Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
This is the fifth Temeraire book and a welcome return to the more action-packed adventures of the first two books. Not that the others weren’t fun and enjoyable, by any means, but I did sort of feel like they had a tendency to get a bit bogged down in politico-speak and I’d keep thinking ‘Oh, just get to the part where Temeraire kicks some Napoleon ass!’
I think when I reviewed the fourth book, I said it felt more like setup for the fifth book and it totally pays off. There is drama and intrigue and a few rather intimidating pitched battles and some new dragons (I adore Perscitia!) and Temeraire is fantastic and Laurence is angsty and England herself is at risk!
Very, very good – I don’t want to give away the ending at all, but I’m very intrigued to see what happens in book 6 (I’m assuming there’ll be one…) because unless it’s going to focus more on Temeraire fighting for dragons’ rights (and I’m not sure that’s going to matter much where they’re off to), I can’t figure out what the overarching conflict is going to be.
My rating: A
Book nerd note: Not only did they switch Temeraire over to hardcover, they changed the cover art so they match the earlier books even less! Lame!
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