One of the better Temeraire books, so far. Don’t have much to say, because this is very-much-so payoff for five books worth of buildup, in terms of the Napoleonic war. Does NOT stand on it’s own. Read the other four first.
- Empire of Ivory (5 stars)
- I didn’t really like it when I read it the first time, but in retrospect it’s a banger. Solid plot, excellent structure, excellent characterization. Simply, Empire of Ivory has a stand-alone plotline which functions outside of the greater context of the series. While I personally enjoyed books like Black Powder War and Victory of Eagles more (I’m a sucker for military fantasy), BPW and VoE don’t stand on their own.
- Victory of Eagles (4 Stars)
- His Majesty’s Dragon (4 stars)
- Black Powder War (3.5 stars)
- I strongly enjoyed this both times I read it, due to it’s world-hopping story. I liked the worldbuilding of going everywhere and meeting everyone. But it’s plot is all over the place, in kinda a bad way. It had no core through-line uniting the different stories besides ‘this one lady dragon has a bit of a complex.’
- Throne of Jade (2.5 stars)
- Not bad, but in a series of bangers there has to be a red-headed stepchild.
Penric: The Adventure of the Demonic Ox
Penric book 14. A nice little story, nothing really to write home about. The A plot is that an ox has contracted a demon, and they struggle to contain it; it keeps trying to flee, using it’s ox-strength to plow over fences. The B plot is Penric struggling to come to terms with his children growing up, as they go with him on this adventure.
I am invested in this series, so I liked the character development Penric and his horde of children received. But I have to say that the A plot was kinda… insubstantial? I don’t want to be mean, but there were basically no impactful twists, no try-fail cycles, no new lore. The story featured the creation of a new sorcerer, which is the fifth time that’s happened in this series (Penric, Alexia, Otta, that dog sorcerer, and now Kittio). I don’t want to say the book is bad; I enjoyed Penric’s angst over his children’s futures. But I think this is the worst book in the series as a default because nothing happened.
I liked it, in the same way I like popcorn. It’s nice, but no calories. I’ll forget about it in a week. 2 stars out of 5. I default to giving good books 3 stars, and view 2 stars as readably fun but flawed in some way.
- Mira’s Last Dance (5 Stars)
- Penric and the Bandit (4.5 Stars)
- The Knot of Shadows (4.5 Stars)
- The Physicians of Vilnoc (4.5 Stars)
- Orphans of Raspay (4 Stars)
- Masquerade at Lodi (4 Stars)
- Penric’s Mission (4 Stars)
- The Assassins of Thasalon (4 Stars)
- Prisoner of Limnos (4 Stars)
- Demon Daughter (3.5 Stars)
- Penric’s Demon (3.5 Stars)
- Penric and the Shaman (3.5 Stars)
- Penric’s Fox (3.5 Stars)
- The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (2 Stars)
Book 2 of the Edan trilogy by Philip Chase. Chase took a fairly standard Quest Fantasy (defeat the Big Bad Evil Guy and his army of dragons) and pivoted it in a fun direction. In book 1, Dayraven must flee pursuit, as he’s chased by a misguided priesthood; in book 2, Dayraven must master his magical powers and employ them to defeat Bledla’s dragons.
I enjoyed this novel. I gave book one 5 stars, and this book 3.75 stars. (I default to giving good books 3 stars, and this novel is better than merely good.) And for reference, I like exactly this sort of Quest Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/Tolkien-inspired novel.
I feel the novel’s major flaw is ‘The Two Towers’ syndrome; a lot of wandering around, meeting new people, and fighting. ‘The Two Towers’ is arguably the weakest of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. I haven’t read book 3 of Edan yet, but I suspect that this is a case of ‘Middle Book’ syndrome.
Book 2 in the ‘Above the Black trilogy. Follows on the heels of book 1, the heroes must team up to travel to the lands hidden by the toxic fog and dangerous monsters. Betrayed at every turn by not only their morally dubious allies from the Kingdom, but also their enemies from below the fog who have infiltrated the Kingdom. I enjoyed the sense of tension in the story, and never knowing who you can trust. I’ll do an extended review when I finish the trilogy.
I enjoyed this book more than book 1, and I enjoyed book 1. This will probably end up being in the top 5 books I read this year, and depending on how book 3 turns out, this series will probably wind up being in the top 10 series I’ve ever read. I think part of the reason why I’m enjoying it so much is it has a FANTASTIC voice actor for it’s audiobook.
This is book 2 in a series, and often the second book in series suffer from ‘middle-book’ syndrome. I can’t say that here. This’s a good, clean adventure with clearly defined stakes, strong characterization, strong worldbuilding, solid pacing and plot. It had twists which I did see coming, so there was proper foreshadowing… and it also had twists I did not see coming, so the author was successful in writing intrigue.
When I review a book, I try to provide constructive criticism about something within a novel’s technical writing, but I struggle to do that here. If I really want to stretch, I’ll say that Bryce is a bit shallow for a FMC. Don’t get me wrong, Bryce doesn’t suck as a character: if I were a teacher grading her characterization, I’d give her a solid (B). But when you compare her personality to Conrad, or Pound or Sebastian, or even Ella, she doesn’t match up. I think the narrative could have focused a bit more on Bryce as a person in the second half of the novel, and that’s about the only critique I can really think of.
I feel like the author accomplished exactly what he set out to do. This novel is all-around good-to-great. If you have a YA reader on hand, throw this series at them.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 