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Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter Elizabeth is in trouble, she just does not know what kind. Mysterious phone calls from San Francisco at odd hours of the night are the only contact she has had with Elizabeth for years. Now Elizabeth has sent her a plane ticket and reserved a room for her at San Francisco's most luxurious hotel. Yet she has not tried to contact Martha since she arrived, leaving her lonely, confused, and a little bit worried. Into the story steps Mayland Long, a show more distinguished-looking and wealthy Chinese man who lives at the hotel and is drawn to Martha's good nature and ability to pinpoint the truth of a matter. Mayland and Martha become close in a short period of time and he promises to help her find Elizabeth, making small inroads in the mystery before Martha herself disappears. Now Mayland is struck by the realization, too late, that he is in love with Martha, and now he fears for her life. Determined to find her, he sets his prodigious philosopher's mind to work on the problem, embarking on a potentially dangerous adventure. show lessTags
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quondame If you are willing to leave a fantastic version of our world for a world of pure fantasy, this is the place to go!
10
Member Reviews
A fun and engaging short novel that didn't go where I expected it to. The opening chapter focuses on the somewhat elderly Martha Macnamara and her tea with a fellow resident in her San Francisco hotel, Mayland Long, aka Oolong, aka the black dragon of the title. It's all very calm and zen. Then, instead of My Dinner with Andre, Martha is kidnapped and the story becomes an action adventure as Mayland seeks to rescue her and her daughter, whose lapse into computer crime, has led to some likely fatal consequences. By computer, we're talking the very early pre-IBM pre-Microsoft pre-Apple days, when CPM and S-100 roamed the earth, and Dr Dobbs and Byte were the monthly reads of the counter-culture. There's enough rom-com/rom-drama here that show more I'm surprised it has never been filmed.
Recommended. show less
Recommended. show less
It is a pleasure to have a book that stands up to rereading. A fantasy doesn't have to be a multi-volume epic of good vs. ultimate evil on scales involving entire societies to be good and satisfying. Although a fantasy, this could as easily be shelved with mysteries, as Mayland Long helps Martha MacNamara search for her missing daughter in the Bay Area. The computer systems may be out of date, but the personalities and plot are not.
I had forgotten so much of this story in the intervening decades since I first read it. Fortunately, it remains an enthralling read, with delightful characters, plot that just thumps along, and the kind of detail for state of the art tech that makes this now quite the nostalgia trip.
I love that there is a rather ordinary middle-aged woman as the focus. Without Martha McNamara, and her very practical attitudes, this would be a much lesser story.
I love that there is a rather ordinary middle-aged woman as the focus. Without Martha McNamara, and her very practical attitudes, this would be a much lesser story.
While not having a very well crafted plot or characters, I loved the whole atmosphere this book generates and how absorbs you into it, it's so strong that I gave it four stars for that and that alone. I cannot really describe the feeling, but it was as I was right there next to Long and Marta breathing and feeling the 80's San Francisco. Just a small warning though: the "fantasy" nature of this book is only there if you want to believe it is, you'll never explicitly see any supernatural stuff and the only reason we have to believe it are Long's claims, which even at the end of the book remain just as claims. But I strongly believe it was the intention of the author to imply the fantasy elements are actually there, so I'll treat the book show more accordingly. Oh, and this book is also a romance between two fifty-something year olds (or a fifty something and a few hundreds if you believe Long, which I do), and I found that very refreshing. show less
I picked up Tea with the Black Dragon at a library book sale recently. At 166 pages, I thought it would make a fine appetizer, and so it did. This is a charming, simple fantasy story. I don't believe I've ever read anything else by R. A. Macavoy.
Martha MacNamara comes to San Francisco at her daughter's behest. On her first night, the bartender introduces her to the mysterious Wayland Long, a long-term resident of the hotel. They get along smashingly, and he offers to help her find her apparently missing daughter, whose troubles act as the deus ex machina that brings these two souls together.
