The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Showing posts with label dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dragon. Show all posts
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Book Review: The Last Dragonslayer
The curse of reviewing mediocre things "man there are so many things I'd rather be doing right now than trying to find the energy to talk about THIS". And I'm afraid this might be happening a lot in the next few weeks, I've been reading my usual book and a half a week but very few of the fiction works have really been grabbing me (I tend to alternate reading fiction and non-fiction but I find non-fiction tricky enough to review that those thoughts tend to get shoved into the weekly round-ups). It's not a burn-out per say, alternating with non-fiction is helping, but it's frustrating week after week I start up an interesting looking book and am completely bored with it by the end.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Comic Review: The Last Dragon
Yet another strange thing I pulled from a library, this time from the not-so-local library whose stock of manga and comics I am rapidly consuming, and I went for this one purely because I've read a series by Jane Yolen that involved dragons and liked it (it's also one of my examples of just how weirdly close fantasy and science fiction can be, literally the only thing that keeps it from being fantasy is the fact that it's on a colony planet in the future with low technology, just about everything else could have fit into a fantasy novel). And hey, I've read things for far stranger reasons before, let's see how this one does!
The Last Dragon Written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Rebecca Guay
Summary: There have been no dragons on the isles of May in centuries but, as is often the case in stories, one dragon egg survived, slumbering, until a mishap cracks it open and as dragons are wont to do it soon grows and begins to devour anything it can find. The islanders remember the old tales but they are not dragonslayers so while they do all the can they also begin a search for someone who can kill the beast before they all perish.
The Good: I suspect this story is a comic instead of being a prose short story is because of how short it really is. It took me next to no time at all to read it and without the artwork I would have finished it even faster which I suppose means that this was a good choice format wise. The story flowed well and the pacing was quick which also fit the story well, but other than those technical details there was nothing about the story which really grabbed me enough to like it or even find memorable. So let's move onto that:
The Bad: While not bad or terrible the story just felt, flat. We've all seen stories about the last dragon (or more rarely some other mythical creature) awakening and wrecking havoc and we've all seen stories about unlikely hero(s) coming together to defeat it using cleverness instead of sheer strength. And this story just didn't play with any of these ideas, everything played out exactly the way you expected, from the overall story to how the characters interacted and for me that makes for a dull read. This time I can't even say "but it's old so of course I've seen other, later, stories do it better," nope this is from 2011 and, even if it theoretically spent a long time in development, it's still new enough that everyone involved must have seen the story in a dozen iterations elsewhere and I can't help but wonder why it's so dull then.
The Art: This might be me seeing something that's not there, however while I liked the art there were a number of pages I saw which looked unfinished, as if a few layers or filters had been left off and I noticed that when simply reading through, not carefully rereading just for the art. Again, this could be me but it threw me out of the story a little bit, when I came back to it I developed the same opinions about the art that I had for the story, it works, it's fine (I do like the style) but it didn't really add anything to the story (except time spent reading) or do anything with it that I find truly memorable, this isn't a story I expect to remember any longer than a few months down the road.
I guess I'll give this one a 2.5 out of 5 since it's certainly technically competent and not terrible but, like last week, if for some reason someone does want to read a story about the last dragon or whatnot tell me, I'm sure I can think of a better story for you to read instead.
The Last Dragon Written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Rebecca Guay
Summary: There have been no dragons on the isles of May in centuries but, as is often the case in stories, one dragon egg survived, slumbering, until a mishap cracks it open and as dragons are wont to do it soon grows and begins to devour anything it can find. The islanders remember the old tales but they are not dragonslayers so while they do all the can they also begin a search for someone who can kill the beast before they all perish.
The Good: I suspect this story is a comic instead of being a prose short story is because of how short it really is. It took me next to no time at all to read it and without the artwork I would have finished it even faster which I suppose means that this was a good choice format wise. The story flowed well and the pacing was quick which also fit the story well, but other than those technical details there was nothing about the story which really grabbed me enough to like it or even find memorable. So let's move onto that:
The Bad: While not bad or terrible the story just felt, flat. We've all seen stories about the last dragon (or more rarely some other mythical creature) awakening and wrecking havoc and we've all seen stories about unlikely hero(s) coming together to defeat it using cleverness instead of sheer strength. And this story just didn't play with any of these ideas, everything played out exactly the way you expected, from the overall story to how the characters interacted and for me that makes for a dull read. This time I can't even say "but it's old so of course I've seen other, later, stories do it better," nope this is from 2011 and, even if it theoretically spent a long time in development, it's still new enough that everyone involved must have seen the story in a dozen iterations elsewhere and I can't help but wonder why it's so dull then.
