REVIEW SUMMARY: A return to more of what made the start of this series great, Tremeraire again runs into Napoleon and his army as they invade Prussia. The book doesn't disappoint with some excellent military scenes and stories of personal heroism.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The saga of Tremeraire continues as his return from China is derailed by a sudden detour to Turkey. What follows is more of the political intrigue and mystery that was started in the previous novel, but ends with the group being smack in the middle of the French invasion of Prussia. The ending is strong and feels more like the first book in the series.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The land battles in the second half of the book are welcome excitement
CONS: The politics of Turkey are somewhat boring
BOTTOM LINE: If you have read the first two novels and enjoyed them, this one is worth a read

After feeling somewhat disappointed by Throne of Jade, I was similarly worried upon reading the first half of this book. Luckily, the pace picks up dramatically in the second-half and Novik delivers. The scenes she writes depicting the bumbling of the Prussian army and the sophistication of Napoleon's plans are excellent. The tactical battles themselves are fine, but the ideas she introduces around the use of sentient dragons into combat shows her recognition of how armies would adapt from using them as fighters or bombers and into troop transports and heavy weapons platforms.

Novik does some work on continuing the concerns that Tremeraire has about his fealty to the British crown, but nowhere near as much as the previous book. She does manage to advance the idea of dragons as actual characters and not simply plot devices, but not as much as I was hoping for. It is clear that Novik has more story to tell though - who knows where she will ultimately take it.

Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday May 06, 2007 at 11:35 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Post a Comment

Name:
Email Address:	(Will not be displayed)
URL:
Remember me?	Yes No
Comments: [Note: Do not paste from WYSIWYG programs like MS Word, or formatting code will appear in your comment.]