50 in '08: 13
May. 19th, 2008 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: Empire of Ivory
Author: Naomi Novik
This is a book I've had for a while but haven't read it due to a general not-readingness (if that even makes sense, which it probably doesn't) and a niggling feeling that "oh, this can't be as good as the first three Temeraire books...."
Which it isn't.
It's BETTER.
I started in on it this afternoon at work after the power went down and I was thus unable to use either computer or electric typewriter so I could literally do nothing in my queue. I stopped for precisely two things: the drive home (with its inherent stop at the community garden where, I am pleased to report, my plants have gone wild over the heat), and a phone call from my husband. Yes, that is correct, I was eating through dinner, fork in one hand, book in the other. It was that gripping. And unlike a John Ringo novel, it didn't leave me feeling empty at the end the way one does after feasting on junk food.
I admit that while, yes, I've read all six of Jane Austen's novels, I haven't read that much Regency literature. (Northanger Abbey, in fact, left me with a mild case of wariness regarding Regency novels!) That said, I love the way the author's voice feels "period" at certain points. I love the details she puts in that flesh this world out. When a Lady Catherine showed up, I stopped and adjusted myself mentally just in case the name was a reference. I'm also feeling the need to pull out my copy of She and reread it, since I'm wondering how much Novik might've drawn inspiration from it for the interior-of-Africa scenes and scenery. The novel ends with her usual "holy crap I can't believe she just did that when is the next book out please say tomorrow?!" ending, which, while not tomorrow, I'm pleased to say Amazon.com lists as July 8th, so less than two months off. And, huh, looks like Victory of Eagles is getting a hardback release too! Plus her, mmm, call it "postscript chapter" has made it crystallize for me more than the first three did that this world she is writing about is balanced on the cusp of a massive change, and I have the pretty solid feeling Laurence and Temeraire are the pivot point for this change.
In other words, like the first three books in this series, highly recommended. Go read!
Author: Naomi Novik
This is a book I've had for a while but haven't read it due to a general not-readingness (if that even makes sense, which it probably doesn't) and a niggling feeling that "oh, this can't be as good as the first three Temeraire books...."
Which it isn't.
It's BETTER.
I started in on it this afternoon at work after the power went down and I was thus unable to use either computer or electric typewriter so I could literally do nothing in my queue. I stopped for precisely two things: the drive home (with its inherent stop at the community garden where, I am pleased to report, my plants have gone wild over the heat), and a phone call from my husband. Yes, that is correct, I was eating through dinner, fork in one hand, book in the other. It was that gripping. And unlike a John Ringo novel, it didn't leave me feeling empty at the end the way one does after feasting on junk food.
I admit that while, yes, I've read all six of Jane Austen's novels, I haven't read that much Regency literature. (Northanger Abbey, in fact, left me with a mild case of wariness regarding Regency novels!) That said, I love the way the author's voice feels "period" at certain points. I love the details she puts in that flesh this world out. When a Lady Catherine showed up, I stopped and adjusted myself mentally just in case the name was a reference. I'm also feeling the need to pull out my copy of She and reread it, since I'm wondering how much Novik might've drawn inspiration from it for the interior-of-Africa scenes and scenery. The novel ends with her usual "holy crap I can't believe she just did that when is the next book out please say tomorrow?!" ending, which, while not tomorrow, I'm pleased to say Amazon.com lists as July 8th, so less than two months off. And, huh, looks like Victory of Eagles is getting a hardback release too! Plus her, mmm, call it "postscript chapter" has made it crystallize for me more than the first three did that this world she is writing about is balanced on the cusp of a massive change, and I have the pretty solid feeling Laurence and Temeraire are the pivot point for this change.
In other words, like the first three books in this series, highly recommended. Go read!
