A child of the 80s, I grew up on a distorted view of Vietnam. Free love was a whispered aphorism that seemed almost impossible in the age of Ronald Reagan, televangelism, and HIV. Peace on earth, a barely remembered dream amidst the bluster of Cold War bravado and the cinematic blood lust of Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 60s were dead. But in its place, like some perverse cosmic satirist with a zeitgeist-altering pen, was a hyper-visualized mirror image that exaggerated its […]
Plenty of explosions, but not as many sweeping camera angles.
Bravely etched into the opening chapter of this book is the proclamation that the harrowing account of the attack in Benghazi will not include a rundown of the crimes, real or imagined, of the Obama administration. This is not a political book. And thank Christ for that. Don’t get me wrong, I love history, and I see politics as history experienced unclouded by the mists of time. I enjoy reading about political machinations, and try to view the world through various partisan lenses. But there […]
This is war. Chaos. Chance. Death.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I am loving the Red Rising series. I’m pre-grieving my reading and finishing of the next and final book. But, I’m also so addicted that as soon as the library checks it out to me, I’m going to devour it. This is dystopian fiction at its finest: fully fleshed out, incredibly exciting, completely believable, deeply poetic. The protagonist, Darrow has my heart. He’s driven, he’s thoughtful, he’s pure but emotional, and he’s young and beautiful. The villains of the […]
Temeraire Down Under
Let’s be real: Temeraire is the Forrest Gump of dragons. He goes everywhere, just when the action where he happens to be is most important. World history hinges on his behavior. He meets all the famous people and gets to be on a first name basis with all of them. And we get to go with him and see the entire world. THE ENTIRE WORLD! This time, we get on a dragon transport and travel with Will Laurence and Temeraire to Australia. Having had a […]
But how does a dragon feel about going into battle?
Back into battle with Laurence and Temeraire! Napoleon’s the bad guy! Easy and fun to read! But wait, first we have to get Laurence and Temeraire back together, because Laurence has been sentenced to death for treason for saving all the dragons in the world (<cough>Mary Sue<cough>), and Temeraire is moping in the breeding grounds in Wales. This is an opportunity for Novik that she jumps all over, and I think the reader is the big winner: we finally get to read from Temeraire’s POV. […]
Never get involved in a land war in Asia
I will admit, I thought I might be out-smarting these books, with the formula all figured out, but this one, the third in the “Temeraire” series, totally took me on a ride. Delightful, surprising, and exciting. Well played, Novik. Black Powder War bothers with barely any passage of time after Throne of Jade. The company is still in China, preparing for travel back to England, when natural disaster and politics coincide and intervene, causing Laurence and Temeraire to take their scrappy crew of aviators overland […]
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