A few years ago I read the first book of this trilogy, written about a group of memorable characters that come together in India to start a voyage on a ship to Mauritius. The book was well-written and full of words of Indian origin that I didn’t know, but I enjoyed the feeling of immersion in a culture I didn’t know well.
So when I recently had a break in my reading list I checked out the second book. This one was much longer, and to my surprise, focused on just one or two characters from the first book. This book has a focus on the impact of opium (produced in India by the British East India Company among other independent producers) on the kingdom of China, particularly in the port of Canton (called Guangzhou today).
I would have preferred to follow along with the characters from the first book – readers had invested a lot in their histories and stories. There were a lot of new characters, but it felt like starting over somewhat and so this felt less like a continuation of the story.
Obviously there was a lot of research of the history leading up to the opium wars and as a history lesson it made for good reading. The writing is still full of archaic terms and plenty of different languages, some of which are translated into English, others left to puzzle the readers. The pidgin spoken in the port of Canton was especially annoying to read and puzzle through.
This was an educational book for me, less an entertaining one, and so I did get a lot out of it. Not sure that I’d recommend it to others, though.
Next I’m reading The Judge’s List by John Grisham.
