Book 45. League of Dragons,
by Naomi Novik. Unabridged audio.
Ending things is hard. Whether
it’s a movie, a TV series, a comic book series, a novel, or a novel series,
it’s always true. Ending things is hard.
With this novel, Naomi Novik ends
her excellent Temeraire series on a high note. Many series of this length have
a few clunkers along the way (Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
novels) or seem to overstay their welcome (Stuart Woods’ Stone Barrington
novels), but this series managed to avoid both of those unfortunate
circumstances. The series is faithful to its historical fiction roots, and as
the Napoleonic Wars ended in the real world, they ended in these novels. Novik
fills in the gaps of our history books by including the important role played
by dragons in her telling of the tale.
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia failed.
But even as William Laurence and Temeraire pursue the retreating enemy through
an unforgiving winter, the French leader is raising a new force, and he’ll soon
have enough men and dragons to resume the offensive. As a final gambit,
Napoleon has promised the dragons of every country—and the ferals, loyal only
to themselves—vast new rights and powers if they fight under his banner. It is
an offer eagerly embraced from Asia to Africa—and even in England, whose
dragons have complained about their poor and dispectful treatment.
The inclusion of dragons in various
international cultures has long been a strength of this series. With this
novel, Novik brings dragons into the English political process, as well. It is
a story point I did not see coming, but given the context of the series, it
makes a bit of sense.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this
series, from start to finish. I will miss the series, but appreciate the way in
which it came to a conclusion.
