luz and Ciara are tasked to figure out where all the Chinese antiquities being smuggled into the USA are coming from. As they dig deeper and deeper, bodies keep turning up all over Chinatown and it is no better in Shanghai. Luz and Ciara have to watch out for daggers in the dark.
- GenresFiction
354 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 4, 2021
40 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
S.M. Stirling
170 books1,648 followersStephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.
MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)
I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.
MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)
I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 25, 2023
Luz and Ciara are American secret agents in the year 1922 of an alternative world in which Theodore Roosevelt is still President and the Great War turned out quite differently. This is the fourth book in the series, and we’ve jumped 5 years since the third one, because Luz and Ciara took time off to become mothers. They now have four young children (two each), a Chinese nanny who doubles as swordswoman, and couple of young-adult Japanese-American sisters who tag along with them.
After their long break, they’re given a mission to investigate an unidentified organization that’s selling off a bunch of previously unknown and very valuable Chinese antiques, possibly in order to finance weapons of mass destruction. In pursuit of this mission, the whole gang including children flies off to Shanghai by airship, arriving in Chapter 12, two-thirds of the way through the book.
The first 10 chapters are set in California and consist of preliminary discussions and activities, in which not a lot happens, apart from one isolated outbreak of deadly combat.
Shanghai is more lively, and there’s a larger-scale outbreak of deadly combat, for which they need to recruit local assistance. However, two more volumes of the series are expected, and this mission will continue in the next.
This is a more than usually self-indulgent novel from Stirling. He always researches his fiction heavily, and likes to display his research in the form of background details, which I quite often appreciate and like; but here he does it to such excess as to overwhelm the story. The book is full of detailed descriptions of what everyone is wearing and eating, and linguistic notes on all the various languages and dialects that he manages to cram into it. There are also technological and historical notes from time to time.
The story accompanying all these background details begins to seem an afterthought; it’s more perfunctory and less credible than usual.
Overall, I give it three stars because I’m still willing to reread it occasionally: I give two stars to books that I’m not interested in rereading. However, it’s a rather marginal three stars: say two and a half stars.
The primary heroine Luz is half-Cuban and frequently breaks into Spanish, so you may feel more comfortable with these books if you can read Spanish; although anything significant to the story is translated into English for you. I live in Spain; I’m not a fluent speaker, but I’m accustomed to the language and it doesn’t bother me. I don’t pronounce it as Luz would—because I’ve learned Spanish in Spain, and also because I’m British.
After their long break, they’re given a mission to investigate an unidentified organization that’s selling off a bunch of previously unknown and very valuable Chinese antiques, possibly in order to finance weapons of mass destruction. In pursuit of this mission, the whole gang including children flies off to Shanghai by airship, arriving in Chapter 12, two-thirds of the way through the book.
The first 10 chapters are set in California and consist of preliminary discussions and activities, in which not a lot happens, apart from one isolated outbreak of deadly combat.
Shanghai is more lively, and there’s a larger-scale outbreak of deadly combat, for which they need to recruit local assistance. However, two more volumes of the series are expected, and this mission will continue in the next.
This is a more than usually self-indulgent novel from Stirling. He always researches his fiction heavily, and likes to display his research in the form of background details, which I quite often appreciate and like; but here he does it to such excess as to overwhelm the story. The book is full of detailed descriptions of what everyone is wearing and eating, and linguistic notes on all the various languages and dialects that he manages to cram into it. There are also technological and historical notes from time to time.
The story accompanying all these background details begins to seem an afterthought; it’s more perfunctory and less credible than usual.
Overall, I give it three stars because I’m still willing to reread it occasionally: I give two stars to books that I’m not interested in rereading. However, it’s a rather marginal three stars: say two and a half stars.
The primary heroine Luz is half-Cuban and frequently breaks into Spanish, so you may feel more comfortable with these books if you can read Spanish; although anything significant to the story is translated into English for you. I live in Spain; I’m not a fluent speaker, but I’m accustomed to the language and it doesn’t bother me. I don’t pronounce it as Luz would—because I’ve learned Spanish in Spain, and also because I’m British.
