Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

 

63%

22.02.23

This is the eighth book by Novik I've read, and it's exactly what I've come to expect - a prettily written dark fairytale with strong female characters and not enough editing. It started off well - evocative and engaging - but it just went on and on. All the headhopping soon became tedious. We only needed two, maybe three, viewpoints. And surely <spoiler!> the two brave and independent women wouldn't really choose to stay with their awful husbands at the end?

The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik

 

57%

01.04.22

Copy and paste my review of the first book in this series, except it's even more frustrating that there's probably a diamond in the rough here if only it didn't read like a first draft. The weird Anglo/American stream-of-consciousness style is no doubt a deliberate choice (Novik is an experienced author, after all) but the many moments of confusion it causes brings the reader out of the otherwise-promising story. Get an editor, already.

A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik

 

67%

25.02.21

Naomi Novik is up there with Frances Hardinge in terms of original, well written, speculative fiction. And this compelling, deliciously dark take on the magic school genre could have been brilliant if only its endless exposition had been trimmed by a no-nonsense structural edit and its awkwardly inconsistent Anglo-American phrasing had been transformed into a proper dialect. But I've noted a frustrating lack of editing in her previous novels (here, here and here) - she's not doing her writing any favours when such promising material isn't polished to the extent it deserves. 

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

70%
29.01.17

At last - a shining shaft of sunlight in the recent fog of mediocrity. Novik's Temeraire novels are evocative but, freed from that very male context to write a sometimes dark, always female-centred fairytale, she writes like a, well, dream (as long as we ignore the mushy middle). Who can I lend it to?

Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik

56%
06.12.16

Temeraire is as appealing a dragon as you can imagine, so it's a shame that his rather dull human handler/companion Laurence gets most of the page time. Still, the alternative history is diverting even if the story itself isn't and the lack of proofreading too distracting in places.

Black Powder War - Naomi Novik

66%
19.04.13

"So, there are these books. They're about the Napoleonic wars. With dragons. Talking dragons with vivid personalities. They're really good. Yes, really." It does sound a bit improbable that this series will be anything other than standard historical fantasy - and it's true that the plots are a little slow - but they're so well written and researched that you do get swept up in this appealing alternate reality.

Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik

69%
01.07.11

This is just as good as the first in the series, the excellent Temeraire. It shouldn't be - an American interpretation of early 19th-century European history with dragons doesn't sound too promising on the face of it. But it's so well researched, cleverly written, densely plotted and the characters are drawn so lovingly that any prejudices are overcome. Yes, it is badly edited and there could be more of the wonderful dragon Temeraire and less of his self-righteous companion Laurence, but who can resist a ripping yarn?

Temeraire - Naomi Novik

69%
31.05.09

This was such good fun after all the turgid literary fiction I've been wading through recently, as well as being quite well written and researched. A dash of fantasy for added fizz. The character of the dragon Temeraire was more vivid and appealing than most human characters are in historical fiction.