Thursday, March 17, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang

 



After the Dragons is a SciFi/Fantasy Romance novel* by author Cynthia Zhang. The story takes place in alternate world - specifically in China - where dragons are real, although the only ones living these days are small ones in China/East-Asian Countries, where dragons are generally smallish and treated like pets for better or worse.  

*The book's publishing blurbs refer to this book as a "novel", although I suspect its length is short enough to qualify it for awards as a novella instead.  But as is my general policy, I am deferring to the publisher and referring to as a novel 

The story uses this setting, as well as issues with pollution and climate change, to tell a really strong M-M romance between Eli, a half-black half-Chinese American researcher, and Kai, a Chinese college student with a fatal disease and a desperate desire to take care of and find a home of Beijing's suffering abandoned dragon population.  It's a really sweet and well done romance using major real issues, plus dragons, as a backdrop and I definitely recommend it.  

---------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Eli came to Beijing to be a post-graduate medical researcher, but really he came because he was lost, especially after his grandmother died from shaolong, a drought/pollution-caused disease affecting the humans of the city.  He's tried to figure things out by drowning himself in work, but it hasn't worked.  

And then his advisor dragged him to watch a local dragon shop host a dragon-fighting night, and there he met Kai.  

Kai had tried to go entirely to ground after dropping out of university with a diagnosis of shaolong.  Kai wants no one's pity for his illness and has made the most of his time helping dragons living on the street and nursing them back to health.  But then he meets Eli, a frustrating boy who won't go away, always trying to help him care for dragons, and who won't simply let him waste away alone.  

But can Kai really let himself fall for Eli, who insists that Kai take steps towards having a future?  
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After the Dragons is a fascinatingly well done M-M romance, one with no antagonist to speak of, but just two guys in a fantasy/sci-fi-ish environment trying to deal with life in a world that seems dismal.  And its a relationship with a dynamic that is very real, but one that isn't typical of such romances - with one partner being incredibly prickly towards being given help, not really because of pride, but because of how crappy he sees the world.  

And well, After the Dragons pictures a believably crappy future/fantasy-ish world: Where pollution/climate change has resulted in a disease affecting humans, fatally in the end even if there are medical treatments that can prolong life.  Where the same conditions, as well as human neglect, has resulted in dragons in the East, being pet-sized, often winding up homeless and out on the street in horrible conditions, when they aren't occasionally abused by their owners.  

And so it's easy to see why Kai might think of this world, with him having the disease, and his attempts at helping the dragons only being able to really make a small difference - something that becomes even more apparent once Eli comes in and helps him essentially double those efforts.  So why should he take steps to actually live his life like the ones Eli suggests, like telling his Mom where he is and that he's sick (and gay), or trying to get medical help that could prolong his life.  

And for Eli, it's easy to see why Kai would be so frustrating for him.  After all, his grandma did a similar thing when she came down with the disease and died from it, and here's this guy he falls for who is seemingly doing nothing to stop himself from dying.  Eli just can't understand why Kai would refuse his help, why he gets so angry when such help is suggested, and needs to do something more.  

This dynamic, as well as the way the two both care for each other and the people and dragons around them, their interpersonal and family issues, and the well meaning nature of the mentors they both have - who in some other book would have wound up being jerks or antagonists, but here just merely want to help in their own ways - is just really well done, and Kai and Eli have such great chemistry together, even if their relationship isn't built on the type of jokey-flirting that I usually enjoy in such romances.  It's just really well done, and I really cared for both of them, and I think you will too.  

Highly recommended honestly.  
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