August 7, 2021
Good 1920's style adventure set in San Francisco and the Orient. A team of trained women go up against the tongs and the warlords of Asia. Always love reading an author who does his research. This book has airships, dastardly villains, thrilling back alley action, and raids on the enemy headquarters. Can't wait for the next two volumes in this trilogy. Just personal taste, but I think it is time for Luz to discover the joy of a good cigar as she kicks back with the president after another successful operation.
April 3, 2021
A bit disappointing and slow in places with a lot of dialogue that seemed unnecessary.
Borrowed heavily from the authors earlier and superior novel; The Peshawar Lancers which I would recommend.
Not his best
Borrowed heavily from the authors earlier and superior novel; The Peshawar Lancers which I would recommend.
Not his best
March 24, 2021
Liked it, didn't love it. Has some rock 'em, sock 'em action scenes. I continue to be just interested enough in this series to keep reading the books, but I never get very enthusiastic about them.
November 2, 2021
Pulp candy
SM Stirling is a guilty pleasure of mine. His works are intriguing, and usually feature very competent heroes in dangerous situations. This book is no different. We find Luz and Ciara headed to a new adventure in Shanghai with their entourage of similarly-super henchpeople.
Is it fine literature? No. Is enjoyable popcorn reading? Yes indeed. A fun pulpy romp through a vastly-different alternative early 20th century.
SM Stirling is a guilty pleasure of mine. His works are intriguing, and usually feature very competent heroes in dangerous situations. This book is no different. We find Luz and Ciara headed to a new adventure in Shanghai with their entourage of similarly-super henchpeople.
Is it fine literature? No. Is enjoyable popcorn reading? Yes indeed. A fun pulpy romp through a vastly-different alternative early 20th century.
August 6, 2021
Repetitive, slow, and boring.
The obvious rip-off of Peaky Blinders' characters (Tommy, Arthur, and Polly) was really disappointing for me. I thought Stirling was better than pulling a cheap stunt like that, and I'm frankly surprised that he hasn't been sued by Steven Knight for copyright infringement.
Also, it's like he co-wrote the novel with RuPaul and Gordon Ramsay, because you can't get through a chapter without at least one (often more than one) painful, paragraphs-long digression into what someone was wearing and how it was designed and the colour and cut and texture of the materials (ad nauseum) OR the same thing for the food being served to and eaten by the characters (Oh, the scallops in a fine cream sauce, with canapes, caviar on bread twists, and a '17 chardonnay, with creme brule and sorbet in five rare flavours to follow, blah blah, etc.!) to the point where it kept stalling plot advancement and really did feel like he was just using it for filler as if he was being paid by the the word or something.
Speaking of filler...similarly, the pages of domestic bliss and banal verbal repartee with the supporting characters felt like a Bronte novel. The endless flirting with Ciara and hungry descriptions of her fulsome Irish figure quickly got old. The constant reminders that the Taguchi sisters are nearly-but-not-quite twins was irritating (if you're going to keep harping on about how alike they are, use it in the plot for some skull-duggery, or shut up about it...the reader doesn't need to be reminded EVERY time they enter the scene), and the cutesy "Awww" moments when da wittle baby girls all troop in to be ever so adorable happened so frequently and to no discernible purpose that eventually you just want to V-gas the lot of them. What does *any* of this have to do with advancing the plot of the novel?
Next, the protagonist Luz has gotten so omniscient and omni-talented that she's become a caricature of the super spy (she speaks all languages and knows all varieties of fighting forms, is skilled with any weapon she lays her hands on, knows everyone who's anyone, and has a grasp of all of the history and politics of every nation and culture in the world to the point where everyone is fooled by her suave handling of every situation and there's never even the slightest doubt that she will succeed in her mission -- yawn!). She actually takes her aforementioned cutesy moppets on a mission into harm's way, but there's never really any concern for their welfare on the part of the reader because, well, Luz, right? What spy would *actually* do that, or be allowed to do that? Toss in that a good portion of her interior monologue is in spanish, which means that if you don't speak spanish, you either miss what seems intended as pithy observations, or you constantly have to pause to open Google translate, and the character soon becomes boring.
