Reviews

Black Powder War by Naomi Novik

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northbailey's review against another edition

2.0

The story line for this third in the series was mostly dull. Dragon eggs to care for gave it a little interest, but the most thoughtful part was Lawrence's struggles to really understand the place of dragons in society and what his country could or would do to welcome them as persons.

amiascah's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was not as good as the series had been, kinda felt like filler, kinda felt like nothing of importance happened.

Book three in Naomi Novak's series Termeraire, 'Black Powder War' picks up right after book two. While in China Captain Laurence and Termeraire are sent on a new mission, to retrieve some dragon eggs from Istanbul. Through hardship after set back, feeling like everything is pitted against them they make their way via the Old Silk Road to the waiting dragons eggs, to find things are worse there than they thought and Napoleon's forces are pressing the Prussians hard.

spoilers

I don't really have much to say. It got kinda boring, the end did pick up for me, not because of the battles and trying to save as many as they could but because that's when the dragon bickering really picked up. We have a new edition who couldn't care less about what she is supposed to do or that she needs to wait to grow, and then theres another not so new face but whom the general forces aren't as familiar with and it was interesting to see how the dynamic shifted with having a dragon that wasn't essentially a war horse, but some thing with a mind, ideas, strategies. When these lady dragons I found there was more of the Temeraire interactions that I love. Is it weird to say that I felt he was missing a lot from this book? I'm hoping we keep up with the new dragons, especially the ferals and maybe what I loved about the first book will be back again.

definitely going to be checking out book 4.

joshua175's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Gets way better towards the end

seattlehols16's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

cygny's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

sscd00's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The action slowed down a bit in the 2nd book of the series, but picks right back up in this one. Another entry in a terrific fantastical historical fiction series!