Most of my first review of Empire of Ivory stands, so rather than rehash that, I’ll just comment on where my opinion has changed or things I noticed that I didn’t mention in the first review.I’ve mentioned this in previous reviews, but Laurence is just such a delightful character. I think we’ve gotten used to seeing caricatures of women from the turn of the nineteenth century simply based on Jane Austen’s celebrity. It’s refreshing to see Naomi Novik capture the thoughts of a English gentleman of the same time period.By most standards, Laurence is a pretty good guy. He stands up for what’s right, is against slavery, and as we see at the end of the book, will go all the way when he and Temeraire and dragonkind are against the ropes. Yet Novik does a good job making sure that, as progressive as he might be, he is still a product of his times. He is still slightly scandalized by the presence of women serving in the Aerial Corps, even if he has managed to accept it as a necessity. Watching his reactions to Jane and Emily Roland, to Catherine Harcourt’s pregnancy, is great. We get to see him try to reconcile his entire upbringing, which taught him to regard women as the “weaker sex,” fit for childbearing and little else, with his experience as an officer in the Corps, fighting alongside Harcourt and Emily and Jane.Novik similarly draws out realistic-seeming behaviour from the British government in terms of its weaponization of the disease afflicting British dragons. (Although Laurence rightly frames this as genocide, if we accept that dragons are sentient enough to be soldiers rather than mounts, this is also an instance of biological warfare.) Obviously Britain didn’t have dragons in the real Napoleonic Wars … but if they did have them, this totally seems like something they would have done. It’s believable, in so much as anything in a book with dragons can be believable.I also liked Empire of Ivory better this time around—not enough to increase its rating to four stars, but enough that I will retract my comments about its pacing. Maybe it was just the mood I was in this time around, but I enjoyed the time that Novik lingers in each setting.As we progress in the series, the biggest motif, of course, is the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. This is essentially How to Train Your Dragon for adults. In previous books, Novik mostly explores whether Laurence and Temeraire are meant to be together, or whether their association is an aberration. She transposes them into different settings that allow each to explore what they might become without the other. Now, at the end of Empire of Ivory, Laurence establishes beyond any shadow of a doubt that his loyalties are to Temeraire first, beyond even the British Empire he has served so faithfully. It’s a romantic notion, one all the stronger for the three books that have preceded this one.I love this series. As with many such series, so far none of the books are particularly amazing, but together they add up to a diverting and rewarding experience. Dragons and Napoleon. Seriously, what more can you ask for?First Review (November 15, 2009)I've finally read all the Temeraire books published to date, albeit out of order. Sometime early next year I hope to re-read them, in order, at which time I can probably write better reviews. It has been ages since I read Black Powder War, and I read Victory of Eagles this year, so I was in the interesting position of knowing how this book ended but not how it began. Despite this continuity snafu, I still enjoyed Empire of Ivory.Disease is killing the dragons of Britain. Without some form of cure, Britain's Aerial Corps will be devastated and Napoleon will be able to invade without much difficulty. Fortunately, Temeraire was exposed to the disease before, when he and Laurence were in Africa, and they set off to Capetown to find a cure. Only they find something much more . . . for in Africa, as in the rest of the world, there be dragons.Empire of Ivory is a nice change of pace for the Temeraire series, as the main antagonist is not Napoleon or a similarly megalomaniacal villain. Unfortunately, Novik doesn't always compensate for this lack of external conflict. Parts of the book were slow—indeed, the middle and the very end were the best, with everything around those parts feeling like filler at times. After a strong opening amidst an intense retreat back to Britain, the story calms to a low simmer, dangling before us some philosophically interesting points on the parallel between dragons and human slaves, trying to tide us over until the real action begins. It takes too long to send Laurence and Temeraire off on the quest for the cure, which we know is going to happen, too long to get there, and too long to get the cure.The discovery of the Tswana empire makes the retrieval of that cure difficult. Now, I loved Novik's portrayal of the Tswana empire and its dragons for two reasons: once again we get to see a unique way for a people to treat the dragons with which it coexists, and the veneration of dragons as ancestors continues the commentary on how the British treat their dragons.The Tswana believe that spirits of their ancestors will reincarnate in the form of a dragon—not randomly, but only if certain rituals and procedures, such as telling the unhatched dragon about its former life, are observed. As a result, dragons grow up believing they are former humans, believing that those alive are their descendants. This is a powerful bond, the result of which is a more unified dragon-human nation than we've ever seen, China included. The dragons and humans of Tswana are literally one people. They work together to achieve massive feats of engineering and agriculture, cultivating the cure that Laurence and Temeraire so desperately seek. But they carry a grudge against those, the slavers, who would sell their people as stock.In China, we see dragons and humans co-existing as equals. According to intelligence from France, Lien is succeeding in