Temeraire series comes to a tired end
Naomi Novik winds up her nine-book series about Temeraire the dragon and the Napoleonic Wars with “League of Dragons” (Del Rey, $28, 384 pages), and faithful readers will want to complete the journey.
Those who haven’t read all the books (think Patrick O’Brian’s “Aubrey and Maturin” series, with an air war added in), though, are better served by beginning with volume one, “Her Majesty’s Dragon,” and shouldn’t fear stepping aside when the series is no longer that much fun.
In fact, Novik herself seemed a little tired of the setup (which also involved some alternate history) by the end and wrote a wonderful fantasy, “Uprooted,” before finishing up the Temeraire series.
That fatigue, if indeed it existed, comes partly from the two protagonists, William Laurence and Temeraire, the intelligent dragon. Each has a distinct personality, but unfortunately, those personalities are pretty much laid out in detail after about book four, so the series finishes up by shifting the scene and the similar scenarios (Laurence is disgraced, Laurence is reinstated, etc.) to exotic locales. “League of Dragons” is primarily set in Eastern Europe, and though Novik does get Temeraire and Laurence through the defeat of Napoleon, not all loose ends are wrapped up, and the conclusion isn’t as tidy as some might have hoped.
Still, the Temeraire series is, all in all, a very good one, though it probably would have been better had it been six books rather than nine. Nonetheless, it’s recommended, and of course, those who have read the first eight volumes are dutybound to read number nine.
Brian Staveley concludes his “Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne” trilogy with the long and complex “The Last Mortal Bond” (Tor, $28.99, 649 pages), and once you get past the violence, gore, violence, betrayal, violence, intricate plot, violence and, oh yes, violence, Staveley is grappling with some big issues.
In between the spatters of blood on a preindustrial world with heavy-duty magic, one of the main characters begins the three-volume journey in what looks very much like a strict Buddhist monastery, and the monks meditate seeking “vaniate,” a state that cushions them from the tide of human emotions. In the meantime, the very violent world that surrounds the character is awash in pain, some delivered by a god who takes over a human body and tortures people to hear the music of their suffering, and the rest delivered by traitors, magicians who feed off of agony and warriors who conflate pain with pleasure.
There is a goddess of pleasure, but her side of the coin is seldom seen, as Staveley goes whole hog into the Buddhist vision of the material world as a vehicle only for suffering. Thus the protagonists spend a lot of time contemplating death and how much nicer it would be than life, given all the pain and violence (did I mention “The Last Mortal Bond” is violent?), and, in fact, some do shuffle off this mortal coil.
Overall, the “Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne” was an aboveaverage entry, but “The Last Mortal Bond” would have been well-served by some serious editing. With 200 fewer pages, it would have been a better read — but of course, there wouldn’t have been nearly as much violence.