Blood of Tyrants
Because I don't feel like waiting until the "regular" reading roundup, and it also got rather long:
31. Naomi Novik, Blood of Tyrants -- So I finished Blood of Tyrants and, I don't know, this was a really odd book. There were parts and aspects of it I enjoyed a fair bit, but on the whole I think it's one of my least favorite ones, and for a variety of reasons, not just one or two, as with other books in this series I didn't care for very much (e.g. Empire of Ivory or Tongues of Serpents). I guess I keep hoping for the series to come back to the level of Victory of Eagles, which I thought elevated it above "amusing fluff -- whee, dragons!", and it doesn't seem to be even trying for that, which is disappointing. Well, maybe in the next/last book. And if not, I guess it will feel fitting if VoE, which will be the exact middle of the series, stnads out like a jewel at the center of the crown... Spoilers from here!
The three parts really feel like three separate books, so it's hard to talk about it without the same sort of division. The first part, when Laurence and Temeraire are mostly separated, was pretty boring to me. I mean, Temeraire and Iskierka and Lily's wing and Kulingele were amusing, and the aviators trying to keep Temeraire from panicking at Laurence's absence and yet not haring off in search of him was fun, but rather one-note and there wasn't even a lot of that. Most of that part is taken up with amnesiac!Laurence in Japan, and, unless it's a set-up for something that's instrumental in the last book, I have no clue why all that needed to be there. There was nothing very interesting about amnesia-struck Laurence, and the people he has to deal with in Japan are, for the most part, as honorable and loyal and "death before dishonor" as Laurence himself, which might've been meant to serve as a foil for him but for me just translated into conflict that was pretty uninteresting (although the conversation where Kaneka offers him hara kiri as an option and Laurence is horrified because of the Christian view of suicide was pretty neat). Kiyo, the water-dragon with a love of booze and poetry, was fun, but didn't engage me as a character, and John Wampanoag, the American business-dragon also didn't feel much like a character, but provided an interesting glimpse into dragons in North America and makes me sad that we probably won't get to travel there (unless that's where Laurence and Temeraire end up, which would be kinda cheesy), and him wanting Hamilton for President rather endeared him to me (though Tecumseh as President is also quite interesting, of course), and everything else in that section I cared even less about.
Part 2, where Laurence has been reuninted with Temeraire and the crew, was much more fun. The amnesia finally could deliver some pay-off (more on that below), there was much more room for personal interaction with characters I actually enjoy, and the plot was more interesting to me, too. I didn't much enjoy all the Chinese politics in Throne of Jade, but military maneuvers with the Chinese corps were much more to my liking. I really liked General Chu (not surprising, because there's nothing about the combination of dragon and unimpressed old soldier that would not appeal to me; also, General Chu and Uncle Iroh should totally hang out together), and I liked the very competent more minor dragon officers we met, too. I think I would be happy to just read about army + dragons logistics all day long, basically, because that was my favorite part of the plot of this entire book, I think. Iskierka being jealous of Mei (and Mei having learned English meanwhile so she could understand her) was pretty funny, as was her goading of Temeraire about assassins, and Laurence trying to be a good roommate and not walk in on Temeraire and Mei at an awkward moment was hilarious (and Temeraire being all jealous of the time Laurence has been spending with Mrs Pemberton was funny, too). Those bits really felt like a welcome return to the earlier books.
Laurence's amnesia seemed like a terrible idea when the blurb about the book had just come out. Having read the whole thing, I still think it's a pretty terrible idea, because it's so credulity stretching and so unnecessary. I feel like the goal of the amnesia plot was to show how far Laurence had come in the years since meeting Temeraire, in terms of personal growth, but, like... I didn't feel like that actually came across? There's a scene after Laurence recovers his memory when he sees Granby and Little hanging out and realizes that the reason Little has been so uncomfortable around him is not because of treason but because he doesn't know if Laurence remembers that Little and Granby were lovers, and what he is going to do about it if he does. And Laurence thinks that the old him would have reported them or would have at least felt torn if choosing personal affection over duty to a rule he didn't agree with, and I don't believe the former but, yes, the latter would probably be true... but that's not really that much, you know? If "protagonist no longer feels quite as conflicted over doing the right thing" is the engine behind your amnesia arc... meh. And the whole thing where he can't remember the last eight years at all but everything else is perfectly clear is such an artificial setup -- such a soap-opera trope! I mean, even the in-universe it's remarked on as an unusual case, but that doesn't actually make it better.
