Friday, July 17, 2009

[Mini Review] Lisa’s Take: (Temeraire Book 5) A Victory of Eagles – Naomi Novik

I’ll keep this review short and sweet: I think I’m done with this series. The first book was a very novel idea and quite interesting and engaging... and then the books steadily went downhill. A Victory of Eagles was more of the same: Laurence is exiled and bummed about it, Temeraire is obstinate and disliking of the state of affairs, Iskiera is annoying, and there’s a war. Same old, same old. The characters don’t change or develop (in fact I’d go so far as to say that Laurence regresses and becomes more boring and flat as a character) and while the story does move along at a brisk pace, it’s not new and exciting anymore.

I don’t want to disparage the series as a whole, because the first book really was excellent, and the second book was enjoyable. I just wish that Ms. Novik had kept an end in sight for the story as a whole, and maybe limited the whole ordeal to 3ish books. Damn shame. Someone do tell me if the 6th book suddenly turns around and redeems the series, ok?

3 comments:

araken said...

Will do. (Though I actually did like Victory of Eagles)

JD said...

Oh good. I pretty much gave up after the one in China... now I feel justified :)

Anonymous said...

I feel kind of the same. Victory of Eagles was better than the two before it. The China was was way too long and nothing came of it. Unless she is going for a 10-12 book series, I dont see anything happening with China. I Will read the net of course but if I am not super satisfied I will stop there. The Sword of Truth series has ruined all other series for me, sorry Ms./Mrs. Novik.