Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bantam Books (1983), 176 pages
Description
Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter Elizabeth is in trouble, she just doesn't 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 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member turtlesleap
This little book doesn't categorize easily. It's as much a suspense thriller as a fantasy but the charm of the book lies in the characters of Mayland Long and Martha Macnamara. The mysterious Mr. Long, who has lived a long, reclusive life as the permanent occupant of a high-end hotel in San
Show More
Francisco, find himself drawn into a search for Martha's daughter. He also finds himself deeply involved emotionally with Martha herself. The tone of the story fits well with the characters--a bit archaic and very formal. 1980's references to computer technology date the book, but that's not unusual. On the whole, the little book is charming. Show Less
LibraryThing member wizardsheart
Martha Macnamara travels to California to visit her daughter, only to discover that she is missing. She meets an unusual and mysterious man by the name of Mayland Long. Together they try to find Martha's daughter.
This book was compelling. It was beautifully written and it just sucked me in.
This book was compelling. It was beautifully written and it just sucked me in.
Show More
Written in the early 80's, it's computer references were obscure and dated to me. But that's not a bad thing for me. I enjoy reading books that are a little dated because it is interesting to see how the author moves around the story without cell phones, etc. This book was clearly written by a master. It's short, but packs a real punch. The characters were very real. The character of Mayland Long reminded me a lot of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's character, Pendergast. I am not quite sure why, but he is one of my favorite literary characters, so it's a good comparison. It's going on my permanent shelf and I am highly recommending it to any fellow fantasy lovers out there. Show Less
LibraryThing member justchris
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
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 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.
Martha MacNamara comes to San Francisco at her
Show More
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 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
LibraryThing member konrad.katie
Entertaining and imaginative but superficial and direct. MacAvoy has an excellent writing style but the diminutive plot of this novel makes me wonder if this was one of her earlier novels. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed this book - it just never seemed to fulfill its potential. A beach read of the
Show More
fantasy world. Show Less
LibraryThing member stonester1
R.A. MacAvoy writes quiet, low fantasy fables that may have set the template for "urban fantasy" before it's time. No elves driving expensive cars or wizards selling trinkets on modern city streets in these tales, though. The fantasy is understated and ambiguous. In this first book in what turned
Show More
into a loose duology (the second being the Irish lore flavored "Twisting The Rope"), Martha McNamara comes to San Francisco to aid her daughter, whom she fears has stumbled across some kind of trouble. In the process, she meets Mayland Long, an elderly Chinese gentleman and finds herself falling for him. The feelings are returned. The man seems to draw from deep pools of ageless wisdom and it turns out it might not be from just a long, observant mortal life. He may be much more than his Occidental features reveal. Show Less
LibraryThing member noneofthis
So I have a bit of a reading habit, where anything with the word “dragon” in the title I pick up for that word alone. I found this book in a rummage bin, rather the worse for wear, and didn’t even pick it up for a song.
I found out later it’s both a Hugo and Nebula nominee circa 1984.
The
So we have two damsels in distress, several computer programmers with more skill than sense, a looming daybreak deadline, a Zen prophecy lurking about, and one old dragon who is thinking it would be easier to just go back to sleep.
Long's thoughts and actions are definitely the best part of the novel. And I enjoyed very much reading of Martha, although Elizabeth I could never sympathize with. The computer wizardry that’s described is twenty years out of date, which is both a good thing and a bad depending upon how you look at it (bank-robbing computer programs: cliché? or easily recognized and understood?) And it’s just a slim little thing, not two hundred pages. How on earth did I miss this?
I have some friends in Silicon Valley. This book is so going to start making rounds there.
I found out later it’s both a Hugo and Nebula nominee circa 1984.
The
Show More
plot is a bit serpentinous. You have the start of a quest, Martha trying to find her grown daughter, Elizabeth, and happens to meet and enlist the help of one enigmatic Mr. Long, an older man with a vaguely oriental appearance who has the habit of discussing his life as a black dragon if he gets too deep in his cups. No sooner is Long on the hunt than he happens to lose Martha, which is really worrisome as she may be what he’s been looking for all along.So we have two damsels in distress, several computer programmers with more skill than sense, a looming daybreak deadline, a Zen prophecy lurking about, and one old dragon who is thinking it would be easier to just go back to sleep.
Long's thoughts and actions are definitely the best part of the novel. And I enjoyed very much reading of Martha, although Elizabeth I could never sympathize with. The computer wizardry that’s described is twenty years out of date, which is both a good thing and a bad depending upon how you look at it (bank-robbing computer programs: cliché? or easily recognized and understood?) And it’s just a slim little thing, not two hundred pages. How on earth did I miss this?
