Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, Book 4)
by Naomi Novik
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.23 You Save: $3.76 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.85 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, Book 4)
Book Review: A journey into the unknown heart of Africa, with startling results.
Summary: 5 Stars
I must admit, I haven't been this thrilled over a fantasy series since, oh, it must be the early 1990's. But ever since the first book in Naomi Novik's series about an alternate Earth where the Napoleonic Wars have taken to the skies, I've been hooked. Enough to where I dived right into the latest release as soon as it landed on my doorstep (after, of course, finishing what I had in hand first).
I simply had to know what happened next!
Picking right up where Black Powder War left off, this novel opens with a literal bang, as Temeraire with the pack of feral dragons are fighting off a French raiding party off the coast of Scotland. After a year abroad dealing with wandering in deserts, thrust into the middle of a battle with Napoleon, and discovering a foe that is more than a match for Temeraire, all that the dragon and his gallant companion, Captain Will Laurence are looking for is a well-earned rest.
But dire news is awaiting them on the ground. A mysterious illness has swept through the coverts of England and Scotland, striking down dragons and their crews alike. Only a few have managed to survive, and worst still, if the French were to discover that England is virtually undefended, all could be lost. Temeraire is fortunate enough to be unaffected by the disease, but even a Celestial dragon can't protect all of Britain...
Now with several old friends, Temeraire and Laurence are off to Africa to find an elusive cure in a desperate bid against time. Arriving in Capetown, in southern Africa, isn't without a few twists either -- Laurence discovers that his friendship with the new Captain of the Allegiance is shattered beyond repair when an African freedman and his family join them, with an intent to be missionaries. Other complications are in store as well, as Laurence finds himself questioning the role of colonialism and slavery, scattered among the hunt for the elusive cure.
But once they find that vital ingredient, trouble decends quickly as Laurence, Catherine Harcourt, Emily Roland and the others find out that Africa isn't nearly as primitive as they think. A fabulous kingdom lays in its heart, protected by dragons who have forged a unique bond with their people, and other surprises await.
New characters are introduced as well, and one that I enjoyed in particular is Mrs. Erasmus, the missionary's wife, who is to play quite a role in the upcoming story. Intriguing too are the two young boys that Laurence and Temeraire encounter as well with their very talented dog. It's a feature that I like about Novik's story so far, that she can take our preconcieved notions and twist them entirely into something new, without making it all too unbelievable.
She also isn't shy about showing bigotry and racism in all of their ugly twists. While happily, she doesn't dwell overly long on this, they do play an important part in the story, and when the novel builds to the climax where Laurence is questioning the morality of his superiors, the reader is going to find themselves wondering how all of this is going to be resolved. What this does, naturally, is to make the characters of Laurence and Temeraire all the more interesting, and keeps them from the trap that engulfs too many novelists -- that of making their heroes a touch too perfect.
By gum, I love it when authors get gutsy and daring with their work. The only real downside to this story is that I'm going to have to wait until 2008 when the next novel is due to be released. And I suspect that I'm not going to be the only reader left wondering what will happen next. For those who like their adventure novels to be packed full of thrills and a breakneck pace, this is one that you can really sink your teeth into. Be warned that several scenes in this novel are rather brutal in the content, and Novik isn't shy about character death either. I also urge the reader to go back and read the series in order if they haven't yet -- there isn't any sort of synopsis or guide, and a great deal of the interplay and knowledge relies on what happens in the first three books.
Four and half stars, boldly rounded up to five.
Heartily recommended.
Book Review: Ongoing adventures in Africa in search of a cure
Summary: 4 Stars
Temeraire and Laurence make it back to England after their adventures on the way back from China only to find that a mysterious illness has struck the Dragon Corps. This illness appears to have no cure, and is extremely contagious. Not only that, but once stricken, the Dragon almost inevitably dies. Temeraire though, for some reason, does not get infected and that creates the hope that somehow he was inoculated against this disease during his Chinese travels. Thinking about it, everyone remembers that he did come down with the sniffles on his way south along the African shore, but was cured somewhere around the tip of South Africa. So, he and his wing mates are immediately dispatched there to seek a cure.
Most of this book follows the adventures encountered in this search and we are introduced to the raging debate about slavery as well as the takeover of South Africa by the British from the Dutch. While there are no particular naval or air engagements described, there is plenty of adventure and action as the cure is found, the British dragons and their people are confronted by a well organized local society of people and dragons, and the cure is eventually brought back to England, and ultimately to France.
As an adventure story, the writing is first rate and the placement of this whole world in the Napoleonic era continues to shine. There are a couple of problem areas that made me take one star off of my rating of this book. First, there are several situations where the timelines are impossible. I would have to give out important plot points to describe them fully, so I won't beyond saying that if you pay attention to how long things take, this book takes significant liberties with some of them in the interest of keeping the story moving. Another issue that I have is the way Captain Laurence is portrayed. Now, this may be intentional, but he is being portrayed as a very stuck up and stuffy individual who has no clue about what is going on around him. With episodes such as his complete bewilderment as to why his girlfriend keeps checking the calendar on those days when they spend the night together (remember that this is set in Napoleonic times - before the advent of birth control), to his complete disregard of the feelings of a woman who just lost her husband to a spear attack, he is made out to be a person that I would not want to associate with. Yet, this is the main hero of these stories aside from Temeraire!
Putting aside these problems, this book is still very well written, it draws you in and keeps you turning the pages in excited anticipation of what the next twist in the tale might be. The descriptions of the African wilds and the British lands are so good that you can easily envision what the characters see as they travel over them. This is definitely a good read and will occupy pride of place in my library.
