Villains & Virtues: Throne in the Dark

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While I absolutely adored the scenic and mouth-watering excursions around Taiwan that was Taiwan Travelogue, with bookclub postponed for a month, it should come as no surprise that I dove right back into fantasy the first moment I got. I was gifted A.K Caggiano’s Throne in the Dark by a very dear friend back in June and now having finished it I am keen to get her on the phone for a little bookclub to hear her thoughts on it.

Watching films and reading books that are recommended by close friends is another unique and fascinating experience that humans get to enjoy and navigate. Of course it’s different for everyone, but I personally find that my reading experience is already shaped a little by the fact that I’m diving into a book that a friend with similar tastes has read and enjoyed enough to share with me. There’s a sense of obligation to put in the effort and read the whole thing, even if you struggle or find that the writing is not working for you. Then there are character and narrative choices that you can’t help but wonder, ‘did she like this bit or also find it predictable?’.

Damian Maleficus Bloodthorne is a powerful bloodmage who has just completed his life’s work, to create the most powerful talisman of enthrallment history has ever known. With it, he can finally fulfil his destiny to release his demonic father from imprisonment so that darkness and villainy can cover all the world. Well, that was the plan until he runs into a pretty little thief called Amma who accidentally becomes the harbouring vessel for the talisman. Stuck dragging Amma across the land and trying to find a way to remove the talisman, Damien’s concrete plans have started to crumble. Even more so when Amma’s caring nature and bubby demeanor starts to stir up feelings in Damien that contend with the usual ones of villainy and malevolence.

It’s worth nothing that reading the Author’s Note at the end of the book can sometimes help to alleviate the negative feelings you have about the work or help you to better understand what the author was trying to achieve. This was certainly the case for me with this book. I originally thought that this was going to be another YA fantasy romance to join the ranks of the Scholomance or Little Thieves trilogies in my library, when actually it’s a little bit closer to Once Upon a Broken Heart (though not as enthralling). According to Caggiano’s note at the end, Throne in the Dark was supposed to be a standalone parody, but became something bigger as, “the sincerity of the story insisted on seeping through the cracks in the absurdity”.

Knowing this made it a lot easier to understand some of the tonal choices that were made throughout the prose and helped to alleviate some of the annoyance that I had with it. Unlike Once Upon a Broken Heart where the writing is so overloaded with syrupy adjectives that it can’t be anything BUT a piss-take, the prose in Throne in the Dark is blunt and descriptive with smarmy and whimsical asides that break up the narrative flow to ensure the reader is in on the joke. There are many moments in which the author’s voice can be clearly heard making metafictive remarks on the genre, not to mention the vague, summarizing chapter names. While I can appreciate the intent behind these choices, I personally felt that it didn’t really add anything to the story, merely stopped its trajectory for a breather.

Then we have the caricatured characters of Damiel and Amma. Their central romance story is pretty predictable and even though Amma’s motives remain a mystery until the third act, I still picked what was coming pretty early on. The chapters flip between the perspectives of Amma and Damien while still being written in the third person omniscient. This works perfectly well, but I would have liked it if there was a little more insight into their characters. Annoyingly, we don’t really get a sense of who these characters are and what they feel, their story is sort of written in a hand-wavey way that rides on them being token genre pieces.

Because the humour does not really come across as obviously or early as one would like, these tonal choices and the caricature protagonists just prove to be a little bit annoying and make it easy to put the book down. Had I known from that start that it’s meant to be a parody, I might not have felt as strongly – though probably still a little annoyed because it now feels a little bit lazy to let everything ride on, ‘ah but that’s the joke’.

Image credit: Penguin Books Australia

Having said this, the story itself is actually kind of compelling and I am definitely interested in the fantasy world that Caggiano has created. There are supporting characters that are truly fascinating and a whole bunch of lore that only gets hinted at throughout the tale. While I realise that the exposition dump is not a preferable means of learning about the world, there are ways in which to make them more interesting and when used to educate readers about the world they find themselves in, they can make stories even more compelling. It's also a very visual world and story: honestly, it would probably do very well as an anime.

