An unplanned break

I lost my phone and internet service in the major storm that hit Houston a month ago (thankfully, though, not power and air conditioning).  A phone service box was submerged in the flooding, and it took AT&T three long weeks to repair it.  One of the storm's electrical surges also fried my modem, adding insult to injury.  During the three weeks, I was able to buy a week's worth of WiFi service at a time, from a different provider, but I could only use it on my phone.

With the phone, I had basic communication, including texts and emails.  But I knew from the start that I wouldn't be able to write anything of length.  I'm very clumsy on those tiny keyboards - I think I came too late to cell and smart phones.  So that meant nothing on the blog, which I found very frustrating.  I have gotten too used to writing about what I am reading, to sharing books that excite or entertain me, the ones that bring out the book evangelist. At one point I joked about tweeting reviews, and JoAnn found an example of someone experimenting with that, but I knew it wasn't really feasible.

I've read 18 books over the past month.  I'll never manage posts on all of them, but I did want to mention (briefly) a few that really stood out for me.  The first is Naomi Novik's Uprooted, a tale of magic set in an AU version of medieval Poland. Teresa and Helen both wrote great reviews of this, to which I will refer you.  As I mentioned elsewhere, I was initially disappointed when I found out her new book wasn't a Temeraire novel, but I am now completely reconciled and hoping for more stories from this world.

I admit that I bought my copy of Sir Alastair Dunnett's The Canoe Boys because he was the husband of Dorothy Dunnett, though I am on record as a fan of books about boat travel.  This book, originally published in 1950, chronicles a trip that he and a friend took by canoe in the early 1930s "From the Clyde Past the Cuillins," as the subtitle says - or for those of us less familiar with Scotland, from Glasgow through the Hebrides to Skye.  They set off in late August, though everyone warned them it was much too late in the year for such a trip.  Their attempt to publish a "weekly adventure paper for Scottish boys" called Claymore had just folded.  They saw this trip, and the articles they would write about it, as an opportunity to reach an adult audience with their ideas about the future of Scotland, and their own strong nationalism.  Dorothy Dunnett said that her husband was her inspiration for Francis Crawford of Lymond, and reading this I was reminded why.  It also made me wonder if the Dunnetts knew Patrick Leigh Fermor.  And it made me want to immediately book a holiday in the Hebrides - though not by canoe.

The last of Anthony Trollope's published novels, Mr Scarborough's Family was running as a serial when he died.  From the title I was expecting a family saga along the lines of the Gresham or Palliser families.  I had forgotten that the later Trollope stories are much darker.  On the first page, John Scarborough announces that his son Mountjoy is a bastard and that his second son Augustus is the true heir to the vast estate of Tretton Park.  This neatly outfoxes the moneylenders, to whom Mountjoy owes such vast sums that the estate will be lost the moment his father dies.  And Mr Scarborough has more secrets up his sleeve.  Meanwhile, there is an uncle who contemplates a late marriage, to cut out his own unsatisfactory heir.  The two stories play out against each other, tragedy and comedy, tied together by a young woman who wants to choose her own husband.  I found her story the least interesting, and a bit too drawn-out.  That aside, this is an amazingly powerful story, and Mr Scarborough such a fascinating character, even an heroic one.

It wasn't all reading joy, though.  Patricia Wentworth's The Alington Inheritance from 1960 was dull.  Characters had conversations, which they then repeated to others who hadn't been present, almost word for word. I kept wanting to say yes, you told us that already!  And I found the ending really unpleasant.  This is the first of hers that I really haven't enjoyed.  I'm passing it along to the library sale.  In other mystery news, though, I was glad to finally find the British Library Crime Classics at Murder by the Book.  I enjoyed Murder Underground, by Mavis Doriel Hay, and I have her Death on the Cherwell, as well as the book that started it all, J.Jefferson Farjeon's Mystery in White.