bringing Napoleon around to a similar viewpoint. He's widening the streets of Paris so she may perambulate down them, and he's beginning to integrate French dragons into French society—perhaps not anywhere near par with China, but certainly more than Britain has been doing. The Tswana have done something similar, a third case study, if you will, that supports Novik's running theme: the better dragons are treated, as equals and not as servants, and the better they protect their country. China's aerial corps is largely considered superior to most nations'; France's is improving daily; and the Tswana destroy three British settlements in Africa after Laurence's incursion provokes them, fielding more dragons than anyone ever thought existed on the continent. Clearly there's a correlation between dragon care and dragon military performance, an incentive for the government of Britain to buy into Temeraire's philosophy of human-dragon equality. And this is a much better way to criticize the slave trade than simply using dragons as a straight metaphor for slaves. Novik's instead proved a more general case that applies to both dragons and slaves.Oh, did I not mention the slave trade subplot? Laurence's father has tapped Laurence as a public figure to stand toe-to-toe with Lord Nelson, who's doing a fine job of opposing any abolitionist legislature that makes it to the House of Lords. Laurence is all for abolition but not too keen on being the movement's figurehead.Two freed slaves, the married Mr. and Mrs. Reverend Erasmus, accompany Laurence to Africa as missionaries. Then, in a bizarre twist I didn't quite buy, Erasmus gets killed and we learn that Mrs. Erasmus is apparently from the Tswana empire, captured as a child. Yes, the Tswana have dragons, but they're still prey to other tribes, who act as proxies for the slavers. Go figure. I found the actions of the Tswana characters somewhat uneven: presumably they had some inkling of the existence of British settlements on the coast before, right? Why wait to destroy them until now?This unevenness crops up a good deal in Empire of Ivory. Laurence and Temeraire triumphantly return to Britain with the cure, at which point the government reveals that, surprise, it's already spreading the disease to the French in a mass dragon genocide scheme. Because we didn't see that coming. Still, it lets Temeraire and Laurence commit treason, which is awesome, because . . .. . . it's fresh. Empire of Ivory is slow because it's very safe. Aside from the simmering slave-trade subtext, there's little that rocks the series boat until the very end. Now Laurence and Temeraire are traitors, who have willingly returned to England to face punishment. And as I know from reading Victory of Eagles, this isn't something that can be dismissed so the series can reset to status quo. It's a serious ethical dilemma that required Laurence to choose: take a stand against genocide and commit treason against the country to which he's sworn loyalty, or go along, play the good soldier, and watch the dragon to whom he's become attached commit treason to save his people. Everything's different now, and I love it. I just feel that, as great as the ending was, there were better paths to getting there than the one taken by Empire of Ivory.My review of the Temeraire series:← Black Powder War | Victory of Eagles →
After the previous installment, Black Powder War, I wasn't sure if I should continue on with the series. I am satisfied with my decision to read Empire of Ivory. I think it makes up for the previous shortcomings, and it is more tightly plotted compared to the previous books.That being said, Temeraire novels are a slow burn. There are periods of inactivity between skirmishes, and periods of time where the characters are stuck in their situation. That is indicative of being in the military. I remained engrossed in the characters and the political plot while waiting for the next action scene or twist.Empire of Ivory is focused on a respiratory virus/bacterial infection that is plaguing the English dragons. Temeraire, Laurence, and company travel to Africa to find a cure. A bit of a longshot, but Temeraire was believed to have been ill in Black Powder War, and was unknowingly cured when he sampled some of the African cuisine. The introduction of African dragons proved to be another fascinating culture. I liked that although the setting was tribal, the indigenous people were not viewed as uneducated or incapable of progress. I found myself comparing this book to Marie Brennan's Tropic of Serpents, a somewhat similar story of dragons in an African setting. I think Empire of Ivory gives a different perspective, although I would have liked more description of the culture.I think Novik did well in discussing slavery, in that she is obviously not tolerant of it, but realizes the attitudes of the time do not allow the characters to be highly vocal about it. There is a scene which does clearly show Laurence's attitudes toward it.I like Laurence a lot more now than I originally did. Additionally, I was able to follow the minor characters with more clarity than before. I liked the involvement of the female aviators, Jane Roland and Catherine Harcourt, and that they were in positions of power, without being tyrannical or incapable.Laurence's actions are the end of the book leave a major cliffhanger, and I wonder if I would have made the same decision as he did, were I faced with it. Do you chose sworn duty or moral convictions? I finally figured out why Novik's writing sometimes doesn't flow naturally. Novik uses the semicolon heavily, and it made the reading jarring at first. I think it reads better verbally, but once I got about to the fourth chapter, I became accustomed to it. I don't think the semicolon is being misused per se, but I think it is used too frequently in a manner than makes many paragraphs feel like long run on sentences. I don't know if that is the style in the Master and Commander books this series is influenced by?
