Navola

A Novel

By: Paolo Bacigalupi

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

"Vietor's narration illuminates an epic story of power and wealth in a dynamic world." --AudioFile (Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award)

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Windup Girl and The Water Knife comes a sweeping literary fantasy about the young scion from a ruling-class family who faces rebellion as he ascends to power.

"Steeped in poison, betrayal, and debauchery, reading Navola is like slipping into a luxurious bath full of blood." (Holly Black, number one New York Times best-selling author)

"You must be as sharp as a stilettotore’s dagger and as subtle as a fish beneath the waters. This is what it is to be Navolese, this is what it is to be di Regulai."

In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family—merchant bankers with a vast empire—has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese diplomacy: knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur—like the fossilized dragon eye in the family’s possession, a potent symbol of their raw power and a talisman that seems to be summoning Davico to act.

As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits. His fate depends on the eldritch dragon relic and on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister, Celia di Balcosi, whose own family was destroyed by Nalova’s twisted politics. With echoes of Renaissance Italy, The Godfather, and Game of Thrones, Navola is a stunning feat of world-building and a mesmerizing depiction of drive and will.

©2024 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

the lessons and perspectives

It was a little drawn out in the middle but overall a excellent book! This book makes me want to push my boys to be strong men.

Needlessly brutal

Undeniably masterful world building fantasy constructed on the presumed framework of Renaissance Florence. The book is two thirds the recollections of the formative years of a powerful banker's unwilling hier. Wondering why he's telling his story at all provides most of the tension here. The final third of the book is simply endless torture to the point where it crosses from a grim reality of the world, to impossible sadistic absurdity. It's unclear if this is the start of a series, but if it is, it would have worked better to trim this considerably, and take the story much further. The reader is asked to endure a great deal with no actual pay off. The audio performance itself is excellent and the writing itself is wonderful as well.

The beginning of something beautiful

Revivals game of thrones or even the name of the wind a gripping book filled with the hard truth of human nature

Original and well crafted story

A new adventure from a talented author. The most powerful coming of age story that I've ever encountered. The only thing that could make it better would be a sequel!

The politics was good

Let me start off with I'm rating this book 3.5 stars but I am rounding up to 4 stars. When I first read the premise of this book I was instantly intrigued. As I started reading the book though I was quickly losing interest. The pacing of the book was definitely one of the biggest reasons I was losing interest in reading the book. The pacing was obnoxiously slow for the first 3/4 of the book and the last 1/4 it really picked up and went too quickly. I felt as if I was continually reading and waiting for something to happen and being disappointed until the very end when things did happen.

The plot lost me at some points as well. I did love the political intrigue and all of the character dynamics. But I think too much time was spent on Davico's upbringing which took up more than half the book. There were many scenes that in my opinion did not offer anything to the running plot and seemed to be more filler scenes. I was also disappointed as I was expecting this to be a book with dragons and the dragons would be a big part of the book and they weren't. That may have been my fault as I did not read the description closely and got excited when I saw the word dragon. The political world does give Medici Family history and like I said before I liked that aspect but Davico was just not a character a cared to see navigate that type of dog eat dog world with warring famlies.

All in all I did enjoy reading this book but I don't think I'd pick it up again. This book is a standalone but the way it ends does leave it open to continue the story. If the story were to continue I'm not sure if I'd continue with it.

Good world building

The book was entertaining. Some really good original ideas. A bit slow for the first half.
I look forward to reading more about Navola.
I would recommend this book for people who enjoy fantasy.

Intricacy and Performance

I thought the story and the characters well developed and intriguing, augmented by an outstanding narrative performance.

This audiobook is straight heat

It never gets boring, I’ve been at work doing mindless tasks for hours, story is so good, I wouldn’t be able to tell
what these tasks were, my phone might not make it past chapter 20

Starts slow and ends fast

As others have said, this starts real slow.
Half way through it gets in groove and then twist and turns in interesting and creative ways.

I tried

Loved the Wind Up girl…this is not the Wind Up girl…more like a day time soap. Well written but lacking originality.