The Art: This might be me seeing something that's not there, however while I liked the art there were a number of pages I saw which looked unfinished, as if a few layers or filters had been left off and I noticed that when simply reading through, not carefully rereading just for the art. Again, this could be me but it threw me out of the story a little bit, when I came back to it I developed the same opinions about the art that I had for the story, it works, it's fine (I do like the style) but it didn't really add anything to the story (except time spent reading) or do anything with it that I find truly memorable, this isn't a story I expect to remember any longer than a few months down the road.
I guess I'll give this one a 2.5 out of 5 since it's certainly technically competent and not terrible but, like last week, if for some reason someone does want to read a story about the last dragon or whatnot tell me, I'm sure I can think of a better story for you to read instead.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Book Review: Where Mountain Meets the Moon
And now to mooch off of family wifi to see if I can get this review up on time. This is another book that I grabbed in desperation towards the end of the school year yet I wasn't able to read it until I got home and checked it out from my local library (silly school had me return the books a few days before graduation). Once I started reading I got a little nervous since it became clear that it was middle grade not young adult, and well, middle grade books just engage me less these days (considering I'm about ten years too old for them this shouldn't be a surprise). But, since I am still in a slump, plus this was on my list, and I was enjoying it, I decided to perserve and finished it rather quickly regardless.
Where
Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Summary: Minli lives with her family on the Fruitless Mountain and, even though she
knows why the stories say the mountain is so barren, after hearing another
story from her father and on the advice of a goldfish she goes off to see the Old Man on the Moon and ask him herself.
The
Good: I liked how the story was able to incorporate a
half dozen other stories told by the characters into itself and create a
history and a precedence for what Minli is doing that way. I have no idea how
closely any of these stories resemble real Chinese fairy tales but they have
the same feeling, the same kind of stories and storytelling, that “real” fairy
tales I’ve read had and that’s not the easiest style of story to recreate.
The
Bad: Since the story is middle grade it was a little
too simplistic for my taste, that combined with the fact that it’s a quest
means that Minli rarely faced true adversary or hardship and I do wish the
story had thrown in a little more of that (even though I do prefer quest type stories to "defeat the evil lord" kinds of stories and liked how no villain suddenly appeared at the end for Minli to vanquish). But, since a middle grade book
doesn’t need to be the most complex thing out there, nothing really does and
when your readers are 11 this is doubly true, this isn’t a terrible thing and
with the story’s quick pacing this also would have been hard to pull off.
I’m giving this one a 3.5 out of 5 for being a rather solid book, even if it wasn’t
precisely what I wanted, and would easily recommend it to any middle grade
reader who wanted something fantasy to read.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Book Review: Seraphina
Originally my last review of the year was going to be volumes 5 and 6 of Kieli (yes not only did I finally get both of them but I found time to read them as well!) and I didn't think I'd have a chance to read this book until 2013. But unexpectedly one of my libraries had a copy of this, I got it out, and then proceeded to read it over a day and a half this. This was impressive because not only is the book around 460 pages (which even for me is a bit thick) but those two days were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day where between the two of them I spent over 10 hours in parties and another couple of hours each day getting to/helping prepare for each. So I didn't just read this book fast, I read this book fast for me and I think that alone says something about how I liked it.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Summary: In the country of Goredd there has been a tenuous peace agreement between humans and the dragons for 40 years which seems threatened nearly every day due to a lack of understanding of each side. For Seraphina the peace is even more important for her than most, her mother was a dragon (a fact her father didn't know until she bled silver blood while she died giving birth to Seraphina) and her father human making her a hybrid and a fact she hides every day. There seems to be no upsides to her strange parentage and it only seems to have given her terrible headaches and strange mental landscapes to attend to, hardly a desirable thing. But with dignitaries from both sides gathering to celebrate the treaty she'll simply have to deal with everything while trying her best to stay out of the dangerous politics that it seems like she was born into.
