We'll Prescribe You a Cat

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After closing the cover on the Temeraire series, I was certainly done with fantasy for a while but at a loss as to what to read next. At the recommendation of my partner, I had had a book sitting on my bedside table for months, which I was able to finally crack the cover on during a recent holiday trip. A delightfully sweet and wholesome collection of stories that I powered through in two days, we’re talking about We’ll Prescribe You a Cat.

Tucked away in an alley in Kyoto is the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, a clinic that most patients discover through hearsay that specialises in the healing power of cats. While the patients that find their way there are often puzzled at the clinic’s methods, they can’t argue with the results: a disheartened business man discovers the joy of physical labour, a middle-aged father finds relevance at his job and home, a young girl navigates the complexities of schoolyard cliques, a hardened designer learns the precious balance of work and life, and a geisha manages to finally move on from the memory of her lost cat.

Similar to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this book is a collection of individual stories that are tied together by a building. In BTCGC it’s the café where you can travel back in time that inspires the heartwarming stories of character growth and here it’s the clinic that works to the moto, ‘cats can solve most problems.’ Humorously, each character ends up bringing home a cat from a consultation, despite not really knowing anything about caring for the creatures, and through this forced period of temporary pet-ownership their worlds are opened and transformed. It’s similar to the manga and anime series My Roommate Is a Cat.

The stories are sweet and relatable and made just a little sensational by the funny and nonchalant narrative treatment of such an abstract clinic concept. Admittedly I have not read a lot of Japanese fiction, but what is appealing to me most from what I have read is the narrative minimalism that flavours the novels. The prose is simple, even blunt, which allows the emotional clout of the story to just wash over the reader in all its lovely wholesomeness. It also makes books such as this very easy to read and devour in no time at all, adding to the delightful reading experience by giving that quick and delicious feeling of achievement when we close the cover.

Image credit: Penguin Random House

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat is the type of book that consistently makes you audibly sigh happily, it’s a cosy little read made up of compelling stories of relatable characters that envelop you right from the first page. It’s funny, fresh, sweet, and sometimes a little melancholy; a delightful and comforting reading experience that makes the day better.

Author: Syou Ishida, 2024

Published: Penguin Books, 2024. Translated from Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda.

League of Dragons

Image credit: HarperCollins

We’ve made it! The final book in the exciting, dramatic, and action-packed Temeraire series: League of Dragons. I’m not going to lie, after being firmly planted within the fantasy genre for so long, I am sooo ready to read something else. That is not to say that I have not enjoyed this series. While the initial, somewhat childish, joy that made my heart flutter when I read the first couple of books definitely petered out as the story got more elaborate and the convoluted, I still enjoyed the journey and was satisfied in the end.

With Napoleon’s invasion of Russia thwarted, the time to strike a final blow is upon the Allies. But their numbers are dwindling and internal squabbles and prejudices threaten to tear them apart. While Captain Laurence struggles to bring his own enraged countrymen under his newly-appointed command, Temeraire has his claws full trying to dissuade all the dragons his can against siding with Napoleon who has publicly promised the dragons of every country – including the ferals- new rights and powers if they fight under his banner.

League of Dragons brings us back to the action-packed and narratively enthralling drama that catapulted us into the second half of the series. Reminiscent of the fourth and fifth books, it’s a well-paced balance between wartime action and closeted narrative drama that widens the arc of the series and brings that second, underlying story into the limelight: the changing relationships between humans and dragons in European civilization. Until now we have been drip-fed the drama of the simmering revolt of the British dragons, but here it finally comes to a head and makes for very entertaining scenes in which the dragons diplomatically puzzle out how they can best improve their status and treatment at home without upsetting their sense of duty. It’s a very nice example of character development that had almost gone unnoticed, veiled by the captivating action of the central, wartime narrative.

As we more or less know how the war will pan out, the drama of the central plot is made enthralling thanks to Novik’s thrilling descriptions of aerial combat interspersed with scenes of social drama and intrigue that still manage to draw a delighted ‘ooh’ from the reader as they flip the pages.