Throne in the Dark is not a bad book, it’s a solid fantasy story that has some very memorable scenes. But in a rapidly expanding subgenre like YA fanta-roms, a book that is mildly amusing with unsubstantial characters can fall into obscurity. It was interesting enough to get me through the entire thing (which is 500+ pages), but I didn’t experience any strong feelings while reading it and did find it easy to put down and walk away from. I have not decided if I will continue with series.

Author: A.K Caggiano, 2022-2025

Published: Sourcebooks, Casablanca, 2025

Throne in the Dark is the first book in A.K. Caggiano's Villains & Virtues series.

A Fellowship of Games & Fables

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On top of exposing me to books that I normally would not pick out for myself and unearthing other ways in which I can be interpreting the books that I read, being part of a book club has made me really appreciate the different reading experience I get when I read a book recreationally. It occurred to me recently that a lot of the books that I've consumed over the years have been as part of some sort of assignment: university, the 1001 project, and now book club. I have just closed the cover on J. P. Penner’s third instalment in the Adenashire series and, perhaps it’s been the winter weather, perhaps it’s been a stressful workweek, but the hours I was able to steal cosying up with this book that I was reading for me and no other reason have really been some of the most enjoyable.

Jez is not looking forward to the Adenashire Yule Games. She’s not a fan of the cold weather or the large crowds. She would much rather be allowed to sleep the entire Yule season away. But a drunken encounter lands her right in the middle of the festivities with a wager to beat a boastful human team. Not only that, but she must also fake a relationship with her friend Taenya, a woodland elf. Plagued by long-standing insecurities about her worth and a sense of pride that won’t let her back out of her mess, Jez tackles each Yule Game event with cold pragmatism. But the more time she spends with Taenya, the warmer her demeanour becomes. Could she be falling for the elf, and would a romance ruin a perfectly good friendship?

A Fellowship of Games & Fables is the third book in Penner’s Adenashire series: a collection of incredibly cosy fantasy reads that are best enjoyed with a cup of tea and some form of warm baked-good. Each book is a sweet little romance novel, following a trio of protagonists introduced in the very first instalment:  A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic. Book three follows Jez, an aloof and emotionally closed-off fennex and, similar to its predecessors, it chronicles a sweet and wholesome story of self-discovery and romance.

Similar to book one, in that the central drama is in the form of a competitive situation, where Games & Fables surpasses Bakers & Magic is in its solid establishment of drama. It could be that book one was Penner finding her feet with the series, but the low-stakes quickly went down to no-stakes and the thrill that should have come with a competitive setting just didn’t. This is not the case with book three. Penner works with the knowledge that readers are immediately going to side with Jez and uses that character misdirection to create a good sense of drama and suspense where the narrative requires it. It’s a fun play on the idea of the unreliable narrator, without the omniscient narrator doing any real misleading – just letting the reader do all the work based on their relationship with the character.

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Written in a prose accessible to a wide audience-range, A Fellowship of Games & Fables is a delightfully cosy read filled with drama, romance, very cute scenes of social awkwardness, and complete with recipes in the back! I have since discovered that there are yet more instalments in this series and I am quite excited to get them on my shelf.

Author: J. P. Penner, 2024,2025

Published: Poison Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Illinois, 2025

A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons

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While we often think about curling up and reading as the ultimate form of cosy, there are many factors to consider when measuring the cosiness of a designated blanket, couch, bed, or tea reading session. Of course, the biggest is the type of book one is choosing to cosy up with. Having powered through the mellow, romantic, and no-stakes comfort of A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic, it seems the thing I really needed this week was more cosy comfort reading and so it was onto the next Adenashire instalment: A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons.

After becoming best friends with Arleta Starstone at the Langheim Baking Battle, Doli Butterbuckle decides that moving to Adenashire is the next logical step for her. Peaceful, quiet living, being near her best friends, and spreading her infectious good humour through working in a bookstore seems like the ideal life. Plus, it’s away from the pressures of her overbearing family in Dundes Heights, where she’s never felt she could really be herself. But Doli’s quiet life gets shaken up when she inherits a dragon egg. Faced with a responsibility she’s not sure she’s ready for, Doli enlists the help of the newly-arrived gargoyle librarian, Sarson, to learn as much as she can before the egg hatches. Not only does her research uncover a myriad of potential challenges in dragon-rearing, but as she spends more time with him, Doli finds herself falling for Sarson.

Now that I have cottoned on to how these books are meant to be read, it was easier to simply fall into the enveloping warmth and cosiness of A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons. Reading like a PG erotic romance, whilst simultaneously making fun of the fact that it knows it’s doing that, the second book in the Adenashire series is every bit as sweet and warming as its predecessor. It’s an adorable little tale of how relationships can help to shape one’s identity, as well as inspire ambition, passion, and strength that one never knew they had.

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The romantic in me very much enjoyed the wholesome but still suggestive interactions between Doli and Sarson, and the dragon-lover in me was very satisfied with the cute and cheeky character of Evvy, a pink baby dragon with a penchant for mischief and an insatiable appetite. It also felt that there was more drama happening in this book than in the first one, taking it from no-stakes to low-stakes, which made the pages flip even faster.

Filled with romance, comedy, character growth, and just as many delicious-sounding recipes as the first book, A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons is another perfectly cosy read.

 Author: J. Penner, 2024

Published: Poison Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Illinois, 2025.

A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic

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After the rapid pace, thrilling tension, and macabre fantasy nightmares of Holy Terrors, I was definitely keen on the idea of a cosy read for my next book. Something cute and comforting with low stakes. A while ago, I came across a children’s trilogy by J. Penner that sounded right up my cosy fantasy alley, so this is what I’ve chosen to settle the nerves and adrenaline from last week’s read with. This week I travelled into the quaint magical world of Adenashire with A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic.

Arleta Starstone is a human with an incredible talent for baking. While she may need to work twice as hard as everyone else because of her lack of magic, her baked treats infused with herbs are her own unique form of magic. While Aleta does not believe she is anything special, her orc neighbours do and to prove it they enter her into the prestigious Langheim Baking Battle. Nervous that her being magicless and competing against the likes of elves, dwarves, and other magical beings will surely work against her, Aleta nevertheless travels to Langheim to compete. But the competition turns out to be a life-changing adventure as Arleta discovers her own self-worth and makes some unique friends along the way.

So admittedly I got a little bit of whiplash in the difference in prose, coming from the more mature writing of Owen and then diving into a book that is definitely aimed at a younger audience. The Adenashire trilogy feels like it’s a bedtime story for that age bracket between childhood and angsty adolescence. The writing is very simple and plain, comfortably building the world and its characters, but not quite doing it with as much flare as one would expect from a fantasy novel.

The events of the novel are then told in very quick and factual succession with a ‘no-muss no-fuss’ attitude. The story itself is very sweet and wholesome, a perfect cosy read when you’re wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea. One thing I would have liked though is a bit more drama and sense of stakes. Our heroine, despite being described as constantly nervous and keeping everyone at arm’s length, doesn’t really have a lot of dept to her. We aren’t given the story as to why she is standoffish and a loner, which I feel would then give her being in the competition – and indeed the competition itself- some stakes. It’s true I was after a low-stakes read, but not a no-stakes read. But in all honesty, this was the only area in which I felt that the book was lacking, and to give credit where it is due, once the supporting characters are established then the pace and the atmosphere of the novel picks up.

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Filled with romance, humour, and a cosy token fantasy world, A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic is a very sweet and cosy afternoon read.

Author: J. Penner, 2023

Published: Originally self-published by J. Penner, 2023. Pictured edition published by Sourcebooks, 2025

Painted Devils

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After the epic tome that was Don Quixote, I felt that I deserved to dive back into some mindless YA fantasy: my guilty pleasure. A few months ago, I discovered that Little Thieves by Margaret Owen was the first book in a trilogy, so I promptly picked up copies of the other two books and reread Little Thieves to reacquaint myself with the world and characters. It’s a joy to be back in the cold, Scandinavian setting with Vanja trying to navigate her way through encounters with nachtmaren, Low Gods, and maleficent spectres.

