Black Powder War (Temeraire, Book 3) Paperback – May 30, 2006

Temeraire journeys overland back from China as napoleon threatens all of Europe. He also explores what it would mean to bring dragon’s rights to England. Quite enjoyable again.

The Black Powder War, Naomi Novik’s third book in His Majesty’s Dragon series, begins where Throne of Jade left off.Laurence, Temeraire and the crew are still in China when they receive a new urgent assignment to go to Istanbul to get three dragon eggs and take them to England. Since the war with Napoleon continues, they will have to avoid Napolean as they cross Europe with the eggs.As expected, almost nothing goes as planned. Political intrigue and deception abound. And that’s just the beginning of the book.Novik’s characters are fascinating and well developed. I love both humans and dragons. This story introduces new characters who bring more conflict, humor, and diversity to the story.Tharkay is a mixed-race man without a clear identity in either British or Chinese cultures. He agrees to guide them through the desert. He dislikes Europeans, is secretive, and a man of few words. In this story, I’m never sure if he can be trusted, or if he’s going to betray them at any moment. However, I like him.A pack of feral dragons and their leader Arkady play a crucial role in this book. Up until this point, feral dragons are stereotyped as inferior and unable to speak. This book dispelled these misconceptions.Iskierka, another new character, is introduced later in the story. This dragon has an in-your-face personality. Plus, she annoys Temeraire, which is often funny. We can expect to see her in the other books.After three books, I love these characters, and I’m willing to stay with them through thick and thin.The Napoleonic Wars lace these books together. As part of the air corps, Laurence and Temeraire receive orders that throw them into the heart of the conflict.As she did in the other two books, Novik creates distinct and vivid settings. In each place, I experienced a clear sense of place and time. So far, each book has a new setting.Events, twists, and turns of the story take me to another time and place. Although this is a fantasy world with dragons, a sense of reality runs through each book.If you like history, she gives a tour da force of what the Napoleonic Wars would be like with dragons. In the background of each story, war and the politics of the day affect our heroes. In the foreground, how Laurence and Temeraire respond to these events plays out in unexpected ways. More importantly, the conflicts and interpersonal relationships among the characters strengthen the plot.In the last book, Temeraire saw how well China treated their dragons, and now he wants to return to England to help the dragons have more freedoms and a better life.While Laurence is sympathetic to Temeraire’s desire to reform, he tries to caution Temeraire that things don’t change quickly. He doesn’t succeed because Temeraire is young enough to be overly optimistic and naive about how politics works.I love that Laurence begins as a very proper English gentleman and changes significantly in each book. The liberality of the air corps, its acceptance of women, and its casual disregard for English customs shocks him and slowly transforms him.

After making a better success of their previous adventure  Throne of Jade  than they had any right to expect and having survived a mysterious shipboard fire that has crippled their transport (saved from total destruction only by Temeraire's clever invention of the dragon bucket brigade), he and Laurence are surprised by mysterious and urgent orders to proceed to Istanbul (arguably a mistake because the British should still be calling it Constantinople at this time) "without the loss of a Moment" to pick up 3 dragon eggs, purchased from the Ottoman Empire and return them to England.With months of repairs required to restore HMS Allegiance to action and an even longer potential sea voyage from having to sail all the way around India and Africa, Laurence decides to go overland, mostly along the old Silk Road. With a chip-on-the-shoulder guide of questionable trustworthiness and a tagalong band of feral dragons enticed by Temeraire's tales of food aplenty, Laurence, Temeraire, and crew fight starvation, thirst, avalanche, and other assorted foes on the high road to Istanbul, hurried on by the disturbing news that their mortal enemy from the previous adventure, the albino Celestial Lien, is preceding them on their way.Arrival in Instanbul provides no relief as their contact is dead, the payment is missing, the deal is off, and they gradually realize that they are being held prisoner. Desperate measures allow them to leap from this frying pan right into the fire of the Franco-Prussian Campaign of 1806.Ms. Novik has provided another exciting entry in this increasingly interesting series; compared to these cascading crises, the outward journey seems a cakewalk! Temeraire continues to display the genius that makes Celestials royal advisors back in China; he'll be Lien's equal yet, just wait and see. Two new dragon characters, Arkady the wily feral leader and Izkierka the ferocious hatchling, and the deliberately infuriating mixed-heritage Tharkay make for a lot of fun and no little trouble. I particularly enjoyed the draconic explanation for the success of the French offensive (I'm embarrassed to admit that it reads more plausibly than the historical truth!) and the high tragedy and low comedy of the interruption of their retreat by a dragon hatching! The only nit I care to pick is to ask just what the Hell is the title  Black Powder War  supposed to mean? Titles don't seem to be Ms. Novik's strong suit as she admits that the cliched but IMHO still the best  His Majesty's Dragon  was imposed upon her.I excitedly look forward to reading the rest: Empire of Ivory , Victory of Eagles , and  Tongues of Serpents .Note: if you find yourself intrigued by the idea of Napoleonic warfare with dragons, how about American Revolutionary warfare with dragons? Dragon America Or American Civil War naval action...with magic? Land of Mist and Snow

The third book in this series did not disappoint. The pacing was excellent and the plot kept my attention. Looking forward to the next book.

