Friday, December 05, 2008

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik this is the fifth and most recent book in the Temeraire series. As the title would suggest involves a French victory. Napoleon invades England and it's up to our heroes to fight a delaying action. Ethical and moral choices are more pivotal to this story as come to think of it they were in the conclusion of the fourth book[Empire of Ivory]. Somethings bothering me about this one but I can't really put my finger on what it is. The plotting is chock-full of interesting events but taken as a whole it doesn't really work. It's hard to explain. When they're doing the guerrilla style patrols it's as if we are only seeing snippets from a larger narrative. Novik does frequently resort to the clean break where there'll be a new chapter and we'll pick up the narrative days or weeks later but it seems more pronounced and more jarring in this book. The interaction between Lawrence and Temeraire is still enjoyable. Now that I've caught up I'll be putting in a pre-order for the next book when it is announced. If she maintains the pattern it should be sometime in 2009.

Recommended!

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