Wednesday, October 25, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Victory of Eagles (Temeraire #5) by Naomi Novik



As I've stated before, I have a hard time explaining my likes and dislikes of the Temeraire series.  No other series I've been this committed to has had me spend large segments of multiple books glossing over parts to get through it, yet had me invested in the plots and characters overall enough that I always felt I wanted to read the next book.  It's a strange combination - I loved the first book and have been ambivalent enough about books 2-4 to wonder if I should stop reading forward, but still I've felt myself saying "Just one more book" to see if I should give the series another chance.

Victory of Eagles seems to justify my faith in the series - it's EASILY the best book in the series since the first book (and maybe the best book in the series).  A large part of that is that it spends a lot of time dealing with dragon-dragon communications, with us dealing with a larger variety of dragon characters since the very first book - Novik's writing of the personalities and behaviors of dragons in this series is IMO the best part of the series, and this book easily has the most such interactions since His Majesty's Dragon.  Still, the actual plot of this book is more tight than in the last three books, dealing with a single major threat (the invasion of England) and the shifts in character/plotlines work extremely well.

More after the jump:


-----------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------
After the events of Empire of Ivory, Laurence and Temeraire find themselves separated - with Laurence sentenced to death for treason and held alive only to assure Temeraire's cooperation and Temeraire send to the breeding grounds to provide eggs for the British Cause.  But Napoleon is finally ready to make his move: an invasion of England by both ground troops and aerial dragon forces. The result brings Temeraire and Laurence together once again as they hope to save the seemingly lost British Cause.

Temeraire provides one possible solution to aid the British Cause - mobilize the dragons who are not in the British Aerial Corps - the feral dragons and those given up on - to provide reinforcements.  But to keep discipline and order amongst such irregulars proves difficult, and the British command may not be willing to give up to the demands of the Dragons who could otherwise save them.

Meanwhile, Laurence finds himself hemmed in by his infamy as a traitor to the British cause, and finds himself constricted by his own notions of honor.  And when tragedy strikes during an emergency mission, can he find it within himself to guide himself and Temeraire toward a fight worthy of their efforts?  Or will Napoleon be allowed to win unchallenged?
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An interesting part of this book is that it's the first book in the series where we spend any period of time reading events from Temeraire's point of view - the first part of the book alternates chapters between their points of view (as they're separated) before later chapters alternate POVs more seamlessly.  And it works really well - at this point, if you don't enjoy Temeraire as a character I'm not sure why you're still reading this series - especially as it shows a contrast in the views of the Naive Optimistic Justice-Seeking Temeraire and the more Cynical Guilt-Filled Honor-Bound Laurence.

As I mentioned above, the best part of the series for me has been the interactions between the dragons and this book has the greatest amount of dragon-dragon interaction since the original book (Books 2-4 each featured long stretches where Temeraire is the sole dragon around, and it really hurt).  The book introduces several new dragons, one of which, a combat-averse but very smart dragon named Perscitia, is an absolute delight.  The usual crew also returns, making this the best cast of characters of any book in the series (even the stuffy British Commander who eventually takes charge winds up being an interesting guy).

The book still doesn't answer the big question I had as of the last book, which is: Why are we rooting for the British again?  Napoleon is yet again shown to have better treatment of dragons (thanks to Lien's influence) than the British, who are stuffy, rude and downright bigoted at times, and we aren't treated to any negative actions of Napoleon anywhere in the series.  Yeah he's trying to conquer all of Europe, just like he did in real history, but well, it's not like the British are a less expansionist Empire.

The book ends on with a sequel hook that almost feels tacked on and unfortunately seems destined to take us away most of the usual dragon crew (including Perscitia :-( ) from the next book, so that's not promising.  Still, this is a great addition to the series which definitely earns the next book the benefit of the doubt from me.
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