'Black Powder War' picks up shortly after 'Throne of Jade' finished - William Laurence and dragon Temeraire are waiting to leave China and return to their military life in the UK, fighting Napoleon. New orders send them on a fantastic flight across central Asia to Istanbul, and from there northwards across war torn Europe. Along the way they encounter all sorts of perils, thrills and adventures, new friends and old enemies.This novel is third in a series, and they should be read in order. I found it my favourite of the series so far - now the world and characters are well established you can get straight on with enjoying the story. The relationship between Temeraire and Laurence is the strong core of the book and is always touching. It's nice to read a book based on non-romantic relationships, showing the value of friendship and comradeship. Temeraire is a really loveable character, and often unintentionally very funny, and Laurence continues to grow and develop. They are joined by good supporting characters too, including an interesting new character who acts a guide in their cross-Asia trek but is of dubious motives.The scope of the story is quite impressive, taking in the steppes of central Asia, the politics of the Ottoman court, and the battlefields of Prussia. Personally I find the battle sequences less interesting, although Novik does write them well - that's just my taste, I've never been particularly interested in fight scenes. But her writing is always very readable, even in the parts that are less aligned to my interests, and I felt in this instalment she is most recognisable as the author of the brilliant 'Uprooted' and 'Spinning Silver'.I am looking forwards to the next instalments in the series (5 more to go) as if they continue to get better with every book then the last will be a true triumph. I'd recommend the series to anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure, and if you like a bit of historical battle writing (Bernard Cornwell type novels) as well then you won't find a better book.

So we start off pretty much where we left off in the previous book, with Lawrence and Temeraire ready to depart back to England. A very convenient fire followed by a letter sets the scene with our protagonists having to travel back overland through China, the Middle East, Turkey and then Austria and Germany (Prussia) where they are again swept up in the fighting against Napoleon. Like the previous book the first half seems more like a travelogue until we arrive back in Europe and we get caught up in the Prussian campaigns where we are back to battles and armies.I think that if I hadn't read this straight after book two I would have enjoyed it more. Everything that I enjoyed in the first two books is still here but I found it a bit harder to get involved. From now on I think I'm going to space these out more as though there is an ongoing story, each book can work as a standalone, at least so far. I found the travelogue part not as interesting this time around though it definitely picked up once we got back to Europe. I'm still liking the dichotomy of people and dragons in our world and the series is shaping up to show how the world will change if dragons are afforded equal rights with humans. Anyway still enjoying this series though I'll probably take a breather before moving on to the next one.

Temeraire and Laurence are becalmed in Macau when new orders arrive, bidding them hasten to Istanbul to collect much-needed eggs. They have a desperate choice: dare the dangerous overland route or go by sea and risk arriving months too late for the hatching. Will they make it in time?This isn't a book you can jump into if you haven't read previous instalments - at this point the series is happily chugging along under its own steam, and much of the joy comes from the developing characters and relationships. Like Throne of Jade, Black Powder War is another episodic adventure, but the decision to chance the Silk Road is an opportunity to explore the world rather than delve into politics and personal relationships at sea.Needless to say, Novik delivers epic world-building, with feral dragons, marauding tribes, the glories of imperial Istanbul and eventually a depressingly realistic depiction of the Prussian war (mud, marching and disappointments). While this novel covers a lot of ground, it does so in looping meanders from a plot perspective, lending it the feel of treading water.As usual, there's enormous delight to be had in the relationship between Will and Temeraire (and Will and Granby); and in Will's regular need to (happily successfully) confront long-held prejudices. Still, it was the addition of two fabulous young ladies that rescued the otherwise turgid second half of the book for me: the intrepid Sara Maden in Istanbul and the feisty young fire-breathing dragonet Iskierka who - inevitably - hatches at the worst possible time.The slow pace makes this my least favourite instalment to date, but there's still more than enough joy to keep me excited about the series.

I really like both fantasy novels and historical ones, so this series seemed to be a perfect fit and I have not been disappointed. A simple premise (that dragons exist and always have done) set within the era of Napoleon and the age of exploration.I've been buying these on both Audible and Kindle so that I can continue the story wherever I am. Brilliant.

The only problem with this book is that following on from the previous two and having finished Book 3 I am now starting Book 4. The main thing that appeals in this series is although you follow the main characters I like the wide diversity of the plots in each book.