Being the final book, it’s time to tie everything up and sometimes that can be hard to do with long-running series. But I think that Novik has closed up the series nicely, ending on an uplifting and hopeful note that life goes on…

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At the end of the day, I really enjoyed the Temeraire series. Yes, there were peaks and troughs in the action and the pacing sometimes, but ultimately this series is a fun and fresh fantasy series that pulls you in and keeps you enthralled with its characters and engaging story.

Author: Naomi Novik, 2016

Published: HarperVoyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 2016.

League of Dragons is the 9^th and final in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It follows Temeraire, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles, Tongues of Serpents and Crucible of Gold, and Blood of Tyrants.

Blood of Tyrants

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We’re closing in now to the end of the Temeraire series – an exciting and compelling set of adventures set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic War, with dragons. As I’ve written before, there have been some definite peaks and troughs in the second half of the series, with Tongues of Serpents taking a bit of a narrative plummet, but rising up again with Crucible of Gold. I have just closed the cover of Blood of Tyrants; the penultimate book in the series, which took me a good while to get through as, alas, while there is a lot of narrative stuff happening, it proved to be another trough.

Laurence and Temeraire find themselves separated once again, as a shipwreck sees Laurence stranded alone and without his memory in Japan. Unable to recollect the last few years, Laurence finds himself dangerously entangled in political intrigues that could be both fatal to himself and England’s position in the Far East. Meanwhile Temeraire conducts a desperate search for his beloved captain, unaware of the powder keg that his actions might set off. Time and the odds are truly against the pair, as Britain’s potential allies begin to dwindle and Napoleon marches an army on Moscow.

Beginning on a dramatic note with Laurence alone and suffering from amnesia, Blood of Tyrants is the thickest book of the series. Rightly so, seeing as we travel through different countries and see a lot of narrative dramas from Temeraire’s search for Laurence, to an assassination attempt on him and Prince Mianning in China, and finally the mustering of a great force to aid Russia. In between all this, we have little stories of conspiracy, espionage, and the varying cultural attitudes towards dragons that could well add fuel to the fire of rebellion.

I found myself struggling to get through this instalment – putting it down and not really being inspired to pick it back up again, and I think the reason for this is because there is so much crammed into it that it lost something of its intrigue. I can’t quite pinpoint what the problem was, but I just did not find this book as compelling as the others; something in the prose just felt shallow and I struggled to get lost in the world as I had done with the previous books.

The timing of the action too, worked to make Blood of Tyrants a bit disjointed: still compelling but rather that I felt I needed to read on to understand what had just happened rather than thrillingly following the sequence of events.

Image credit: NPR

In the end I think that the penultimate book of this exciting series suffered from a case of overindulgence; narratively, dramatically, environmentally, etc. A case of too many cooks in the kitchen. There was just so much happening that needed to be pushed towards conclusion that the initial magic that made me fall in the love with the series at the beginning was lost. But at least we can’t claim there was ever a dull moment and I am ready to see how it all works out in the end.

Author: Naomi Novik, 2013

Published: First published in Great Britain by Ballatine Books, 2013. Pictured edition published by HarperVoyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 2014.

Blood of Tyrants is the 8^th book in Novik’s Temeraire series. Its follows Temeraire, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles, Tongues of Serpents and Crucible of Gold.

Crucible of Gold

 

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After the dip in excitement and action that was the last book, I was worried that the Temerarie series had gone the way of so many others – after a few books the series just loses its flair and continuing to read it becomes a mildly satisfying chore rather than an enjoyable pastime. This happened with Skullduggery Pleasant and Artemis Fowl for me, so I don’t mind admitting that I was rather scared when I cracked the cover of Crucible of Gold.

Laurence and Temeraire are set to accept their new lives in the penal colony of New South Whales when news reaches them that Napoleon has not only invaded Spain but also forged an alliance with the Africa’s Tswana Empire and brought revolution to Brazil. The government has turned to Laurence, convinced that he is the best man to negotiate a treaty. And so, reinstated, Laurence and Temeraire embark for Brazil but their mission is thrown into disarray when they are forced to land in the hostile territory of the Incan Empire where an old enemy appears to tip the scales further towards disaster.

At this stage of the series the plot tactics to allow Laurence and Temeraire to continue their wartime adventures seem to be becoming a little bit hand-wavey, but we won’t let that get in the way of a good story. While still massively disheveled and fallen from their former stature, our heroes are nonetheless back to travelling the world and having grand and dramatic adventures surrounded by new and excessive hardships.

