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    <user id="117404">
    <name><![CDATA[nicebutnubbly]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Redwood City, CA]]></location>        
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  <id type="integer">129510</id>
  <isbn>0345496876</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345496874</isbn13>
  <ratings_count type="integer">1334</ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">179</text_reviews_count>
  <title>Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4)</title>
  <average_rating></average_rating>
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  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129510.Empire_of_Ivory</link>
<author>
  <id type="integer">8730</id>
  <name>Naomi Novik</name>
  <ratings_count type="integer">9721</ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">1579</text_reviews_count>
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    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <read_at>Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jul 29 10:36:59 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jul 29 10:42:37 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I love this series, but I really didn't like this one much. While the beginning was interesting, and the end was more so, the middle takes us to Africa and randomly deposits us into a new culture whose analog in history (if any) was not apparent to me. The point of the trip to Africa may be some impact on the world that we'll need for future books, but it's barely mentioned in the fifth book, and I can't help but feel that it was a ridiculous interpolation in terms of the wider narrative flow. What I'm loving about the series is the way it weaves &quot;real&quot; history in with dragons, and while the trip to China seemed necessary in terms of the whole plot (gaining a secondary villain, changing the course of the war, enabling Temeraire's character development) the trip to Africa seemed superfluous. ]]></body>
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