"An absolute triumph! This has it all, ruling powers and the plots against them, corruption, betrayal, and brooding in the background the crystallised eye of what is believed to be an ancient dragon."
Celebrated as a LoveReading Star Book, we rise with thunderous applause for Navola. This is a weighty tome, however I simply danced through it as though it slowly builds, somehow the plot still whipped and sliced through the pages. The city of Navola is ruled in the background by the Regulai bank, Davico di Regulai is being raised to take over but those watching only see an inadequate boy and so the plotting begins. I fell hard from the very first sentence and gloried within the dramatic depths, surfacing with regret yet wonder, as the story came to a close. Davico narrates, he allows access through his surface emotions to what lies beneath and so I really felt his story. This tale slides a toe into fantasy, it isn’t of this world yet it almost feels as though it could be a historical read. Author Paolo Bacigalupi has built the most fabulous base, comprehensively filling in the smallest of details so that I entered and I believed. The sense of place explodes into place through the tale, vividly colouring the background. The characters bring the words to life, from those in the spotlight through to the scene stealers, they have been drawn beautifully. All the while the political shenanigans sneak and scheme their way through the book. I would love to see more of this world and will be keeping my fingers firmly crossed that we will be returning. Powerful and exciting, Navola spins into life drawing you into its orbit, what a wondrous ride it is!
'One of the amazing feats of worldbuilding which I've encountered this year, or really in the last few years.' Lev GrossmanNavola is a city built on trade.Its palazzos and towers are conjured from its merchant wealth: barley and rice, flax and wool, iron and silver, arms, armies, lives and kingdoms are all traded here.And presiding over it all, the Regulai bank. By guile, force of arms and the cast-iron might of their money and promises, in just three generations the Regulai family have risen far from their humble origins: merchants beg their backing, artists their patronage, princes an invitation to dine at their table. The Regulai say they are not political, but their wealth buys cities and topples kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will take the reins of power. But the boy is not well-suited for his role. His heart is soft where it should be hard. He is credulous when he should be suspicious. He is tired of being tested and trained to inherit a legacy he is not sure he wants. But Davico is inextricably tangled in fate's net and his doubts can only summon ruin.In the shade of Navola's colonnaded porticoes, his family's enemies gather and plot.In the shadows of its deep catacombs, assassins sharpen their stiletto knives.In the kingdoms of Cerulean Peninsula, princes and despots muster their armies.Davico's only hope rests in the heart of a girl whose own family was destroyed by the Regulai, and in a crystalline orb the size of a human head, said to be the eye of a long-dead dragon.
