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bites_of_books 's review for:
Empire of Ivory
by Naomi Novik
I am consistently surprised by this series. At first I thought that this would simply be the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons but at this point is so much more than that! Each book takes us to a different area of the world as Laurence and Temeraire follow the orders from their superiors in their efforts to win the war against France.
In this book Temeraire and Laurence are finally back in England and encounter a horrible scene as the dragons are all sick with some kind of respiratory illness (How fun to read about a dragon pandemic while in one huh?) So while the dragons are all quarantined and there's little clue as to how to get a cure going, Temeraire is exposed and they realize that he is immune. I gotta say that up to this point, the book was fairly slow for me, a lot of politics about how to deal with the sick dragons and how to not let their enemies know that they are vulnerable.
Eventually they realize that the possible cure is in Africa and so a group of them go to Africa, including a minister and his wife who were previously slaves. This is one of the bigger themes of the novel since Laurence (thanks to Temeraire) is realizing that a lot of the things done by the English Empire (and other empires) are questionable if not immoral. Slavery is something that Laurence doesn't want to take a stand on but throughout this book he is forced to face it head on and figure out what he really believes is right. Laurence has really evolved throughout this series and this book is one where big changes and decisions are made that cannot be taken back by all parties involved.
All in all I am deep with this series and can't wait to see what happens next because wow cliffhanger!
In this book Temeraire and Laurence are finally back in England and encounter a horrible scene as the dragons are all sick with some kind of respiratory illness (How fun to read about a dragon pandemic while in one huh?) So while the dragons are all quarantined and there's little clue as to how to get a cure going, Temeraire is exposed and they realize that he is immune. I gotta say that up to this point, the book was fairly slow for me, a lot of politics about how to deal with the sick dragons and how to not let their enemies know that they are vulnerable.
Eventually they realize that the possible cure is in Africa and so a group of them go to Africa, including a minister and his wife who were previously slaves. This is one of the bigger themes of the novel since Laurence (thanks to Temeraire) is realizing that a lot of the things done by the English Empire (and other empires) are questionable if not immoral. Slavery is something that Laurence doesn't want to take a stand on but throughout this book he is forced to face it head on and figure out what he really believes is right. Laurence has really evolved throughout this series and this book is one where big changes and decisions are made that cannot be taken back by all parties involved.
All in all I am deep with this series and can't wait to see what happens next because wow cliffhanger!