Bowden P. (Trey) - , reviewed on 10/13/2008 + 260 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

As it notes, this book combines His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. Overall, this is an excellent and I highly recommend it to fans of the Patirck O'Brien and Sharpe series who also enjoy fantasy.

Of the three novels, His Majesty's Dragon was the weakest of the three. But if you take into account that it is Ms. Novik's first novel, then its understandable. It has a huge info dump in it, but overall its not bad. In it, Temeraire's egg is taken in battle at sea, and Captain Laurence is forced to harness him - taking him from the naval career he loves. He does discover though that life with dragons is not as bad as he feared. After that, we're off to the covert where Temeraire and Laurence train and we meet other dragons, their riders and crews as well. It lays the basis for Temeraire's and Captain Laurence's personalities and we begin to meet Temeraire's crew. Near the end, the dragon and crew are involved in a climatic battle against Napoleon's forces. Then we find out what sort of dragon Temeraire is ...

... leading us to Throne of Jade where the Chinese are horribly offended over the English harnessing of Temeraire. And they seem to have something that is causing the Foreign Ministry to tie itself in knots to appease them. After attempting to separate Temeraire and Laurence (and a near mutiny), the two of them head to China with the Chinese delegation (including an Imperial prince) on a dragon transport. This takes up the majority of the novel as they round Africa, and along the way discover what the Chinese had done(captured 3 East Indiamen and used them to get to England) and what they were offering for Temeraire (trade). The capture of the east Indiamen forces the Chinese delegation and Temeraire's crew into closer proximity (because the sailors would kill them), and leads to a sort of understanding. The long voyage lets us see the wonder and terror of dragon cookery, sea serpents, slavery and on and on. Novik's China with dragons is a wonder, with the dragons integrated with society and civilization and both prospering because of it. In China, Temerarire meets his family, gets his ashes hauled and discovers why he was sent away. He also discovers he is very different from them (save for the love of books) and a warrior. We also learn why the Imperial Prince and his retinue were so anxious to retrieve Temeraire and that gets resolved, giving him and Laurence a nemesis - the albino Celestial Dragon, Lien.

All of that leads to Black Powder War where Laurence and his crew head to Turkey on a mission to retrieve 3 dragon eggs that England has purchased for half a million pounds, including a fire breather. They set out overland after the dragon trasnport ship is damaged in a fire. This introduces Tharkay, a Eurasian wanderer of English and Indian descent who while skilled, is of questionable loyalty. After few adventures and meeting some feral dragons, they get to Istanbul and find the situation has changed drastically. After a hair raising escape they make their way to Prussia only to be held responsible for England's failure to send the Prussians 20 dragons. I won't say more so as to not spoil you a fine and enjoyable read.

All in all, this is a very good book and worth your time folks.

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