The Temeraire series continues, hooray! I liked this one much more than I did the last two. It was more pulled together than they’ve been, and Laurence was very, very polite, and Temeraire is still a cutie. I’ve been having ongoing concerns that Laurence will get less polite the more he hangs out with the Aerial Corps people (and Jane, who bores me). He didn’t though. He might have been the most polite in this book that he’s been in any of the books. Ah, courtesy.
They flew to Africa, and I felt, of all the places they’ve been, Ms. Novik deals the best with Africa. It’s full of mushrooms that are the cure for a disease that is killing all of England’s dragons, and Temeraire very fortunately has an immunity to it, so he goes off hunting for the cure. Unfortunately, the tribe that cultivates the mushrooms is pissed at England because the slave trade’s legal there, so they are none too thrilled with the Brits. I was pleased in this book to have some other dragons (besides the irritating ferals) for Temeraire to interact with. I’ve missed Lily and Maximus, and I’m really hoping we get to see more of the bitty dragon that Granby has whose name contains so many vowels and k letters that I always forget it.
*spoilers now*
At the end, the Brits send an infected dragon to France in biological warfare manner, and Laurence and Temeraire go chasing over to France to cure the dragons because they don’t like biological warfare, and then Laurence goes back to England. To be executed. Which I’m sure he won’t be, but it was a good ending to the book. I have the new one on hold at the library, so once I finish reading the other many books I have out, I’ll go and collect it.