Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik

I finally finished my last Temeraire book! Only to discover that apparently my set of six is just the beginning and middle--there should be a few more sequels floating around out there. I have to say, I was disappointed that Temeraire and Laurence didn't go back to England to improve dragon rights and living conditions, but I guess Novik feels like the work they did in Book 5 was adequate…? (I think they left the job half-finished.) So it was off to Australia for our dashing, "traitorous" duo!

The best thing about Book 6 is, without a doubt, Kulingile. I don't think anyone could help but empathize with Laurence and Demane and be outraged by the aviators' reaction to his hatching. I won't give away more than that, but I will say that I think the whole situation sends great messages out to the world--most obviously, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Similarly, the dinner in the Larrakia port was wonderful for its positive depiction of multiculturalism. Bringing together all those captains from different nations, hearing different perspectives as well as shared experiences…It was a great, global-community-building experience that I don't think Laurence and Temeraire had really gotten to have before now. In fact, as Laurence pointed out when they found their valley, they're always working to destroy things, so finally they might get the chance to help build something instead.

There are some characters that are so odious that you just never want to have to deal with them again, but even with the return of one such fellow in this book, I would rank this as my favorite Temeraire novel to date. The events, the surprises, the carefully crafted dialogues and letters, and the growth of the characters I do like way outweighed that one annoying person.

I can't wait to order the next book and see what happens next.

~9/10~