This is the final book in the Temeraire series! I’m going to miss it after this. (For the previous installments, check out the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth blog posts.) Overall I think it’s a pretty satisfactory ending but there were some characters that I would have liked to have seen again before the end.
The book starts in Russia, Temeraire and Laurence are driving Napoleon out of there. While there a bunch of ferals bring word that Napoleon stole Temeraire and Iskerika’s egg from China so Temeraire takes off after them. While out he runs into Tharkey who has new intelligence on this, and the 3 of them (Temeraire, Laurence, and Tharkey) team up with Iskerika and Granby to find the egg. They end up falling into a trap and get captured by the French, Temeraire and Iskerika plan to steal their egg back. The egg hatches and turns out she has the divine wind AND can breathe fire, not to mention she inherited Temeraire’s tendency to question authority. The dragons grab the humans and they all head back to England. Once there, Laurence is promoted and is to lead a group of officers (who all hate him) into mainland Europe to combat Napoleon. Temeraire also has to work to get dragons on their side as Napoleon has been promising them a whole lot of money for their service.
There’s a big ol battle, Napoleon gets captured, and then he’s exiled. Laurence isn’t happy about how it resolves, he thinks that his enemies should be treated with more respect and it is evident here that his wife partially orchestrated his downfall. Hammond does make several appearances as the diplomat here, always entertaining to see him. Temeraire and Laurence aren’t sure what to do now, Laurence has spent time with his mother and he wants to be able to give Temeraire a better life. Conveniently Tharkey shows up, he has some land he’d be willing to let them live on. Temeraire decided to go into politics and join Parliament to continue advocating for dragon rights.
Of course, this series couldn’t end with Napoleon being brought down. And all in all, I think it’s a very satisfying defeat. There’s a number of armies that come together, and a lot of different groups are rallied between the dragons and the humans. Laurence has to get the officers that hate him to like him, and he negotiates pay for the dragons which wins a whole lot of them over. Temeraire also learns to share some wealth and pay dragons better than Napoleon does to get them on their side. It’s an interesting look at coalition building for sure.
I do wish that we got to see more of the British dragons. Maximus and Lily are barely there, and we never get to see Demane and Kulingile. For the most part, Temeraire and Laurence are doing their own thing, but bringing it full circle with his formation would have been really nice.
I also think the transition to more boring politics for Temeraire is interesting. I’d have to read the series again to make a decent analysis of the techniques and collective action going on, but I loved watching his fight for dragon rights. I’m sure that there’s more here to explore that Novik included, but it did also feel like dragon complaints and politics changed from book to book as they traveled so it made it difficult to spot through lines.
This doesn’t make my top few books of the series, but I also
wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with it. A satisfying ending all around,
but definitely not splashy or a stand out, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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