Crucible of Gold
2012 • 325 pages
Ratings30
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings30
Average rating3.6
"Naomi Novik's beloved series returns, with Capt. Will Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire once again taking to the air against the broadsides of Napoleon's forces and the friendly--and sometimes not-so-friendly--fire of British soldiers and politicians who continue to suspect them of divided loyalties, if not outright treason. For Laurence and Temeraire, put out to pasture in Australia, it seems their part in the war has come to an end just when they are needed most. Newly allied with the powerful African empire of the Tswana, the French have occupied Spain and brought revolution and bloodshed to Brazil, threatening Britain's last desperate hope to defeat Napoleon. So the British government dispatches Arthur Hammond from China to enlist Laurence and Temeraire to negotiate a peace with the angry Tswana, who have besieged the Portuguese royal family in Rio--and as bait, Hammond bears an offer to reinstate Laurence to his former rank and seniority as a captain in the Aerial Corps. Temeraire is delighted by this sudden reversal of fortune, but Laurence is by no means sanguine, knowing from experience that personal honor and duty to one's country do not always run on parallel tracks. Laurence and Temeraire--joined by the egotistical fire-breather Iskierka and the still-growing Kulingile, who has already surpassed Temeraire in size--embark for Brazil, only to meet with a string of unmitigated disasters that leave the dragons and their human friends forced to make an unexpected landing in the hostile territory of the Inca empire, where they face new unanticipated dangers. Now with the success of the mission balanced on a razor's edge, and failure looking more likely by the minute, the unexpected arrival of an old enemy will tip the scales toward ruin. Yet even in the midst of disaster, opportunity may lurk--for one bold enough to grasp it"--
Series
9 primary books12 released booksTemeraire is a 12-book series with 9 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Cecelia Holland, Jonathan Stroud, and 45 others.
Reviews with the most likes.
Loved getting back into the Temeraire series, especially after I was disappointed by the author's stand-alone book Uprooted. One problem I have with the series though is that I feel each book is driven by the author's wish to explore the dragons on different continents rather than being driven by plot and therefore the plot is not as strong as it could be. However, Temeraire and Iskierka more than make up for that
I enjoy the parts of this series that are travelogues exploring how dragons would have affected the age of colonization a lot more than I do the parts that are Napoleonic warfare with dragons. This book leaned heavily on the first, so I quite enjoyed it, and found myself very intrigued by the role dragons played in the Incan empire. If anything, I wanted more, not only in Incan-controlled territory, but also in the fascinating implications of dragons surviving in an ecosystem fairly devoid of megafauna (pre European contact, at least). It looks like that's not going to be addressed, what with the series apparently returning to Asia and Europe in later books, but it has given me something fascinating to think about, and what more can you ask for?
