soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2016-07-24 08:14 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-07-24 08:14 pm
League of Dragons, by Naomi Novik
This is the last book in the Temeraire series. The end of an era! I've been following these books for so long and I just have so many FEELINGS.
This is not going to be a coherent review with, like, structure and stuff. Have a list of things I thought about!
- I JUST LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR. BOOK. THING. All the characters are the best and the world is the best and I just. Yes. Good. More of this forever please. (It's so sad that this is the last book!)
- NING! She is everything you'd expect of the offspring of Temeraire and Iskierka and it is beautiful to behold. I love her so much! I love how alarmed Temeraire and Iskierka are by her, and meanwhile I'm like....they have zero legs to stand on when it comes to being alarming baby dragons.
- Tharkay doesn't appear much in this book, but as always his few appearances are gold. Tharkay ex machina strikes again! That man has impeccable timing. Then THAT ENDING omg, Laurence and Temeraire and Tharkay all living happily together on Tharkay's newly acquired property, with Temeraire being a member of parliament, that is AMAZING. (okay but srsly how soon is Tharkay gonna get bored with the life of respectable-ish nobility)
- I have gotten really fond of Hammond over the course of the books, which I never expected when he was first introduced. He was great in this book. And I love Churki and how differently she approaches her relationship with Hammond than European dragons usually think about humans.
- Laurence is just so inescapably LAURENCE forever and it is AMAZING. (I am entirely unsurprised that he eventually ended up fighting a duel despite the rule against aviators duelling.)
- And Temeraire so Temeraire, but like, all gotten grown up and responsible, awww, so great, I'm so proud of him.
- omg Laurence/Napoleon. Okay so a few weeks before this book came out I read a long Laurence/Napoleon fanfic and it was really good and I loved it but I was like....it's kinda implausible. Then this book happened and the few scenes involving Laurence and Napoleon were just.... I was astonished (and delighted) at how SHIPPY they were, my goodness. I was not expecting that from this book? And now that fic is retroactively a lot more plausible to me!
- I still love that Novik recognizes the greatness of King Moshoeshoe I. He's only in this book briefly but Laurence has such respect for him and I love it.
- The ferals play an interestingly large role
- Okay but really one of my favourite things about this series is that the dragons are such PEOPLE, in wonderfully varied complexity, while still also being distinctly not human, and it's great
- I'm so relieved there weren't more battle scenes in this book. I was concerned, this being the last book in a series about a war! The explicit descriptions of fighting/battle are always my least favourite parts of these books. So there were a few scenes of fighting my eyes glazed over in but mostly it wasn't a problem in this book! Thank you Novik.
- I'm delighted that there are more girls willing and eager to sign up to be aviators in England! And now I really want to read stories about the next generation of female aviators.
- omgggg I love that the ending of the European politics plotline is INCAN EMPRESS OF FRANCE, I am so curious what's going to happen to the future of French politics after this rather different end to the napoleonic wars. What will Anahuarque be like as the ruler of France? Will there be more variations on the theme of revolution again throughout the first half of the 19th century, as there was in our history, or will the lack of Bourbon royalty make a difference? I do not know enough about 19th century french politics to begin to make a guess! (HOW DOES THIS AFFECT LES MISERABLES. PLEASE SOMEONE WRITE THE LES MIS CROSSOVER.)
- Right after the book came out but before I read it, I was trawling the tumblr temeraire tag to see what people were saying (to thoroughly spoiler myself, really) and I was astonished at how many complaints there were re: endgame shipping? Like, people saying that Novik has BETRAYED the reader by not going endgame Laurence/Tharkay, and having Laurence/Jane Roland instead. That this is QUEERBAITING. But dudes: throughout the books Laurence/Roland has been a semi-regular feature, and there were zero indications that Novik was at all intending do anything Laurence/Tharkay. There is nothing betraying about the author continuing to portray character relationships the same way she has all along! Would I have liked there to be more queerness in these books? Yeah, of course, as with pretty much every book I read. Is it queerbaiting for Laurence to not end up in a same-sex relationship? I really don't think so.
- I feel like I ought to say something wrapping up my thoughts about the series in general. I don't even know what to say! I've been following these books for something like a decade, and while the strength of my love came and went somewhat over that time, I've never stopped loving them. In a lot of ways it felt like this series was written to cater directly to my tastes, and though these books are not perfect in every way they are certainly thoroughly excellent at delighting me. I'm gonna miss having new Temeraire to look forward to, and the fandom, though generally enthusiastic, is not what I'd call large and prolific. But I look forward to seeing what writing projects Novik will take on next!
