Victory of Eagles (Temeraire)
by Naomi Novik
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Book Summary Information
Author: Naomi NovikEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-19
ISBN: 0345512251
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Del Rey
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345512253
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Victory of Eagles (Temeraire)
Book Review: too much contradiction
Summary: 1 Stars
This series was a fun read, but now it is simply getting too muddled. There are too many contradictions in key areas:
1 - Laurence bringing the cure to France (from the previous book, but the setup for this book): this was made so melodramatic, if it had to be a spur of the moment decision by Laurence. As Jane even points out in this book, there were so many other ways to take care of this. For instance, let the French dragons get sick, and then hold France hostage and force a surrender from Napoleon, then give the dragons the cure. Its not as though Napoleon is trying to kill you and wipe out your dragons, oh wait, yes he is. L and T's actions save a hundred or so dragons (who didn't have to die anyway) and let the war continue, and cost the lives of tens of thousands of British commoners and troops and dragons. That is treason and Laurence should have been shot on the spot.
Nevertheless, I waited for the paperback edition to see if Naomi could pull out a better story in V of E. Well she did not, in fact she continues:
2 - Temeraire is fighting, but does not use the divine wind - ???? He uses it once and kills a dragon with it. All these people and dragons dying, why not use this weapon if T is so eager to fight??? What better way to learn and be able to handle this weapon. The fire dragon uses her flame on other dragons, the ground, etc
3 - T fights dragons but rarely seems to kill them? Yet sometimes he does? Are they fighting a war or not? He often yells coward at the retreating, injured dragons, wow what a dumb animal. These dragons are coming back and killing T's dragons, friends, British soldiers, ships etc what is his (Naomi's) problem with using the weapons he has.
4 - Tactics and inconsistent results- Naomi needs to consult a war historian/tacticion: the british suck and the french have great tactics (apparently). Supposedly these groups have had dragons for at least a couple of hundred years, yet they do not know how to use them. It was a revelation in a previous book to use the dragons to ferry a bunch of soldiers, but really something that simple took a chinese dragon to introduce after all those years? Lets look at how this works: the French are moving their forces, and cannons etc in some leapfrog fashion (as painfully explained during the book) throughout the day. Yet when T and the other dragons try this sort of stuff for the British, they become tired very quickly. Well, so when the French march like this, why not simply attack them at the end of the day when the dragons are tired. Further the brits have acid throwing dragons - well, that is simple, simply fly over the French and spit acid down - it is going to go through everything including French dragons - opps, Naomi didn't think of that when she created those dragons. This is similar to the scene at the start of the book when the French dragons are shooting harpoons at the ships????? Really??? Sounds cool, but this means the dragons are coming within easy firing range and would suffer massive casualities from musket fire from the ships, or from attacks from British dragons. Naomi tries to justify this, but then, the french bring their rafts of soldiers across, without any British dragons being able to attack???? How come French dragons can get through ground fire etc, but British dragons can't? Which would be harder to attack for a dragon? A British gun ship or a French raft? Why not send an acid spitting dragon up against Napoleon's ships that are bottled up by the British Navy. Unfortunately, I could go on and on. I am not trying to nitpick, and this is fiction, but it would be nice to see some consistency. Another reviewer said something similar: it is hard to feel sorry for people that are so stupid (the brits).
5 - For some reason it seems bad that L and T and other dragons are going and killing the foragers from Nappy's army. This disgrace is heaped on top of the treason L has already committed. I don't get this at all, especially the way that Naomi describes it: the French have gone in to the first village and killed peasants to get food for the army and dragons, suddenly L and T feel justified to kill the French foragers. But then she waffles back on that and L,T and all the othere dragons and officers don't want to do this any more as somehow it is dishonorable. Wrecking supply lines has always been an important part of warfare, where is the dishonor in that. Were the peasants killed righteously by the French foragers? Why this reluctance to kill French men and dragons - they brought this war to your country - kill them - end of story. Napoleon certainly has no qualms about killing brits or their dragons.
5 - the battle scene at the end with the ships shooting cannon balls at all of the dragons. How far does Naomi think these cannon balls can fly? These are not modern day battleships and munitions. These are cannonballs with limited height and range. Can't the French dragons fly a bit higher?
6 - escape of Napoleon and Tien - really again, like someone else said, this sounds like a comic book. Tien killed Nelson and 14!!!! ships. None of the dragons, or the divine wind can be used against Napoleon's tent? A small dragon goes in and captures the captain from one dragon. Can't another one go in and pluck out Napoleon? After all they have just overwhelmed the french dragons. Tien is tired, why does Temeraire not go after her. Use the divine wind on her? She is being supported by two other dragons. How fast are the 3 of them flying? As fast as unencumbered, and unharnessed British dragons? Wasn't it in an earlier book where T was supporting some injured dragon and as a result they were flying very slowly.
Its too bad, Naomi has a good imagination to have developed this world. And it has some great potential. However, she has not pulled it off in this book and she needs to consult some experts to make her army tactics 'realistic'. The book has a very predictable rise and fall to the rhythmn and nothing good seems to happen to L and T. They should go back to China where L is a Prince and T is revered! I certainly am not left with any sympathetic feeling for Laurence's honor toward England. Especially because it is always causing massive problems for T.
Summary of Victory of Eagles (Temeraire)
For Britain, conditions are grim: Napoleon?s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon?s prime objective is the occupation of London. Unfortunately, the dragon Temeraire has been removed from military service?and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon?s forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war. If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain?s scattered resistance forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before?for king and country, and for their own liberty.Literature & Fiction Books
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