They don't write stories like this any more--straightforward and fairly simple with a minimum of characters (7 total) and subplots (maybe 1). Martha show more and Wayland are deftly portrayed through dialogue and shifting POVs, which during their extended conversations may smoothly switch between them with every paragraph. These two are richly realized, with many of the insights implied through dialogue rather than bludgeoning the reader through internal exposition. The other characters, not so much--one- or two-dimensional supporting cast sufficient to move the plot forward. There's plenty of action, but the plot is simply a crisis that allows our two protagonists to shine. It's a sweet tale chock full of Chinese philosophy, and of course a happy ending. The most amusing aspect of it was completely unintentional--the book was published in 1983, and the computer technology described is so obsolete today as to be funny, much worse than the computer technology described in Bimboes of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. show less
Martha MacNamara comes to San Francisco at her daughter's behest. On her first night, the bartender introduces her to the mysterious Wayland Long, a long-term resident of the hotel. They get along smashingly, and he offers to help her find her apparently missing daughter, whose troubles act as the deus ex machina that brings these two souls together.
They don't write stories like this any more--straightforward and fairly simple with a minimum of characters (7 total) and subplots (maybe 1). Martha show more and Wayland are deftly portrayed through dialogue and shifting POVs, which during their extended conversations may smoothly switch between them with every paragraph. These two are richly realized, with many of the insights implied through dialogue rather than bludgeoning the reader through internal exposition. The other characters, not so much--one- or two-dimensional supporting cast sufficient to move the plot forward. There's plenty of action, but the plot is simply a crisis that allows our two protagonists to shine. It's a sweet tale chock full of Chinese philosophy, and of course a happy ending. The most amusing aspect of it was completely unintentional--the book was published in 1983, and the computer technology described is so obsolete today as to be funny, much worse than the computer technology described in Bimboes of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. show less
There is much about this book that doesn't work. It is startling that the aspects that do work are so, so very good that they overwhelm me. As a writer, perhaps one does not have to be the master of every aspect of the craft. Perhaps you can create great art just by being passably adequate in most areas, and utterly brilliant in one or two. Additional notes: mildly conveys Buddhist principles without over doing it. Even a meagerly evolved romance is still kind of nice and warming in the belly. Like The Stolen Child, one could argue this book is fiction, not fantasy, and while that trick is not required for fantasy to hold the power it does, it reflects and illustrates WHY fantasy can and should be powerful literature.
A weird little book that is utterly compelling. I expected a fantasy novel from the title, but this is something far different. This is a contemporary mystery with a slight supernatural aspect (before it became common place to have such a theme). At the heart we have Maylond Long, a Chinese philosopher, and Martha, the woman he comes to love. When she disappears looking for her missing daughter, he must travel a path he never intended. An excellent read! This limited edition is stunning, in leather with matching slipcase. A worth edition for a brilliant book.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Tea with the Black Dragon
- Original title
- Tea With the Black Dragon
- Original publication date
- 1983-05
- People/Characters
- Mayland Long; Martha Macnamara; Jerry Trough; Fred Frisch; Dr. Carlo Peccolo; Floyd Rasmussen (show all 8); Douglas Threve; Elizabeth Macnamara
- Important places
- San Francisco, California, USA; Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Epigraph
- Monk: "What is Tao?"
Ts'ao-shan: "A dragon singing in the dry wood."
Monk: "I wonder whether there is anyone who can hear this?"
Ts'ao-shan: "There is no one in the entire world who does not hear this."
Monk: "I d... (show all)o not know what kind of composition the dragon's song is."
Ts'ao-shan: "I also do not know; but all who hear it lose themselves."
The Transmission of the Lamp - Dedication
- To Ron
- First words
- Martha Macnamara stood at the Pacific, her toes digging into the froth.
- Quotations
- Mayland Long, in his quiet gray suit, felt like a quote taken out of context.
She was sure that the tea was Oolong. Both the tea and the statue were named Oolong? The tea, the statue and the dragon? - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"How wonderful!"
- Blurbers
- Lynn, Elizabeth A.; McCaffrey, Anne
- Original language*
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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