This is not going to be a coherent review with, like, structure and stuff. Have a list of things I thought about!
- I JUST LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR. BOOK. THING. All the characters are the best and the world is the best and I just. Yes. Good. More of this forever please. (It's so sad that this is the last book!)
- NING! She is everything you'd expect of the offspring of Temeraire and Iskierka and it is beautiful to behold. I love her so much! I love how alarmed Temeraire and Iskierka are by her, and meanwhile I'm like....they have zero legs to stand on when it comes to being alarming baby dragons.
- Tharkay doesn't appear much in this book, but as always his few appearances are gold. Tharkay ex machina strikes again! That man has impeccable timing. Then THAT ENDING omg, Laurence and Temeraire and Tharkay all living happily together on Tharkay's newly acquired property, with Temeraire being a member of parliament, that is AMAZING. (okay but srsly how soon is Tharkay gonna get bored with the life of respectable-ish nobility)
- I have gotten really fond of Hammond over the course of the books, which I never expected when he was first introduced. He was great in this book. And I love Churki and how differently she approaches her relationship with Hammond than European dragons usually think about humans.
- Laurence is just so inescapably LAURENCE forever and it is AMAZING. (I am entirely unsurprised that he eventually ended up fighting a duel despite the rule against aviators duelling.)
- And Temeraire so Temeraire, but like, all gotten grown up and responsible, awww, so great, I'm so proud of him.
- omg Laurence/Napoleon. Okay so a few weeks before this book came out I read a long Laurence/Napoleon fanfic and it was really good and I loved it but I was like....it's kinda implausible. Then this book happened and the few scenes involving Laurence and Napoleon were just.... I was astonished (and delighted) at how SHIPPY they were, my goodness. I was not expecting that from this book? And now that fic is retroactively a lot more plausible to me!
- I still love that Novik recognizes the greatness of King Moshoeshoe I. He's only in this book briefly but Laurence has such respect for him and I love it.
- The ferals play an interestingly large role
- Okay but really one of my favourite things about this series is that the dragons are such PEOPLE, in wonderfully varied complexity, while still also being distinctly not human, and it's great
- I'm so relieved there weren't more battle scenes in this book. I was concerned, this being the last book in a series about a war! The explicit descriptions of fighting/battle are always my least favourite parts of these books. So there were a few scenes of fighting my eyes glazed over in but mostly it wasn't a problem in this book! Thank you Novik.
- I'm delighted that there are more girls willing and eager to sign up to be aviators in England! And now I really want to read stories about the next generation of female aviators.
- omgggg I love that the ending of the European politics plotline is INCAN EMPRESS OF FRANCE, I am so curious what's going to happen to the future of French politics after this rather different end to the napoleonic wars. What will Anahuarque be like as the ruler of France? Will there be more variations on the theme of revolution again throughout the first half of the 19th century, as there was in our history, or will the lack of Bourbon royalty make a difference? I do not know enough about 19th century french politics to begin to make a guess! (HOW DOES THIS AFFECT LES MISERABLES. PLEASE SOMEONE WRITE THE LES MIS CROSSOVER.)
- Right after the book came out but before I read it, I was trawling the tumblr temeraire tag to see what people were saying (to thoroughly spoiler myself, really) and I was astonished at how many complaints there were re: endgame shipping? Like, people saying that Novik has BETRAYED the reader by not going endgame Laurence/Tharkay, and having Laurence/Jane Roland instead. That this is QUEERBAITING. But dudes: throughout the books Laurence/Roland has been a semi-regular feature, and there were zero indications that Novik was at all intending do anything Laurence/Tharkay. There is nothing betraying about the author continuing to portray character relationships the same way she has all along! Would I have liked there to be more queerness in these books? Yeah, of course, as with pretty much every book I read. Is it queerbaiting for Laurence to not end up in a same-sex relationship? I really don't think so.
- I feel like I ought to say something wrapping up my thoughts about the series in general. I don't even know what to say! I've been following these books for something like a decade, and while the strength of my love came and went somewhat over that time, I've never stopped loving them. In a lot of ways it felt like this series was written to cater directly to my tastes, and though these books are not perfect in every way they are certainly thoroughly excellent at delighting me. I'm gonna miss having new Temeraire to look forward to, and the fandom, though generally enthusiastic, is not what I'd call large and prolific. But I look forward to seeing what writing projects Novik will take on next!