That said, the amnesia did afford some poignant and very amusing moments. Laurence imagining Admiral Roland based on the letter and then having his mental image thrown in disarray by getting to the end and seeing it signed "Jane" was pretty great, and him trying to figure out if Emily is his kid was hilarious, especially when he had to resort to asking Temeraire about it. Granby and the other aviators trying not to tell him too much to avoid any further shocks and mostly failing was both amusing and sweet. Laurence noticing that he doesn't have a wedding band and thinking about Edith was gently sad, and Laurence clutching at Riley's name only to realize, from Granby's expression, that Riley is dead was probably the most moving moment in the book for me. What didn't work for me so well was Laurence finally discovering the treason he'd committed. I had a hard time believing that Temeraire had so little understanding of Laurence's condition (he's supposed to be pretty bright!) that he would just blurt it out like that, and then be surprised at the effects. Although Temeraire's continued anguish over "ten thousand pounds" was pretty funny, and Laurence's reaction to it. It was also neat to see what bits of memory came back first / what triggered Laurence's recovery, though I don't know that any of them make sense exactly.
Still, as someone who is very fond of the relationship between Laurence and Emily, I liked that the first thing from the eight years he remembers at all is the name "Roland" when talking about young men to whom he stands in loco parentis. And remembering everything when he sees Tharkay may make no sense, but it was still nice. And it was really such a relief to have Laurence address Temeraire as "my dear" for the first time after 2/3 of the book thinking of him as a clever and spirited animal whose company he inexplicably enjoyed. But none of this actually justifies the amnesia!
And then we got to part 3 and Russia and... this is where I'm conflicted, because the battles were pretty epic (and the starved dragons falling upon the wounded and eating them was probably the most horrific spectacle yet in these books), and I thought the historical figures were treated with a decent degree of respect, especially Kutuzuv (and the way he earns General Chu's respect as a fellow clever, non-reckless commander made me particularly happy), and I'm always happy to see Napoleon being his magnetic, showboating self, and Murat was quite wonderful, too (I actually don't know as much about him, but the scenes in which he appeared made me want to remedy that, and the subsequent Wikipedia crawl reminded me that he has some of the best last words ever). And there were more wonderful logistics, and General Chu trying to teach Temeraire more of the art of war than just charging in with divine wind (my favorite quote in the book comes from there), and of course General Chu's injury (as soon as he said he just wanted to retire to the mountains, he was DOOMED of course -- it was a pleasant surprise that he wasn't killed outright). I really liked the scene where, right after Chu is injured, Temeraire is nominally in command and wants to do the reckless, emotionally satisfying thing, but asks Laurence for advice instead (Laurence as Temeraire's conscience/superego was one of my favorite aspects of this book -- even when they're separated, Temeraire thinks of what Laurence would say, e.g. about abandoning his egg to go looking for him) and then listens to him and puts one of the jalan commanders in charge, to her great relief. (This whole scene and the ones leading up to it actually reminded me a bit of Morrolan and Fentor in Lord of Castle Black, which is a compliment, as those were some of my favorite scenes.) So, that was good. And the way the addition of dragons and a massive Chinese force of dragons changed-and-yet-not the progress of the war was quite neatly done, too. I really liked the way the supply problems were very different but the war still hinged on supply, and the way the Chinese dragons were both a huge advantage and a liability (in terms of being able to keep them fed). Unlike all other parts of the historical war narrative in this series, Napoleon's invasion of Russia is something I've been familiar with since childhood, albeit more as hagiography than history, and so it was a very different feeling to read about people and place names in this part of the AU (and the words of "Borodino", which I once knew by heart, kept running through my head).
But there were things I didn't like, too. From a plot perspective, not having Lien in the field felt like such a cop-out. Like, it was handwaved adequately, with her having to stay back to educate the heir, but, really? I'm assuming Novik is saving her up for a confrontation between Temeraire and Lien in the final book and having them face each other in this battle would've sapped some of the anticipation from that final showdown, but I still had a hard time believing Lien would not be there to help out (maybe the amnesia just used up all my willing suspension of disbelief for the book...)
