{"id":710,"date":"2010-09-27T22:43:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T22:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=710"},"modified":"2024-01-21T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T20:23:00","slug":"novik_06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2010\/09\/novik_06\/","title":{"rendered":"Novik, Naomi: (06) Tongues of Serpents<\/cite>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tongues of Serpents<\/cite><\/strong> is the most recent book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. I enjoyed it, but those who aren’t delighted by the changes Novik is making to 19th-century history are likely to find it harder going.<\/p>\n

This is the one where they go to Australia (rather like Empire of Ivory<\/cite><\/a> is the one where they go to Africa). The opening section is set in the British colony of New South Wales, which, as Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series had led me to expect, is quite a miserable place. Then there’s an extended travel section, which goes faster the second time around, when I knew that (small spoiler, ROT13) gurl raq hc pebffvat gur ragver pbagvarag, and the denouement.<\/p>\n

This book has two terrific reveals, some exciting action scenes, and multiple political\/worldbuilding developments that had me wriggling with delight. But it also has a lot of cheerlessness and not much happening, particularly in the middle travel section. And I continue to feel that the secondary characters are underdeveloped. Previously I was thinking that an omniscient viewpoint would help, à la the Aubrey-Maturin books, but now I think that instead, it’s not the type of viewpoint but the choice of viewpoint characters: Laurence and Temeraire are just not going to notice enough to give me a rounded perspective on most of those around them.<\/p>\n

Finally, there are three more books in the series. As a result, I don’t mind the emotional state that Laurence is left in, but other people have had different reactions.<\/p>\n

In short: it’s a Temeraire book, with a little more of the weaknesses of the series than strengths. If you’ve been reading, that probably tells you enough of what you want to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tongues of Serpents is the most recent book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. I enjoyed it, but those who aren’t delighted by the changes Novik is making to 19th-century history are likely to find it harder going. This is the one where they go to Australia (rather like Empire of Ivory is the one where … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Novik, Naomi: (06) Tongues of Serpents<\/cite>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,15,22],"tags":[335],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-sf-and-fantasy","category-temeraire","tag-novik-naomi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2513,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions\/2513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}