Naomi Novik’s stunning series of novels follow the global adventures of Captain William Laurence and his fighting dragon, Temeraire, as they are thrown together to fight for Britain during the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars.

Convicted of treason and stripped of rank and standing, Temeraire and Lawrence are transported to the prison colony at New South Wales. With them travel three dragon eggs destined to be handed over to second-rate officers willing to accept so remote an assignment - including one former acquaintance, Captain Rankin, whose cruelty once cost a dragon its life.

They arrive at a young Australian colony in turmoil after the overthrow of the military governor, William Bligh - formerly Captain Bligh, late of HMS Bounty. Eager to escape the political quagmire, Laurence and Temeraire accept a mission to pioneer a route through the forbidding Blue Mountains and into the interior of Australia. But when one of the dragon eggs is stolen, the surveying expedition becomes a desperate race to recover it before the dragonet hatches - a race that leads to a shocking discovery and a dangerous new obstacle in the global war between Britain and France.

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible narration with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $10.99 after you buy the Kindle book.

AUDIBLE - 2 MONTH FREE TRIAL

Each month you'll get your choice of audiobook, a bonus book selected by our editors, unlimited access to exclusive podcasts and more. T&C apply. Click here to claim >

Your choice of audiobook each month
Plus a free monthly audiobook chosen by our editors
Unlimited access to exclusive podcasts
After 30 days, Audible is $16.45/month. Cancel anytime

By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice.

Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company

People who viewed this also viewed

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 56 minutes
Author	Naomi Novik
Narrator	Simon Vance
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	02 May 2019
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07PJ13XKW
Best Sellers Rank	11,095 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 128 in Historical Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals) 141 in Alternate History Science Fiction 468 in Historical Fantasy (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		58%
4 star		21%
3 star		11%
2 star		5%
1 star		5%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Nola

Dragons in colonial Australia

Reviewed in Australia on 19 December 2014

Verified Purchase

This time Novik takes us to early colonial Australia, after Laurence is reprieved and he and Temeraire are exiled to the budding convict colony following the events in Book 6. The long journey across Australia drags a little in places, but not enough to discourage me from giving this 5 stars. These books are uniformly of high quality and great imaginative creativity, so if things get a little slow here and there it never lasts very long before the plot bounds away at full speed again. Highly recommended, once again.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Charles Green

Repetitive and Unexciting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2012

Verified Purchase

After some pretty negative reviews, I put off reading the 6th novel in Naomi Novik's 'Temeraire' series, despite having enjoyed the previous five to varying degrees. However, with the publication of the 7th volume, Crucible of Gold (Temeraire (Unnumbered Hardcover)) , which was greeted by some far more positive notices, I felt it was time to catch up. Besides, I thought inwardly before purchasing it, surely Tongues of Serpents can't be as bad as some of the reviews make out.

And it isn't as bad as the worst reviews claim, but nor is it more than just 'Okay'. As many of the other reviews state, Tongues of Serpents suffers from being, frankly, a rather dull book. A slow start segues into a lengthy middle-section that is, as another reviewer points out, one long interminable journey punctuated by dragons arguing with one another. When that journey finally ends it does so with an anti-climactic discovery, a brief burst of action and then the book sort of drifts to an end. At no point did anything on the page generate a real sense of excitement.

At times it almost seemed as if Naomi Novik's skills as a writer had deserted her. It might have been my imagination, but the both the descriptive prose and the dialogue in Tongues of Serpents felt leaden and at times almost garbled. Some of the sentence structures in the book's opening passages were quite frankly baffling and on several occasions I found myself rereading paragraphs to try and make sense of what was being said.

Equally her talents at crafting a compelling narrative also seemed to have gone missing. Not only was the story dull and unengaging; when she did try to liven things up her efforts fell flat. At one point, for example, Temeraire and his companions find themselves threatened by an unseen enemy that is by turns stealthy and deadly. This should have generated as palpable sense of danger and fear, as individuals first go missing inexplicably and then the danger is revealed, but the way the author handles it there is little or no tension generated. Even a passage when Temeraire himself trapped and in direct danger never really takes off.

Other reviewers have put forward various theories as to why the series has suffered such a dip in form with Tongues of Serpents. Personally I think that Naomi Novik, having placed Temeraire and Laurence in Australia, found herself in a narrative cul de sac and didn't really know what to do once she was in there. The result is this hugely underwhelming book.

All I can hope is that, with the precis of the plot of Crucible of Gold suggesting that it will see Temeraire and Laurence leave Oz and rejoin the war effort, the next book provides more action and with it sees the series get back on track after this major hiccup.

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Antipodean action? yes to Antipodean, no to Action.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2012

Verified Purchase

This is the sixth book in Naomi Noviks 'Temeraire' series of alternative history.

The Napoleonic war still rages and Temeraire and Laurence have been exiled or 'transported' to the prison colony in New South Wales. Their insistence on passing the cure for the dragonic plague to the enemy has disastrously ended their careers.

