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Black Powder War | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Naomi Novik | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Temeraire | His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory | ||
The Chinese situation has stabilized, and favorably. Captain Will Laurence will be allowed to keep riding Temeraire, and they both will be permitted to return to England. This is the good news. The bad news is that he's been ordered to pick up along the way some dragon eggs that England has bought from the Turks. And so Lawrence, ex-sailor and now airman, sets off to travel on foot across Asia. And if that wasn't bad enough, the dragon Lien has undertaken a personal quest of her own: to avenge the death of her human partner. And then there are the Turks themselves. Out of his element, out of his country, and beset by powerful forces, Captain Lawrence is going to have his hands full. But failure might spell the beginning of the end of English sovereignity!
After reading the back cover of Black Powder War, I was seriously concerned that this would turn out to be just another travel quest. All the elements were in place. Lots of problems along the way that have nothing to do with the journey's initial cause, check. Obstacles coming in succession, irregardless of what came before, check. A quick couple of scenes to wrap things up and accomplish the original goal... well, we'll see when we get to the end, of course.
But that wasn't the case at all, I found to my delight as I read. True, the book is essentially one long trip, but the rest of my worries don't materialize into actuality. Some of the problems are episodic, but more by far were not. Many tie back to the last book, and nearly all of them pertain the the struggle against Napoleon. Very little arises out of nowhere and then are gone, never to return.
Novik shows herself to be fairly adept at describing battles, as well. She's perhaps a little less than thrilling, unfortunately, but Laurence's position above the action gives him an excellent view of the larger picture. It's also easy to see how Napoleon beat at least some of his foes, and not just in a military sense. Frankly, they deserved to lose. But Novik doesn't rely on ideotic allies, but works to portray Napoleon as the supreme stragist and tactician he was. The author adapts his methods believably to a world that includes dragons.
One sign of just how good this story was is that it refreshed my interest in the Napoleonic Wars. I might even get a hold of some nonfiction books thanks to this one. The story isn't perfect, and I have some reservations, but by and large this was a very nice book. In the end I closed the cover well pleased.
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