Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
Summary:
It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military
service – and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon’s resurgent forces
have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon’s prime objective: the occupation of London.
My Review:
Oh, Temeraire..I wish I could say I read this book with the same fervor I read the first few but either I am growing apart from the story or it is massively slowing down.
I really had to force my way through this book.. to the point of looking on it with contempt whenever I knew I should do some reading. The writing was, as always, spectacular and it was not the author’s fault… necessarily. I just feel as if the story got so bogged down with the travels to Africa and Turkey and China and now that we’re back on the “home turf” the excitement has lessened.
I will say this – I did enjoy seeing Temeraire finally come into his own. I enjoyed seeing him get some of what he desires for the dragons and I appreciated that he finally is learning that his, at times thoughtless, actions can hurt others. He has tossed Laurence about for several books now with little a care to what might become of the man spiritually and emotionally.
And speaking of Laurence.. I’m starting to get a bit tired of this character. Does anyone else feel that way at this point? It almost felt as if the story might have moved along better had Laurence actually been put to death. (I feel horrible saying that, but I just get so tired of characters getting out of impossible circumstances). I think I’ll take a bit of a break before moving on to the next book; I may just have read too much of a genre I don’t typically read and need some time to digest it.