Much worse than that, though, were the Russian dragons. I'd been apprehensive about the crew going to Russia, because in my experience "fantasy Russia" is very seldom done well, or even adequately, by Western authors, but Novik is of Slavic/Soviet extraction (her mother is Polish and her father is of (then-Soviet) Lithuanian-Jewish ancestry, according to Wikipedia), so I was willing to hope she'd stand a better-than-average chance of getting it at least a little right. But, nope, I don't think she did. Which is such a pity, because Russia with Temeraire-verse dragons done properly would be fascinating! Instead we get something that works only on the level of a metaphor, and a really crude one at that -- bulky, belligerent, disinterested fighting dragons with no loyalty to anyone, an underclass of smaller dragon serfs, and dragons chained in the breeding grounds and kept from flying. This is all used to drive the plot, of course, and echo with Laurence's anti-slavery stance and Temeraire's general campaign for dragon rights -- and it feels like Novik also wanted to show that Britain was actually not that bad in its treatment of dragons, since the Far East is so much more enlightened, the dragons are largely in charge in Latin America, are revered in Africa, and France is coming along nicely under Lien's influence, too. But nothing about the portrayal of Russian dragons felt the least bit "real" to me, either from a historical or folkloric standpoint. Which is such a pity, because Russia actually does have a really strong mythology around dragons which is different from Western mythology. And it's not like I want actual three-headed dragons in the Russian Corps, but it would make so much sense for there to be *some* reference to this -- maybe mini-companies of dragons that fight in multiples of three, a kind of dragon troika, with the squabbling between the "heads" even. And from a historical standpoint, I would've expected the Russian dragon corps to be more heavily influenced by the German model (courtesy of Peter the Great). I mean, some of the elements are there -- conscription and poor treatment of the rank and file dragons -- but the way it's all set up didn't make any sense to me. And this business of giving the heavyweights only numbers, not names, made no sense to me either -- where did that come from? I really liked the way the Cossak dragons were portrayed, and wished there had been more of that sort of thing -- meeting one of them and talking to him, and/or dragons from other places/cultures in the Russian Empire, maybe dragon-back dzhigity or something. Instead, there's heavy-handed symbolism and plot trumping what could've been really cool world-building... :/ I mean, it's a fine line between "didn't write the book I wanted to read" and actual flaws, and it may be the former rather than the latter, but... the Russian dragons just really didn't work for me as they were.
Other aspects of Russian-ness were mixed as well. The names were OK for the most part, except for "Countess Andreyevna" -- that's, uh, a patronymic, and while you can sometimes refer to a person only by their patronymic, the connotations are more like "old man Joe" than the way you'd refer to a countess. Since googling "countess andreyevna" brings up mostly hits for Tolstoy's wife, I suppose this could be an attempt at homage or something, but, uh, no. But the one bit of actual Russian in the book is a five-word phrase which garners the impressive achievement of getting every single word wrong: "Boze Moje [...] Onii goryat Moskvye", which is meant to mean something like "My god, they set fire to Moscow", but: "boze" should be "bozhe" (while the word "boze" (bozi) exists in an archaic form, in "почил в бозе", that's a locative and has no place in this exclamation); "moje" should be "moj" -- though "bozhe" may not sound like it, it's masculine, being a vocative for of "bog" [god]; "onii" should have only one i, IMO -- I mean, it's a transliteration, so it's not like there's a "right" way to do it, but "onii" just looks needlessly weird; "goryat" (3rd person plural, present-tense from "goret'") is the intransitive form of "to burn", which is clearly not the sense here; and "Moskvye" -- which really ought to be written "Moskve", I think -- is the wrong case ending -- this phrase is using datel'nyj (crap... *wikis* right, dative) when it should be vinitel'nyj (accusative). Like, the only way this phrase could have come about is by using Google translate, and in this day and age, for an author who is so active online, where you can, you know, find people to verify things like this for you, hell, for an author who lives in NYC, that's really just lazy. :(
Back to things I enjoyed, or at least enjoyed more than the Russian dragons: It was good to see Tharkay again, though he didn't feel very much like a character in this so much as just Laurence's faithful companion. I will say, though that there were a couple of scenes involving Laurence, Granby and/or Tharkay which (once again) felt like they were deliberately leving an opening for some h/c slash. Like, when Laurence finds out about treason and comes into Granby's tent? And after Tharkay's rescue, when recovered-from-amnesia!Laurence is hanging out in his room and Granby come in and sits on the bed? I'll be disappointed if there isn't missing moment fic, is what I'm saying. The moment of Temeraire confronting a very confused Forthing about his slovenly habits was great, and his conversation with Ferris also. The dragons nearly drowning while trying to raise the ship was both tense and funny-in-retrospect, especially with Gaiters' commentary ("I should have liked to come back to England with three heavy-weights having drowned themselves not fifty miles from shore")
I am intrigued by the Iskierka/Temeraire egg, both as a plot point (I really wonder what hatches, since Mei seems to think Celestials can't get eggs on any other breed but Imperials), and as a source of amusement, Temeraire being obsessed with the number eight that is apparently displayed on the shell, and especially Laurence reaching for the phrases he had used for his newborn nephew when it's clear that compliments are expected from him upon being shown the egg.
