Yeah, I was impressed she was able to pull off a reasonably plausible happy ending for El and Orion.
I also like Temeraire better -- both the premise (which I still think is one of the most fun things in recent fantasy!) and some individual books (I think Victory of Eagles is a really, really good book) and characters. I do think that you can unfortunately tell that Novik kind of lost interest in the series because it was so long, and so you get some real lows (a big chunk of Blood of Tyrants). And because it is so long, I've kind of stopped recommending Temeraire to people unless they have a specific interest in dragons or Regency fantasy, even though I still like it a lot. (I actually think Novik's standalones, Spinning Silver and Uprooted, are her best in terms of, like, objective ambition and payoff, though both are definitely still flawed and occasionally frustrating, but it's also nice to have something longer to sink into, of course.)
I hadn't thought to consider Temeraire and Scholomance together before, and doing so as a result of this comment leaves me with the following: my favorites from each as a team, Liesel and Perscitia, would be a terrifyingly brilliant force! :D
I also like Temeraire better -- both the premise (which I still think is one of the most fun things in recent fantasy!) and some individual books (I think Victory of Eagles is a really, really good book) and characters. I do think that you can unfortunately tell that Novik kind of lost interest in the series because it was so long, and so you get some real lows (a big chunk of Blood of Tyrants). And because it is so long, I've kind of stopped recommending Temeraire to people unless they have a specific interest in dragons or Regency fantasy, even though I still like it a lot. (I actually think Novik's standalones, Spinning Silver and Uprooted, are her best in terms of, like, objective ambition and payoff, though both are definitely still flawed and occasionally frustrating, but it's also nice to have something longer to sink into, of course.)
I hadn't thought to consider Temeraire and Scholomance together before, and doing so as a result of this comment leaves me with the following: my favorites from each as a team, Liesel and Perscitia, would be a terrifyingly brilliant force! :D
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