Finally, after all of the above Macguffins, the plot jumps around and Luz draws conclusions out of thin air and suddenly miraculously knows where to go to confront the bad guys...how, exactly??
I'd enjoyed this series up until now, but I don't think I'll waste my time and money on any further installments. This was just bad, lazy writing.
The obvious rip-off of Peaky Blinders' characters (Tommy, Arthur, and Polly) was really disappointing for me. I thought Stirling was better than pulling a cheap stunt like that, and I'm frankly surprised that he hasn't been sued by Steven Knight for copyright infringement.
Also, it's like he co-wrote the novel with RuPaul and Gordon Ramsay, because you can't get through a chapter without at least one (often more than one) painful, paragraphs-long digression into what someone was wearing and how it was designed and the colour and cut and texture of the materials (ad nauseum) OR the same thing for the food being served to and eaten by the characters (Oh, the scallops in a fine cream sauce, with canapes, caviar on bread twists, and a '17 chardonnay, with creme brule and sorbet in five rare flavours to follow, blah blah, etc.!) to the point where it kept stalling plot advancement and really did feel like he was just using it for filler as if he was being paid by the the word or something.
Speaking of filler...similarly, the pages of domestic bliss and banal verbal repartee with the supporting characters felt like a Bronte novel. The endless flirting with Ciara and hungry descriptions of her fulsome Irish figure quickly got old. The constant reminders that the Taguchi sisters are nearly-but-not-quite twins was irritating (if you're going to keep harping on about how alike they are, use it in the plot for some skull-duggery, or shut up about it...the reader doesn't need to be reminded EVERY time they enter the scene), and the cutesy "Awww" moments when da wittle baby girls all troop in to be ever so adorable happened so frequently and to no discernible purpose that eventually you just want to V-gas the lot of them. What does *any* of this have to do with advancing the plot of the novel?
Next, the protagonist Luz has gotten so omniscient and omni-talented that she's become a caricature of the super spy (she speaks all languages and knows all varieties of fighting forms, is skilled with any weapon she lays her hands on, knows everyone who's anyone, and has a grasp of all of the history and politics of every nation and culture in the world to the point where everyone is fooled by her suave handling of every situation and there's never even the slightest doubt that she will succeed in her mission -- yawn!). She actually takes her aforementioned cutesy moppets on a mission into harm's way, but there's never really any concern for their welfare on the part of the reader because, well, Luz, right? What spy would *actually* do that, or be allowed to do that? Toss in that a good portion of her interior monologue is in spanish, which means that if you don't speak spanish, you either miss what seems intended as pithy observations, or you constantly have to pause to open Google translate, and the character soon becomes boring.
Finally, after all of the above Macguffins, the plot jumps around and Luz draws conclusions out of thin air and suddenly miraculously knows where to go to confront the bad guys...how, exactly??
I'd enjoyed this series up until now, but I don't think I'll waste my time and money on any further installments. This was just bad, lazy writing.
August 16, 2021
Stirling excels!
The cast of characters grew more interesting, broader and deeper people. The idea of a truly brilliant TR leading a truly progressive party is one brilliant strand in a tapestry alternate history.
Teddy Roosevelt indeed supported women’s suffrage in college, and a “joke” that turned his suffrage amendment into a equal rights amendment follows how sex became a protected category in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
But power indeed changes us, and “president for life” with a very talented, Medal of Honor son to inherit …
This is thoughtful fiction, that invites research (did he really do that?) and re-imagining the way our society works.
Revisiting book 1, waiting for the next.
The cast of characters grew more interesting, broader and deeper people. The idea of a truly brilliant TR leading a truly progressive party is one brilliant strand in a tapestry alternate history.
