Black Powder War

By Naomi Novik

A review by John

                This third book in the Temeraire series was a real great historical fantasy book for more advanced readers. It begins with Temeraire, a dragon in Britain’s aerial corps, and William Laurence, his captain, preparing to depart from China after their long adventure there during the Napoleonic Wars. Laurence and his crew are just about to depart when a mysterious messenger comes with crucial information:  Three dragon eggs have been purchased from the Ottoman Empire, and Laurence and Temeraire are ordered to detour to Istanbul on their way back to pick them up. They must move quickly, to get them back to England before they hatch.

                They move swiftly to Turkey, fighting sandstorms and meeting double-crossing feral dragons, and always evading the vengeful dragon Lien, who blames Temeraire for her master’s tragic demise and has allied herself with Napoleon. Once they finally reach Istanbul, however, they are faced with a staggering truth that changes everything, and must ally themselves with Prussian forces to battle Napoleon’s mighty army.

                I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it highly to advanced readers in middle to high school, and adults too. It has genuine characters that you care about, and has a very original and exciting plot. Novik’s details and captivating writing kept the pages turning. It also provides a history lesson about the Napoleonic Wars (although the real wars never included dragons, though that would be awesome). There was only one tiny thing that I disliked about it, and that was that there were times in the book where there was not quite enough action to keep me completely interested. In these parts I found myself zoning out, and had to reread several lines, and even paragraphs.

                Overall, though, I loved this book, and it satisfied my thirst for more of the series. But before reading it, you should definitely read the first two in the series, His Majesty’s Dragon (1) and Throne of Jade (2). It is one of those series where it picks up right where the last left off, and if she could, I bet Novik would put the entire series into one huge novel.

                Again, I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dragon series and also is patient enough to read a novel of 350+ pages. 

Endangered Animals, We Need To Help!

By John

            Did you know that every fifteen minutes, a species of animal goes extinct? It’s not natural, and it needs to stop. No, it’s not their fault, it is the doing of a diabolical murderous species called Homo Sapiens. They have butchered hundreds of thousands of rare, beautiful species in cold blood. They put toxic fertilizer in the animals’ water, plow down their homes, and kill threatened animals for no reason but for recreation. They are effectively destroying the circle of life day by day by day. You must be thinking, “Who could do such a thing!?” Well, WE could do such a thing. We are doing this. And only we can stop it. We must stop it, for reasons such as: if species go extinct, the close connection between animals (also called interconnection) will be disrupted and destroyed. Also, quite simply, we owe it to the animals to help them, after all we’ve done, for example, tearing down their homes and killing them for spoils. And finally, if we ever want to restore the environment, we cannot do it without all of the different species of animals. We need to help endangered animals much more, however we can.

First, if species of animals go extinct, it will affect much more than those particular species. This is because of animal interdependence, or interconnection. Interconnection is a chain effect of how animals benefit from each other. For example, a colony of army ants march across the forest floor. Up above, an ant bird follows, hunting. The ant bird leaves droppings on leaves, which butterflies gather nutrients from. But, if the ant bird dies off, the butterflies will have less nutrients, and many of THEM will die off. The ants, on the other hand, would overpopulate the forest, having less animals to hunt them. The forest would go into chaos. This is only one of many examples of how it will be very bad if interconnection is disrupted.

            Another reason is that we owe it to them to help them; it is simply the morally correct thing to do. We have done so many terrible things to animals, that if they had been done to humans, the perpetrator would surely be put in jail for at least three life sentences. It is a crime, so why do people go unpunished? It is simply the right thing to do to help these poor animals in their time of need, and if we don’t, we will surely become heartless, indifferent murderers forever.

            Finally, my last reason is that if we ever want to save the environment from its gruesome demise, we need all of the unique and awesome animals of the world. If we do not help the animals soon, then that will seal the fate of not just those animals, but the ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!!! The plants will die because all of the seed carriers and pollinators will be gone. Many of us (sadly, but true) will stubbornly starve to death because of an unwillingness to stop eating meat, or we will cannibalize each other. Let’s face it, we ALL need the animals, and if they are gone, everything as we know it will perish.

            To conclude, we need to save the endangered animals, because interconnection will devastate the world if we don’t, it is the right thing to do, and we need the animals if we want to save anything. These reasons may sound hopeless, but there are ways you can help. Donate to an animal fund, and spread awareness (like I’m doing right now). If we get off of our butts and help out, we CAN save the endangered animals. Don’t waste energy by lying in bed and worrying about it, take action! WE CAN DO IT!

Yellowstone National Park!!!

Estes Park, Colorado!