River of Smoke

This is my second read of the second book in the Ibis Trilogy. I have re-read both The Sea of Poppies and this book in preparation of the third book, which I have recently obtained - I found I could only vaguely remember the first, but a fair bit of this book.

I recall that I was fairly disappointed with this book the first time I read it, and at the end of my second reading, I again feel disappointed.

Part of what I enjoyed in The Sea of Poppies was the many characters and their woven stories. We get a lot less of that in this second book. Here we are primarily concentrating on the events in Canton, where the opium traders are at an impasse with the Chinese Commissioner, who is to put an end to the opium entering China at the request of the Emperor.

Other than at the very start of the book and the very end we get nothing in this book from Deeti, and nothing of Kalua. We get a couple of passing mentions of Zachary Reid, nothing of Jodhu. Paulette Lampbert plays a part, although by a third of the way through this role is reduced to simply receiving letters from the unlikeable Robin Chinnery (who plays far too greater role, with this mundane letters which the author uses to convey the goings on of Canton to us - a device I think he relies far too heavily on). Ah Fatt plays far too short a role at the commencement of the book, where he places Neel into the role of Munshi with his father Seth Bahram Moddie - the only Indian trader who becomes embroiled with the English Opium traders.
So instead of these characters who we were engaged with in The Sea of Poppies, we are introduced to the English and American traders, and with other ancillary characters.

For me this book took a long time to get to where it needed, presumably for the finale of the third book in the trilogy. It is there we expect the characters to again come together, but to drag through 580 pages to get there was disappointing.

For me this was a 2.5 star book, rounded up to 3. This remains consistent with the rating I gave it first time around.