Teddy Roosevelt indeed supported women’s suffrage in college, and a “joke” that turned his suffrage amendment into a equal rights amendment follows how sex became a protected category in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
But power indeed changes us, and “president for life” with a very talented, Medal of Honor son to inherit …
This is thoughtful fiction, that invites research (did he really do that?) and re-imagining the way our society works.
Revisiting book 1, waiting for the next.
July 2, 2023
I’m putting this on the DNF shelf even though I skimmed the last half and read the last chapter because I just didn’t care enough to READ the last half of the book. I like Stirling, really I do. He has wonderful ideas and an interesting outlook, but this volume seemed to have four pages of background followed by one paragraph of action, then more background or recaps from the former books. Can I say I also hate the little tiny type? And why, oh, WHY is every thought expresses by little TINY Italics? Very hard to read in a physical sense. This whole book could probably be a very short story.
September 14, 2021
Terrible very hard to get through. Its a shame I shelved permanently on page 76. Too many unnessesary details about trivial items makes for hard reading. I found the same in the other books of this series. But this was the worst.
Stirling is one of the authors that I really liked his other series were great. For some reason he is obsessed with too many trivial details that have no bearing on the story with this series. The plot lines are good but he is ruining this series.
Stirling is one of the authors that I really liked his other series were great. For some reason he is obsessed with too many trivial details that have no bearing on the story with this series. The plot lines are good but he is ruining this series.
November 12, 2022
:) A new trilogy about the Black Chamber agents.:) The clothes, the food, the children, the detective work, evil villains and of course the fights. This one has it all and is an enjoyable read. I noticed that the Theodore Roosevelt in this alternate history outlives the one in our history. Having a purpose and not just living in retirement makes a difference. The good part is the second volume should be out in the not to far future.
March 21, 2021
I rated this a bit lower than the first three books in the series, partially because it seemed like problems were solved implausibly easily, it was a bit hard to accept. I did enjoy and appreciate the additional details of this “alternate history”, and how it came to be.
I’m definitely going to watch for the next book, but I hope Luz and Ciara have to work a little harder 😁.
I’m definitely going to watch for the next book, but I hope Luz and Ciara have to work a little harder 😁.
May 20, 2021
It's 1922, Teddy Roosevelt is in his 5th term as President and V-gas proliferation (first used by Germany to end the Great War) is fast becoming a problem. Black Chamber operatives Luz O'Malley and Clara Whelan are called upon to track down the new international players in V-gas production.
November 15, 2023
After the Great War to end all Wars, cold war and mutually assured destruction are the order of the day. Follow Luz and Ciara and the Black Chamber try to keep V-gas (Vernichtungsgas) out of the hand of potential terrorists.
June 15, 2021
Enjoyable
I love S.M.Stirling's style he keeps you wanting more very enjoyable reading. The continued adventures of the two heroes of the series will draw you in.
I love S.M.Stirling's style he keeps you wanting more very enjoyable reading. The continued adventures of the two heroes of the series will draw you in.
January 18, 2022
Another good installment in his Alt History of WWI and beyond, as well as the start of a new "trilogy" within the series. Can't wait to read the next installment. And I loved the Peaky Blinders nod!
January 14, 2023
Out of all the S. M. Stirling novels I've read, this one feels the most... nerd-porn? I don't really know how to describe it. This series always had a lot of that, with the characters traveling by Zeppelin, Nicola Tesla being the source of the Black Chamber's gadgets, etc. But this one takes that even further, with kung fu assassins, the main characters of Peaky Blinders showing up for some reason, and the plot turns out to be about the dreaded Roman von Ungern-Sternberg's scheme to acquire WMDs to resurrect the Mongol Empire. I'd call that a spoiler, but unfortunately the series is called the "Treasures of Tartary", so the mystery of where all the priceless artifacts are coming from is given away by the title. As soon as they mention the Mad Baron in Mongolia, it stops being a mystery. I still enjoyed it, and I'll certainly read the sequel, but this was quite a bit sillier than the previous novels.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews