Amazon review....

[conuly]

I️ thoroughly enjoyed the Temeraire series, right up until this book. Like the others, it was well-written with a brand new setting and a brand new plot. However, the plot while starting out good, wobbled in the middle, and collapsed entirely in the end. Maybe someone else could appreciate the wishful deviation from history and what will assuredly be a miraculous recovery from the ending in the next book, but not me. I’m done with the Temeraire series, which saddens me because it was, up until this book, a very pleasant, historically brilliant series to read.

For context, the series in question features dragons in the Napoleonic Wars.

Comments

[conuly]

It's the fourth one. I got the first three as a bundle for $3, and now I'm buying the rest one a month until I'm caught up.

[hamsterwoman]

Ha, called it! :D

As another commenter below says, I'm assuming the "wishful deviation from history" comment = non-Europeans having dragons changes the balance of power wrt colonialism, which first shows up in 'Ivory' and then again in a couple of later books which deal with the Americas.

I actually didn't care much for the first part of book 4 -- the worldbuilding was cool, but I found the voyaging and searching a slog -- but the second part is great, and directly leads to my favorite part of the series (book 5). After that, it's kind of downhill/mixed for me, mostly because a lot of my favorite characters were left behind/not onscreen as much. Book 6 had its moment but was not a favorite; book 7 was great fun, though a bit slight; book 8 is hands down my least favorite of the series, partly because of a plot choice that I find incomprehensible and partly because Naomi Novik's anti-Russia grudge is showing; and I think she was kind of over the whole thing by the time she was writing book 9, but I did still enjoy the conclusion, even if it felt rather rushed.

But on the whole I enjoy the series a lot, love the worldbuilding, and a lot of the characters. Hope you enjoy it as well!

[deird1]

I tend to like the odd books far more than the even ones. But they're all fun.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, I definitely also think there's something to the "even book curse" the fandom had noticed :)