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A review by bansh3equeen
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
4.0
I found the 'Black Powder War' to be a solid addition to the Temeraire series, though out of the 3 I have read, it is definitely not my favourite. I found the first part of the book to be slow going for me, and I did have to push myself to keep reading, however once Part I was complete and Part II began, this was no longer a problem for me.
I was gratified to see the continuing development of characters and found myself liking the new addition to the cast by the end of the novel, and am hopeful he will continue on in further books. I was surprisingly struck by an event in the book which I did not see coming, however on reflection I found it to be a welcome addition to the overall story.
This novel (like most in this series I suspect) has a lot of detail on military tactics and descriptions - which is not a topic I would normally find interesting, however in this case, I found myself intrigued and even wondering 'Huh... I wonder what really happened at this battle? Should I google that?' To me this is a credit to the writer that can take a topic (military history) and make it appealing to someone who would otherwise find it a snooze. Dragons make everything interesting!
The writing and language was in keeping with the other books in the series so far, with dialogue especially being structured in a very formal way. On occassion I had to re-read a sentence to get the right inflection of tone, but otherwise I found it very well done.
I would rate this book closer to a 3.5 or 3.75 stars, however I would much rather give a higher star than a lower one as I think this book was a solid contributor to the overall series. I am looking forward to picking up the next one.
I was gratified to see the continuing development of characters and found myself liking the new addition to the cast by the end of the novel, and am hopeful he will continue on in further books. I was surprisingly struck by an event in the book which I did not see coming, however on reflection I found it to be a welcome addition to the overall story.
This novel (like most in this series I suspect) has a lot of detail on military tactics and descriptions - which is not a topic I would normally find interesting, however in this case, I found myself intrigued and even wondering 'Huh... I wonder what really happened at this battle? Should I google that?' To me this is a credit to the writer that can take a topic (military history) and make it appealing to someone who would otherwise find it a snooze. Dragons make everything interesting!
The writing and language was in keeping with the other books in the series so far, with dialogue especially being structured in a very formal way. On occassion I had to re-read a sentence to get the right inflection of tone, but otherwise I found it very well done.
I would rate this book closer to a 3.5 or 3.75 stars, however I would much rather give a higher star than a lower one as I think this book was a solid contributor to the overall series. I am looking forward to picking up the next one.