Quotes:
"Laurence was not entirely satisfied: the lesser causes had evidently included abandoning the ship, their mission, and perhaps even setting off a war with Japan: all for his sake, and here was Temeraire making apology to him for not doing any of those things."
"[Temeraire] sounded an anxious mistress more than anything else, an odd mixture of plaintive and accusatory."
'"Well," Temeraire said, glad to exchange his own private surprise for authority.'
"For I am quite sure," [Temeraire] said, "that I would be able to break some of those earthworks, with the divine wind, and bowl over a great many of the gunners, so the Russians might be able to come at them."
"Yes," Chu said, having overheard and demanded to know what Temeraire was saying, "and you could also go and dig some ditches, for latrines; and I dare say if you wanted, you could try and cook our dinner, though it might not taste very well; and also you could go and dance for the troops, which at least would entertain them. None of that is your business: it is your business to stay here, and learn how a battle is managed properly, and then if a moment should arise where you may, through a decisive action, alter the course of the battle, you will be ready to act, and not worn out and too distracted to observe it."
<3 Chu
Interesting theory on the origins of Celestials (spoilery for this book)
I know I saw a couple of reviews on my flist earlier, and now I can't find most of them... link me?
31. Naomi Novik, Blood of Tyrants -- So I finished Blood of Tyrants and, I don't know, this was a really odd book. There were parts and aspects of it I enjoyed a fair bit, but on the whole I think it's one of my least favorite ones, and for a variety of reasons, not just one or two, as with other books in this series I didn't care for very much (e.g. Empire of Ivory or Tongues of Serpents). I guess I keep hoping for the series to come back to the level of Victory of Eagles, which I thought elevated it above "amusing fluff -- whee, dragons!", and it doesn't seem to be even trying for that, which is disappointing. Well, maybe in the next/last book. And if not, I guess it will feel fitting if VoE, which will be the exact middle of the series, stnads out like a jewel at the center of the crown... Spoilers from here!
The three parts really feel like three separate books, so it's hard to talk about it without the same sort of division. The first part, when Laurence and Temeraire are mostly separated, was pretty boring to me. I mean, Temeraire and Iskierka and Lily's wing and Kulingele were amusing, and the aviators trying to keep Temeraire from panicking at Laurence's absence and yet not haring off in search of him was fun, but rather one-note and there wasn't even a lot of that. Most of that part is taken up with amnesiac!Laurence in Japan, and, unless it's a set-up for something that's instrumental in the last book, I have no clue why all that needed to be there. There was nothing very interesting about amnesia-struck Laurence, and the people he has to deal with in Japan are, for the most part, as honorable and loyal and "death before dishonor" as Laurence himself, which might've been meant to serve as a foil for him but for me just translated into conflict that was pretty uninteresting (although the conversation where Kaneka offers him hara kiri as an option and Laurence is horrified because of the Christian view of suicide was pretty neat). Kiyo, the water-dragon with a love of booze and poetry, was fun, but didn't engage me as a character, and John Wampanoag, the American business-dragon also didn't feel much like a character, but provided an interesting glimpse into dragons in North America and makes me sad that we probably won't get to travel there (unless that's where Laurence and Temeraire end up, which would be kinda cheesy), and him wanting Hamilton for President rather endeared him to me (though Tecumseh as President is also quite interesting, of course), and everything else in that section I cared even less about.
