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Last time I saw Temeraire he was thinking of heading back to Britain, on a mission to bring Chinese wisdom and liberty (if not the Chinese climate) to his friends. Which is good of him, if a little optimistic. Goodness knows it's hard enough to get British people to think that education is a good idea, so hopefully British dragons are a little less hopeless in that department, or he's got his work cut out for him. Just about to think about heading for home, he and his crew are waylaid by a letter from the Admiralty telling them to head for Turkey sharpish, and pick up some dragons' eggs. So this time we're in for a long trek cross-country, over mountains and desert, in an attempt to obtain Britain's first fire-breather.
I think Black Powder War might be my favourite of these books so far. It has some jolly good characters in it, for starters, and Granby is fleshed out even further. At some point he has become by far my favourite character in the series, and a little extra detail here and there is nice to see. Not sure why I've taken to him so much, other than his endearing informality, but he is very cool. So's Tharkay, the Anglo-Chinese guide hired by Laurence to lead the gang across many different flavours of wilderness. I don't think we're supposed to trust Tharkay. He keeps sneaking off, and there's lots of hints that he might be a bad guy. Sadly I took to him right away, though, and couldn't understand Laurence's worries about him, so if that was meant to be a plot point, it didn't work. Doesn't matter, though - and maybe it was intentional. Tharkay's manner is so pleasingly at odds with Laurence's love of rules and convention that possibly we were supposed to trust him all along, and see him as yet another step on the road to unwinding Laurence.
As ever there's a good scattering of historical detail, and the setting of the story is nicely sketched out. I like the road trip a lot. The vast and largely unknown (to the British) lands that they travel across; the various people that they meet on the way. And then Tharkay made me not like him anymore, by attacking a horse. And yes, I am a soft-hearted idiot, I know. (I did forgive him later). The journey through the mountains was especially good, and the feral dragons were terrific. It's good to see dragons who have never worked with humans; partly because it adds more fuel to Temeraire's campaign for equal rights for dragons, and partly because the dragons in this series are always such good characters anyway, and it's always nice to have more - and in this case, ones with a completely different outlook to any we've yet seen. Arkady and his little band of winged marauders immediately have the feel of recurring characters, and it's remarkably sad to see their departure at journey's end.
There's little enough time to miss them, though, as the next stage of the story starts straight away, with the battle to obtain the eggs. Dastardly Lien is at large, determined to throw any number of spanners in the works. Slight problem here. I like Lien. She's been spurned her whole life just because of her colour, and the only person who was ever kind to her has just been killed by Laurence and Temeraire. Yes, he was something of a murdering bastard, it's true - but she's still going to mourn him, and I can't help but feel sympathy for her. Her story has a lot of parallels with the embittered Tharkay. Maybe somebody should introduce them. Still, whatever my sympathies, she's the enemy, and she's off to join the French. Not sure if trying to cheat the Brits out of their dragons' eggs is her idea, but naughtiness does rather tend to follow her about, and at any rate, the Turks have decided to keep both money and eggs. Cue plotting and planning and a daring raid on the harem baths. :D Well, if you're going to raid something, it might as well be a harem. And then great Rassilon, they killed Digby! I know it was clearly established in the last book that nobody was safe in this series, but they killed Digby! Actually, joking aside, that was a tough one. Not just because I'm going to miss the little bloke, but because of the way he was killed. Not nice.
There's three books in Black Powder War, really. The road trip; the diplomacy and double-dealing over the eggs; and the struggle to get them back to Blighty before the little Kazilik hatches. Not sure that any of them involve black powder, particularly, but I guess there is some of it knocking about here and there, especially once they're back fighting properly in part three. Odd choice for a title, not that I'm complaining. Sorry. Slight detour there. Er... war with the French, right. And Prussians! I've not encountered a Prussian in years. I studied the nineteenth century in more depth than anybody could ever really want to, both at school and university, so there's a lot of familiarity in these books, and I have an odd fondness for Prussia. They rhyme pleasingly with Russia, which makes it easier to remember details about the Congress Of Vienna. And they have quite a nice shade of blue. And dagnabbit, woman, stop nearly killing off Granby! By the time the French lob him off Temeraire's back, he's clocking up about half a dozen near misses in this book, and my nerves are shot to hell. I can't remember being this anxious about the fate of a fictional character in a long while - probably not since before Captain Jack obligingly became immortal. It's because people will keep dying in these books, I guess. And Granby is cool. Not sure quite how he survives in this instance, actually. Perhaps I shouldn't ask questions, and just be glad that he did. It's just that you reach terminal velocity pretty quickly, and the narrative makes it sound like he fell a fair old way. Landing smack in Temeraire's hand... well. 'Nuff said and all that. Not my favourite subject.
