Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

[snugglekitty]

For those who are yet to be initiated into Ms. Novik's wonders, she has just finished writing a fantastic series which is an alternate history of the Napoleonic War, in which both sides use dragons as their Aerial Corps. Fans of military fantasy are sure to enjoy it. Fans of dragons are sure to enjoy it. Fans of military sci fi who have always wondered why people read fantasy are sure to enjoy it. Fans of Victoriana... sorry, I'll stop now. :) If you haven't heard of the series before, you should start with His Majesty's Dragon. In this particular instance, it's very important to read the series in order.

So, you already read the other four books, and you want to know how book five was?

The short version? It was great. Go read it right now.

The slightly longer version - I feel that this book was the second-best book in the series, and the best book in the series was the first book - but only by a little. The first book set up the whole world, so it gets extra props for that. But other than that, this book was absolutely its equal in quality. It was better than volumes two, three, and four. I love that Novik does things with her plots that I would never have expected, but which seem totally obvious in retrospect. I think it's a sign of true artistry. I love that Temeraire got a voice of his own in this book -some of the chapters are written from his perspective. And I love the way that he and Laurence grew over the course of it. I was also very happy with the ending. Four and a half stars.

Comments

[catya.livejournal.com]

i loved it. the only thing i didn't like was that laurence spends too much of the book depressed. (not that it didn't fit, i just got sick of reading it)

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I agree. I feel that it's unfortunate that even though Temeraire learns a ton from Laurence over the course of the series, Laurence doesn't seem to learn much from him.

[staceyinastoria.livejournal.com]

I have yet to get to this one. I have read the first three books (which I loved one and two and the third kind of lagged). But they are on the to read list. :)

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like the fourth and fifth books. Let me know. :)