Part 2, where Laurence has been reuninted with Temeraire and the crew, was much more fun. The amnesia finally could deliver some pay-off (more on that below), there was much more room for personal interaction with characters I actually enjoy, and the plot was more interesting to me, too. I didn't much enjoy all the Chinese politics in Throne of Jade, but military maneuvers with the Chinese corps were much more to my liking. I really liked General Chu (not surprising, because there's nothing about the combination of dragon and unimpressed old soldier that would not appeal to me; also, General Chu and Uncle Iroh should totally hang out together), and I liked the very competent more minor dragon officers we met, too. I think I would be happy to just read about army + dragons logistics all day long, basically, because that was my favorite part of the plot of this entire book, I think. Iskierka being jealous of Mei (and Mei having learned English meanwhile so she could understand her) was pretty funny, as was her goading of Temeraire about assassins, and Laurence trying to be a good roommate and not walk in on Temeraire and Mei at an awkward moment was hilarious (and Temeraire being all jealous of the time Laurence has been spending with Mrs Pemberton was funny, too). Those bits really felt like a welcome return to the earlier books.
Laurence's amnesia seemed like a terrible idea when the blurb about the book had just come out. Having read the whole thing, I still think it's a pretty terrible idea, because it's so credulity stretching and so unnecessary. I feel like the goal of the amnesia plot was to show how far Laurence had come in the years since meeting Temeraire, in terms of personal growth, but, like... I didn't feel like that actually came across? There's a scene after Laurence recovers his memory when he sees Granby and Little hanging out and realizes that the reason Little has been so uncomfortable around him is not because of treason but because he doesn't know if Laurence remembers that Little and Granby were lovers, and what he is going to do about it if he does. And Laurence thinks that the old him would have reported them or would have at least felt torn if choosing personal affection over duty to a rule he didn't agree with, and I don't believe the former but, yes, the latter would probably be true... but that's not really that much, you know? If "protagonist no longer feels quite as conflicted over doing the right thing" is the engine behind your amnesia arc... meh. And the whole thing where he can't remember the last eight years at all but everything else is perfectly clear is such an artificial setup -- such a soap-opera trope! I mean, even the in-universe it's remarked on as an unusual case, but that doesn't actually make it better.
That said, the amnesia did afford some poignant and very amusing moments. Laurence imagining Admiral Roland based on the letter and then having his mental image thrown in disarray by getting to the end and seeing it signed "Jane" was pretty great, and him trying to figure out if Emily is his kid was hilarious, especially when he had to resort to asking Temeraire about it. Granby and the other aviators trying not to tell him too much to avoid any further shocks and mostly failing was both amusing and sweet. Laurence noticing that he doesn't have a wedding band and thinking about Edith was gently sad, and Laurence clutching at Riley's name only to realize, from Granby's expression, that Riley is dead was probably the most moving moment in the book for me. What didn't work for me so well was Laurence finally discovering the treason he'd committed. I had a hard time believing that Temeraire had so little understanding of Laurence's condition (he's supposed to be pretty bright!) that he would just blurt it out like that, and then be surprised at the effects. Although Temeraire's continued anguish over "ten thousand pounds" was pretty funny, and Laurence's reaction to it. It was also neat to see what bits of memory came back first / what triggered Laurence's recovery, though I don't know that any of them make sense exactly.
Still, as someone who is very fond of the relationship between Laurence and Emily, I liked that the first thing from the eight years he remembers at all is the name "Roland" when talking about young men to whom he stands in loco parentis. And remembering everything when he sees Tharkay may make no sense, but it was still nice. And it was really such a relief to have Laurence address Temeraire as "my dear" for the first time after 2/3 of the book thinking of him as a clever and spirited animal whose company he inexplicably enjoyed. But none of this actually justifies the amnesia!