Oh dear. Beginning to ramble incoherently rather, aren't I. I blame the heat. So why I'm drinking a cup of extremely hot tea despite it already being so bloody hot here, I don't know. China, Lien, mountains, avalanche (how did getting cold give Temeraire's crew the sniffles? Tut tut. Colds are caused by viruses, not by getting chilly!), Tharkay (poor eagle - that was more sad than losing Digby, confound it), Turkey, dragons's eggs (poor baby dragon), Prussians. I think that about covers it. And then at the worst possible moment, up pops the Kazilik egg, merrily hatching in a scene that I suspect gives a strong foretaste of what its little occupant is to be like in future. How much of it is due to Temeraire talking to her before she hatched, and how much is just her own spectacularly contrary nature, I don't know, but she erupts from her shell in a blaze of trouble, and doesn't seem to stop causing it thereafter. This is a lovely scene. Naming herself, at once at odds with Temeraire over stealing a member of his crew, and desperate to have at the French, all within about ten seconds of being born. In the space of three sentences, Iskierka and Granby are a double act to be reckoned with, which is really rather unfortunate. Temeraire's all "Iz my Granby. I can haz it back nao plz?", and I'm inclined to agree. I can see him being sidelined in book four, and left behind while Temeraire goes off on his adventures. No fair! I want more Granby! And more Iskierka too. They need their own spin off, and they need it now.
Er yeah. So that's it really. Damn good book. I do wish that Naomi Novik would look up "sentient" in a dictionary, though. I know it's a common mistake - a very common mistake, and becoming all the more so over the years. That doesn't alter the fact that she means "sapient", though. With everything else so accurate and well-researched and all that, that bit does tend to stick out rather.
Anyways, on to book four, now. It's called Empire Of Ivory, and it looks rather good. I am approaching with caution though. I haven't even read the back yet, and I already know that it doesn't have nearly enough Granby and Iskierka in it. :p
I think Black Powder War might be my favourite of these books so far. It has some jolly good characters in it, for starters, and Granby is fleshed out even further. At some point he has become by far my favourite character in the series, and a little extra detail here and there is nice to see. Not sure why I've taken to him so much, other than his endearing informality, but he is very cool. So's Tharkay, the Anglo-Chinese guide hired by Laurence to lead the gang across many different flavours of wilderness. I don't think we're supposed to trust Tharkay. He keeps sneaking off, and there's lots of hints that he might be a bad guy. Sadly I took to him right away, though, and couldn't understand Laurence's worries about him, so if that was meant to be a plot point, it didn't work. Doesn't matter, though - and maybe it was intentional. Tharkay's manner is so pleasingly at odds with Laurence's love of rules and convention that possibly we were supposed to trust him all along, and see him as yet another step on the road to unwinding Laurence.
As ever there's a good scattering of historical detail, and the setting of the story is nicely sketched out. I like the road trip a lot. The vast and largely unknown (to the British) lands that they travel across; the various people that they meet on the way. And then Tharkay made me not like him anymore, by attacking a horse. And yes, I am a soft-hearted idiot, I know. (I did forgive him later). The journey through the mountains was especially good, and the feral dragons were terrific. It's good to see dragons who have never worked with humans; partly because it adds more fuel to Temeraire's campaign for equal rights for dragons, and partly because the dragons in this series are always such good characters anyway, and it's always nice to have more - and in this case, ones with a completely different outlook to any we've yet seen. Arkady and his little band of winged marauders immediately have the feel of recurring characters, and it's remarkably sad to see their departure at journey's end.
