A review by see_sadie_read
In His Majesty's Service by Naomi Novik

4.0

His Majesty's Dragon - 5★

Oh, I quite enjoyed this one. I found the contrast between Laurence's prim Navy ways and life with an unpredictable dragon endearing. I enjoyed watching his growing affection for Temeraire and Temeraire's honest open love. I did find some of it predictable and it didn't really have much of an ending, since this is the first of a much longer series. But I'm looking forward to book two.

Throne of Jade - 3.5★

I still loved the characters and the writing and the world-building (dragon species, etc) was still astounding, but honestly I found this book a bit dull. The vast majority was comprised of traveling. While there were a few battles with [insert opponent here], most were just random encounters in the course of oceanic transport. There were very few events of actual importance to the plot. What little there was, was crowded in the last 1/4 or so of the book. Even then, Laurence's reticence to push people/dragons for further information left the reader wanting information. Still a good book, but I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first.

Black Powder War - 3.5★

My review of this Black Powder War is very much the same as Throne of Jade. I adored His Majesty's Dragon, but though I still enjoyed the writing, characters and world building of these latter books, the continued shift toward the war and politics as the primary focus of the story bored me. Plus, the fact that the books all seem to end without conclusion is annoying. I'm just not willing to dedicate myself to 5 more books in the hope of an ending. And that's if the 8th book, published just this year, is an actual conclusion, as opposed to just the most recent book with more to come. So having reached the last page of my third 300+ book in the series I am calling it quits.

Again, the voice of these characters is wonderful. Novik has really created very detailed draconic strata based largely on dragon size and ability. There is a lot of subtle humour and history is deftly merged with fantasy. So for the right reader this is probably a full-on five star book, as book one was for me. I, however, can't drag my rating up that high for something I wasn't less disappointed in.