The Good: Now THIS is what people should do if they want a medieval-Europe inspired setting! Goredd isn't a dressed up and renamed England or France, it's an original setting which draws heavily inspiration from real world culture (such as the music and the idea of Saints) without falling into some of the traps ("noooo you can't have women with power in a middle ages setting, wait almost all of the named royals are female? Well, everyone has to be whit-oh hell side characters from other countries and clearly described to be not-white!"). The story makes use of it's large page count to create a fairly detailed plot with multiple subplots that come together by the end (like a calmer version of Diana Wynne Jones' books) and there is plenty of politicking and scheming to make me happy. In these ways it feels like a rather mature young adult book, I can easily see that if just a few things were changed that it could be a work of adult fiction. That isn't to say that it should be an adult fiction book, it's simply a book that I think has more crossover appeal than others.
The Bad: There were some points where it felt like Lucian, who can be a bit touchy but isn't hot tempered, got mad (or madder) at Seraphina than he should've just for the sake of advancing the plot but even then you could come up with a realistic reason for that (being in charge of all the security for the peace treaty celebration will make anyone cranky). I also had a bit of a hard time buying that Princess Glisselda was only 15, she does act like a 15 year old a lot of the time but there are other times when she was too wise beyond her years (which is something I could say for a lot of characters in young adult books actually, so while a bit frustrating it was something I could easily deal with and did half expect).
So I happily give this book four out of five stars, would buy it, and I'm hoping that there is in fact going to be a sequel. There was a note in one of the appendixes which lead me to think so but honestly I won't be crushed if there isn't. Yes there is so much more plot that could happen but after spending this much time with the characters I can see how they could further develop so even if there's not a sequel I can easily imagine how it would have gone down. For those interested there's a prologue which fills in one or two details and gives you a good feel for what the characters and the book is like.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Summary: In the country of Goredd there has been a tenuous peace agreement between humans and the dragons for 40 years which seems threatened nearly every day due to a lack of understanding of each side. For Seraphina the peace is even more important for her than most, her mother was a dragon (a fact her father didn't know until she bled silver blood while she died giving birth to Seraphina) and her father human making her a hybrid and a fact she hides every day. There seems to be no upsides to her strange parentage and it only seems to have given her terrible headaches and strange mental landscapes to attend to, hardly a desirable thing. But with dignitaries from both sides gathering to celebrate the treaty she'll simply have to deal with everything while trying her best to stay out of the dangerous politics that it seems like she was born into.
The Good: Now THIS is what people should do if they want a medieval-Europe inspired setting! Goredd isn't a dressed up and renamed England or France, it's an original setting which draws heavily inspiration from real world culture (such as the music and the idea of Saints) without falling into some of the traps ("noooo you can't have women with power in a middle ages setting, wait almost all of the named royals are female? Well, everyone has to be whit-oh hell side characters from other countries and clearly described to be not-white!"). The story makes use of it's large page count to create a fairly detailed plot with multiple subplots that come together by the end (like a calmer version of Diana Wynne Jones' books) and there is plenty of politicking and scheming to make me happy. In these ways it feels like a rather mature young adult book, I can easily see that if just a few things were changed that it could be a work of adult fiction. That isn't to say that it should be an adult fiction book, it's simply a book that I think has more crossover appeal than others.
The Bad: There were some points where it felt like Lucian, who can be a bit touchy but isn't hot tempered, got mad (or madder) at Seraphina than he should've just for the sake of advancing the plot but even then you could come up with a realistic reason for that (being in charge of all the security for the peace treaty celebration will make anyone cranky). I also had a bit of a hard time buying that Princess Glisselda was only 15, she does act like a 15 year old a lot of the time but there are other times when she was too wise beyond her years (which is something I could say for a lot of characters in young adult books actually, so while a bit frustrating it was something I could easily deal with and did half expect).
So I happily give this book four out of five stars, would buy it, and I'm hoping that there is in fact going to be a sequel. There was a note in one of the appendixes which lead me to think so but honestly I won't be crushed if there isn't. Yes there is so much more plot that could happen but after spending this much time with the characters I can see how they could further develop so even if there's not a sequel I can easily imagine how it would have gone down. For those interested there's a prologue which fills in one or two details and gives you a good feel for what the characters and the book is like.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Book Review: Crucible of Gold
Continuing with the "Napoleon Wars with Dragons" series of books, I actually got to this one in the year it came out which I'm quite proud of, in case people haven't figured out by now I can be rather terrible at reading books soon after they come out. Although, given that it's going to be a least a year until the next book comes out it might've been a good idea to wait a little longer before reading and reduce the wait time....
Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik
Am I the only one who is getting real Master and Commander vibes from this cover? I blame the ship in the foreground and while I am a bit sad to see the covers start to deviate from the pattern they originally established I must admit that this cover is probably a bit more eye-catching than the originals were.
Summary: Laurence and Temeraire have been called back into service in the British Air Forces, rather reluctantly on their part, for a new mission that the British apparently cannot trust to any other group (which further serves to annoy them): to travel to the great Incan Empire of South America and to convince them to not ally themselves with Napoleon. But the journey is never easy for these two, nor does it seem to ever end, and once again they will need to use nearly every skill they have to survive and to smooth over the many political scuffles that come up along their way.
The Good: The parts of the series where Laurence and Temeraire visit other countries is rapidly becoming my favorite part and I would love for the series to devote some time near the end to showing Temeraire reforming the way dragons are treated in England (actually, I'm even more interested by that idea than the war at this point). The Incan Empire was an interesting setting, especially seeing how it differed from real world history, and I wish more of the book had been spent there instead of with the characters constantly traveling around. And the story reintroduces some characters that haven't been seen in two or so books which was rather nice (I'm all for expanding the cast but, as I've mentioned in other reviews, I am bothered when each book in a series receives an entirely new cast, it simply feels like a waste and I'm glad that's not the case here).
The Bad: I am of the firm belief that Napoleon will be defeated by the end of the series, there's simply been too much build-up for that not to be the outcome, yet he gets stronger and stronger with each book which means that the ending will have to be more and more spectacular to pull that off. True there are at least two more books to go, and the ending to this one heavily hinted that the British will gain a new ally in the next book, but I'm now starting to lower my expectations of how the story will end since it has set up a problem almost too complex to be resolved. Also, even though these books are crammed full of plot and not much time is wasted, there is still just a lot going on in this book and I almost wish it was trimmed down (and to it's credit all the various subplots are addressed or resolved as they come up, it's still just a lot of stuff to take in).
The story certainly feels like it's beginning to enter the end game by now and I am happy to see it progressing along, even if I am getting worried if Novik can actually pull off an ending that will be worth an eight book wait. Guess there's nothing to do but to hope for the best!
Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik
Am I the only one who is getting real Master and Commander vibes from this cover? I blame the ship in the foreground and while I am a bit sad to see the covers start to deviate from the pattern they originally established I must admit that this cover is probably a bit more eye-catching than the originals were.
Summary: Laurence and Temeraire have been called back into service in the British Air Forces, rather reluctantly on their part, for a new mission that the British apparently cannot trust to any other group (which further serves to annoy them): to travel to the great Incan Empire of South America and to convince them to not ally themselves with Napoleon. But the journey is never easy for these two, nor does it seem to ever end, and once again they will need to use nearly every skill they have to survive and to smooth over the many political scuffles that come up along their way.
The Good: The parts of the series where Laurence and Temeraire visit other countries is rapidly becoming my favorite part and I would love for the series to devote some time near the end to showing Temeraire reforming the way dragons are treated in England (actually, I'm even more interested by that idea than the war at this point). The Incan Empire was an interesting setting, especially seeing how it differed from real world history, and I wish more of the book had been spent there instead of with the characters constantly traveling around. And the story reintroduces some characters that haven't been seen in two or so books which was rather nice (I'm all for expanding the cast but, as I've mentioned in other reviews, I am bothered when each book in a series receives an entirely new cast, it simply feels like a waste and I'm glad that's not the case here).
The Bad: I am of the firm belief that Napoleon will be defeated by the end of the series, there's simply been too much build-up for that not to be the outcome, yet he gets stronger and stronger with each book which means that the ending will have to be more and more spectacular to pull that off. True there are at least two more books to go, and the ending to this one heavily hinted that the British will gain a new ally in the next book, but I'm now starting to lower my expectations of how the story will end since it has set up a problem almost too complex to be resolved. Also, even though these books are crammed full of plot and not much time is wasted, there is still just a lot going on in this book and I almost wish it was trimmed down (and to it's credit all the various subplots are addressed or resolved as they come up, it's still just a lot of stuff to take in).