I have some friends in Silicon Valley. This book is so going to start making rounds there.
Show Less
LibraryThing member idanush
This book is not really fantasy as I grasp it. The black dragon is actually a Chinese person and him being a dragon is more of a metaphor to the Chinese philosophy than him being unique. Nothing supernatural or even different happens through the book.
The book gets its four star solely based on the
More of a cutesy romance that any one who loves those romance novels will enjoy very much.
The fantasy / dragon element can be eliminated completely from the story and it won't be changed too much.
The book gets its four star solely based on the
Show More
fact that it uses computers and I love that.More of a cutesy romance that any one who loves those romance novels will enjoy very much.
The fantasy / dragon element can be eliminated completely from the story and it won't be changed too much.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Jenson_AKA_DL
Martha Macnamara is looking for her estranged daughter and finds an unusual, reclusive man who is also searching for something important, a truth to complete his existence. Together the musician and former Chinese dragon investigate the mystery using both technology and mysticism.
This is a low key
This is a low key
Show More
but entertaining tale of two older people brought together by fate, and the local bartender. I did enjoy the story, it moved well although I never felt pressed to rush and finish it. The characters were well drawn and I found Mayland Long's past history to be the most interesting part of the tale. This is an urban fantasy with a tad of mysticism and a teensy bit of romance that is both unusual and familiar at the same time. A very nice little read. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzi
Pure delight! More later, after I do my duty to the May reading group...
LibraryThing member isabelx
I picked this book up in a charity shop for 59p, because I'd heard good things about it in the past. It is a short but sweet tale of computers & ancient magic. Martha Macnamara & the mysterious Mayland Long search for Martha's missing daughter during San Franciso's high tech boom of the early
Show More
1980s. It's basically a detective story with mystical overtones. Show Less
LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
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,
Recommended.
Show More
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 I'm surprised it has never been filmed.Recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
When Martha Macnamara's daughter calls her to San Francisco to help her with some unspecified trouble, she meets and is intrigued by the enigmatic Mayland Long; Martha then goes missing, and Mayland has to find both her and the daughter before it's too late.
PS Mayland is a dragon in human
This book and I just don't get each other. I don't feel like I know enough about Chinese dragons to appreciate Mayland's character (or at least I don't know as much as I felt the author was expecting me to know). And the suspense aspect of the plot was too thin to make up for this.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
Show More
form.This book and I just don't get each other. I don't feel like I know enough about Chinese dragons to appreciate Mayland's character (or at least I don't know as much as I felt the author was expecting me to know). And the suspense aspect of the plot was too thin to make up for this.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
Show Less
LibraryThing member KarenIrelandPhillips
I really enjoyed this mashup of glimpse of computer science fiction, incipient feminism, fantasy, and action. Dated, yes. Stylistically a bit odd - stilted in places. Paragraphs ending and beginning without regard to (my) logic.
The main characters are quite complicated, and refreshingly far from
But when Mrs. Macnamara arrives, Liz has disappeared. An elderly gentleman by the name of Mr. Long invites her to tea, and soon the two are embroiled in a search for Liz that has deadly - and sometimes farcical - implications.
This won't take you long to read, and I highly recommend it for fans of feminist/fantasy/romance. Mind you, parts of this will annoy all of you, but that's part of the shine of this gem.
The main characters are quite complicated, and refreshingly far from
Show More
politically correct. Mrs. Macnamara is the freest of spirits, a musician who flits from place to place with her eyes and ears on the mundane magics of the world. Her daughter Liz, a Stanford graduate, is beautiful, career-driven computer scientist who has invited her mother to help her solve a problem. But when Mrs. Macnamara arrives, Liz has disappeared. An elderly gentleman by the name of Mr. Long invites her to tea, and soon the two are embroiled in a search for Liz that has deadly - and sometimes farcical - implications.
This won't take you long to read, and I highly recommend it for fans of feminist/fantasy/romance. Mind you, parts of this will annoy all of you, but that's part of the shine of this gem.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ritaer
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member Silvernfire
A quiet fantasy. Set in the 1980s (remember this when they start discussing computers), it's a change of pace from many fantasy novels, with middle-aged protagonists and no overt magic. (Kudos to the author for daring to have a female protagonist with "grizzled hair"!) I recognize that the book is
Show More
well-written, although it failed to grab me—the wrong book at the wrong time, basically. In having almost no magic in it, it felt less like a fantasy and more like a mystery, and I just haven't been in the mood for mysteries lately. Show Less
LibraryThing member angharad
Includes: China, dragons, folk music, early 80s personal computers, polyglots, foreign languages, writing, tea, detective story. (Hmm. Maybe I should add more tags to this…) One of my favourite books.
