Empire of Ivory

That ending...............what man giveth, man taketh away too.....

I was just reading some of Ms. Novik's accomplishment, and there, right there, history buff, that is why her stories reads like a history lesson in an alternate world, where Dragons fly in the sky, the early British conquests, the european conquerors, China as one of the powerful albeit mysterious country, then Russia, Prussia, now in this novel, Africa, the land of the wild, and that most grotesque achievement of early man : Slavery, whenever you visit the era 14th to the 18th century, this was one of the most brutal practices, along with opium addiction, I was completely caught unawares on how it was incorporated, and became a storypoint, let alone one of the reason for that cliffhanger of an ending......come to think of it, man has never been a good neighbor, he is callous, greedy and murderous, to think that the book is about Dragons and Man, yet in a way, it is also slavery of Dragons, horses, dogs and etc, we are the prime Alpha of this planet, everything else is usable, edible and when there is no longer any use discarded, a fine, fine study of man hidden inside a story of fantasy!!!!

significantly better paced than Black Powder War, though I do feel like both (and the next) books are excuses to explore the world (first China, Africa and next Australia) with its dragons rather than being plot-driven.

Cliffhanger endings are horrible. They're made much worse when the first third of the book felt drawn out, like the author was stalling and trying to make sure they would end on said cliffhanger.

Aside from that, this was enjoyable, I guess? Much of what I liked about the earlier parts of the series was still there. The Africa plot/worldbuilding was really fascinating; it was great to see more of hue he dragoning world.

Better than Black Powder War