The story certainly feels like it's beginning to enter the end game by now and I am happy to see it progressing along, even if I am getting worried if Novik can actually pull off an ending that will be worth an eight book wait. Guess there's nothing to do but to hope for the best!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Book Review: Tongues of Serpents
Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, got really wrapped up in my sewing and just wanted to get a project finished up and by the time I did it was pretty late. Such is life, so here's my review on the latest (and currently the last) book in the His Majesty's Dragon series.
Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik
A nice, relativly simple cover here with some nice, abeit confusing details. I would assume that the black dragon is Temeraire and that the bronze one is Iskierka, it does seem a little odd to have both of them on the cover along with the European sailing ship, that bit continues to confuse me.
The Good: It seems that this book round off another multi-book arc in the story, one that focused a lot on Laurence's character development. While the larger arc of the first three books entailed showing how this world's Napoleonic Wars are going very differently from how ours went, books four through six showed Temeraire's gradual influence on Laurence's way of thinking and at the end his character seems to have changed. It's also nice to see this world be continuously expanded and diverge further and further away from what our history did.
The Bad: Much like the last time one of the books focused mainly on a cross-continent adventure (Black Powder War) the book just doesn't feel as satisfying. While Novik does successfully convey just how large Australia is and how long it takes anyone to cross it, even if they're going by dragon back, she will omit parts of the journey if needed (such as the return trip back to Sydney here and the return to England in Empire of Ivory) and that makes this amount of detail put into the trips seem a bit, pointless. Yes there was some character growth in there and some world-building, but at the end of the day the book simply seems like it could have been much shorter and still covered exactly what it needed to.
So, not my favorite book in the series (that would probably be The Throne of Jade) but it's not horrible. Actually, I'm starting to hope that Temeraire and Laurence's next adventures will take them to the Americas after a little more background information about the America's appeared in this book. Honestly at this rate I have no idea what the story is going to do next so all I can do is hope that it's going to be interesting!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Book Review: Victory of Eagles
Well, it’s been a few months since I reviewed one of these books but I finally got around to finding the fifth book in the Temeraire series (ie, what if there were DRAGONS in the Napoleonic Wars and they were used like ships?). Knowing that this series has a few more books to go (I believe the plan is for it to be a nine book series) does make the series a bit less enjoyable (you know that no matter whatever the heroes do, they aren’t going to beat Napoleon yet) but only a bit.
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
One change I noticed here was that the books are finally normal hardcover sized, no more tiny paperback sized books! Made it much easier to hold the book and gave it more room to have a proper illustration on the cover which I also liked (am I the only one who thinks it wouldn't look out of place on a Master and Commander book?).
Summary: After Laurence's treason at the end of the previous book, Laurence is waiting to be executed and Temeraire has been separated from him and now resides in the breeding grounds. But idealistic Temeraire refuses to sit around for the rest of his life and convinces the rest of the dragons to leave the grounds and help fight against the French and earn some money for building pavilions in the process.
The Good: Since the two have been separated, Temeraire actually gets more screen time and more pages devoted to what he's thinking and planning than in the previous books and he's a very interesting character. Laurence often comes off as an cautiously idealistic character, or at least a cautiously optimistic one, but Temeraire is so idealistic that he's a radical and it's a nice contrast to Laurence since he's not quite himself in this book. Since this book is even more war focused than the previous four there's not a lot of opportunities for the characters to do much other than fight and think (or emo) but the book does set some interesting groundwork for what Temeraire might accomplish later on.
The Bad: It still seems odd that humans have domesticated dragons for centuries at this point yet only now (the time line of these stories) is it beginning to change history. Dragons haven’t changed the outcome of dozens of wars but they do let Napoleon actually land on and invade English soil and that’s a rather large change*. Another unrealistic point is jut how much the dragons need to eat to stay in combat shape and that England manages to supply them all. The amount the dragons need to eat doesn’t sound unreasonable (based on the sizes given for them it sounds perfectly reasonable if not too little) but it does seem rather improbable that one small nation could feed them all without much trouble, especially after seeing the supply problems in this book.
So, not my favorite book in the series so far, mostly because it was so much fighting and becauseLaurence loses it for a while (and for the rest of the book he comes off as "woe is me, I am to die and I can't protest it because I have MORALES" never mind the fact that he has a perfectly good reason not to die). But the next book will have a change of setting, always interesting, and we draw ever close to the end of the series which is also exciting.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Book Review: Fire
This is supposed to be part of a collection of short stories focusing on the various elements, eventually. I remember reading bits of the first book (Water) back in high school and Fire just came out this past year. Part of the delay is that two stories were supposed to be part of this collection but they became full-length novels instead (Sunshine and Chalice) so Robin McKinley has been rather busy. I haven't read any works by the other author, (although I have seen The Ropemaker at my local library) so, enough with the introduction, onto the review!