And then we got to part 3 and Russia and... this is where I'm conflicted, because the battles were pretty epic (and the starved dragons falling upon the wounded and eating them was probably the most horrific spectacle yet in these books), and I thought the historical figures were treated with a decent degree of respect, especially Kutuzuv (and the way he earns General Chu's respect as a fellow clever, non-reckless commander made me particularly happy), and I'm always happy to see Napoleon being his magnetic, showboating self, and Murat was quite wonderful, too (I actually don't know as much about him, but the scenes in which he appeared made me want to remedy that, and the subsequent Wikipedia crawl reminded me that he has some of the best last words ever). And there were more wonderful logistics, and General Chu trying to teach Temeraire more of the art of war than just charging in with divine wind (my favorite quote in the book comes from there), and of course General Chu's injury (as soon as he said he just wanted to retire to the mountains, he was DOOMED of course -- it was a pleasant surprise that he wasn't killed outright). I really liked the scene where, right after Chu is injured, Temeraire is nominally in command and wants to do the reckless, emotionally satisfying thing, but asks Laurence for advice instead (Laurence as Temeraire's conscience/superego was one of my favorite aspects of this book -- even when they're separated, Temeraire thinks of what Laurence would say, e.g. about abandoning his egg to go looking for him) and then listens to him and puts one of the jalan commanders in charge, to her great relief. (This whole scene and the ones leading up to it actually reminded me a bit of Morrolan and Fentor in Lord of Castle Black, which is a compliment, as those were some of my favorite scenes.) So, that was good. And the way the addition of dragons and a massive Chinese force of dragons changed-and-yet-not the progress of the war was quite neatly done, too. I really liked the way the supply problems were very different but the war still hinged on supply, and the way the Chinese dragons were both a huge advantage and a liability (in terms of being able to keep them fed). Unlike all other parts of the historical war narrative in this series, Napoleon's invasion of Russia is something I've been familiar with since childhood, albeit more as hagiography than history, and so it was a very different feeling to read about people and place names in this part of the AU (and the words of "Borodino", which I once knew by heart, kept running through my head).
But there were things I didn't like, too. From a plot perspective, not having Lien in the field felt like such a cop-out. Like, it was handwaved adequately, with her having to stay back to educate the heir, but, really? I'm assuming Novik is saving her up for a confrontation between Temeraire and Lien in the final book and having them face each other in this battle would've sapped some of the anticipation from that final showdown, but I still had a hard time believing Lien would not be there to help out (maybe the amnesia just used up all my willing suspension of disbelief for the book...)
Much worse than that, though, were the Russian dragons. I'd been apprehensive about the crew going to Russia, because in my experience "fantasy Russia" is very seldom done well, or even adequately, by Western authors, but Novik is of Slavic/Soviet extraction (her mother is Polish and her father is of (then-Soviet) Lithuanian-Jewish ancestry, according to Wikipedia), so I was willing to hope she'd stand a better-than-average chance of getting it at least a little right. But, nope, I don't think she did. Which is such a pity, because Russia with Temeraire-verse dragons done properly would be fascinating! Instead we get something that works only on the level of a metaphor, and a really crude one at that -- bulky, belligerent, disinterested fighting dragons with no loyalty to anyone, an underclass of smaller dragon serfs, and dragons chained in the breeding grounds and kept from flying. This is all used to drive the plot, of course, and echo with Laurence's anti-slavery stance and Temeraire's general campaign for dragon rights -- and it feels like Novik also wanted to show that Britain was actually not that bad in its treatment of dragons, since the Far East is so much more enlightened, the dragons are largely in charge in Latin America, are revered in Africa, and France is coming along nicely under Lien's influence, too. But nothing about the portrayal of Russian dragons felt the least bit "real" to me, either from a historical or folkloric standpoint. Which is such a pity, because Russia actually does have a really strong mythology around dragons which is different from Western mythology. And it's not like I want actual three-headed dragons in the Russian Corps, but it would make so much sense for there to be *some* reference to this -- maybe mini-companies of dragons that fight in multiples of three, a kind of dragon troika, with the squabbling between the "heads" even. And from a historical standpoint, I would've expected the Russian dragon corps to be more heavily influenced by the German model (courtesy of Peter the Great). I mean, some of the elements are there -- conscription and poor treatment of the rank and file dragons -- but the way it's all set up didn't make any sense to me. And this business of giving the heavyweights only numbers, not names, made no sense to me either -- where did that come from? I really liked the way the Cossak dragons were portrayed, and wished there had been more of that sort of thing -- meeting one of them and talking to him, and/or dragons from other places/cultures in the Russian Empire, maybe dragon-back dzhigity or something. Instead, there's heavy-handed symbolism and plot trumping what could've been really cool world-building... :/ I mean, it's a fine line between "didn't write the book I wanted to read" and actual flaws, and it may be the former rather than the latter, but... the Russian dragons just really didn't work for me as they were.