LibraryThing member orangejulia
A brilliant book by a well known author that doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves. The main character in this book, Maryland Long, is a 2,000 Chinese dragon who has gone to San Francisco to find purpose and drive. He has tea with Martha Macnamara and, well, philosophy and hijincks ensue.
Show More
The book swings between meditative passages and more action/adventurey msytery plot. It's a charming book to sit down and read on a rainy day. Show Less
LibraryThing member elenaj
This book is very, very early 80s. Technology features prominently, which is entertaining and sometimes bewildering. The gender politics are much more feminist than I expected, but there is, unfortunately, a whole lot of period-typical Orientalism.
The story itself is unusual, inventive, and
Also featured: a substantial blond mustache, lovingly described. (And we're back to very, very early 80s.)
The story itself is unusual, inventive, and
Show More
charming, with a good bit of philosophical pondering on the part of the characters.Also featured: a substantial blond mustache, lovingly described. (And we're back to very, very early 80s.)
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
This book wasn't as good as I expected - Outdated, with a weird a cast of characters, including the lead, Martha Macnamara, an Irish Fiddler whose estranged daughter is missing. The story is a product of a time, when it seems like anything Irish was fair game for fantasy. Add in computers as they
Show More
were in the early 1980's, and you get a hodgepodge that doesn't work anymore. The writing is well done, but the story itself is outdated. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
A very early urban fantasy from before the genre became popular. Still quite enjoyable some of the technological scenes have not aged well, and may well be beyond the comprehension of those brought up on smartphones and apps.
A mother (Martha) leaves her east coast touring band to fly to California
This Openroad edition has some odd formatting quirks where paragraph breaks aren't as clearly signaled as they should have been. There isn't much jumping of viewpoint, just switches between Mr Long and mostly Martha. The biggest question is perhaps how much of Long's claims to believe it's a well worked 'low' urban fantasy in this respect.
A mother (Martha) leaves her east coast touring band to fly to California
Show More
as her daughter requested some nebulous help. The daughter (liz) has booked a hotel etc, and so Martha arrives, appreciates the scenery and is introduced to the discreet Mr Long, with whom the bartender thinks she'll find common interest in music. Little is known about Mr Long, but he's been resident at the hotel for several years (at fabulous expense). When pushed he'll smilingly refer to himself as a black dragon from China - and indeed a slightly swarthy appearance with unusual hands (never quite specified what's unusual about them) makes the jest seem possible. When Liz doens't show Martha somewhat reluctantly confesses her fears to Mr Long who gallantly offers his assistance - he is filling in time waiting for a prophecy to be fulfilled, which is taken in the same vein as his statements of dragonhood. Liz had been involved in computers, coding and hardware were more interlinked back then, and to Mr Long they're all just languages, something he has a knack for acquiring. Some initial inquiries don't seem that promising, but do point to Liz being involved in more serious business than the initial phone call had led Martha to believe.This Openroad edition has some odd formatting quirks where paragraph breaks aren't as clearly signaled as they should have been. There isn't much jumping of viewpoint, just switches between Mr Long and mostly Martha. The biggest question is perhaps how much of Long's claims to believe it's a well worked 'low' urban fantasy in this respect.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dianeham
What a delightful mystical mystery.
LibraryThing member sturlington
When Martha Macnamara's daughter calls her to San Francisco to help her with some unspecified trouble, she meets and is intrigued by the enigmatic Mayland Long; Martha then goes missing, and Mayland has to find both her and the daughter before it's too late.
PS Mayland is a dragon in human
This book and I just don't get each other. I don't feel like I know enough about Chinese dragons to appreciate Mayland's character (or at least I don't know as much as I felt the author was expecting me to know). And the suspense aspect of the plot was too thin to make up for this.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
Show More
form.This book and I just don't get each other. I don't feel like I know enough about Chinese dragons to appreciate Mayland's character (or at least I don't know as much as I felt the author was expecting me to know). And the suspense aspect of the plot was too thin to make up for this.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jshillingford
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member fred_mouse
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
I love that
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member Zumbanista
Just didn't get it. Bailed after 25%. Boring.
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1984)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1983)
Locus Award (Finalist — First Novel — 1984)
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 1984)
Philip K. Dick Award (Nominee — 1983)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1983-05
Physical description
176 p.
ISBN
0553232053 / 9780553232059