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SQUEEE!!! New "Temeraire"!
May. 4th, 2013 12:44 pmI just finished my first e-galley from NetGalley, which provides early review-copy e-books to online and print reviewers and bloggers, librarians, and booksellers. The book in question: Naomi Novik's BLOOD OF TYRANTS, the 8th (and, says its "blurb", the "penultimate") book in her "Temeraire" series (which began with HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON). (For anyone who's been living in a cave since 2006, imagine the Napoleonic Wars, as chronicled by O'Brian and Forester, with a draconic "Aerial Corps"... or "Horatio Hornblower crossed with 'Dragonriders Of Pern'"...)
This book is a worthy addition to the series, but should NOT be read alone; do NOT start reading with this one! It shares with several of its predecessors (and with the individual volumes of Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy) a feeling that it should have been one segment of an even larger volume. The ending, especially, leaves us desperate for the next volume. Despite this, the non-stop action kept me up all night reading, and there's a big plot twist at the beginning which adds tension and uncertainty to the previously-established relationships.
As in the previous volumes in the series, Novik doesn't hesitate to show the less-admirable sides to her historically-based characters. One of the things I've liked throughout the history of "Temeraire" and Captain Laurence is the way the characters, raised within a society with various inequalities and injustices ingrained in its structure, learn to question and critically examine such moral dilemmas as slavery, racial/cultural bias, and the rights of women. Even when she's setting up her heroes to act in ways more consistent with modern sensibilities, though, she isn't writing them as characters with modern, "PC" sensibilities themselves. She shows WHY, for instance, Captain Laurence begins to question the rightness of the power-structure of his society, by putting him in the position of having to explain its illogical underpinnings to his dragon Temeraire, an exceptionally-intelligent "alien" he's attempting to integrate into that society. Since Laurence is, himself, an intelligent, honorable, and ruthlessly honest man, his inability to reconcile his experiences and what he learns of the truth of his world with the prejudices and preconceptions underlying British society ultimately leads him into conflict... which makes for some great stories!
This new volume of Laurence and Temeraire's adventures leads them from Japan through China and finally to Napoleon's Russian campaign, with a number of exciting plots and sub-plots along the way. Novik adds several new and interesting characters (making up for some we've lost along the way!), and never lingers too long in one place.
Highly recommended for fans of the series.
This entry was originally posted at http://bookuniverse.dreamwidth.org/9137.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This book is a worthy addition to the series, but should NOT be read alone; do NOT start reading with this one! It shares with several of its predecessors (and with the individual volumes of Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy) a feeling that it should have been one segment of an even larger volume. The ending, especially, leaves us desperate for the next volume. Despite this, the non-stop action kept me up all night reading, and there's a big plot twist at the beginning which adds tension and uncertainty to the previously-established relationships.
As in the previous volumes in the series, Novik doesn't hesitate to show the less-admirable sides to her historically-based characters. One of the things I've liked throughout the history of "Temeraire" and Captain Laurence is the way the characters, raised within a society with various inequalities and injustices ingrained in its structure, learn to question and critically examine such moral dilemmas as slavery, racial/cultural bias, and the rights of women. Even when she's setting up her heroes to act in ways more consistent with modern sensibilities, though, she isn't writing them as characters with modern, "PC" sensibilities themselves. She shows WHY, for instance, Captain Laurence begins to question the rightness of the power-structure of his society, by putting him in the position of having to explain its illogical underpinnings to his dragon Temeraire, an exceptionally-intelligent "alien" he's attempting to integrate into that society. Since Laurence is, himself, an intelligent, honorable, and ruthlessly honest man, his inability to reconcile his experiences and what he learns of the truth of his world with the prejudices and preconceptions underlying British society ultimately leads him into conflict... which makes for some great stories!
This new volume of Laurence and Temeraire's adventures leads them from Japan through China and finally to Napoleon's Russian campaign, with a number of exciting plots and sub-plots along the way. Novik adds several new and interesting characters (making up for some we've lost along the way!), and never lingers too long in one place.
Highly recommended for fans of the series.
This entry was originally posted at http://bookuniverse.dreamwidth.org/9137.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