Book Review: Laurence and Temeraire return to form in Dark Africa
Summary: 4 Stars
Empire of Ivory is the fourth novel in Novik's series, after His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. Like all of the books in this series, the action follows fairly closely on the heels of the previous novel. And like all of the previous novels save the first, reading the novels that come before it is essential to understanding what is going on.
In a nutshell, this is an alternate world/alternate history set in a 19th century where men are learning to breed and tame dragons for use in the military. Napoleon is still threatening to conquer Europe and his machinations have, ironically, brought the egg of, and later the hatched egg of a powerful Chinese dragon, Temeraire, to the hands of the English, and the bonding of Temeraire to Captain Will Laurence. Formerly a naval officer, the novels, at their best, have explored his "culture shock" in the dragon corps.
In this fourth novel, after reverses on the continent against Napoleon's army, the English are licking their wounds and dreading a cross-Channel invasion when a new wrinkle and complication occurs--a strange, debilitating illness which is devastating the entire dragon corps of England. The loss of the dragons would leave England at the mercy of Napoleon's forces.
The only clue is that Temeraire had a brief illness of his own on his journey to China (in Throne of Jade), and recovered while in South Africa. And so, in the search for a cure to save England's dragons leads Temeraire and Laurence into the dark of Africa...
I think I mentioned in previous reviews that I felt that Throne of Jade and Black Powder War did not recapture the magic and deft touch that His Majesty's Dragon did. Novik seemed to take the wrong lessons from the success of that first novel, and so the second and third novels, while not bad novels, just didn't hit on all the cylinders the first one did.
This fourth novel, while still not quite capturing the magic of His Majesty's Dragon, seems to be more more in the vein of the first novel, and less of the problems of the second and third novels. The characters develop, we do get some travelogue, we get development of the history and politics of the world, and things occur. Pacing is good, and at 400 pages, the novel is of a goodly and not-padded length to tell the story it wants to tell.
And it ends with an obvious cliffhanger. The actions Laurence and Temeraire take at the end of the novel are shocking and surprising on face value, but they grow naturally from the events starting in the first novel. Novik does not break the character. Indeed, if the characters did not take their actions, that would have been a betrayal of their characters.
I enjoyed it, and look forward to the MMPB version of the fifth novel, Victory of Eagles.
Book Review: New developments in the series give it even more depth -- goes beyond fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
I read and enjoyed the preceding novels in the Temeraire series, but as the third one drew to a close I was starting to lose enthusiasm. This new and exciting volume in the series brought me back, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next one.
In the third volume of the series, the Napoleonic war and endless military action was increasingly dominating the story over the things that I found more interesting: the speculative history, in a parallel world where dragons existed; the education of a young dragon and his growing awareness of the injustice of his own situation; the parallels between slavery and the condition of dragons; the through and engaging presentation of the culture and manners and assumptions of the period. The battles are exciting but, at least for me, I was finding them a bit too much: like the descriptions of actual Quidditch matches in the Harry Potter series (that J.K. Rowling thankfully relegated to the background in the last few books) -- the first few are exciting but after a while I begin to feel I just want to know the outcome and move on with the story ... I know I may be in the minority on both of these fronts.
In any case, the latest edition has a lot more of exactly what I like from the series. A mysterious illness draws Temeraire and crew back to Africa for a longer and more dangerous visit, and along the way Temeraire's growing awareness of social and political matters forces Laurence to become more circumspect, to take a stand on issues about which he would prefer neutrality, and it gets him into heaps of trouble. British expansionism, and nationalistic appeals for unjust practices and military tactics, are seen as not the obvious goods they were sometimes taken to be. Slavery, sexism, colonialism, are all brought up as themes to be questioned in the course of the story -- and done so lightly and masterfully, similar to the ways in which J.K. Rowling deals with similar themes, and not with a heavy handed or moralizing approach that might be taken by lesser writers. I like novels to raise issues, but I don't like to be preached to by novelists, and Naomi Novik raises a wide range of issues in this novel without preaching and without losing track of an engaging set of events. This is definitely five star fantasy. I can't wait for the next one -- and given the dramatic ending of this volume the next one promises to begin in the thick of things.
Book Review: Saved only by the strong ending
Summary: 3 Stars
"Empire of Ivory" is an alternate history novel, set in Europe and Asia at the time of the Napoleanic war. This novel continues where "Black Powder War" left off with the (untrue) promise that this novel would focus on T--'s attempts to reform Brittish law concerning dragons. Instead, this novel follows L-- and T-- as they meander through a series of loosely related adventures from England, down to Africa, and back. All of the dragons in England are deathly ill, and only L-- and T-- can save them.
I found "Empire of Ivory" to be a bit dull. Instead of the interesting plotline promised at the end of the previous novel, we are presented with yet another series of mini-adventures -- and after two novels chocked full of meandering mini-adventures, I am ready for something else. On top of that, the plot relies FAR too heavy on the "unjust world" theme. For myself, I'd have condensed the entirity of this book into a short story.
That said, the book is saved by the last three chapters. These go off on a tangent, and by rights should have been placed at the start of the next book. While the urgency is absurd and the melodrama over the top, this is quite forgivable. These chapters set up a wonderful little tragic dilema for L-- and T--, who have hithertofore simply followed orders. I'd have given "Empire of Ivory" 2-stars except for the last three chapters.
Until that point, the overall feel of this novel is "the continuing adventures of L-- and T-- as they meander through a forgettable series of adventures, brightened occasionally by encounters with favorite characters from previous novels." It will likely appeal to anyone who enjoyed Black Powder War (Temeraire, Book 3) (Temeraire) or The Hero Strikes Back or Forged Without Fire: A Champion for Catlover or The Truthsayer's Apprentice (The Loregiver Series, Book 1).