Dear Naomi Novik,

[blamebrampton]

I am still hugely enjoying the Temeraire books, but please, for the love of tiny bunnies, hire an actual editor to proofread your novels! The typos! They burn!

(I was doing well at ignoring them until we reached the Nemean region, which is in Ancient Greece, not New South Wales. It was rightly the Nepean earlier. Betas are for fanfic, Naomi. I'm sure you've earned enough to pay for a good editor by now!)

Must dash, plot twist has just occurred and I only have time for another hundred pages before bed.

Much love,

Brammers

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay, I was trapped sewing for steampunk all Saturday and then at a wedding yesterday. Oh I am so tired ...

I am guessing that you made it through the early chapters in which Temeraire and Laurence were separated at the behest of the Lords of the Admiralty, after the Chinese government sent a demand for the return of the Celestial dragon. Temeraire refuses to lose his Laurence, and in the course of the dragon stealing him away they are engaged in an action against the French that sees Laurence wounded at the same time as saving the life of his attacker.

Prince Yongxing is established early on as The Bad Guy. An isolationist who is unhappy with Chinese contact with the West, he is appalled that Laurence has come into possession of an Celestial dragon -- believing they should only be associates of the Imperial family and the highest political contacts. Temeraire had been intended for Napoleon himself, which panics the British: does this mean that the Chinese have aligned with or plan to align with the French?

In the words of Hammond the diplomat: 'Our only comfort … has been our certainty … that the Chinese were no more interested in the affairs of Europe than we are in the affairs of penguins. Now all our foundations have been shaken.'

Off they set on the Allegiance, with the Chinese occupying one part of the ship, Temeraire and his crew another, and the Royal Navy and a few of His Majesty’s diplomatic corps attempting to make the whole thing go smoothly.

It does not.

The Chinese nobility on the voyage are presented as sketches: the jovial Liu Bao is fat and smiling, but appears to have a keen eye for expediency and not be inimicable to British interests, or at least British food. Yongxing is haughty, and his servant attempts to assassinate Laurence, twice, though with absolutely no way to link his master to his crimes. Sun Kai, the quiet and dignified young envoy ‘does not speak English’ (hands up everyone who sees through this? I thought so.)

Along the voyage the ship is imperilled several times, usually rescued through the valiant efforts of Laurence and Temeraire, with occasional brilliant help from Sun Kai. He and Lui Bao enjoy spending time with the Aviators, while Yongxing does his best to ignore them and talks wholly to Temeraire, who quickly grows fluent in spoken Mandarin and starts to study the written language and poetry, pleased to be connecting with the country of his breeding.

He does, however, disabuse Yongxing of the notion he would happily leave Laurence, no matter what temptations are waved before him.

Two other things of note happen on the voyage: Volly comes to the ship as it rounds the Horn of Africa to deliver a message and has a cold, Laurence’s letter from Jane Roland confirms that half the dragons in Dover have the same one. Temeraire catches it, and is miserable, but after putting in to a port I cannot recall, he recovers his strength and is well before they resume the journey. And Laurence is shown to be a lifelong abolitionist, as is his father, a good friend to Mr Wilberforce in parliament. Riley, Laurence’s friend and the captain of the Allegiance, has a father whose fortune was made in the slave trade, and things become stilted between them.