In Crucible of Gold, we are introduced to the unique dragons of the Incan Empire and the book very largely in part becomes an anthropological culture study of the relationship between humans and dragons in this part of the world. While these parts of the story are fascinating on a novel level, they are also helping to shape the larger story arc – as Temeraire and his draconic friends are exposed to these different ways of thinking, they begin to question their relationship with humans in their own country. This brings a lovely tingling of anticipation into the series, as we have to wonder if the British dragons will grow to resent their country’s attitudes towards them and rebel.

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The type of action and excitement that colour the earlier books is back with more dramas, more character development, and more fascinating environments, making Crucible of Gold is a compelling read that catapults the series out of its slump from the sixth book. I can’t wait to crack the cover of the next one!

Author: Naomi Novik, 2012

Published: First published in Great Britain by Ballatine Books, 2012. Pictured edition published by HarperVoyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 2014.

Crucible of Gold is the 7^th book in Novik’s Temeraire series. Its follows Temeraire, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles, and Tongues of Serpents.

Tongues of Serpents

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After the excitement and change in story direction in Victory of Eagles, you can imagine that I was very excited to crack open the cover of the next instalment: Tongues of Serpents. I was particularly excited about this one because it is set in Australia and I was very keen to see what sort of dragons and relationships with dragons Novik could come up with for my country.

Laurence and Temeraire have been convicted of treason and transported to the prison colony of New South Wales. Three dragon eggs have been sent along with them, set to be handed over to officers stationed at the remote outpost. Upon arriving, Laurence and Temeraire find a young colony in turmoil, drunk, and teeming with rebellion. The heroes accept a mission to pioneer a route into the interior of the country and map out the landscape, but disaster strikes when one of the dragon eggs is stolen and the mission turns to one of rescue. The race to recover the egg before it hatches leads Laurence and Temeraire to a shocking discovery that presents a new obstacle in the war between Britain and France.

As I said before, I was very excited about this one because it’s set it my own country and I was very eager to see what sort of dragons an environment such as Australia’s would house. Sadly, I was disappointed on that score. While we do get to meet some new dragons, Tongues of Serpents is the long, slow book of the series with the majority of the story being eaten up by the trek into the country’s uncharted territories and the hardships that come with it. Eco-horror films such as Long Weekend and Wake in Fright depict the Australian outback as a nightmare country and to be fair, it is. Books such as Voss and Gould’s Book of Fish go into excruciating detail the way in which the harsh environments can twist and torment the body and mind so much that the poor traveler simply implodes, and this book – an instalment in a wondrous fantasy series- does the same thing.

The book primarily chronicles the scouting-turned-rescue mission and the many challenges that the unknown environment of this landscape. Over the course of its pages we experience fatigue, dehydration, bushfires, storms, and even bunyips. While there is still plenty of action to keep the fingers flying, I found this book to be the weakest of the series so far and I actually struggled a bit to remain interested. Both our heroes are going through an understandable but irksome bout of depression and emotional lethargy and so the book does rely on external, environmental forces to keep the story going. Thus, the balance between physical and emotional action is off and makes Tongues of Serpents a book that offers a reading experience that mirrors the long and arduous trek of its characters.

Image credit: NPR

But perseverance can be a virtue, and the third act of the book does pick up and regain the vim and vigour that is so delightful in the series, so I would recommend you keep on keeping on. At the end of it all, I am still invested and eager to know what is going to happen next.

Author: Naomi Novik, 2010

Published: First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers. Pictured edition published by HarperVoyager, London, 2007

Tongues of Serpents is the sixth book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It is preceded by Temeraire, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, and Victory of Eagles.

Victory of Eagles

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I’ve been thinking recently about the driving forces of series and how they usually fall into two categories: character narrative and environment narrative. Most series fall into the first category with the characters having some sort of overarching quest narrative, the steps of which flesh out the episodes or novels: series like Harry Potter or Skullduggery Pleasant. Then there are series that are all about the world and made up of individual escapades from a whole cast of characters, e.g. the Discworld series.