After leaving Minkja to start a life a little more on the straight and narrow, Vanja stumbles drunkenly to the small village of Hagendorn one night, accidently spilling her rubies into the river as she does. Rather than risk the frostbite of fishing alone, she scams the town into helping her retrieve them, inventing a goddess called the Scarlet Maiden and a promise to bless the town should they find all the rubies. When minor miracles of good fortune start to happen, a cult springs up for the Scarlet Maiden and the lie then spins out of control when Emeric appears to investigate the anomaly and Vanja’s fake goddess manifests and claims him as a sacrifice. Vanja, now accused of profane fraud, finds herself in another dangerous race against time to save Emeric, prove her innocence, and learn the truth of the Scarlet Maiden.

With the characters, setting, and lore established in Little Thieves, Painted Devils focuses on furthering the character and relationship development of the two romantic leads: Vanja and Emeric. Owen’s sassy and modern prose complete with snide asides that are almost metafictive but not quite, is still going strong in this book. Unlike its predecessor, I found this one to be a little bit of a slow starter, a gas stove on the fritz that is click-click-clicking with sparks before (finally) bursting into blue flame.

The central story is no less thrilling than the first one once it gets going. In fact, there actually proves to be a lot more in this one than just ‘break curse and bring evil prince to justice’. The to-do list of quests that make up Painted Devils is impressive: save Emeric, prove Vanja’s innocence, find alternate means to appease goddess, steal a sacred relic, find missing persons, expose a town-wide business scam, solve the mystery of the Scarlet Maiden… it goes on.

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Vanja and Emeric’s relationship definitely develops, still being reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. One thing that I did find myself hitching on was the introduction of sex. To be fair, sex is kind of integral to the story and the character development of both Vanja and Emeric and there are a couple of amusing scenes in which Owen very succinctly depicts the awkwardness that adolescents encounter when they are required to talk about sex. She also highlights a prominent point in her heroes’ obliviousness about sex and sexuality: sexual education during adolescence is ludicrously poor. It’s astounding that in such a modern age, open discussions about one of the most natural things that humans do productively and recreationally are still considered dirty and taboo. This was the little slice of hidden social commentary that I got out of this; you can always find them in fantasy.

Filled with action, adventure, drama, romance, and sex, Painted Devils is a fun and rollicking follow-up to Little Thieves that ticks all the boxes for a good, comfy, YA fantasy.

Author: Margeret Owen, 2023

Published: Hodderscape, Hodderscape & Stoughton, Hachette, Great Britain, 2023. Paperback edition published 2024.

League of Dragons

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Reaper Man

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So, after the bedtime story fun of Tolkien, I decided to dive back into my habit of Pratchett before bed, continuing on with book 11 in the Discworld series: Reaper Man.

The Powers That Be have decided that Death has become too much of a character and have thus enforced an early retirement. What they hadn’t counted on was Death deciding to spend their final days trying to get a life. As can be expected when there is no one to coral the deceased, a great bout of chaos ensues including newly deceased wizards returning as zombies, ghosts overpopulating the spirit world and getting on each other’s nerves, and inanimate objects taking on a life of their own. Meanwhile on a farm far away, a tall stranger appears looking for a job. Turns out he’s really good with a scythe.

What I’m slowly starting to realise about the weird and wonderful work of Terry Pratchett, is that you can always expect the unexpected. What I mean is you always know that you’re in for a story that starts travelling in one direction and veers right off the road entirely. You never know if you’re going to end up in the surrounding woodland or at the bottom of the sea, but you do have enough foresight to put on your seatbelt.

Reaper Man, like many of its predecessors, is a book made up of two to several stories that run parallel to each other, seem to have some sort of relationship, but never really meet. On the one hand, we have the story of Death going missing and trying their bony had at a mortal job. Their disappearance sparks the strange story of newly deceased wizard Windle Poons and the strange snow-globes that seem to be appearing all over Ankh-Morpork. And then, of course, there is the social and philosophical commentary of the author that makes you think about the nature and quirks of your very existence by positing very serious questions such as, what does the' life of the city’ really mean? and, should the undead really have to hold meetings to discuss their rights?

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Pratchett delivers a delightful cast of zany characters from the bumbling and incomprehensible wizards of Unseen University to the Fresh Starters: a group of undead activists. The humour and imagery of all the chaos that pads out the pages is riotous fun, making Reaper Man another compelling tale in an already tumultuous series.