What do You think about Empire Of Ivory (2007)?
This is the 4th book in the Temeraire series. There were things I liked and things I didn't, so 3 stars it is. I still like the characters and the little dragon. However, somewhere they wobbled. The main characters were good guys uniting in common cause to defend the helpless and defeat the villians. Then they, the good guys, were the villians, then they weren't, then they were and then they weren't. It wobbled like that through the plot.The story line was fine, but it felt like it lagged a bit. Maybe it was an identity crisis, I don't know. I liked the ending more than the beginning.
—Donna
This was really good -- perhaps the best of the Temeraire books so far, though I may just feel this way 'cos every time I read a new Temeraire book I find I'd forgotten how great they are. But I wish Harper Collins hadn't done such a damned shoddy job of proofreading. I kept getting tripped up by typos, grammatical errors, dangling sentence fragments, and once, the same word being used twice in the same sentence in a way that made me have to reread the sentence twice before I understood it.Also
—Zen Cho
"It's a kind of consumption," Lord Lenton said tiredly, turning to the window.“How widespread—?” Laurence asked.“Everywhere,” Lenton said. “Dover, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough. The breeding grounds in Wales and Halifax; Gibraltar; everywhere the couriers went on their rounds; everywhere.” He turned away from the windows and took his chair again. “We were inexpressibly stupid; we thought it was only a cold, you see.”(Ironically, the plague originated with American dragons, who are immune.) Narrated superbly by Simon Vance. I've listened to the series. This one -- book 4 -- is among the best. It rocks, even despite the cliffhanger conclusion. Vivid setting: The story begins in 1807 in the North Sea near Scotland, then to England, then Africa's Gold Coast (slaving forts or "castles") down to the Cape, then back home to Dover. Perfectly paced, with action scenes nicely spaced by restful times (not quite enough happy bonding times). Some surprising twists in both plot and characterization. (Pastor Erasmus and his wife, Hannah, especially.) I felt the characters more deeply -- their inner turmoil as they made tough decisions, mourned losses, faced death, etc. I found the plot quite absorbing, partly because Novik offers such a wonderful picture of how slavery might have been abolished, in Africa. Plot threads: Dragons are dying of some sort of deadly flu, probably carried by an immune American dragon. To find the cure, Temeraire/ Will Laurence and other aviator teams (Maximus, Lily, Dulci, etc.) journey on the HMS Allegiance, under Captain Riley. They dock in Capetown, and the hunt is on for stinky mushrooms. From there, into the interior, to Tswana territory, Botswana, home of Moshueshue, King of the Tswana tribe and leader of the Tswana-Sotho alliance of sub-Saharan African tribes. Somehow, I think he is Shaka Zulu. Or related to him.Across the chapters, some characters die, new characters sign up (Demane and Sipho), a friendship is strained to the limits, and a special "egg" is conceived. Towards the end of the book, Laurence and Tem are forced to make a very tough decision. Back home in England, Wilberforce and Allendale strive to prohibit slavery, despite Lord Nelson. On the continent, Napoleon continues to attack, planning to invade England. Oh, and in Dover, Arkady and the new band of feral dragons learn British aviation customs, along with Granby's fire breather (capturing enemy ships, getting prize money). Temeraires still wants a nice pavilion, just as he saw in Peking.Cliff: What will become of Laurence and Temeraire? What will come of the two African boys, Demane and his little brother Sipho? See status updates.I read that a movie may be in the making. Peter Jackson? George Lucas?
—Kathleen
