[Note: this review first appeared in my “Guest Reference Library” column in the January/February 2009 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.]
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
(Temeraire, book five), Del Rey, $25.00, 335pp, hc, 9780345496881. Fantasy / alternate history.
I’m a hard-SF guy all the way, so I read Naomi Novik’s first Temeraire novel, His Majesty’s Dragon, partly out of curiosity (who was this young author who’d sold her first three books as a trilogy, having never sold a novel before?). I read the second and third in rapid succession because the first grabbed me, and they were good.
Victory of Eagles is now the fifth book in the series that Peter Jackson has optioned for feature film production. This is a sequel that requires knowledge of the previous books to truly appreciate what’s going on. In short form, the series is the Napoleonic Wars in a world much like ours, except that intelligent dragons are part of the fauna, and these dragons are large enough to carry tens or even hundreds of people.
In this volume, Lawrence is living with the results of his treason at the end of Empire of Ivory. Lawrence is the second son of a British noble, and therefore lives a life defined and circumscribed by duty and honor. They dictate his career, actions, relationships, dress; everything about him. And thus, having willfully committed treason for a higher purpose, he is forced to live as an unexecutable, but condemned, man under his codes of duty and honor. Temeraire, his dragon, is under no such strictures.
Novik has adroitly created the world of two hundred years ago, and then inserted dragons which not only change the face of warfare, but inject a much more modern sensibility. Temeraire understands, to a degree, the difficult circumstances Lawrence finds himself in, but the much more pragmatic dragon is at a loss as to why they do not simply leave the land where Lawrence is condemned, and live elsewhere in peace.
This is the most depressing book of the series yet, suffused as it is by Lawrence’s dark mood and defeatist attitude. Even the high points are dimmed by his brooding fatalism. This book also seems to have the most fighting and military action per page.
Napoleon, with the help of Lien (the Chinese dragon who defected in order to avenge herself on Temeraire) has finally invaded England, and Napoleon (only seen from afar) has apparently taken her counsel to heart and to head far more easily than the British. Allowing Lien to dictate tactics for efficient dragon use, the invasion seems almost unbeatable, until the British officers are finally browbeaten into accepting dragons as thinking beings, rather than speaking beasts of burden. Then Temeraire’s nascent genius is allowed to shine, and the French suddenly find themselves with a worthy opponent.
Novik’s military tactics are wonderfully rendered, and the infusion of dragons into the mix only adds to the spice.