Booklog: Dragons and Lubbocks

[nebroadwe]

Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles

Temeraire has set his teeth to endure rustication in the breeding grounds of Wales, Will Laurence's life hostage to his good behavior after their joint betrayal of England in Empire of Ivory. But when word comes of Napoleon's cross-Channel invasion and the loss of the prison ship on which Laurence was held, Temeraire gathers his fellow dragons to go and fight for the country he still considers his own territory, though its leaders still refuse to acknowledge draconic sapience. This book has a strangely transitional feel to it, despite the leap into alt-hist of the most spectacular sort -- the Great Events of Napoleon's English campaign are ably and dramatically imagined, but both Temeraire's and Laurence's development as characters in response to these events doesn't even come close to a climax. The disjunction is probably necessary -- in isolation, I quite enjoy watching Laurence come to terms with his status as a traitor (Tharkay, making a welcome return, has some pointed remarks on the subject) and decide who he is now and where his allegiance lies, while Temeraire makes his first, naive forays into politics, without either of them solving all their problems quickly. But it leaves the real work of maturation for the next book (during which I seriously hope, by the way, that Iskierka gets her comeuppance, but I think it more likely that Granby will end up a drunkard from having to deal with her, as any sane person would). Nevertheless, the chess-game between the French and English forces combined with the personal struggles of our protagonists make for a cracking good read. Those worried that the series is likely to devolve into formula need not fear for that anytime soon -- not only does Waterloo (or its equivalent) still lie in the future, so does Catholic emancipation (and after watching Novik bring Wellsley and Talleyrand to life, I'd love to see her do Dan O'Connell), and the next book promises yet another look at the wider world of humans and dragons. Recommended.

Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways

Charmain Baker, bored with her respectable upbringing, wants nothing more than to work in the Royal Library. Instead, she's been sent by her Great-Aunt Sempronia to look after her wizardly Great-Uncle William's cottage while he's in elvish hospital. Her only talent reading, Charmain finds the mess that awaits her at the cottage -- with its corridors tangling through space and time, breeding laundry, very nervous dog, and apprentice who can't tell his right hand from his left -- all but insupportable. As the kobolds go on strike and an evil lubbock threatens to take over the kingdom, Charmain would hide away among her uncle's books, except that she knows she needs to learn to make her own way. Too short, this one -- Charmain makes a fascinating imperfect heroine (the equally if differently self-centered Peter is a good foil for her) and the take-over-the-country plot is serviceable, but the lubbock and its children don't spend enough time on-stage to develop into truly frightening menaces. But the book has a Nesbit-like feel to its domestic interiors, with cash-poor royalty living like the middle-class and middle-class characters depicted as kings and queens in their home-castles, and the minutiae of daily living (cooking, eating, washing-up) are an integral part of the fantasy. Jones is at one of her bests dropping her characters into a domestic emergency and detailing how they cope -- Charmain and Peter's laundry adventure is as much fun as the grand chase-and-exposure at the end. Howl, Sophie and Morgan contribute plentifully to the chaos, but I was just as happy to see Jamal and his dog take a hand in the action. Not quite as good as it could have been with a slightly longer middle, but good enough. Fans will appreciate.

Comments

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for Diana Wynne Jones to become Dame Diana Wynne Jones someday (or at least to get some mention on the honors list) for her work. I've been reading her stuff since grade school and have never yet had any reason to say, "Okay, that's it. I've outgrown this stuff." (Paging Anne McCaffrey, Katherine Kurtz, and others.)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

cool. I've never been that fond of her to be honest. I've read a lot of it. Quite a bit, I never finished. But I keep trying her unlike say, oh Laurell Hamilton

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Everything I've heard about Hamilton leads me to put her in the category of "not touching that with a ten-foot stick and a full HAZMAT suit". Brrr.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

her first stuff wasn't bad but it degenerated fast. Real fast. What used to torque me off was critics sayind how descriptve she was, how you felt like you were in St, Louis and frankly I thought exactly the opposite so I handed a few to a friend who lived there and she couldn't recognize the city from this woman's work