I've spent exactly the last month reading the nine books of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, finishing the last book this afternoon. I just let myself read Cory Doctorow's post, in which he recommended the series, and which is the reason I finally got off the dime and read the books, despite having known about them for a while.
Doctorow is completely correct. While I'm a person who likes historical fiction (unlike him), I share his lack of familiarity/dislike of stories devoted to battles, sailing, and talking animals. And I'm not all that into dragons, either.
So when he said he liked the books despite disliking almost everything about their premises, I thought... they must be fantastic! And knowing how much I have liked every other book of Novik's that she has written since this series, I trusted her enough to spend a month on it.
I'm very glad I did.
And now that I have finished the series, all I can says is: I will never think of the Napoleonic Wars the same again. Though I may be just a bit confused.
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(My only minor criticism is that the book that takes place in Australia sags a bit, in terms of pacing, compared to all the others.)
2 comments:
I wasn't compelled to read the whole series, but I remember reading His Majesty's Dragon and being knocked out by the quality of Novik's writing. I'll have to check out some of her other series.
And they keep being just as good! (Except the bit of drag in Australia, but even that picks up during the same book.)
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