I HAVE A LOT OF SCREAMY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK (in a good way), SO BUCKLE UP!

This is the second book in my project to read a queer book from each of my favorite micro presses for pride month and it was a BANGER.

LISTEN. WHAT IF CLIMATE CRISIS BEIJING WITH DRAGONS. SO MANY DRAGONS. DRAGONS EVERYWHERE because some of them are prestige animals special bred for celebrities and some are bought/bred for dragon fight gambling rings and some struggle to exist off of scraps in dumpsters because did I mention CLIMATE CRISIS which means DROUGHT which means water and food are EXPENSIVE.

Okay, now add SPIKY WOUNDED CARETAKER BOY (my very favorite flavor of boy!) meets AWKWARD INTROVERTED CARETAKER BOY (I mean, they are both college age young men). And genetic research meets shoestring dragon rescue operations and thoughts on racism/colorism in China vs. America and legacies of family hurts and what is doing enough when THE WHOLE WORLD IS A DUMPSTER FIRE but also FUCKING ADORABLE DRAGONS EVERYWHERE.

Listen. I thought this novella had a very satisfying resolution but I WANT MORE. I LOVE THIS WORLD SO MUCH AND ZHANG IS NOW ON MY LIST OF AUTO-PREORDER AUTHORS. ( )

Yay libraries!

*deep breath*

On the surface, this is a fairly simple growing-attraction story, but the undercurrents of family, draught, mistreatment, loss, stubbornness and generosity, and hiding, are many layers deep and make this one of my favorite reads of the year. I could feel the years devoted to it before I read the Acknowledgments, but the prose is easy. I wish I could hold one of the dragons.

Very highly recommended. ( )

This book just got more and more interesting as it went along. It was great to get a peek at life in Beijing, although I suspect there aren’t as many dragons there as you see in this book. The characters also became increasingly interesting, particularly as their relationship evolved. It is a very short book with such a beautiful cover by Wang Xulin. Definitely worth a read. ( )

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The entire world is burning up...including the people in it.

We are in an alt-Beijing in a future based on today. Climate change has gone into overdrive, and Beijing's famously poor air quality has never been worse...or warmer. There is a new lung disease, fatality rate as close to one hundred percent as to be indistinguishable, called "shaolong" or burning lung.

Oh...and dragons are real, and are very common in Beijing. Little dragons, not like the hulking fire drakes that medieval Europeans hunted to extinction. Small, delicate, beautiful...but not particularly valued. In fact they're used much as cocks are, for dragon fights. (While this isn't gone into in detail, it leads me to remind those sensitive to animal harm that this factor exists.)

Eli comes to Beijing from the USA. He is a mixed-race Black and Chinese diasporan child with a working grasp of Mandarin and a strong desire to make his mark in biomedicine. Kai is a dying victim of shaolong who meets handsome, healthy Eli when he comes into Kai's...well..."job" implies he gets paid which he does not...position at a dragon sales shop-cum-dragon fight ring. Their attraction is mutual but stuttering at its start: Eli can't help noticing Kai's illness and thus sets up the pity dynamic...unintentionally, of course, but inevitably...which makes Kai resist his reciprocal feelings for Eli.

Their dance of approach and stillness and retreat and stillness was beautifully handled, while never leading to a Conclusion. They are involved...in a coupling-type thing...and it's making them both happy...today. The way we're left at the end of the story, that is all we can expect to hear about these young men. I would like to say aloud that I would love to read more stories set in this world because its depth-of-field in this novella is amazing and has not come remotely close to exhausting the possibilities it contains. What does it mean to fall in love with someone who is dying? What kind of world can you, the healthy one, believe in once you've realized he will die before you? Not things I'd know about at all....

I did not expect to think the AIDS parallels were particularly well-done or even necessary. I was wrong. The story is very much enriched by the author's quiet acknowledgment that these men face a short future and a rough road to the end. Nothing is made of that, as in there are no set pieces built around it, but it pervades their oddly tender yet standoffish dynamic.

Anyone who can make the Bird's Nest from the 2008 Beijing Olympics into a ratty-tatty old hulk where wild dragons swarm is someone who needs to delve far more deeply into this world they have made. The details that bring it to life...the drought causing the poor to pay so much for water while there are still fountains in the wealthy part of town, for example...made my greedy little story bandit within coo and gurgle.

This is the second novella I've read from Stelliform Press (after The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, reviewed here), and they have both been excellent cli-fic books with stellar (!) production and design values. It is clear that this press has a very well-defined mission and is using the best kind of writing...tense, intense, high-stakes storytelling...to get your attention. You will enjoy the trip even while you're unhappy with the implied destination.

More, please. Soon, please. ( )

I love reading books that feel like something new. I don’t know about you, but, before After the Dragons, I had never read a story that juxtaposed climate change, alienation, and chronic illness with adorable stray dragons and queer romance. I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed the elegantly nuanced manner in which this book approaches its unique collection of plot points and themes.

After the Dragons performs a rather splendid balancing act. Great and global issues—climate change-induced drought and illness; humanity’s responsibility toward species at risk, including, but by no means limited to, humanity—both contrast and align with the small-scale personal issues that shape individual characters’ worlds: who am I; what do I truly want; what matters to me more than what I think others want from me; how can I learn to love someone in ways they can accept? This book holds space for things both terrible and tender as it explores the fragile and uneasy ground where boundaries between people lie.

This is a beautiful story, beautifully told. Zhang’s vivid, polished prose effectively pulls readers in and holds them close until the story is ready to let go. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I received a digital advance review copy of this book from Stelliform Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I suspect I will end up purchasing a physical copy to share with family and friends. ( )