Fire by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson
Well, the cover works but it isn't that inspired. It's quite possible I'm a bit more cynical about the cover after my business in photography class but looking at it I started figuring out how much the publisher would have paid for a stock image for a North American, English language only release with a one year license. Besides that, I have a bone to pick with the typography (and I never care about the typography!). They used a really cheesy font for the titles that looked like the words had fire in them and I thought it was rather dumb actually, but again, this is just me being nitpicky.
Summary: Five stories involving fire and magic, from dragons to salamanders to hellhounds, fire can be both a destructive element and a protective one as well. As a quick note, the stories in the book are numbered out of order (I think it goes 2, 3, 5, 4, and then 1) and I read them in the order of the numbers. There doesn't seem to be any special reasoning to the numbers so you can read them in any order.
The Good: I liked the story "Hellhound" the most (heh, and after reading McKinley's blog I didn't even have to check and see who the author was) and I thought it was a nice "all the myths are true" story in the end (now that I think about it, the overall mood of the story reminded me a bit of Fire and Hemlock). I also liked "First Flight" (by McKinley again) for it's world building, actually, I remember she did another book about dragons once, I wonder if those two are connected. And that really sums up what I like about her books (aka, why I keep reading them despite all the other issues I have with them), she does some really neat stuff with world building that keeps my enthralled and makes me remember the story when I'm done. So, if you're already a fan of her work, you'll enjoy this one too.
The Bad: Well, I had issues with the protagonists of all the stories really. In Dickinson's stories my problems lay more with the plot now that I think about it (the story started in the beginning, got a bit confusing and then explained EVERYTHING in the end, no hints along the way to figure it out myself and that's what I love to do while reading) and just wasn't that interested in his stories. For McKinley, a lot of her characters are really shy and I find myself yelling at them to explain themselves so the plot can move forward*. It's a problem I have with a lot of her protagonists and perhaps I am being too harsh on them. However, I like characters who do stuff, no matter how small, to advance the plot and her characters just either take too long to do so or are too passive for my taste.
I have heard McKinley say that yes, someday there will be four anthology books someday, it's just that her stories keep getting away from her. "First Flight" was a hundred pages long and one story she was working on for the next anthology (Air) is now a two volume doorstopper (Pegasus, which I haven't read yet but hope to soon). Here's to hoping that they finish with the books soon, within the next ten years at least please?
*Okay, I was a really shy person in middle school and still am a bit shy now but I'm able to at least do stuff, so seeing how I managed to grow but these characters didn't makes it a bit hard to sympathize.
Fire by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson
Summary: Five stories involving fire and magic, from dragons to salamanders to hellhounds, fire can be both a destructive element and a protective one as well. As a quick note, the stories in the book are numbered out of order (I think it goes 2, 3, 5, 4, and then 1) and I read them in the order of the numbers. There doesn't seem to be any special reasoning to the numbers so you can read them in any order.
The Good: I liked the story "Hellhound" the most (heh, and after reading McKinley's blog I didn't even have to check and see who the author was) and I thought it was a nice "all the myths are true" story in the end (now that I think about it, the overall mood of the story reminded me a bit of Fire and Hemlock). I also liked "First Flight" (by McKinley again) for it's world building, actually, I remember she did another book about dragons once, I wonder if those two are connected. And that really sums up what I like about her books (aka, why I keep reading them despite all the other issues I have with them), she does some really neat stuff with world building that keeps my enthralled and makes me remember the story when I'm done. So, if you're already a fan of her work, you'll enjoy this one too.
The Bad: Well, I had issues with the protagonists of all the stories really. In Dickinson's stories my problems lay more with the plot now that I think about it (the story started in the beginning, got a bit confusing and then explained EVERYTHING in the end, no hints along the way to figure it out myself and that's what I love to do while reading) and just wasn't that interested in his stories. For McKinley, a lot of her characters are really shy and I find myself yelling at them to explain themselves so the plot can move forward*. It's a problem I have with a lot of her protagonists and perhaps I am being too harsh on them. However, I like characters who do stuff, no matter how small, to advance the plot and her characters just either take too long to do so or are too passive for my taste.
