Blood of Tyrants

Delightful - this book is so much more fun than the last two or three, for reasons I can't talk about without MAJOR PLOT spoilers:
So the amnesia plot was genius. Unlikely in and of itself, but I am reading a series of novels about talking dragons - I am perfectly happy to accept amnesia when it gets us back to a wonderfully confused Laurence cast adrift and friendless, getting by on politeness, cunning, honor and luck. This is the BEST Laurence, and so much more fun than the depressed Laurence we've had since at least Book 5. And then all the feels with Laurence and Temeraire having amnesisa-driven misunderstandings, but really even amnesiac Laurence loves Temeraire and omg it is the best. And delightful new characters and old favorites and crazy shenanigans.

It all gets heavier and less fun for me when they arrive in Russia, and continues to get darker as the book goes on - the last 20 or so pages were hard to read, because I was quite sure it was going to all go badly even before it did. And now how are we all going to deal with the wait until the next (and I think final) book? Hopefully with fanfic - don't let me down, internet!

ETA: The major spoilery plot point of the first third of the book seems to be a love it or hate it thing, based, I suspect, on what you're reading for. I'm reading for relationships first, shenanigans second, and battles not really very much at all - if you're reading for battles first and relationships not very much at all, you'll probably like the last third of this book best and the first third least. ( )

This is less a novel in its own right and more a continuation of the series to date, but I’m perfectly okay with that. I signed up for world travels, impatient dragons, social commentary, historical shenanigans, and adventure more than anything, and Novik definitely delivered.

Really, this book comes in three parts—Japan, China, and Russia. Each of them is a strong micro-story that shines a new window onto How Everyone Deals With Dragons, one of the major themes of the series, and also the alternate early-1800s setting in general. I’ll confess it’s a continual guilty delight to visit places like Edo Japan and the Forbidden City through this series, and by guilty, I mean that I know it’s at least slightly ahistorical and definitely fictionalized and I should be reading serious and #ownvoices work instead, but it’s so much fun.

There’s plenty of action and drama in each section—a midnight escape, a battle in the mountains, the whole thing with Napoleon—as well as a lot of humour. The dragons are definitely as self-involved and impatient and dragonish as they’ve ever been, the diplomatic attaché gets to shine, there’s often a strong sense of “well, I guess this might as well happen”, and there’s even some laughing at Laurence who, with memory loss, has often has no idea what he’s getting himself in for or is missing key information.

And I think I might be in the minority here, because I’ve seen comments about people not liking Laurence’s amnesia as a plot element, but I liked how Novik used it to not just contrast his present life with his past but also to refresh everyone on some of the major parts of the series, like Admiral Rowland and the sheer level of international chaos Laurence and Temeraire have created, that readers might equally have forgotten. All the refreshing raises the stakes a little too. Will Laurence remember that key fact in time? Will he still react the same to that situation? Will Temeraire’s renewed protectiveness cause even more trouble?

All in all, I liked the story! It’s about as solid and entertaining as the rest of the series, and I enjoyed all the new characters Novik introduced, the plot twists, the action, everything. I did not enjoy the cliffhanger that much, but who ever does? Not the book to start with in the series, that’s for sure, but a good continuation of what’s come before!

To bear in mind: Many, many Asian people being written by a white woman, though she does it well and respectfully imo. Man with amnesia due to brain trauma, which is occasionally played for sympathetic laughs. Serious cases of dragon abuse. Mentions of the opium trade. Politics.

7/10 ( )

has Lawrence and Temeraire in Japan, China and Russia. Thankfully, we are spared the long travel segments. I'm recently exhausted by those. The first half of the book has a twisty device - Lawrence has amnesia from a head blow and near drowning. He gets to consider his previous actions from outside himself; as well as acknowledge his gut connection with Temeraire without remembering any of their history. ( )

Temeraire #8 ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2019/03/201930-blood-of-tyrants-naomi-novik.html ( )