Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik

So I go back to my May drafts, and LO AND BEHOLD. This one isn't written, much less published. Face, meet palm.

Now in the last book, a lot of spoilery stuff happened. Which I'm not going to tell you about. I'm saving my spoilery reviews for the next book. :D Heh. Heh. Heh.

Anyways, just about right after Temeraire and the crew left for China in book two, dragons in England started coughing and sneezing. Which fast acquires the tone of a national emergency when the dragons just don't get better. Instead they start drowning in their own lungs, and did I mention they have no medicine for dragons? Yeah. Bad times when your air force is all in-operational. That is, at least, how the powers that be see it. The dragon crews we've all come to know and love see it, naturally, in a bit more of a personal light. "Our friends are dying and we can't do anything about it."

 In pure desperation, Temeraire and some other dragons we know and love are sent to Africa. So that maybe they'll find medicine? Or maybe the climate will cure the cough? Or maybe- something. Quarantine?

There is a real sense of desperation behind this trip. And to my mind, it never really lifts off. There's barely a purpose, people are just eating things madly, running away, sailing endlessly, despairing and dying. You know. The general cheerful stuff. There is some nice things about Africa, but I didn't enjoy that as much as my friends. Possibly because I found it kinda super creepy. Ahem. Though on the other hand, telling the giant meat-eating-but-intelligent beast that he's related to you, and you don't eat your family,  DOES seem like a pretty good idea. However, Lawrence just tired me, and the girls were awkward, and Temeraire was painfully innocent, and the only ones who were awesome were the crews. And I read books like this for the awesome people! So I gave it three stars out of five.