Crucible of Gold, by Naomi Novik.

[matt_doyle]

 Still playing catch-up on my book tracking -- I actually read this one before I went to Virginia.  It's a little difficult to discuss the Temeraire series without spoilers, so I will just say it involved sea voyages, dragons, international politics with a corner of the world we've never seen before, and more social discourse about the morality of past societies than most books of its kind.  Not always handled deftly, but not overly forgiving.

This one was especially interesting because it tackled Inca-ruled South America, and I thought it did so thoughtfully and fairly respectfully.  The evolution of the society including the involvement of dragons and draconic psychology was an interesting perspective; nothing felt condescending or othering to me... it's interesting, though, that the people of different cultures are usually depicted insightfully, appropriately different based on culture but not stereotyped... but the dragons often reflect racial stereotypes in less nuanced and flattering ways.  Not always -- they are also individuals, and they don't think like humans -- but integrating them into the various cultures seems to have made them more archetypal, which makes them iconic, memorable, but sometimes problematic.  Has anybody else noticed this?

The other interesting thing about this book was that a character came out of the closet.  I thought it was extremely well handled.  The character is treated with respect, it's consistent with what we have seen of them before, and Laurence, as a period naval officer, is... hm.  Surprised, but not surprised that homosexuality is a thing; and while he has the appropriate moral code for a British gentleman of his day and therefore disapproves, he disapproves the Laurence way:  quietly, without overt judgement, while he sits back to think through the impact and implications

There are also several bouts of intercultural comedies of manners, which work well, and one sort-of-related bit where it begins to sink in to Laurence that one cannot always expect to judge a dragon by human standards, and that, even if you are friendly, standing between an angry dragon and its endangered rider is a bad idea.

Thoughts?

Comments

[owlmoose]

I liked it a lot. The most enjoyable in the series for awhile. I agree with you on the outing and how well it was handled. Although I hadn't really noticed what you're saying regarding the dragons in other cultures versus the people, on reflection, I think I agree. Especially in regards to China, although to be fair we mostly dealt with dragons rather than people in China.

[matt_doyle]

The continued elaboration in this book about the way sin which dragons think of and relate to people as belonging to them was especially interesting, and I suspect is setting up for something big and messy - but we may have to wait a few books to find out.

[lobelia321]

Great review. I just finished reading this book and so far it is my favourite of the series. The stereotyping of the dragons that you describe hadn't struck me at all, I must say. I also noticed how the stereotyping and cultural respect has got *more* since the early books. E.g. there is in this book practically no mention of people's hair colour, eye shape, skin colour etc. (only one mention of skin colour and one mention of how the men all come from places from around the globe). In the early China books we still sometimes get sentences about 'slanting' eyes. It is as if the author is growing with her books. Wonderful to read.