As I made my way through the latest installment of the saga of Captain Will Lawrence and Temeraire, something was constantly nagging at me. However, it was only upon completion of the novel that I realized what the problem was: I was put off by the continuous and unrelenting deposition of troubles that were heaped upon the protagonists. Every time something positive happened to our heroes, Novik would drop a boatload of new problems on them. I realize that you have to challenge the characters in order for them to appear heroic and help illustrate what beacons of integrity they are, but come on! Give the two of them a break. It felt like Novik had recently discovered the saying "No good deed goes unpunished" and loved the idea so much that she decided to write an entire novel just to illustrate that point. It got very redundant and as a result, caused me to lose interest as the story dragged on.
As the book begins, we learn that there is a plague that has been sweeping through the dragons of Britain. It was the same illness that Temeraire had in Book 2, but somehow he recovered from it. Well now that they're finally back in Britain, Lawrence and Temeraire discover that no other dragons have healed from it. They figure out that Africa probably has the cure (because that was where they were docked when Temeraire began to get better). So Temeraire and Lawrence set out for Africa with their squad in hopes of finding the cure for this plague.
Another problem I have is that the book ended on a cliffhanger (much like the last one did). Now I know that's not a big issue for some of you. And it wouldn't have been as big of a problem for me if she hadn't concluded the first two books of her saga without leaving readers hanging. I'm not kidding. Go read "His Majesty's Dragon" or "Throne of Jade". While both tell two parts of one story, they each come to a definite conclusion. The same cannot be said for "Black Powder War" or this book. Capturing the reader's interest is important for an author. How else will they generate income and, in turn, create more stories? However, there are better ways to do this. Novik proved that she could conclude a story and still leave room (storywise) for the sequel with her first two Temeraire novels. So I'd like to know why she hasn't done the same for the subsequent novels.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this: Novik knows her characters. She knows how they behave and how they think and she conveys that clearly and consistently. And she's created two highly likeable characters in Temeraire and Lawerence. As a reader, you care about them, even if you don't care for what's happening around them.
I hope that Novik will improve her writing (or at least return to the enjoyable style with which she used to craft the first two novels) for the upcoming fifth novel and bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. Otherwise, I may just drop the series because I just don't have the time or level of interest to sit through another novel like this one.
