I heart Temeraire
I just finished Victory of Eagles, the Temeraire book that came out last July. (If you like fantasy and alternative history and haven't yet discovered these, run forthwith to find His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik.) I loved it -- probably my favorite to date of the so-far five-book series.
Yes, Knitress, I do love the new dragon Perscitia, as you anticipated. But what I admire even more about this book is its surprising seriousness of tone. Novik manages to take on real ethical issues in a context with, well, talking dragons. (Even better, she manages to make me believe that the dragons have a coherent ethical and moral sense of their own that differs from that of humans.)
A non-spoilery line that captures the book's flavor:
Temeraire did not wish to argue in the least: Laurence sounded like himself again, if still drawn and perhaps unhappy, and that was worth anything; but privately he could not help a certain resentment that a conscience seemed to be so very expensive, and yet had no substantial form which one might admire, and display to one's company.
Isn't that lovely? Humor, character, Napoleonic-era syntax, and weight, all in three lines.
Yes, Knitress, I do love the new dragon Perscitia, as you anticipated. But what I admire even more about this book is its surprising seriousness of tone. Novik manages to take on real ethical issues in a context with, well, talking dragons. (Even better, she manages to make me believe that the dragons have a coherent ethical and moral sense of their own that differs from that of humans.)
A non-spoilery line that captures the book's flavor:
Temeraire did not wish to argue in the least: Laurence sounded like himself again, if still drawn and perhaps unhappy, and that was worth anything; but privately he could not help a certain resentment that a conscience seemed to be so very expensive, and yet had no substantial form which one might admire, and display to one's company.
Isn't that lovely? Humor, character, Napoleonic-era syntax, and weight, all in three lines.