I’m at a point in the Temeraire series where I’m starting to wonder what’s driving it and where it’s going. It’s an interesting series because it is absolutely driven by character narrative – Captain Laurence’s efforts to do his part in the war- but as the quest narrative to win the war is not down to one character or even a handful of characters, it occasionally feels as though the environment is driving the story, making it tricky to see what the overarching story really is. I have just finished the 5^th book in the series and I’m starting to wonder what other narratives are actually at play.

Temeraire and Laurence have been separated and times are bleak. Laurence is condemned to be hanged for treason and Temeraire has been removed from military service and sent to the breeding grounds. The situation for Britain is even worse: France has breached the Channel barricade and invaded southern England. Despite being at odds with their own Government, Laurence and Temeraire still have a steadfast duty to their friends and country and determine to turn the tide of the invasion before it’s too late.

There’s always a book where the series begins to swerve, potentially taking you in an entirely new direction, and Victory of Eagles is certainly the one that does that in this series. Focusing more on the emotional struggles of Laurence and Temeraire at the book’s start, the action and excitement that we’ve come to expect makes a well-balanced appearance midway through, setting things in motion of a more political nature that hints of a new narrative trajectory.

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As a reader, I like to become enveloped in the moment I’m reading about and so I don’t tend to look ahead to the potential narrative outcomes of the story, letting them be a surprise at the opportune moment. But the hints that are dropped through a number of actions and opinions during this book, have definitely set my mind whirring with possible outcomes and piqued my intrigue to see what happens.

We follow a lot of our favourite in Victory of Eagles, as well as meet a number of new endearing characters whose quirks and escapades keep us turning pages. It’s another great instalment in a great series!

Author: Naomi Novic, 2009

Published: HarperVoyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2009

Victory of Eagles is the fifth book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It is preceded by Temeraire, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, and Empire of Ivory.

Witches Abroad

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The human experience is a weird, sometimes woeful, and wondrous thing. While a lot of it is made up of suffering, anxiety, hardships, and bad luck, a substantial portion of it is filled with lovely things such as fairytales: gifts that keep on giving for years and years and years.

I have just closed the cover on Witches Abroad, the 12^th book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series in which he very cleverly creates another hilarious adventure by taking two aspects of human existence and reshaping them for better and worse. The first is travel and the absolute nightmare that it can be, and the second is fairytales and how dangerously limeless they are.

Ensuring that a young servant girl does not marry a prince should be a pretty easy task – you would think. But for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick, it could not be more difficult. When Magrat inherits a magic wand and becomes a Fairy Godmother, she discovers that she must travel to Genua, a place where fairytales are running rampant and Happy Endings are making everyone miserable. With the ‘help’ of Granny and Nanny, she must stop a servant girl from marrying a prince and free the citizens of Genua from fairytale tyranny. That is if they can ever get there – between the language barrier, transport troubles, and questionable cuisine, it’s going to be a long trip.

Our favourite trio of witches is back and getting up to and into even more trouble than they have done before. Between Granny Weatherwax outconning conmen and Magrat solving world hunger with pumpkins, Witches Abroad is another fun and hilarious romp into an area of the Discworld that we have never seen before. Reminiscent of the bayous of Louisianna mixed with a swamp-tropical jungle, Genua seems like the last place in which to find fairytales. Pratchett overtly references practically every classic take you can imagine from The Wizard of Oz to The Frog Prince to Cinderella.

Image credit: Penguin Books Australia

As well as a laugh-out-loud trek through swamps and familiar plotlines, the book is a commentary on the woes of travelling as well as an exploration into how it can affect relationships. While happy endings are the Big Bad in this book, in a similar way to Moving Pictures and even Soul Music, it’s the strain that travel can put on relationships that keeps us flipping pages. Travelling unearths another layer of personality and I have seen what could have been lifelong friendships fall apart because the parties went travelling together. Of course this is not always the case, but it happens and it’s another layer to this book that makes it a well-rounded and compelling read.

‘There’s no place like home’ is definitely a message that comes out to play in this story, working wonderfully with Pratchett’s signature wit and dismantling of beloved stories. Witches Abroad is another delightful read in the Discworld series!

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1991

Published: First published in Great Britain by Gollancz in 1991. Pictured Corgi edition published 1992.

Witches Abroad is the 12^th book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.