Amazon review....
Mar. 15th, 2019 03:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyI️ 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.
For context, the series in question features dragons in the Napoleonic Wars.
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Date: 2019-03-12 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 07:50 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 08:05 am (UTC)I SPENT THE FIRST THREE TEMERAIRE BOOKS GOING "HOW CAN YOU HAVE A NOVEL ABOUT OWNING SENTIENT BEINGS IN AU-ENGLAND CIRCA THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805) WITHOUT DISCUSSING SLAVERY AND ABOLITION (1807)?!?!" BOOK FOUR FINALLY GOES THERE.
I assume that that is what is so upsetting to the esteemed reviewer.
ETA: gosh, I'm going to have to get back on this horse. I thought #3 was a tedious slog, so gave up on the series.
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Date: 2019-03-12 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 02:11 pm (UTC)Noted. But you still read the rest it sounds like?
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Date: 2019-03-12 02:12 pm (UTC)Is that what this reviewer thinks is so criminally ahistorical?
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Date: 2019-03-12 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 04:01 pm (UTC)This review deserves thorough ridicule. This is right up there with a bag of peanuts with a label "Warning: this product made in a facility that processes peanuts."
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Date: 2019-03-12 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 04:52 pm (UTC)Aaaand then we get the book where he does, in a big crashing way that changes everything, and it's great :D
I don't remember having any trouble with the writing in #3, but it's the one where the plot is mostly focused on a journey, while all the others deal more with an over-arching conflict or a deep dive into the dragon culture of a particular region. So if that was what put you off the series, I definitely recommend jumping back in.
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Date: 2019-03-12 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 07:09 pm (UTC)I don't remember how far I got in to that series, perhaps not much further than 3 or 4. My wife was much more devoted to it. I enjoyed it, I just kind of fell away from it. One of these days I hope to re-read them.
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Date: 2019-03-12 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 07:38 pm (UTC)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!
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Date: 2019-03-12 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 09:00 pm (UTC)Point of order: Temeraire is a person, the ownership of whom is contested and is a major plot point from the first page. Lawrence participates in the slave trade.
Even if he, and most readers, don't realize it.
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Date: 2019-03-12 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 09:41 pm (UTC)Yeah, maybe? In my case, my consumption of fiction/media pretty much collapsed. One part of that is that I didn't have time while I was going through grad school, clinical internships, etc, so got out of the habit. But a good chunk of it is that when I did attempt to consume fiction, I found it way boring in comparison to my job.
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Date: 2019-03-12 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-12 10:10 pm (UTC)In fairness, also I am just bad at commenting. Case in point, I did read Zen Cho's "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again"* from your recent link post, and enjoyed the heck out of it**, but failed to ever get back here to say so.
** OH MY HEART. When the protag offered to eat the tenure committee is where I about launghed until I cried, thinking, "surely the purest expression of love", and then suddenly realized where this had to be going and that this story was gonna make me cry for real which it totally did.
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Date: 2019-03-12 10:34 pm (UTC)Temeraire starts making serious plans to change their legal and social status in Britain by the end of book 2, and it's an ongoing project throughout all the books. He explicitly compares his situation to human slavery -- that's the context in which "Laurence is pro-abolition" first comes up at all. Laurence grapples with the comparison, decides it's justified, and spends the rest of the time advising Temeraire about the most pragmatic ways to move his cause forward.
I'm not sure how anyone who's read past book 1 could miss it. Those anvils are dropped hard.
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Date: 2019-03-12 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 03:39 am (UTC)Actually, the best story in that universe I liked was the short 'Pride and Prejudice' version (Elizabeth is a dragon rider) in a book of short stories by the author.
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Date: 2019-03-13 04:24 am (UTC)I was thinking exactly the same thing. Loved the first book, thought the second was fun, but by the third I was getting really bored so I never got around to continuing with the series... but it sounds like maybe I gave up too soon, from comments here, and, hey, a book that pisses off racist douchebags who try to cover themselves with claims of "historical accuracy" is always something I'm willing to check out!
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