I have heard McKinley say that yes, someday there will be four anthology books someday, it's just that her stories keep getting away from her. "First Flight" was a hundred pages long and one story she was working on for the next anthology (Air) is now a two volume doorstopper (Pegasus, which I haven't read yet but hope to soon). Here's to hoping that they finish with the books soon, within the next ten years at least please?
*Okay, I was a really shy person in middle school and still am a bit shy now but I'm able to at least do stuff, so seeing how I managed to grow but these characters didn't makes it a bit hard to sympathize.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Book Review: Empire of Ivory
I believe, and I could be crazy and making this entirely up but I don't think that's the case here, that Naomi Novik has said that the Temeraire series is entering it's final third so it looks like this is going to be a nine book series after all, not some monstrosity that goes on forever. With that in mind I was much more cheerful by reading this book (book four, only two more before I'm caught up!) but I also just liked this one more than Black Powder War. I think it was the pacing since Black Powder War was certainly more interesting and, again this is what I think I've heard, Novik wrote the first three books back to back so it might be that she had gotten more into the swing of writing and was just a better writer by this point, she's certainly gotten a load more of experience.
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
Same style cover as before and again, I'm not quiet sure what they're supposed to be portraying. I suppose that's supposed to be the fort in South Africa but really, that could've been better.
Summary: As revealed in the preview section of the last novel (and something some readers would have already guessed), the British fleet of dragons has been decimated with a horrible new illness they have no cure for. Many of the dragons are still alive but slowly wasting away, after being accidentally exposed Temerarie isn't however and that sets off a search for what gave him the immunity which leads Captain Laurence and the crew to Africa where they discover that Napoleon isn't the only person they have to worry about.
The Good: Like I said before, I liked the overall feeling of this book more than the previous one and I think it's because Temerarie and Laurence are equals by the end of this book. Even in the previous book Temerarie came off as a young person who is still trying to understand the world, by here he feels like a young person who has learned about the world and decided that stuff just isn't right and they want to change it, or at the very least defy it (oddly enough since wikipedia calls the first three books Temeraire's arc and the second three as Laurence's arc, I suppose these books will deal with Laurence coming to terms with Temeraire's newfangled ideas). It's also nice to see Novik really start to mess with history, if you're going to write a story with a game changing difference like dragons then the history should be pretty different.
The Bad: I do wonder if Novik wrote the second book and then resolved to never try and fill up all the time they crew spent on a long sea voyage again. Considering how long the book would've been otherwise I'm not going to complain, merely say that it was a surprising change. Also, despite the fact that more happened in this book than the last one (as in, advance the overall plot) it feels like not as much happened. Maybe I started speed reading and that's why it feels like less but it just didn't feel as gripping.
So, the book certainly set up a number of very interesting (and highly spoiler-y) plot threads for the next few books that I'm eager to see further explored. Wiki tells me that book seven is due out in the US sometime in 2011 so I guess I'll get the next two books finished by January or so (like I've said before, I've got a ton more books to read and some of them are HUGE, I think Inkdeath is even bigger than this one).
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
Summary: As revealed in the preview section of the last novel (and something some readers would have already guessed), the British fleet of dragons has been decimated with a horrible new illness they have no cure for. Many of the dragons are still alive but slowly wasting away, after being accidentally exposed Temerarie isn't however and that sets off a search for what gave him the immunity which leads Captain Laurence and the crew to Africa where they discover that Napoleon isn't the only person they have to worry about.
The Good: Like I said before, I liked the overall feeling of this book more than the previous one and I think it's because Temerarie and Laurence are equals by the end of this book. Even in the previous book Temerarie came off as a young person who is still trying to understand the world, by here he feels like a young person who has learned about the world and decided that stuff just isn't right and they want to change it, or at the very least defy it (oddly enough since wikipedia calls the first three books Temeraire's arc and the second three as Laurence's arc, I suppose these books will deal with Laurence coming to terms with Temeraire's newfangled ideas). It's also nice to see Novik really start to mess with history, if you're going to write a story with a game changing difference like dragons then the history should be pretty different.