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1991

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

Reaper Man is the 11^th book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

Empire of Ivory

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This week we’re back into the thick of the perils of war, discovering new ways in which man can leave his smouldering mark upon the world. What I am loving about this series is the way in which the narrative twists and turns, unearthing these incredible surprises like truffles. A simple quest narrative that sends a cascade of worms rushing out all over the floor, Empire of Ivory is a real page-turner.

After being away from England for so long a time, Laurence and Temeraire are excited to return and see all their friends. But disaster has struck while they have been away. A terrible disease plagues the entire Aerial Corps, proving fatal to many of the dragons. Time is very much against them, as Bonaparte’s aerial scouts continue to creep closer to discovering the Corps’ weakened state. In order to save their friends, Laurence and Temeraire must embark on another long journey to find a cure, this time venturing into the most dangerous and mysterious of places: Africa.

While this instalment is certainly not as rollicking as Black Powder War, what it does do is really bring to light the ethical, political, and social conflicts that have been violently bubbling under the surface. Through a very thrilling and cleverly constructed series of acts, Laurence and Temeraire’s characters become stretched, contorted, torn, and reknitted into someone new: someone coming to grips with the horrible irony there is so much promise in the world, yet so little shared. I think so far, this is definitely the most emotionally charged book of the series.

As cool as African dragons are, I have to applaud Novik for not colouring the story with too much descriptive world building. While the dragons are certainly what make these books unique, this series is about the pressures of war and the historic decisions and rules made by human society. In Empire of Ivory, be warned, the theme of slavery comes very heavily into play and the dichotomy of good and evil, civilisation and savagery, is prevalent. The basic threat of invasion becomes an anthill of a problem when compared with stolen generations and entire cultures wiped out for the betterment of a single society. This is the book that inspires bouts of reflectiveness and emotional evaluation whilst powering through its pages.

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Filled with drama, action, adventure into the unknown and uncharted, and heroism, Empire of Ivory is a fantastic fourth instalment in a series that has fast become one of my favourites.

Author: Naomi Novik, 2007

Published: HarperVoyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2008.

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

Eric

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Classic narratives are considered classic for many reasons. I think that one of the biggest and most important being longevity and the fact that the messages, structures, and basic idea is so stoic so as to weather the ravages of time and transcend generations, but also so malleable and open to new and fresh interpretations that it’s almost impossible not to write a new version of it every couple of years or so.

I just closed the cover on one such treatment of the classic tale of Faust, this one featuring a hapless wizard, a teenaged boy, and an Underworld that yearns for the good ‘ol days of terror and torment. I am referring to Terry Pratchett’s Faust Eric.

Eric is the Discworld’s only demonology hacker; an impressive sounding job title if you can pull it off. Sadly, he can’t. All he wants is three wishes granted, minor improvements to life such as living forever, ruling the world, and having the most beautiful woman in the world fall in love with him. But instead of a demon who can offer these improvements, he summons up Rincewind, the Discworld’s most incompetent wizard. Alongside Rincewind and his terrifying Luggage Eric is in for a wild ride through space and time, one that will make him streamline his wishes to just one: that he’d never been born.

I honestly only know so much about the story of Faust, but I believe the message (like that of many wish-themed narratives) is ‘be careful what you wish for’. Over the centuries we have seen, read, and heard stories that involve some magic being granting wishes that always come with some sort of twist unforeseen by the hero that eventually comes back to bite them. While the same semantic twists are used to hilariously upturn Eric’s wishes, resulting in very funny and entertaining scenes of human sacrifice, epic warfare, and the nothingness of the beginning of the universe, Pratchett delves deeper into the nature of wishes and their role in the universe, which in turn brings the book to a very uplifting and funny conclusion that doesn’t really leave our heroes any better off.

The hapless wizard Rincewind returns to make this story more enjoyable as his penchant for cowardice and expertly running away gets the heroes out of many scrapes in hilarious and against-all-odds fashions, whilst at the same time occasionally passing on titbits of wisdom and ‘real-worldliness’ to the young upstart. The character of Eric is a recognisable type of young man with relationship problems that are further fuelled by his using literature as a method of understanding how things are in the real world.

