Naomi Novik’s Crucible of Gold: A Book Review

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The seventh installment of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Crucible of Gold, once again puts Laurence and his dragon in the move. This time they embark on a trip to South America in order to forestall an attack by the French ally Tswana on the Portuguese colonies. As Napoleon seemingly spreads his fingers deep into the world, Laurence and his dragon band seem to find ways to meet him at every stop. Restored to his rank, Laurence witnesses the destruction of his dragon transport, the Allegiance, and thus they are thus lost at sea without a hope of survival. After days of flying all hope is lost. Yet, in a well-crafted section, Novik places Temeraire, Kulingile, and Iskierka upon a French transport under a flag of surrender.  After brief travels and being marooned on an island, the band finds their way to the main continent and hell-bent on making their way to Rio to stop the Tswana.

In typical Novik fashion, a series of errors and miscalculations by the dragons places them instead in the heart of the Incan empire with Iskierka as their emissary nonetheless. Incan politics, the power of dragons over men, and the mysterious empire beneath the jungle, are all put on display. With the nuptial fate of Granby in the balance, they seek to stop the potential alliance between the Inca, their strange feathered dragons, and the French.

As always, the road can be bumpy, the journey thrilling, and Novik keeps the pages and fun turning as the series rockets towards its terminus.  

Book Review: Naomi Novik’s Tongue’s of Serpents

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Naomi Novik’s Tongue’s of Serpents moves Laurence and Temeraire from the European front to Australian exile. It is here that Novik follows her similar pattern: create a political climate, generate a crisis, embark on a long journey to hatch/solve the crisis, and leave a note of excitement for the next installment in the novel’s closing pages. This time out, we learn about how the colony is doing, a coup within it, a search for trade smugglers, the loss of a dragon egg, and the frantic search for the egg before it hatches.

While entertaining, especially if one is a fan of the series, this novel is a weak effort overall by Novik. The politics of the fledgling colony do little to intrigue and the threat of war is mostly absent. The reintroduction of Captain Rankin creates intrigue, one cannot help but know that Rankin will earn the trust of his hatched dragon and work to be a captain. Of course, a rival captain that disdains and distrusts Laurence creates tension, but at times both Temeraire and Laurence feel as if they have grown depressed, whiny, and sad. Temeraire does succeed in rescuing the seemingly decrepit Kulingile, but even these encounters leave him lacking bite and flare. He simply lacks the elegance and strength of his early renditions. Either way, the Chinese eventually enter the fray bringing an epic battle with them, one that fails to disappoint even if its placement is not fully needed.  

Naomi Novik’s Victory of Eagles: A Book Review

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Naomi Novik’s Victory of Eagles details the consequences of Temeraire and Laurence’s choice to save the French dragons as Empire of Ivory came to an end. With the war in full bore and the French invading England, Temeraire languishes in the breeding grounds while Laurence is a deckhand on the very ship he captained before being chosen as Temeraire’s captain. Each misses the other and Laurence awaits the hangman’s noose once Temeraire can be fully pacified.

But with the invasion, Temeraire refuses to sit idly and leads his breeding ground compatriots into the field in order to make a difference. At the same time, Laurence is commissioned as a prisoner captain and begins searching for dragon steed. Thus the adventure begins, once that will result in dragon rights, mass retreats, epic battles, and a final showdown with Napoleon himself. As always, Novik dazzles, and the shimmer turns the pages with reckless abandon.