{"product_id":"black-powder-war-isbn-9780593359563","title":"Black Powder War","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the third novel of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling Temeraire series, Captain Will Laurence and his dragon transport precious cargo while fending off enemies on all sides.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A splendid series.”—Anne McCaffrey\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e After their fateful adventure in China, Captain Will Laurence of His Majesty’ s Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, are waylaid by a mysterious  envoy bearing urgent new orders from Britain. Three valuable dragon eggs have been  purchased from the Ottoman Empire, and Laurence and Temeraire must detour to Istanbul  to escort the precious cargo back to England. Time is of the essence if the eggs  are to be borne home before hatching.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Yet disaster threatens the mission at every  turn—thanks to the diabolical machinations of the Chinese dragon Lien, who blames  Temeraire for her master’s death and vows to ally herself with Napoleon and take  vengeance. Then, faced with shattering betrayal in an unexpected place, Laurence,  Temeraire, and their squad must launch a daring offensive. But what chance do they  have against the massed forces of Bonaparte’s implacable army?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDon’t miss any of Naomi Novik’s magical Temeraire series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON • THRONE OF JADE • BLACK POWDER WAR • EMPIRE OF IVORY • VICTORY OF EAGLES • TONGUES OF SERPENTS • CRUCIBLE OF GOLD • BLOOD OF TYRANTS • LEAGUE OF DRAGONS\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eHis Majesty’s Dragon\u003c\/i\u003e and the Temeraire series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“These are beautifully written novels—not only fresh, original, and fast paced, but full of wonderful characters with real heart. [The Temeraire series] is a terrific meld of two genres that I particularly love—fantasy and historical epic.”\u003cb\u003e—Peter Jackson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A terrifically entertaining fantasy novel . . . Is it hard to imagine a cross between Susanna Clarke, of Norrell and Strange fame, and the late Patrick O’Brian? Not if you’ve read this wonderful, arresting novel.”\u003cb\u003e—Stephen King\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A splendid series . . . Not only is it a new way to utilize dragons, it’s a very clever one and fits neatly into the historical niche this author has used.”\u003cb\u003e—Anne McCaffrey\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Just when you think you’ve seen every variation possible on the dragon story, along comes Naomi Novik. Her wonderful Temeraire is a dragon for the ages.”\u003cb\u003e—Terry Brooks\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Enthralling reading—it’s like Jane Austen playing Dungeons \u0026amp; Dragons with Eragon’s Christopher Paolini.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A completely authentic tale, brimming with all the detail and richness one looks for . . . as well as the impossible wonder of gilded fantasy.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Entertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (Editor’s Choice, Grade: A)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Novik has accomplished something singular with her Temeraire series. . . . At its heart, it’s a story about friendship that transcends not only time and class, but species.”\u003cb\u003e—NPR\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Naomi Novik] is soaring on the wings of a dragon.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A thrilling fantasy . . . All hail Naomi Novik.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“An amazing performance . . . [I] was immediately hooked by the writing, the research and the sheer courage of the whole enterprise.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Novik’s influences run the gamut from Jane Austen to Patrick O’Brian, with a side trip through Anne McCaffrey. Her books are completely involving and probably addictive, their central conceit explored in clever detail with a great deal of wit and historical insight.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Something new and quite wonderful . . . The Temeraire trilogy could well be this year’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A superbly written, character-driven series . . . What keeps one turning the pages is the urge to find out what happens next to Captain Laurence and Temeraire, characters who win one’s heart from the beginning. Bravo!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eNaomi Novik\u003c\/b\u003e is the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eA Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Enclaves, \u003c\/i\u003ethe award-winning novels \u003ci\u003eUprooted\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSpinning Silver,\u003c\/i\u003e and the Temeraire series. She is a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own. She lives in New York City with her family and six computers.\u003cb\u003eChapter 1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The hot wind blowing into Macao was sluggish and unrefreshing, only   stirring up the rotting salt smell of the harbor, the fish-corpses and  great knots  of black-red seaweed, the effluvia of human and dragon wastes.  Even so the sailors  were sitting crowded along the rails of the Allegiance  for a breath of the moving  air, leaning against one another to get a  little room. A little scuffling broke  out amongst them from time to time,  a dull exchange of shoving back and forth, but  these quarrels died almost  at once in the punishing heat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Temeraire lay disconsolately  upon the dragondeck, gazing towards the white  haze of the open ocean, the aviators  on duty lying half-asleep in his  great shadow. Laurence himself had sacrificed dignity  so far as to take  off his coat, as he was sitting in the crook of Temeraire’s foreleg  and so  concealed from view.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I am sure I could pull the ship out of the harbor,”  Temeraire said, not  for the first time in the past week; and sighed when this amiable  plan was  again refused: in a calm he might indeed have been able to tow even the   enormous dragon transport, but against a direct headwind he could only  exhaust  himself to no purpose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Even in a calm you could scarcely pull her any great  distance,” Laurence  added consolingly. “A few miles may be of some use out in the  open ocean,  but at present we may as well stay in harbor, and be a little more   comfortable; we would make very little speed even if we could get her out.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It seems a great pity to me that we must always be waiting on the wind,  when everything  else is ready and we are also,” Temeraire said. “I would  so like to be home soon:  there is so very much to be done.” His tail  thumped hollowly upon the boards, for  emphasis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I beg you will not raise your hopes too high,” Laurence said, himself  a  little hopelessly: urging Temeraire to restraint had so far not produced  any  effect, and he did not expect a different event now. “You must be  prepared to endure  some delays; at home as much as here.