Reading roundup: League of Dragons, + Deadpool

[hamsterwoman]

43. Naomi Novik, League of Dragons (Temeraire #9 and last) -- non-spoilerly: I enjoyed it a lot, though to a large part, I think due to my expectations being VASTLY lowered by Blood of Tyrants, a book that disappointed me quite strongly (and my feelings actually became more negative as time went on -- it was actually my answer to the most

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[hamsterwoman]

I did enjoy this book better than the last one, but to me it had an air of the author being tired of the whole thing, and wanting to be done with it as quickly as possible.

I agree with this statement in all parts. I do think she was tired of the series and wanting to wrap it up as quickly as possible, but maybe because she could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I do think it was a better book than the previous one. ("Dobby is free!")

One thing that was interesting to me in the interview I linked is that Novik says she's both a discovery writer and that she's known where the series would end/had the major stuff plotted out from the moment she started doing research for book 6 (i.e. the one after VoE). I'm gonna guess that this made the series less interesting to her to actually write from that point on, or maybe she felt like she had to check off certain elements from that point on, instead of letting things grow organically, and I think it shows -- maybe not in the objective quality of the books, I dunno, but definitely in the enjoyment I've derived from them. Things have felt a lot more perfunctory since then.

The Parliament stuff happening offscreen was a disappointing choice for sure, but I guess if she wanted it to be part of what led to the victory, it had to happen offscreen because Laurence and Temeraire were both tied up at the front and I don't think we've had any other POV characters? So the book would've had to have a different shape for that to be shown in full -- but I would have welcomed that.

But I'm less puzzled by the exclusion of that than by the exclusion of a climactic face-off between Temeraire and Lien, because they were both already right there! So I'm guessing that one, at least is an intentional choice, just one I find... strange.