jack

Oh dear, I seem to be on a roll of controversial posts... Oops, I'm sorry :) Let's talk about Temeraire now, I wonder if that will be.

I'm sure you remember my thoughts on Temeraire. Say "Hornblower with Dragons!" and it's almost exactly what you expect, fun, wonderful world, not particularly deep or senseful :) Other of my favourite books include "Hornblower in space!", Larry Niven's Mote in God's eye, and "Hornblower on Land," ie. Sharpe, and so on :)

I expected Throne of Jade to be the same thing but rehashed, but was interested enough to know what was going to happen to read it. In fact I was pleasantly surprised, it was improved in many respects. Most of the comments apply to the second book, some are from the third book. I read them consecutively and blurred them together.

Things improved since the first book:

* The first book has a Mary-Sue "oh-so-speshul" problem, where Temeraire is so disproportionately awesome because he's a special breed of dragon from the orient, letting him blow away all problems. However, now, this actually comes back and bites him, because he spends two books being uprooted and dragged round the world and back to suffer delicate diplomacy and having all his assumptions turned upsidedown, and surmounting *that* is a lot more meaningful than the accident of birth was.

* I like a lot of the minor characters. OK, all the other characters but Laurence and Temeraire are minor characters, but they're painted vividly with the attention they get. Riley is friendly, Longxing justifiedly arrogant, Sun Kai calm and kickass, Liu Bao jolly, Volly stupid but nice, Tharkay endlessly enigmatic.

* All the events, the people's motivations, and the societal constructs make sense from their own perspective most of the time, rather than invariably only being dragged in to illustrate a main character.

* We *do* find out where Temeraire came from and why his egg was sent to Europe, and it *does* make sense.

* There's musings about Dragons, their place in society, their intellegence, their rights, their similarities and differences from humans, and the differences between China and Europe, which is what I wanted. It doesn't establish anything particular, but it does face up to the questions raised by the world described in the first book.

* It's funny in the right places.

* It has semicolons.

Remaining problems:

* In the second book, nothing happens. The only question to be resolved is the big one since the beginning of the first book -- why was Temeraire's egg sent away from China? And will he be allowed to stay in Britain? Which is unresolved until near the end, where someone just tells them. They don't really *suceed* in finding it out. And all the intermediate problems of the journey, etc, are clearly going to be surmounted immediately, so there's nothing interesting and no tension apart from waiting for the end.

* However, the third book (while less about Chinese dragon society) is a lot better with the action -- there they race back and forth about the world, surmounting problem after problem and changing direction as they uncover more and more.

* They still don't talk to each other when it would resolve the plot too soon. Temeraire is an important dragon to the Chinese -- why didn't Longxing talk to him directly sooner?[1] Why doesn't Temeraire ask the first important Chinese dragon he meets (probably a close relative) what's going on, and find out immediately? Why doesn't Laurence ask Temeraire what he does think about China?

* There's still a certain mechanical cliché engine churning out subplots. Quite often you see (eg. someone in authority holding an untenable position), and can chart out the resolution in your head immediately and nod as it all unfolds on cue. Which doesn't give much satisfaction.

* It's still good fluff :) When I've finished I feel like I've eaten a lot of chocolate -- it was nice at the time, but I feel bloated and no less hungry :)

Oh dear, I'm sorry Naomi for ripping into it, I wouldn't if I didn't enjoy so much of it. I'll be able to decide more clearly when I return to the books with a bit of distance.

[1] The best analogy I can think of is that they see him as a wilful child, needing re-educating for his own good after being brought up by barbarians, and so to be treated kindly, but whose current opinions aren't to be taken seriously.

Over the Christmas holidays I have had *several* new books to enjoy, *many* of which have been classic enough for me to want to recommend them and buy everything else by the author.

Temeraire is Hornblower with dragons. That says it all really. If you're not off reading it now, you never will. But for those of you reading on, I'll mention some of the good, the bad, and the ugly in my opinion.

* The good. Hornblower. With dragons. And it represents it well. Captain whatsit isn't Hornblower -- he's happy, for one thing -- but definitely from the same world. The alternate history -- Dragons have been bread for various uses, mainly military superiority in parallel to navies, the Chinese have overwhelming air superiority if they ever chose to use it, and the most intelligent, charming dragons, though others have bread for size, flame, poison, etc. The tactics used all sound plausible and Napoleonic, in that dragons are useful and dangerous, but not overwhelming.

* The bad. The first book doesn't really seem to go anywhere. It's lovely to read, but there's no substance, no unfolding plot, no tension, no revelation, no anticipation. People who recommended it to me, did you think that? How did you feel about the rest of the series?

* The other. Of course, a dragon is a gigantic honking stonking Mary Sue. That's what dragons are. Some people may complain about that, but it's like complaining that some science fiction explores laws contrary to reality, or that romances have a happy ending. That is the genre, and if you don't like it, reading is not recommended, but it cannot be changed without destroying it :) As I ranted about an ex-depressed post, Dragons are metaphors, expressions of some human emotion or other, as often as not, which is why they're cool. OK, I may be stretching things, but I wanted to say it. The fact that of course he turns out to be one of the most important breeds of dragon, and of course at the end of the book saves everyone, is perhaps over the top, though I'm not surprised. But that he's so wonderful isn't a flaw, it's the reason for the book :)

In fact, the entire review can probably be summed up by the conversation it was first recommended to me in.

Naath: It's Hornblower! With Dragons!
Ian: But it's not very good. Egan--
Me: No! Thank you both. I, of course, very much appreciate any recommendations for good good books. But Naath, please continue to recommend good books that are just like other good books, but with dragons, how can that be bad?

Sorry to both :)