Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Inconsistent and a dip in form, 10 Sep 2008
Having completed Victory of Eagles a couple of days ago I have come to the conclusion that its the most flawed of the Temeraire novels.
Whilst it contains some inspired idea's the execution ranges from good to clumsy. The authors skills sometimes fail to match the demands of the plot. One particular example is the warfare. Ms Noviks other Temeraire novels contain mostly Naval battles a subject she handles well, with nods to Hornblower or Ramage. With the Naval battles this book it is no different, I particularly liked the opening episode with the cannonball.
Her aerial warfare is again excellent with an evolution in tactics - especially on the French side. However as soon as the battles move to land the authors customary skills vanish. The land battles are poorly described and lack the imagination and time she has devoted in other books. The tatics involved seem weak and unimaginative. Whilst not a major flaw it breaks the assured world building that the author managed up to this point. Without giving too much away the retreat is ridiculous, and begs the question if the Author has ever been to the UK and understands its history of land battles or Geography. A simple study of history would have shown the author how unlikely this particular part of the premise was.
Characterisation is fairly weak too, as noted by other reviewers, both Laurence and Temeraire being shadows of their former selves, and minor charaters getting very little development. The only high point is the character of Wellesey/Wellington who seems the only fully fleshed character in the book. Even this however seems lifted wholesale from the Sharpe books and TV series.
On to the plus points, its a good plot, if weakly executed, Temeraire fans will still enjoy this book, there is nothing major to dislike about it apart from the fact that its less than it could have been. The first third of the book is probably the best, as Laurence and Temeraire stive to end their enforced seperation.
The ending is slightly worrying, with suggestions of a movement of location and plot out of the Napoleonic wars miliue. This could be just whats needed to invogorate the series or a signal of its ending. Time will tell. Inspite of the this fairly negative review the Victory of Eagles is a fairly entertaining read and I look eagerly forward to the next installment, if only to hope that it betters this one.
Homework for Ms Novik - Bernard Cornwell, any Baen Miltary SF/F. Add a dash of the battles of the Civil War or the Wars of the Roses, and get an Atlas. Reivew the earlier Temeraire novels for the characters that made us fall in love with His Majesties Dragon in the first place.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The final showdown?, 8 Nov 2008
In this fifth book in the series, the author departs once and for all from a path that did once run parallel in a way to the Napoleonic Wars that we know from history, as Napoleon invades England, and the corps is called on to work with the army and the militia to try and force him back across the Channel.
Will Laurence has never been a light-hearted character, always constrained by his notions of etiquette, duty and honour, and now he is completely weighed down by the consequences of his actions at the end of the previous book. I haven't quite worked out why I so enjoyed reading about a character who is often such morose company, but I did.
Again, some of the characters are far from rounded - Laurence's former fiancee and her husband seem to be present solely as a plot device - but these are notable as exceptions rather than the rule. And also on the negative side, I was made a more than a little dizzy by the speed with which various characters sped around the British Isles. But these points were outweighed by far by what I really liked, in particular the characterisation of the dragons, including those found in the breeding ground; the development of the characters of the aviators (looking back to the first book); the characterisations of Wellington, Napoleon and Nelson in particular as men from history interwoven into Novik's fictional world; and finally the plot itself. Yes, there are some weaknesses, but there is also much originality and many clever touches.
I don't know if a further book is planned. There is a more complete ending to this than to the previous books, I think. I would like to read of their further adventures in ... (that would be telling!), but if there is no more to come, then there is enough in the existing books to warrant re-reading, and I can find the elusive Throne of Jade, which I have to read out of sequence as I couldn't get hold of it and was too impatient to wait for it before going on with the rest of the series!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A dragon story that works, 9 Aug 2008
Its hard to imagine how you can write a fantasy about dragons which still has something different to say. Well Naomi Novik's Temeraire sequence does just that. Some of the personality/friendship themes are no different from what Anne MacCaffrey used to write when her books were worth reading, But Novik's unique stroke is to place her books not in a repetitive sword and sorcery saga, but in an alternate historical fiction set in Britain in the time of the Napoleonic wars. Brilliant stuff beautifully written. Nice to give kids (the target is teenagers but works for everyone) a taste for history as well as adventure. This is the 5th book but she can go on forever for me.
I'm glad the warfare has come to an end - for now I assume - to allow the rich development of Temeraire's character as a champion for dragon's rights in 19th century England (no really!). Not the place to start, go back to "Temeraire" (imaginatively called "His Majesty's Dragon" in the US edition)and settle down for a treat
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