A review by kathytwitch
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Still enjoying the His Majesty's Dragon sequels! This book details an arduous overland journey, with unexpected encounters, both of the human kind and dragon kind. Our dragon hero has further developed his ideas about dragons' rights, which increasingly startles his human companion. 

While trials and villains make their appearance often enough to suit, this story does seem to be a bit slower paced than the first book. Perhaps that is because many of the trials are the result of the harsh country that must be traversed. There are surprising appearances of characters thought to be lost, and all in all this was another enjoyable story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Death and Sexual content

Although this book more resembles a spy mission, there is still fighting and some battlefield violence. Not all of the crew who left China will arrive home in England. There are some tense moments where it appears that none of them will return home. While there's less opportunity on this cross-continent journey for human lovers to see each other, it is clear from one subtle scene that our hero is a fully mature adult male dragon who longs for his own lover's companionship.