This, the third tale of Temeraire the dragon and Captain Will Laurence, was a bit of a downer. I don’t mean that the quality has slipped, but only that this particular tale is rather more somber. In the previous volume our heroes travel to China, there to discover whether Laurence will be forever separated from Temeraire or not. Naturally, the answer is no; and as this volume begins they are preparing to return to England by sea, following some lengthy repairs to their dragon transport. Laurence then receives orders to proceed to Istanbul as quickly as possible, there to accept three dragon eggs from the Sultan and transport them post-haste to England. It’s clear that the transport will not be repaired in time, and our heroes set off along the Silk Road through Central Asia.

This first bit was undeniably fun; I’ve done quite a bit of reading about Central Asia, and it was neat to read a fantasy novel set in that exotic yet familiar milieu. The sequence in Istanbul was less so, as Laurence spends much of it in a corner of the palace being treated like a mushroom, a condition all-too-familiar from the previous book.

And then, eventually, our heroes leave Turkey and get caught up opposing Napoleon’s attempts to destroy the Prussian army—and that’s a long, hard, hard slog with few bright moments. There’s nothing like watching a train wreck in slow motion to get you down, especially when it’s your friends on the train.

Our heroes eventually win through to safety, but even that isn’t wholly satisfying, as they do so in somewhat equivocal circumstances, and the book ends before we find out just what Laurence’s superiors in the Corps make of his decisions since leaving China. Fireworks are to be expected.

So on the one hand, Black Powder War was a bit of a disappointment; on the other hand, I’m all the more eager to read the next book in the series, Empire of Ivory, which is due out at the end of September.