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A review by troutgirl
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
After the silk and jewels of China, Temeraire and his crew embark on a grueling overland traversal of the entire Eurasian continent from Beijing to London via Tibet, Turkey, and Germany. And speaking of grueling... this third episode in the series was so lacking in entertainment value that I think I'm done with the whole enterprise.
Granted, the particular theme of the novel is frustration, as lifelong military man Will Laurence learns to deal with missions which require diplomacy and patience. But the net effect is a plot that is 80% sitting around or distance trekking, often in the company of the grossest stereotypes of Ottoman and Prussian character, until some coincidence or other releases the team from house arrest.
There is one intriguing character, a young Jewish woman who acts as a business agent to the women of the Sultan's harem, but she basically serves as one of the aforementioned coincidences and then disappears forever. Oh, actually there's another cool new character: Napoleon himself.
Also... not to be unkind, but the author seems to be indulging more and more in what _The Incredibles_ called "monologuing". There is one scene here that is so incredibly cringeworthy I almost quit right then and there -- particularly as it seemed especially out of character for this particular villain to do anything so vulgarly DIRECT. I would have expected something more sublime, like poems written in blood and delivered by dying eagles at regular intervals.
Granted, the particular theme of the novel is frustration, as lifelong military man Will Laurence learns to deal with missions which require diplomacy and patience. But the net effect is a plot that is 80% sitting around or distance trekking, often in the company of the grossest stereotypes of Ottoman and Prussian character, until some coincidence or other releases the team from house arrest.
There is one intriguing character, a young Jewish woman who acts as a business agent to the women of the Sultan's harem, but she basically serves as one of the aforementioned coincidences and then disappears forever. Oh, actually there's another cool new character: Napoleon himself.
Also... not to be unkind, but the author seems to be indulging more and more in what _The Incredibles_ called "monologuing". There is one scene here that is so incredibly cringeworthy I almost quit right then and there -- particularly as it seemed especially out of character for this particular villain to do anything so vulgarly DIRECT. I would have expected something more sublime, like poems written in blood and delivered by dying eagles at regular intervals.