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Faust Eric is a fun little Discworld novel filled with action, time-travel, character growth (?), and plenty of comedy. I very much enjoyed it.

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1990

Published: First published in Great Britain by Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1990. This edition published by Millenium, an imprint of Victor Gollancz Ltd, 2000.

Guards! Guards!

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Continuing on with my deep-dive into the Discword, I have just closed the cover of the eighth book in the series: Guards! Guards!

Captain Sam Vimes, captain of the City Watch of Ankh Morpork has drunkenly come to some harsh truths about the nature of the city. It’s a woman that drains the life out of you, it’s a place filled with the downiest of downers, it’s a metropolis of crime, ill-intentions, and general distaste. But it’s his city, dammit. So when a great Threat appears like something out of the pages of a legendary storybook, he sets down his bottle and takes up arms…

The eighth book in Pratchett’s Discworld series, Guards! Guards! explores/disassembles the high fantasy genre and brings readers a delightful story of reluctant heroes. An intriguing amalgamation of crime/mystery, high fantasy, and farce, it’s another classic.

While there is certainly a lot going on externally, the heart and soul of the book comes in the form of Captain Vimes’ character development. He’s a great protagonist, beginning the book drunk, distanced, and completely numb to the sense of right and wrong that’s buried deep, deep, deep down in his system under a flood of alcohol. The book sort of chronicles the defeated addict’s journey to clarity and that one moment of hope and ambition that (against all odds) ignites and causes them to change their mind. Vimes’ journey from lying in the gutter to receiving congratulations in the palace is a compelling one that is moving and uplifting with memorable moments of classic Pratchett comedy.

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Outside of Vimes’ character journey, we have a hilarious romp that features an oppressed villain, the use of magic not done by wizards, a new recruit to the City Watch, and a pub filled with blubbering dwarves. There's a very fun crime novel element in the race against the clock to find the culprit behind this great plot and plenty of recognisable genre action mixed with Pratchett's unique humour. it's another delight. 

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1989

Published: First published in Great Britan by Victor Gollancz, 1989. Corgi edition published 1990.

Guards! Guards! is the eight book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It follows behind The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters & Pyramids.

Pyramids

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It’s very fun and interesting to come across a story with a particular setting, written by an author whose works you’ve been frequenting, think you can guess how the story is going to go, and then be completely derailed and bamboozled when the story takes a turn beyond anything that you imagined. I can tell you, it’s bloody delightful. I just experienced it with the seventh Discworld novel: Pyramids.

Teppic was sent away from his home, the kingdom of Djelibeybi, to get an education and be trained by the Assassin’s Guild in Ankh-Morpork. But this was not suited to the task that he had assigned to him by fate. When Teppic inherits the throne much earlier than he expected, his conflicting world views of the Old and the New are the first in a plethora of problems that soon arise: problems that include, but are not limited to, the construction of the Great Pyramid, an explosion of time, the rising of the dead, and an infestation of gods.

I think this has to be my favourite Pratchett tale so far. Given the way that he takes a specific theme or phenomenon from human history and society and then fashions an entire narrative around it e.g. theatre in the previous book, Wyrd Sisters, I looked at the cover of Pyramids and thought, ‘wonderful, this will be a fun and quirky take on ancient Egyptian culture’. Well, I was sort of right, but mostly wrong. Pyramids is a story about the Old World coming into contact with the New, the inevitability of change and progress, and a science-fiction cataclysm that happens when the stoic practitioners of the ‘old way’ meet with the free-minded younger generation of ‘the new’.

Some of the funniest sequences to date can be found within this book’s pages including a football game of the various Sun-gods, a luncheon with the greatest philosophical minds that results in no conclusions being arrived at, and a stalemate Trojan war where both sides have the same horse-brained idea. Against a brilliant desert setting we have a number of memorable characters including a black-clad king covered in knives, a barely clad handmaiden who is against the idea of being eat by crocodiles, a camel with the sharpest mathematical mind in the world, and a pair of brothers who, through architecture and accounting, discover quantum physics.

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Pyramids is a delightfully funny and exciting instalment in the Discworld, making it bigger, wider, flatter, taller, minute and elongated all at the same time.