Finally, Girl in a Green Gown, by Carola Hicks, is an exploration of one of my favorite paintings, the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (now in the National Gallery, which has an amazing on-line catalogue here). Carola Hicks writes about the creation of the work and its transfer to different owners, as well as exploring the various elements in the picture. I learned so much from this book, about a painting that I thought I knew well.  I knew nothing of its provenance, and in fact I have never read anything tracking a particular work from its creation.  How it ended up in the hands of a veteran of Wellington's army is a wonderful story in itself.  And I appreciated Carola Hicks' portrait of Bruges and the Lowlands in the 15th century, also brought so clearly to life by Dorothy Dunnett in her House of Niccolo series (which Hicks mentions).  I was tempted to re-read the first book in the series, Niccolo Rising, which I'd just read back in February.  Instead, I read a book on the 15th century Paston family, briefly mentioned in Hicks, which had been on my shelves for more than ten years.  Then I ordered an edition of the Paston Letters.  I also ordered a copy of The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade, which no one ever told me is set in the Lowlands at the same time (and features Jan van Eyck's sister Margaret).  Thus books beget books.

It's good to be back.

1812: A turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons

Blood of Tyrants, Naomi Novik

This is the eighth (and penultimate) book in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, but in an alternate world where dragons, domesticated for millennia, are used for aerial warfare. Temeraire is a Celestial, a rare Chinese breed that usually forms part of the Imperial household.  He was intended as a gift for Napoleon, but along the way the ship transporting his egg was captured by Captain Will Laurence of the Royal Navy.  When the egg hatched aboard the British ship, it became Laurence's duty to put the dragonet under harness, the first step in binding him to service in the Aerial Corps.  This also bound Laurence himself, ending his career in the Navy with a transfer to the much-maligned Corps, which in turn estranged him from his father and ended his informal engagement.  But in losing so much he gained even more in Temeraire, a dragon of rare abilities.  Neither fit neatly into the Corps, however, particularly as they came to question the treatment of dragons, sentient beings asked to fight but given no rights and few rewards.

At the end of the last book, Crucible of Gold (my review is here), Laurence and Temeraire received an invitation to visit the Imperial Court in China, one they could not refuse.  Since only members of the Imperial family are allowed to attach Celestial dragons, and Temeraire on a previous visit refused to be separated from Laurence, he was formally adopted by the Emperor.  When this book opens, Laurence has been washed ashore in Japan, alone.  He has no idea how he got there, or even who he is.  When finally memories begin to surface, he remembers his name, and his rank as a captain in the Navy, but he is shocked to learn it is 1812; eight years have passed for which he cannot account.  Then the story turns back to Temeraire, stranded on a disabled transport with the other dragons accompanying them.  Laurence was last seen in the height of the storm that almost wrecked them, and everyone assumes he was washed overboard and lost.  Refusing to believe that, Temeraire is frantic to start the search, but he cannot leave the crippled ship.

For the first few chapters, the story alternates between Laurence and the increasingly desperate dragon.  Laurence is alone in a country closed to foreigners, outside the port of Nagasaki, liable to arrest and trial as a spy.  When at last Temeraire locates him, just in time to rescue him, Laurence still has no memory of the dragon or their years together.  Nevertheless, he agrees to continue on to the Chinese court.  There he and Temeraire are caught up in imperial politics, with factions forming around heirs to the throne and a possible alliance with Britain, complicated by the illegal opium trade funded by British merchants.  An unwelcome diversion comes with the news that Napoleon has invaded Russia.  When the Chinese agree to send dragon divisions to help defend Russia, Temeraire and Laurence join them in flying west.

This is certainly an action-packed book, moving from Japan to China to Russia.  Temeraire and Laurence are in constant danger, with attacks coming from all sides.  All this is complicated of course by Laurence's amnesia.  I've read complaints about this plot element, but I thought it made for an interesting story.  I could also relate to it.  In the old days, when a new book in a series I loved was coming out, I used re-read all the previous ones (which is why I can recite sections of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).  I rarely do that any more, which means that I don't always remember the details of the earlier books in a long series like this.  I had no more idea than Will sometimes what Temeraire was talking about!  But that didn't keep me from enjoying their adventures here.  This is an exciting addition to a great series, perfect for fans of Patrick O'Brian (like Naomi Novik herself) and anyone who loves dragon stories.  Novik does take some liberties with the history of the Napoleonic Wars (besides adding dragons to them of course), but then these are fantasy novels.  This would not be a good place for a new reader to start the series, however, building as it does on a complex backstory and bringing in many characters from the previous books.  The first book is the series, His Majesty's Dragon, is still my favorite, and a wonderful introduction to Temeraire and Laurence, and their world.

