After their adventure in China, Capt. Will Laurence of His Majesty's Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, gratefully anticipate their voyage home.
But before they set sail, they are waylaid by urgent new orders. The British Government, having purchased three valuable dragon eggs from the Ottoman Empire, now require Laurence and Temeraire to make a more perilous over-land journey instead, stopping off in Istanbul to collect and escort the precious cargo back to England - and time is of the essence if the eggs are to arrive before they hatch.
A cross-continental expedition is a daunting prospect, fraught with countless dangers. The small party must be prepared to navigate frigid mountain passes and cross sterile deserts to evade feral dragons and Napoleon's aggressive infantry. And they will also have to endure an unexpected menace, for a Machiavellian herald precedes them, spreading political poison in her wake.
Lien, the white celestial dragon, absconded from the Chinese Imperial Court shortly after the humiliating death of her beloved princely companion. Fervently believing Temeraire to be the architect of her anguish, she has vowed to ally herself with his greatest enemy in order to exact a full and painful revenge upon everything and everyone the black dragon holds dear.
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What Risingshadow readers think about this book
Temeraire's story started really well, but after the first to book the glamor of new ideas start to loose it's gleam and the following stories just aren't as good as the first one that I really loved.
While reading this book I though it had this feeling of how random the world is, but at the same time it felt like all these things happened just to fill the pages. Especially as I'm not too interested in traveling nor war, this book had much less to give than the first of from this series.
