This is the second book in the alternate history series about Temeraire,
the dragon captured as an egg from the French and inadvertently hatched
at sea and induced into captivity by the ship's captain, Will Laurence.
Where the first book focused on Temeraire's growth and training as a
part of the Aerial Corps, engaged in fighting the French during the
Napoleonic wars, this book is about his personal history. For it turns
out that Temeraire is a rare Chinese Celestial dragon, the egg was sent
as a gift to Napoleon, and the Chinese are not happy about him being
deployed in the war, ridden by a mere naval officer, and want him back.
Relations with the Chinese are delicate, so Temeraire and Laurence are
packed off to Peking to negotiate some kind of deal.
This book
has the same characteristics as the first, being more about the
formality of language and manners than action. There are some quite
dramatic encounters, but these episodes are brief. The highlight for me
is, as before, Temeraire himself, who is by far the most interesting
character in the book. He has a refreshingly straightforward attitude to
life, and time after time Laurence is forced to attempt to justify his
own society's customs and morals against Temeraire's much more liberal
ideas. These discussions are fascinating - Laurence is a product of his
own era of history, and there are many ideas which he accepts without
thinking, and others where he has absorbed his family's somewhat
different ideas (he is against slavery, for instance, even though it is
still legal in Britain). For instance, it is fascinating to juxtapose
Temeraire's instinctive feeling that it is wrong to flog or hang a man,
with the obvious need to maintain discipline aboard ship. The Chinese
have very different ways of treating dragons, too, and Laurence is
forced to acknowledge, against his natural feeling, that they do some
things better than the west.
I have no idea how accurate the
depiction of Chinese life of the era is, or whether the author has taken
liberties, but it all seemed very plausible to me. There were some
fascinating details, for instance the ceremony on board ship when
crossing the equator, which the author mentions in passing without going
into much detail. Both the Chinese delegation and Temeraire himself are
mystified by the whole thing, but the author resists the temptation to
info-dump all her research on the subject, writing as if we were of the
period and would naturally know all about it. I rather like this
minimalist approach, which suits the book very well, giving it almost an
authentic air of having been written in 1806.
This is actually a
thought-provoking book in many ways, addressing a number of ideas head
on, such as slavery versus voluntary service, and others less directly,
such as the absolute will of an emperor versus the democratic monarchy
system prevailing in Britain. It’s not a high-action book, although
there are episodes of drama, but in some cases they feel rather bolted
on as an afterthought to ramp up the tension. However, the tension
between the British and the Chinese is nicely done, and the slow but
definite way in which the barriers begin to dissolve and the two sides
inch their way towards an understanding is beautifully described. In the
end, everything hinges on trust, or the lack of it, and the resolution
is both frighteningly dramatic and ultimately very satisfying. Once
again, I enjoyed this book unreservedly, and although it wouldn’t suit
everyone, for me it’s another five star affair. I’m almost nervous to
read any further in the series in case this high standard comes crashing
down. Can any author sustain the ideas and this level of writing for
nine books? It’s hard to imagine.
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