There's little enough time to miss them, though, as the next stage of the story starts straight away, with the battle to obtain the eggs. Dastardly Lien is at large, determined to throw any number of spanners in the works. Slight problem here. I like Lien. She's been spurned her whole life just because of her colour, and the only person who was ever kind to her has just been killed by Laurence and Temeraire. Yes, he was something of a murdering bastard, it's true - but she's still going to mourn him, and I can't help but feel sympathy for her. Her story has a lot of parallels with the embittered Tharkay. Maybe somebody should introduce them. Still, whatever my sympathies, she's the enemy, and she's off to join the French. Not sure if trying to cheat the Brits out of their dragons' eggs is her idea, but naughtiness does rather tend to follow her about, and at any rate, the Turks have decided to keep both money and eggs. Cue plotting and planning and a daring raid on the harem baths. :D Well, if you're going to raid something, it might as well be a harem. And then great Rassilon, they killed Digby! I know it was clearly established in the last book that nobody was safe in this series, but they killed Digby! Actually, joking aside, that was a tough one. Not just because I'm going to miss the little bloke, but because of the way he was killed. Not nice.
There's three books in Black Powder War, really. The road trip; the diplomacy and double-dealing over the eggs; and the struggle to get them back to Blighty before the little Kazilik hatches. Not sure that any of them involve black powder, particularly, but I guess there is some of it knocking about here and there, especially once they're back fighting properly in part three. Odd choice for a title, not that I'm complaining. Sorry. Slight detour there. Er... war with the French, right. And Prussians! I've not encountered a Prussian in years. I studied the nineteenth century in more depth than anybody could ever really want to, both at school and university, so there's a lot of familiarity in these books, and I have an odd fondness for Prussia. They rhyme pleasingly with Russia, which makes it easier to remember details about the Congress Of Vienna. And they have quite a nice shade of blue. And dagnabbit, woman, stop nearly killing off Granby! By the time the French lob him off Temeraire's back, he's clocking up about half a dozen near misses in this book, and my nerves are shot to hell. I can't remember being this anxious about the fate of a fictional character in a long while - probably not since before Captain Jack obligingly became immortal. It's because people will keep dying in these books, I guess. And Granby is cool. Not sure quite how he survives in this instance, actually. Perhaps I shouldn't ask questions, and just be glad that he did. It's just that you reach terminal velocity pretty quickly, and the narrative makes it sound like he fell a fair old way. Landing smack in Temeraire's hand... well. 'Nuff said and all that. Not my favourite subject.
Oh dear. Beginning to ramble incoherently rather, aren't I. I blame the heat. So why I'm drinking a cup of extremely hot tea despite it already being so bloody hot here, I don't know. China, Lien, mountains, avalanche (how did getting cold give Temeraire's crew the sniffles? Tut tut. Colds are caused by viruses, not by getting chilly!), Tharkay (poor eagle - that was more sad than losing Digby, confound it), Turkey, dragons's eggs (poor baby dragon), Prussians. I think that about covers it. And then at the worst possible moment, up pops the Kazilik egg, merrily hatching in a scene that I suspect gives a strong foretaste of what its little occupant is to be like in future. How much of it is due to Temeraire talking to her before she hatched, and how much is just her own spectacularly contrary nature, I don't know, but she erupts from her shell in a blaze of trouble, and doesn't seem to stop causing it thereafter. This is a lovely scene. Naming herself, at once at odds with Temeraire over stealing a member of his crew, and desperate to have at the French, all within about ten seconds of being born. In the space of three sentences, Iskierka and Granby are a double act to be reckoned with, which is really rather unfortunate. Temeraire's all "Iz my Granby. I can haz it back nao plz?", and I'm inclined to agree. I can see him being sidelined in book four, and left behind while Temeraire goes off on his adventures. No fair! I want more Granby! And more Iskierka too. They need their own spin off, and they need it now.
Er yeah. So that's it really. Damn good book. I do wish that Naomi Novik would look up "sentient" in a dictionary, though. I know it's a common mistake - a very common mistake, and becoming all the more so over the years. That doesn't alter the fact that she means "sapient", though. With everything else so accurate and well-researched and all that, that bit does tend to stick out rather.
Anyways, on to book four, now. It's called Empire Of Ivory, and it looks rather good. I am approaching with caution though. I haven't even read the back yet, and I already know that it doesn't have nearly enough Granby and Iskierka in it. :p