The Napoleonic Wars, with dragons

Crucible of Gold, Naomi Novik

This is the seventh book in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which could be described as "the Napoleonic Wars with dragons."  Though I have loved books about dragons ever since I discovered Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books and Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels (at least the early ones), I was somewhat hesitant to try Novik's books, which I'd also seen described as "Patrick O'Brian with dragons."  But I was instantly hooked from the first pages of the first book, His Majesty's Dragon. 

In her alternate history, dragons were domesticated millenia ago, by the Romans, the Chinese, and the Japanese, among others.  There are many different breeds, with different capabilities, but most of the domestic breeds are intelligent and capable of human speech.  At least among the European breeds, a dragonet put "under harness" and formally named at hatching bonds with a human partner, who trains the young dragon, especially for war.  In this world, the dragons are aerial weapons, both for offense and defense, with the British dragons organized into an Aerial Corps under their own officers, up to admirals.  Despite the importance of the dragons, though, neither they nor the Corps are popular; ancient fears of dragons run too deep.  In one of my favorite twists, one breed will accept only female captains, so women serve in the Corps on active duty and with equal rank, though this is a closely-guarded secret.

Naomi Novik is a big fan of both Jane Austen and Patrick O'Brian, and it shows.  In His Majesty's Dragon, which I think the best of the series, we are introduced to Captain Will Laurence of the Royal Navy just as his ship is capturing the French ship Amitié.  In its hold the crew discovers a large dragon's egg, close to hatching.  Laurence realizes that one of his officers must attempt to harness the dragonet, since England needs every dragon she can muster in the fight against Napoleon and France.  To his dismay, the baby dragon turns to him.  Realizing that this means the end of his naval career, Laurence accepts his duty and harnesses him, naming him "Temeraire" after a famous dreadnought.  It costs him even more when his father Lord Allendale all but disowns him and the woman he loves breaks their informal engagement.  The later discovery that Temeraire is a rare Chinese Celestial  dragon, intended as a gift for Napoleon, proves some consolation, but Laurence finds more in Temeraire himself, a dragon of rare ability and a warm heart, and the two form a strong partnership.

They have had many adventures over land and sea in these seven books, which have taken them to China, Africa, and in the sixth book to Australia.  At times they have taken their part in the wars against Napoleon, as part of a fighting wing.  At others they have gone their own way, facing dismissal from the service and even charges of treason.  Both Laurence and Temeraire (who has studied political and economic theory, among other topics) are stubborn, refusing to act against their conscience or to allow the ends to justify the means.  They are classic square pegs, unable to fit easily into the round holes of the service that desperately needs them.  The narration alternates between Laurence's and Temeraire's points of view, and Novik gives each his distinct voice and personality, as indeed she does with all the major characters, dragon and human alike.  Laurence is especially interesting to me.  Among the rough and ready Corps, he tries to maintain naval-style discipline (without resorting of course to the cat); he tries always to act as a gentleman, with an endearing formality that brings to mind Jane Austen's Captain Wentworth and Mr. Knightley.

In Crucible of Gold, Laurence and Temeraire, who had been exiled to Australia, are asked to join an embassy to Brazil.  Napoleon is bringing in fierce dragons to attack the Portuguese interests there, which may force their government to divert resources from Europe, where Wellington is preparing for the Peninsula campaign.  But their embassy is diverted in turn to the western side of the vast continent, where the Incan empire still holds sway.  In this world, the Incan dragons proved more than a match for the Spanish conquistadors, though European diseases still decimated the population.

I enjoyed this book so much.  It is fast-paced and full of action, with shipwrecks and mutinies and dragon battles and naval actions, and even pirates.  And it brings together old friends and comrades in arms (or in the air) from previous books.  This would not be a good introduction to the series, though, building as it does on the complex backstory of the six previous books, as well as the large cast of continuing characters (including Napoleon himself).  It is the penultimate book in the series; Novik has announced that the eighth book will be the last, and I will be so sorry to see it published, while already anxious to read it and see where it takes Laurence and Temeraire next.