Ahira's Hangar

Oh Gods, what a cliff hanger ending for book four.

Av, I should point out that this is the only major fantasy series that I am aware of that has your country as one of its important locations. A very important part of book two takes place in Cape Town (with stops on the coast on the voyage down from Europe to South Africa), and a lot of book four takes place in Cape Town and environs, then moves up inland into Africa as far north as Victoria Falls - again, with stops on the Atlantic coast of the continent as well.

Really? Wow. And I've never heard of it or the author.

I must say though that the country gets mentioned in an awful lot of books, especially sci-fi ones. Some authors in particular, like Heinlein, mention it in many of their books. But I must say I've never seen one set there. Maybe I should keep an eye out for them.

--A

Kay, even more a cliffhanger than the opening chapters were, at the end of Book 3??

I bought the book last weekend but I'm giving RUNES what non-editing time I have. I saw mention that Novik is at work on Book 5 -- can't remember the title.

The main human character was once a captain in the British royal navy, and is now a captain paired with a dragon in the Bristish Aerial Corps. So there is a lot of travel by both ship and dragon.

The first book takes place primarily in Britain, with some ship sequences, and some scenes on the island of Madeira.

The second book starts in Britain, then there is a sea voyage to China, with a very important stop in South Africa.

The third book details the very hazardous crossing of Asia and Europe from China to Germany via dragonback.

The fouth book is primarily set in Africa - with very important scenes in South Africa.

This a fairly new writer and series. It is very cool - historical fantasy centered on dragons fighting in the Napoleanic Wars. Tons of action and adventure. I mean - how much cooler can you get than ginormous dragons (some of them spitting acid or fire) with gun crews fighting each other and armies and ships of the line in key battles during one of the key wars in all of history?

And the dragons themselves are just wonderful. They have great personalities. They have wonderful relationships with their captains and with each other.

Temeraire book five Victory of Eagles is due out in hardcover (all of the first four books were initially released in massmarket paperback) on July 8, 2008.

Woohoo! It looks like I will need to do another surge of preordering at Amazon.

The first chapter of Victory of Eagles is up on Novik's website.