Reviews

In His Majesty's Service by Naomi Novik

stacey_the_chapter_conundrum's review against another edition

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3.0

I have such mixed feelings on this bind up oh my goodness and almost need to make separate comments for each of the original books included to make sense of everything!

The first book included, His Majesty's Dragon, is definitely a 4 star book for me. Temeraire is adorable and it's really enjoyable to read about him experiencing the world + the taste of battle scenes was interesting.

The second book included, Throne of Jade, is more of a 2 star read. I was largely bored during this section and was frustrated at various things but mostly that the main conflict of the story was just basically brushed off entirely with a much too simple solution after so much tension and that other conflicts were resolved super conveniently. We really didn't need an entire book in the series just for the purpose of introducing a new dragon into the mix and to get an idea of dragon life in other parts of the world which is essentially all that this book did for the series.

The third book included, Black Powder War, is more of a 2.5-3 star read for me. I found this one more enjoyable than Throne of Jade and enjoyed the pacing of and that it included more action in the second half but I was still pretty disappointed overall especially in regards to its' predictability. The first half was also basically more travelling like the bulk of the second book.

This series has basically gone downhill for me since the first installment and I'm not sure if I'll be continuing it in the future sadly despite really enjoying the first book.

Also of note, I don't recommend the scribd version of the audiobook! I found that certain portions were repeated, certain portions were missing and the final chapter of Black Powder War is missing entirely!! Thankfully I had the ebooks to fill in the gaps!

mssarahmorgan's review against another edition

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5.0

Swashbuckling with heart. And dragons!

alicantspell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0