Imperial Purple

Naomi Novik
Empire of Ivory
Harper Voyager 2007

Earlier this year, I reviewed Black Powder War - the book before this one in the Temeraire series. I had reservations about it and gave it three stars. This one is better although not perfect.

Temeraire and Laurence have returned to England with the precious fire-breathing dragon. Unfortunately, while they were away a dragon plague has struck and the great creatures and dying in droves. With Napoleon camped across the channel with a hundred dragons, desperate for a chance to invade, the situation is serious.

They are dispatched to Africa where, by slightly tenuous logic, they believe a cure might be found. A few sick dragons are sent with them as test cases. It is Britain’s last hope - a cure must be found before Napoleon realises how thin the aerial defenses are.

But Africa is not called the Dark Continent for nothing. With slave traders, hostile natives and wild dragons the hunt for the cure is anything but simple and things go very, very wrong for the British adventurers.

The book ends with Laurence having to make the most difficult moral choices of his career where duty and humanity are in direct conflict. The book ends with the consequences of his choices left hanging - we must await the next installment.

There were a couple of practical difficulties I had problems with. I had difficulty believing that an almost complete absence of aerial defense could be kept secret from Napoleon for the better part of a year. He would surely have had spies working like industrious train-spotters, plotting the movements of the British squadrons. I also wasn’t convinced that the African savannah eco-system could sustain as many voracious dragons as it apparently did.

These are mostly quibbles I guess. The other problem Novik has is that there are only so many ways that you can describe an aerial combat and in this, the fourth book, she is running out of them. I tend to flick through these combats pretty rapidly because I know what they are going to say.

As I said, this book is superior to its predecessor. It confronts some difficult moral choices and reminds us that abhorrence of the slave trade was by no means universal in the early 19th century. Indeed more than fifty years after this book a bloody civil war was fought over the matter in the United States of America.

I am looking forward to the next one which promises a difficult time for Laurence, Temeraire and the people and dragons of Britain. It has become pretty clear that Britain treats its dragons worse than just about any other nation. It is a state of affairs which cannot endure and I am keen to see what the resolution will be.

Maya Slater
Mr Darcy’s Diary
Phoenix 2007

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all right-thinking readers believe Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful book. It has spawned biographies, sequels, detective stories, fan fic and slash fic. There is probably even a vampire novel out there somewhere (what big fangs you have, Mr Darcy) although I have never been able to find it . Slater continues this fine tradition by producing the previously lost diary kept by Fitzwilliam Darcy during the period covered in the novel.

Slater has taken on a tough job here as all the action must necessarily occur off-stage. It must cover the long period of estrangement between Darcy and Elizabeth (and Bingley and Jane of course) and still maintain interest. There are places where it meanders a bit but on the whole she succeeds admirably.

Particularly well handled is the period following Darcy’s famous and spectacularly inept first proposal of marriage. Over the course of about a week we see Darcy go from incandescent rage and outraged pride, to niggling doubts about his own rightness, to grudging humility and finally to an acceptance that he behaved like a total prat and may well have ruined all chance of future happiness.

Yet we also see the other side of Darcy, the one that makes him beloved of all his dependents. He insists upon his injured and aging valet travelling his coach while Darcy rides alongside. He is generous with his tenants and good to his friends. His friendship with Byron is an inspired touch and shows how Darcy is able to accept the good in people, even such an erratic and depraved genius as his lordship.

The only real plot quibble I had was the device of the letter from Lydia to one of the regimental officers which Darcy believes came from Jane. From this he gets an unfavourable picture of Jane and so removes Bingley from the scene. It is unnecessary. It is quite clear that Darcy’s concern for pride and position is an adequate motivation and it should have been left at that.

Otherwise a good three and a half star read. A must for all fans of Jane Austen. If you are reading this and haven’t (god forbid) read Pride and Prejudice go away and do it now and then read Slater’s book.

Naomi Novik
Black Powder War
Harper Voyager 2006

Another novel in the Temeraire series which portray the Napoleonic Wars but with an air force of dragons. If you haven’t read Temeraire, the first of the series, you need to read it before attempting this one.

Becalmed in Macau, Laurence and Temeraire (the dragon) receive orders to return immediately to Europe and collect three valuable dragon eggs from the Ottoman Empire. They decide to make the difficult journey overland along the Silk Road accompanied by a guide of dubious loyalties.

If this hard road is not enough they must deal with treachery in the Sultan’s court when they do reach Istanbul. Having dealt with this they then get caught up in Napoleon’s invasion of Prussia. Getting back to England is a tough gig.

Like the others in this series I have read I enjoyed it but I had a few quibbles. It felt a bit of an in-between novel. Previously Temeraire had learned how well dragons were treated in China and, comparing this with their treatment in England, decided that Something Must be Done.

This is setting up what should be a fascinating social struggle when they get back to England and I am looking forward to it. This novel seems to be mostly about getting there rather than having any inherent story to tell.

The individual episodes work ok in and of themselves although I wasn’t very convinced about why they should stay and fight in Prussia when they had strict orders from the Admiralty to get the eggs back to England as soon as possible. This was particularly urgent as one of them was a fire-breather - a breed of which England was in dire need.

I’m giving it three stars. It was a good read and fills in a gap in the greater story but it still needed more purpose of its own.