Tongues of Serpents

It's been a long two years since 2008's Victory of Eagles, but it's been worth the wait.  Naomi Novik has pulled off yet another triumph with the sixth Temeraire book, Tongues of Serpents.  I actually read this back in August with some vague thought that preparing for my trip to Australia and New Zealand by reading alternate history set in Australian cities and places I wasn't going to was a good idea.  Its relevance to my trip turned out to be pretty close to zero, but the reading pleasure was worth it regardless.  I didn't have time in the flurry of quitting my day job and packing to actually write about it then, so I'll remedy that now.

When last we left Laurence and Temeraire, they were in the process of being transported for their treason in bringing the cure to a dragon-plague to England's French enemies.  Accompanying them were his friend Granby with his fire-breathing dragon partner Iskierka and three dragon eggs intended to start a new covert in dragonless Australia.  When Tongues of Serpents opens, the transport has arrived in Australia, where the colony is in political turmoil after a successful rebellion against the royal governor William Bligh, who seems to have an ongoing problem with mutinies.  Making matters worse is the arrival of the odious former dragon-captain Rankin (last seen neglecting his dying dragon in the very first novel, His Majesty's Dragon) with orders that he should be given one of the soon-to-hatch dragonets.  Temeraire is firmly opposed to this, and Laurence is torn between his habitual obedience to the military service whose members for the most part despise him and his dragon's increasingly independent desires.

To avoid being drawn into the colony's politics, which can only end badly for a pair already convicted of treason, Laurence and Temeraire set off on an exploratory expedition into Australia's interior which will eventually have them crossing the outback and ending up on the northern coast.  Australia, with its extreme weather, desert-like terrain, lethal fauna, and mysterious aborigines, turns out to be unexpectedly hazardous.  The theft of one of the dragon-eggs changes the trip from one of exploration to a desperate race to recover the egg before it can hatch in the hands of the unknown thieves.

Tongues of Serpents also looks back to events from the first novel with the reappearance of the dangerous sea serpents, whose return late in the story triggers the single most horrifying moment in the entire series.  The title, I suspect, refers not only to the sea serpents but to the increasing independence of the very vocal (and multilingual) dragons, less and less inclined to let themselves be ordered around by humans but still controllable through affection, greed, and, in the case of Temeraire, appeals to honor.

Novik is keeping the series fresh and exciting partly by moving from continent to continent. Having now covered Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, there are hints that a trip to the Americas might be coming soon, as well as further involvement with the now outward-looking Chinese, whose treatment of their dragons is so much better than that of the Europeans that it is a constant temptation to the sophisticated Temeraire.  Given the dragons' turn toward independence and their use as commercial transport in America, the next novel could be interesting indeed.  I'm curious to see how Novik resolves the conflict between Laurence's allegiance to England and his love for Temeraire, given that England now seems to be among the worst nations on earth in its treatment of the dragons.

I high recommend Tongues of Serpents and, indeed, the entire series.

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Comments

[Neil W]

Bligh was one of the great navigators of history. He was selected by Captain Cook, who is generally held to have known a thing or two about navigating, to be Sailing Master for what turned out to be Cook's final voyage. Also he was praised by Nelson for his part in the battle of Copenhagen.

In non-alternate history, as well as the Bounty incident and the Rum Rebellion, Bligh was one of the captains of the ships involved in the Spithead mutiny and AGAIN at the Nore mutiny. He did seem to rub some people up the wrong way.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Oh, no arguing with his navigational skills; he set the benchmark. But his people skills appear to have been significantly lacking.