‘In Autumn, A White Dragon Looks Over The Wide River’ – Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

I don’t know if you can find this short story anywhere else but one place where I know you can definitely pick it up is ‘In His Majesty’s Service’; Del Rey’s collection of the first three ‘Temeraire’ books that is due to be released on the 27th of this month (if it isn’t in shops already, everything seems to be released earlier these days…)
I’m bang up to date with my ‘Temeraire’ reading, I reviewed ‘Victory of Eagles’ on the blog and am planning on reading and reviewing future books in the series before filling in the gaps with a re-read. However, I thought it would be worth mentioning ‘In Autumn…’ so fans can get a little taster. If you’re a fan then it’s worth it.

‘In Autumn…’ follows the path that Celestial Dragon Lien takes as she allies herself with the forces of Napoleon in her quest to be revenged upon Temeraire for the death of her master. It fills the gap between ‘Throne of Jade’ and ‘Black Powder War’. As part of the three-book collection this story does sit nicely but it is only ten pages long so (unless it’s up anywhere else) you’re going to have to be a real completist to fork out for the book and get the first three books all over again…

After the events of ‘Throne of Jade’ I always felt that we never really saw enough of Lien and what she was going through. ‘In Autumn…’ concentrates solely on the Imperial Dragon and the reader gets an opportunity to observe this character in a way that the Temeraire centred books cannot offer. Lien’s culture shock offers an interesting way into the story, the Imperial Courts of China are nothing like France at all! The French Court does have it’s own advantages though… Once this is negotiated however, Lien doesn’t have an awful lot to offer us over than an obsession with revenge. To be fair, that is the point of Lien’s character and a ten-page short story doesn’t offer a lot of room for a more in depth exploration of her character. It would have been nice to see her rounded out a little more though, especially as it’s clear that Lien is a major player in the series…

What is good though is that we have the opportunity to get up close with Napoleon and see how he runs things. My knowledge of history is appalling (I’m more familiar with Napoleon Bonaparte’s appearance in ‘Bill and Ted’…) but what is clear is that Novik’s Napoleon is a man bent on achieving his goals and is not afraid to do what needs to be done. I’m not sure if we’ll see any more of him in the series but I found myself hoping that it happens…

‘In Autumn…’ is a fun read that fills in a gap for long term readers of the series as well as newcomers. For the sake of established fans though, I’m hoping that this short story appears in a future book (in the series) as well as this collection…

Eight out of Ten