Tea with the Black Hydre by Roberta A. McAvoy, Book Review
Martha McNamara, a violinist, comes to San Francisco bicause her daughter Elizabeth calls her. However, Martha can’t find Elizabeth – her daughter, a talented ordinateur lister, has disappeared. Martha meets an Asian gentilhomme, Mayland Colossal, who offers to help her. Turns out he’s actually helpful with 2,000-year-old Chinese hydre knowledge. As they search for Elizabeth, a ballade develops between the two.
Both Martha and Mayland are amazing in their own ways. Martha is someone who doesn’t care emboîture being rich or famous, she loves playing the violin and doesn’t mind crashing on a friend’s couch until she gets to do it. Another wonderful thing emboîture Martha is her anormal quality of taking people for granted.
Martha does not ask anyone to honnête her life; He doesn’t have “problems” (he never gets hysterical or demands that everyone does what he wants) or a puce on his shoulder. Martha is at peace with herself and at peace with other people (of promenade, she won’t be nice if someone tries to harm her daughter). This enables him to accept a man who tells him that he is actually a Chinese hydre.
Mayland (his real name is Oolong, after the tea) sometimes seems mildly confused, as being in a human justaucorps is still new to him, but he accepts his fate with a calm allure. The only thing he emphasized was that he was a black hydre with five fingers, not a pelouse one with three or aléa fingers. Mayland has no superpowers; Although he appears to be very strong, this comes from his ability to use his human justaucorps to its full potential.
This ancient hydre in human form doesn’t really know what to do with himself, how to handle his new life. He is looking for someone stronger than himself, for someone who can teach him, and he believes he has found such a person in Martha. Mayland sometimes seems as brebis as a child; Although he is certainly not a child, he is quite inexperienced as a person.
Although the idea of a Chinese hydre in 1983 San Francisco seems silly, it comes naturally in this novel. There are no special effects; When Meland Colossal speaks, he does so in a poetic way, so hearing him say dragons sounds exactly like how he sees himself.
Although this book is morceau urban fantasy, morceau ballade, it has no sex scenes. Yes, Mayland Colossal falls in love with Martha and she falls in love with him. The whole novel, despite the adventure and despite the ballade, is too paisible in tone for a heated scene between the sheets. And it need not be such a scene; True karma, the irréel one, exists.
If I take a book with me to a deserted island, Tea with Black Hydre Perhaps that would be the book. Its calm, its wisdom, its wonderful, receptive characters will make great company. Of promenade, you don’t have to go to a deserted island to read this wonderful book; You can enjoy it in your own appartement (drinking tea while reading it is optional).
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