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o_romeo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Infidelity, Slavery, Excrement, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ladypalutena's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This is the first book where Temeraire and Laurence are separated, and as such, we get Temeraire's point of view by himself. It differs just a bit from the way Laurence's is written, and it really makes you realize that while he is a remarkable dragon, he's still very young and naive in the ways of the world. While Laurence has managed to avoid immediate execution, he's still been separated from Temerarire and is being held prisoner on the Goliath, the ship he started his naval career on. Temerarire has been sent to the breeding grounds in Wales, and only agrees to cooperate as long as Laurence is still alive. And by cooperate, I mean, "exist," because he certainly does not want to mate with any other dragons.
This is an emotional book, and the first one where, if I did not know there were four other books after, I would have assumed this was the final book in the series. So much happens, and at the same time, there's a lot of waiting around or a lot of repetition - although I guess war does get dull after a while, with the watching and the waiting and then the skirmishing and withdrawal.
I am still upset that they killed Woolvey (or however you spell his name) while trying to free Granby from Buckingham Palace. It would have been no small thing to have had him injured and taken him with them, and then at least Edith would not have been left a widow, with a new child with measles, in the 1800s.
Temeraire matures immensely over this book, and he finally comes to understand why Laurence has been drilling obedience into him all these years (and I believe it's been about three or four years since he was hatched? The timeline is a little iffy to me, since I know very little about the Napoleonic wars), and when he realizes everything that Laurence has sacrificed to keep him safe - it was very emotional.
Now, of course, they're being banished again, to another long sea voyage to New South Wales, and I really hope that this voyage is skipped over in the in-between time between books, like Laurence's trial, because I don't know if I could take another book like the second one, where the majority of the book was just them traveling to China via ship.
This is an emotional book, and the first one where, if I did not know there were four other books after, I would have assumed this was the final book in the series. So much happens, and at the same time, there's a lot of waiting around or a lot of repetition - although I guess war does get dull after a while, with the watching and the waiting and then the skirmishing and withdrawal.
Temeraire matures immensely over this book, and he finally comes to understand why Laurence has been drilling obedience into him all these years (and I believe it's been about three or four years since he was hatched? The timeline is a little iffy to me, since I know very little about the Napoleonic wars), and when he realizes everything that Laurence has sacrificed to keep him safe - it was very emotional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Dementia