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deckofdragons's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Slavery
Minor: Homophobia
szuum's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, and Animal death
Moderate: Sexism
rini's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Slavery, Homophobia, Violence, and Vomit
ailsaod's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Well this book is a roller-coaster! There are a couple sections that are quite slow paced but this never lasts long and much of the book flies past at breakneck speed. Often the events that signal an acceleration of the pace are quite jarring (one in particular made me almost think I had accidentally skipped a page) but the characters find these events equally jarring so I do not necessarily think this is a bad thing!
This book breaks from the pov traditions previously present in the series (first only Laurence and then Laurence and Temeraire from book 5 onwards) and gives us a delightful prologue from Hammond's pov which is hilarious for many many reasons I don't want to spoil.
Laurence and Temeraire take a bit of a back seat in this book although are still the main characters and the spotlight is on Granby and Iskierska as well as somewhat on Hammond. As a result I want someone to hit Hammond soooooo badly now.
Also can I just say that I am so glad Novik is keeping O'Dea around as every time he gloomily tells people his tidings of woe I have to laugh. How is this man so dramatic??
This book does deal with some heavier topics such as colonialism, nationalism, slavery and associated racism - which are not unusual for the series - but there is also an appearance of period typical homophobia that I personally found somewhat upsetting. Laurence may be pretty woke for the era but he's not woke enough for this. While this isn't in any way unexpected and I wouldn't have expected otherwise it was sad to see.
Also if you are a fan of Tharkay then I'm afraid you are straight out of luck as he is nowhere to be seen! A truly heartbreaking occurrence!!!
This book breaks from the pov traditions previously present in the series (first only Laurence and then Laurence and Temeraire from book 5 onwards) and gives us a delightful prologue from Hammond's pov which is hilarious for many many reasons I don't want to spoil.
Laurence and Temeraire take a bit of a back seat in this book although are still the main characters and the spotlight is on Granby and Iskierska as well as somewhat on Hammond. As a result I want someone to hit Hammond soooooo badly now.
Also can I just say that I am so glad Novik is keeping O'Dea around as every time he gloomily tells people his tidings of woe I have to laugh. How is this man so dramatic??
This book does deal with some heavier topics such as colonialism, nationalism, slavery and associated racism - which are not unusual for the series - but there is also an appearance of period typical homophobia that I personally found somewhat upsetting. Laurence may be pretty woke for the era but he's not woke enough for this. While this isn't in any way unexpected and I wouldn't have expected otherwise it was sad to see.
Also if you are a fan of Tharkay then I'm afraid you are straight out of luck as he is nowhere to be seen! A truly heartbreaking occurrence!!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Slavery
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