BART Book: Black Powder War

Black Powder War
Naomi Novik, 2006
third in the Temeraire series
www.temeraire.org

Temeraire, the Celestial dragon, and his captain Wil Laurence have left China and receive orders to collect three eggs in Turkey and return home to England. Instead of taking the more familiar sea route, they hire a guide and travel overland from Macao. They encounter difficulties and dangerous situations along the way but the most interesting is their interaction with a group (covert?) of feral dragons in the mountains. Novik's poignant description of this "uncivilized" society rings true as they have a mismash of personalities—some abrasive, some adorable—and a leader and followers, the same in any place anywhere.

Temeraire continues to push forward his fervent beliefs in a more equal role for dragons in society which were only made stronger by his experiences with his relatives in China. And Laurence, being a voice of reason, tries to bring Temeraire back down to earth (so to speak) with the realities of the current attitudes toward dragons' rights and how, in these times of war, there is little hope of huge change any time soon.

I can't wait to read more in this series to see how far Novik will take her analogy of human rights and slavery in respect to the role of dragons in her fascinating universe.

Favorite part: the hatching of one of the eggs
Least favorite part: the unending battle scenes, they're just not my thing

Next BART Book: Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death by Jo Dereske
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