Other aspects of Russian-ness were mixed as well. The names were OK for the most part, except for "Countess Andreyevna" -- that's, uh, a patronymic, and while you can sometimes refer to a person only by their patronymic, the connotations are more like "old man Joe" than the way you'd refer to a countess. Since googling "countess andreyevna" brings up mostly hits for Tolstoy's wife, I suppose this could be an attempt at homage or something, but, uh, no. But the one bit of actual Russian in the book is a five-word phrase which garners the impressive achievement of getting every single word wrong: "Boze Moje [...] Onii goryat Moskvye", which is meant to mean something like "My god, they set fire to Moscow", but: "boze" should be "bozhe" (while the word "boze" (bozi) exists in an archaic form, in "почил в бозе", that's a locative and has no place in this exclamation); "moje" should be "moj" -- though "bozhe" may not sound like it, it's masculine, being a vocative for of "bog" [god]; "onii" should have only one i, IMO -- I mean, it's a transliteration, so it's not like there's a "right" way to do it, but "onii" just looks needlessly weird; "goryat" (3rd person plural, present-tense from "goret'") is the intransitive form of "to burn", which is clearly not the sense here; and "Moskvye" -- which really ought to be written "Moskve", I think -- is the wrong case ending -- this phrase is using datel'nyj (crap... *wikis* right, dative) when it should be vinitel'nyj (accusative). Like, the only way this phrase could have come about is by using Google translate, and in this day and age, for an author who is so active online, where you can, you know, find people to verify things like this for you, hell, for an author who lives in NYC, that's really just lazy. :(
Back to things I enjoyed, or at least enjoyed more than the Russian dragons: It was good to see Tharkay again, though he didn't feel very much like a character in this so much as just Laurence's faithful companion. I will say, though that there were a couple of scenes involving Laurence, Granby and/or Tharkay which (once again) felt like they were deliberately leving an opening for some h/c slash. Like, when Laurence finds out about treason and comes into Granby's tent? And after Tharkay's rescue, when recovered-from-amnesia!Laurence is hanging out in his room and Granby come in and sits on the bed? I'll be disappointed if there isn't missing moment fic, is what I'm saying. The moment of Temeraire confronting a very confused Forthing about his slovenly habits was great, and his conversation with Ferris also. The dragons nearly drowning while trying to raise the ship was both tense and funny-in-retrospect, especially with Gaiters' commentary ("I should have liked to come back to England with three heavy-weights having drowned themselves not fifty miles from shore")
I am intrigued by the Iskierka/Temeraire egg, both as a plot point (I really wonder what hatches, since Mei seems to think Celestials can't get eggs on any other breed but Imperials), and as a source of amusement, Temeraire being obsessed with the number eight that is apparently displayed on the shell, and especially Laurence reaching for the phrases he had used for his newborn nephew when it's clear that compliments are expected from him upon being shown the egg.
Quotes:
"Laurence was not entirely satisfied: the lesser causes had evidently included abandoning the ship, their mission, and perhaps even setting off a war with Japan: all for his sake, and here was Temeraire making apology to him for not doing any of those things."
"[Temeraire] sounded an anxious mistress more than anything else, an odd mixture of plaintive and accusatory."
'"Well," Temeraire said, glad to exchange his own private surprise for authority.'
"For I am quite sure," [Temeraire] said, "that I would be able to break some of those earthworks, with the divine wind, and bowl over a great many of the gunners, so the Russians might be able to come at them."
"Yes," Chu said, having overheard and demanded to know what Temeraire was saying, "and you could also go and dig some ditches, for latrines; and I dare say if you wanted, you could try and cook our dinner, though it might not taste very well; and also you could go and dance for the troops, which at least would entertain them. None of that is your business: it is your business to stay here, and learn how a battle is managed properly, and then if a moment should arise where you may, through a decisive action, alter the course of the battle, you will be ready to act, and not worn out and too distracted to observe it."
<3 Chu
Interesting theory on the origins of Celestials (spoilery for this book)
I know I saw a couple of reviews on my flist earlier, and now I can't find most of them... link me?