This book is a nice read , but the plot is non existent. Its mostly a tour of the Australian outback with a conclusion thats finally something worthy of a next book. The entirety of this book is spent waiting for something interesting to happen. there are various red herrings , such as the possibility of laurence and Temeraire becoming privateers , but this fails to materialise and the book concludes leaving the reader somewhat bemused. As plot devices go - the introduction of new plot threads at the end of this book - could have been revealed in the first chapters via an urgent summons and we could have skipped this books content entirely in favor of the next.

Yes the prose is fine, and we all want to know what Temeraire and Lawrence are up to - but not 300 pages of miserable and pointless introduction to the cast of the next few books. I actually think that this book can be skipped entirely unless you just want a comfortable and easy read. If you just want to judge the book on the prose its a 3 star book, but as part of an ongoing series I find it very difficult to justify its cover price given its lack of content.

5 people found this helpful

Meeow

Crushed in Australia: conveyed too well?!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2013

Verified Purchase

Talk about mixed reviews! I came to Book 6 floating on a glow of contentment from the first five - which I devoured in the course of a weekend (and not much sleep!) Only in retrospect and nudged by the negative reviews does it occur to me that Book 6 is slightly off the pace. Could be Naomi, could be me...

For those of you dropping in at random, 'Tongues of Serpents' is Naomi Novik's sixth in her series about the intelligent dragon Temeraire, in an alternative world history where the British Navy defends against Napoleon's invasion with the help of a draconic Aerial Corps. It's a crazy idea - but it's worked superbly for five books. Ms Novik adroitly captures 18thC manners, speech and military environments. It might not be real history but it 'feels' right; and if you like Hornblower stories or some of the grand old Hollywood naval epics then this series is likely to appeal.

Other reviewers mark Book 6 down as 'boring'. My response is that we're seeing poor demoted Laurence (oh how deliciously serious! oh how swashbuckling!) and his magnificent dragon companion Temeraire at a very low ebb. Having your career and all hope crushed is NOT exciting. It's dreary and draining. No doubt the mismanaged convict colony was an appalling place to fetch up. Instead of naval and military efficiency, instead of devoted and honourable colleagues, Laurence and Temeraire are surrounded by crass, venal stupidity and brutishness. Horrible contrasts, compounded by screaming unfairness. With their lives in tatters, L and T battle to remain true to themselves. Tough on readers, perhaps. Is Ms Novik guilty of conveying her lead characters' downturn of fortune too well?!

Having glimpsed the Australian outback decades ago, I enjoyed the travelling sections with their atmosphere of heavy heat and lurking menace. I'd heard of bunyips but had no idea how they operate - great stuff! Temeraire's moment of danger was vivid to me (if not to others reviewing here); a powerful dragon mired in swamp is full of irony and epic heroism.

I do question the dragon's anatomical structure as suggested in the new hatched, disabled dragon. Dragon characters remain strong and very enjoyable. And suddenly we have trained sea serpents!

I like the linking to Laurence's previous adventures in imperial China: showing us a new aspect to those encounters, showing us the strain on Laurence and Temeraire's bond, showing us how both are thinking more and more independently.

Yes, I agree it's a bit of a stepping stone book. So? We're on a long journey with these two fine heroes. Keep up!
...Now where the blue blazes is Book 7 for Kindle?!!

3 people found this helpful

Allons-y-bookworm

Not as good as the rest but readable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 July 2013

Verified Purchase

I first heard of Temeraire when I got it for free after pre-ordering another book (Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, I think). I really enjoyed reading about the adventures of Temeraire and his captain Will Laurence, formerly of the Navy. Laurence is a stickler for the rules and has certain opinions of duty which make him seem stiff, yet I really like his character. The first book of the series was so good, I just had to read the rest.
It was with some trepidation, however, that I came to read Tongues of Serpents. I read the reviews and steeled myself to expect a poorly written piece of long waffle. I wanted to read it anyway before I moved onto book 7 (crucible of gold) of the series (which has disappeared as a Kindle e-book. Hmmm...)
Despite all of the bad reviews, I quite enjoyed reading this book. Yes, some of the descriptions were too long and my copy did not include a map which may have aided my understanding. Plus, the part in Sydney didn't really flow. It might have been better to combine this with another book to reduce the length which was a bit too long. But, there were some good plotlines: the treatment of the dragon who could not fly for one. I also liked reading about Temeraire getting stuck in quicksand even though other reviewers criticised this part.
So all in all, this book is not the best of the series (personally my favourite is the first) but it worth reading to follow the adventures of Laurence, Temeraire et al. Perhaps because this book is so far removed from the Napoleonic Wars is the reason why it is the worst to date of the Temeraire series. So Ms Novik, why don't you go back to the tried, tested and successful formula of having them fight Napoleon?

One person found this helpful

Sean Mulqueen

Slow and tedious.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2019

Verified Purchase

Coming up to the half way mark of the book and finding it a slow tedious slog after loving all the previous Temeraire books. Thought I'd come check the reviews and wish I had done that before parting with my cash. I'll be sure to check the reviews of the next books, as it stands my journeys with Temeraire may be coming to an end.....

See all reviews

Tongues of Serpents: The Temeraire Series, Book 6 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Read & Listen

Free with Audible Trial $0.00

Pay with 1-Click $19.75

People who viewed this also viewed

Product details

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Free with Audible Trial

$0.00

Pay with 1-Click

$19.75