The Bad: I do wonder if Novik wrote the second book and then resolved to never try and fill up all the time they crew spent on a long sea voyage again. Considering how long the book would've been otherwise I'm not going to complain, merely say that it was a surprising change. Also, despite the fact that more happened in this book than the last one (as in, advance the overall plot) it feels like not as much happened. Maybe I started speed reading and that's why it feels like less but it just didn't feel as gripping.
So, the book certainly set up a number of very interesting (and highly spoiler-y) plot threads for the next few books that I'm eager to see further explored. Wiki tells me that book seven is due out in the US sometime in 2011 so I guess I'll get the next two books finished by January or so (like I've said before, I've got a ton more books to read and some of them are HUGE, I think Inkdeath is even bigger than this one).
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Book Review: Black Powder War
do believe the Temaire books should be my equivalent of a guilty pleasure (there's a lot of them, endless number of possible stories, paperback format) but it feels too creative for a guilty pleasure. Although, not much changes between books so maybe that would qualify it...
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
Funny enough, the cover of the book I had was much less saturated from this image but all the ones I found on google were about the same color. Maybe it's my screen or the book cover faded a lot, either way it looks much more garish here.
Summary: Captain Laurence and his crew are suddenly called away from China with nary an explanation except that rare dragon eggs are at risk, a reason that the entire crew views with some skepticism. It's a long journey from China to Turkey and the real action begins once they get back to Europe, back in the middle of the Napolenic Wars and with precious cargo to boot.
The Good: It's very cool to see how the series is hopscotching all over the world and showing that yes it's a diverse world in terms of dragons (most of the other details seem to be based on real history and there are a number in there firming up the setting). Also nice was to see Temeraire's continued interest in dragon liberation and, instead of either quenching it or having Laurence be gung-ho for it, balancing that with his own changing beliefs. By this point in most books Laurence would've been on the same page and Temeraire but it feels a bit more realistic to see him taking more time while still trying to be tolerant (and that's more than reality can say sometimes too). It was also nice to see more focus on his crew again but, at that rate they're getting killed off it's not like there are many left to focus on at this point.
The Bad: I suspected there was a legitimate reason for Temeraire and co to be called out of China so the twist on that was hardly surprising, but I can't remember if that was even in the book. If I recall right, it was actually in a preview chapter for the next book and I would've liked the book to end on the twist ending, even as obvious a twist as I found it. And the book seemed to drag in the desert scenes and then dragged once they were back in the war, it's my least favorite book so far and have a sneaking suspicion that this and the next book should've been combined instead.
So, not as happy with this book but it might be a while before I get around to book four to see if I like that one more. And honestly, with a series like this that could go on for close to forever I'm wondering where I should stop reading it. Yes I should stop when I stop enjoying them, and this is far from the worst stuff I've ever read but how am I supposed to decide that it's just not going to get better again?
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
Summary: Captain Laurence and his crew are suddenly called away from China with nary an explanation except that rare dragon eggs are at risk, a reason that the entire crew views with some skepticism. It's a long journey from China to Turkey and the real action begins once they get back to Europe, back in the middle of the Napolenic Wars and with precious cargo to boot.
The Good: It's very cool to see how the series is hopscotching all over the world and showing that yes it's a diverse world in terms of dragons (most of the other details seem to be based on real history and there are a number in there firming up the setting). Also nice was to see Temeraire's continued interest in dragon liberation and, instead of either quenching it or having Laurence be gung-ho for it, balancing that with his own changing beliefs. By this point in most books Laurence would've been on the same page and Temeraire but it feels a bit more realistic to see him taking more time while still trying to be tolerant (and that's more than reality can say sometimes too). It was also nice to see more focus on his crew again but, at that rate they're getting killed off it's not like there are many left to focus on at this point.
The Bad: I suspected there was a legitimate reason for Temeraire and co to be called out of China so the twist on that was hardly surprising, but I can't remember if that was even in the book. If I recall right, it was actually in a preview chapter for the next book and I would've liked the book to end on the twist ending, even as obvious a twist as I found it. And the book seemed to drag in the desert scenes and then dragged once they were back in the war, it's my least favorite book so far and have a sneaking suspicion that this and the next book should've been combined instead.
So, not as happy with this book but it might be a while before I get around to book four to see if I like that one more. And honestly, with a series like this that could go on for close to forever I'm wondering where I should stop reading it. Yes I should stop when I stop enjoying them, and this is far from the worst stuff I've ever read but how am I supposed to decide that it's just not going to get better again?
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