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Oh! I promise I will be patient,” Temeraire  said, and immediately  dispelled any small notion Laurence might have had of relying  upon this  promise by adding, unconscious of any contradiction, “but I am quite sure   the   Admiralty will see the justice of our case very quickly. Certainly it is   only fair that dragons should be paid, if our crews are.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Having been at sea  from the age of twelve onwards, before the accident of  chance which had made him  the captain of a dragon rather than a ship,  Laurence enjoyed an extensive familiarity  with the gentlemen of the  Admiralty Board who oversaw the Navy and the Aerial Corps  both, and a keen  sense of justice was hardly their salient feature. The offices  seemed  rather to strip their occupants of all ordinary human decency and real  qualities:  creeping, nip-farthing political creatures, very nearly to a  man. The vastly superior  conditions for dragons here in China had forced  open Laurence’s unwilling eyes to  the evils of their treatment in the  West, but as for the Admiralty’s sharing that  view, at least so far as it  would cost the country tuppence, he was not sanguine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In any case, he could not help privately entertaining the hope that once  at  home, back at their post on the Channel and engaged in the honest  business of defending  their country, Temeraire might, if not give over his  goals, then at least moderate  them. Laurence could make no real quarrel  with the aims, which were natural and  just; but England was at war, after  all, and he was conscious, as Temeraire was  not, of the impudence in  demanding concessions from their own Government under such  circumstances:  very like mutiny. Yet he had promised his support and would not withdraw   it. Temeraire might have stayed here in China, enjoying all the luxuries  and freedoms  which were his birthright, as a Celestial. He was coming back  to England largely  for Laurence’s sake, and in hopes of improving the lot  of his comrades-in-arms;  despite all Laurence’s misgivings, he could  hardly raise a direct objection, though  it at times felt almost dishonest  not to speak.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It is very clever of you to  suggest we should begin with pay,” Temeraire  continued, heaping more coals of fire  onto Laurence’s conscience; he had  proposed it mainly for its being less radical  a suggestion than many of  the others which Temeraire had advanced, such as the wholesale  demolition  of quarters of London to make room for thoroughfares wide enough to   accommodate dragons, and the sending of draconic representatives to  address Parliament,  which aside from the difficulty of their getting into  the building would certainly  have resulted in the immediate flight of all  the human members. “Once we have pay,  I am sure everything else will be  easier. Then we can always offer people money,  which they like so much,  for all the rest; like those cooks which you have hired  for me. That is a  very pleasant smell,” he added, not a non sequitur: the rich smoky  smell  of well-charred meat was growing so strong as to rise over the stench of   the harbor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Laurence frowned and looked down: the galley was situated directly  below  the dragondeck, and wispy ribbons of smoke, flat and wide, were seeping up   from between the boards of the deck. “Dyer,” he said, beckoning to one of  his runners,  “go and see what they are about, down there.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Temeraire had acquired a taste  for the Chinese style of dragon cookery  which the British quartermaster, expected  only to provide freshly  butchered cattle, was quite unable to satisfy, so Laurence  had found two  Chinese cooks willing to leave their country for the promise of  substantial  wages. The new cooks spoke no English, but they lacked nothing  in self-assertion;  already professional jealousy had nearly brought the  ship’s cook and his assistants  to pitched battle with them over the galley  stoves, and produced a certain atmosphere  of competition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Dyer trotted down the stairs to the quarterdeck and opened the  door to the  galley: a great rolling cloud of smoke came billowing out, and at once   there was a shout and halloa of “Fire!” from the look-outs up in the  rigging. The  watch-officer rang the bell frantically, the clapper scraping  and clanging; Laurence  was already shouting, “To stations!” and sending  his men to their fire crews.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e All lethargy vanished at once, the sailors running for buckets, pails; a  couple  of daring fellows darted into the galley and came out dragging limp  bodies: the  cook’s mates, the two Chinese, and one of the ship’s boys, but  no sign of the ship’ s cook himself. Already the dripping buckets were  coming in a steady flow, the bosun  roaring and thumping his stick against  the foremast to give the men the rhythm,  and one after another the buckets  were emptied through the galley doors. But still  the smoke came billowing  out, thicker now, through every crack and seam of the deck,  and the bitts  of the dragondeck were scorching hot to the touch: the rope coiled  over  two of the iron posts was beginning to smoke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Young Digby, quick-thinking,  had organized the other ensigns: the boys  were hurrying together to unwind the cable,  swallowing hisses of pain when  their fingers brushed against the hot iron. The rest  of the aviators were  ranged along the rail, hauling up water in buckets flung over  the side and  dousing the dragondeck: steam rose in white clouds and left a grey  crust  of salt upon the already warping planks, the deck creaking and moaning  like  a crowd of old men. The tar between the seams was liquefying, running  in long black  streaks along the deck with a sweet, acrid smell as it  scorched and smoked. Temeraire  was standing on all four legs now, mincing  from one place to another for relief  from the heat, though Laurence had  seen him lie with pleasure on stones baked by  the full strength of the  midday sun.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Captain Riley was in and among the sweating,  laboring men, shouting  encouragement as the buckets swung back and forth, but there  was an edge  of despair in his voice. The fire was too hot, the wood seasoned by  the  long stay in harbor under the baking heat; and the vast holds were filled  with  goods for the journey home: delicate china wrapped in dry straw and  packed in wooden  crates, bales of silks, new-laid sailcloth for repairs.  The fire had only to make  its way four decks down, and the stores would go  up in quick hot flames running  all the way back to the powder magazine,  and carry her all away.New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education","brand":"Del Rey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44862038900965,"sku":"NP9780593359563","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593359563.jpg?v=1767722716","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/black-powder-war-isbn-9780593359563","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}