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1989

Published: Originally published in Great Britain by Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1989. Pictured edition published Corgi, Great Britain, 1990.

Pyramids is the seventh book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. It follows behind, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery, and Wyrd Sisters.

Black Powder War

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Jumping from one war into another, this week I left the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra and the guerilla warfare of the Civil War and traversed the deserts of the Ottoman Empire before coming to the city of Danzig, besieged by Napoleon’s forces. That’s right, in record time I have closed the cover of book 3 in Novik’s Temeraire series.

While the decadence and wonders of China have been pleasing Temeraire, Captain Will Laurence cannot wait to set sail for England. And for once, it seems that luck or the fates are on his side. Before he can prepare his crew for the long sea voyage home, new orders arrive for him and Temeraire: they are to leave China immediately and fly back to England, stopping over in Istanbul to collect three priceless dragon eggs newly purchased from the Ottoman Empire. But the journey is fraught with many perils, not least of which is the wrath of Lien who blames Temeraire for the loss of her princely companion and vows to destroy everything and everyone he holds dear.

While I found myself struggling a little bit with Throne of Jade, this book very quickly restored the love and excitement for this series that I experienced reading the first book. Whereas the conflicts of the previous book were rather more internal than anything else, the dramas of Black Powder War are compellingly external with Novik starting to throw more and more trials at our heroes. Over the course of 300+ pages we see Laurence and Temeraire combat extreme dangers of the desert, feral dragons, political conspiracies, outrageous escapes, and the terrifying advancement of the French Grande Armee. The book is compelling from the very first page; the horizons and boundaries of the world widened to encompass new friends, new foes, and new dragons.

But while it seems that our heroes are being externally battered from all sides, Novik perfectly uses these external dramas to further the character development of Laurence and Temeraire. As Temeraire sees and learns more of the wider world, he begins to have thoughts about the rights of dragonkind and starts to question, lament, and aspire to change the way in which his home country sees and treats dragons. While Laurence tries as gently as possible to mould Temeraire’s opinions so that they do not sound so rebellious, he discovers that there is some truth to his dragon’s observations and in the process of war he learns that a change of mind is sorely needed.

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There’s plenty of action, mystery, and drama sprinkled with moments of light-heartedness and comedy that makes Black Powder War a fantastic third instalment in what’s proving to be a truly captivating series.

Author: Naomi Novik, 2006

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

Series: Black Powder War is the third book in Novik’s Temeraire series, following behind Temeraire, and Throne of Jade.

Wyrd Sisters

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After a lengthy hiatus in my quest to read the entirety of my partner’s Terry Pratchett collection in the library, I am back into it having just closed the cover on book six in the Discworld series: Wyrd Sisters.

On a dark and windswept night on the moors, three witches meet to… well, just catch up. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat make up a most unlikely coven, each with different ideas about what the life of a witch should look like. But one thing they can agree on: witches never meddle in politics. However, this firm stance is subjected to severe reconsideration when the King is murdered and a mad Duke takes over the kingdom of Lancre; one who would see all witches in irons. As the ghost of King Verence and indeed the Kingdom itself begs for a bit of meddling, it falls to the ‘wyrd sisters’ to set to… and it’s not as easy as some playwrights would you have believe.

Pratchett’s Discworld series is established as one of the greatest, comedic, fantasy series in publication and there’s no question as to why. Aside from establishing a very weird and original world; the lore, history, and geography of which is drip-fed to readers through their perseverance in the series, each book is a parody or funny discussion about the phenomena that make up human history. Wyrd Sisters, obviously a reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth puts the theatre under the scrutinising spotlight of the author.

A humorous retelling (sort of) of the story of Macbeth, Pratchett flips the roles around so that it’s the witches who become the heroes and the hero falls back to supporting character. While the central drama is happening, Pratchett then looks at the magic of the theatre: the actors’ abilities to captivate audiences, the craftsman’s ability to make something fake look like the real thing, and the awesome power of words to bend and twist the minds and beliefs of the people so that even history and truth becomes unstable.

We see the return of Granny Weatherwax, the highly regarded witch who first appeared in Equal Rites, and get to see her use magic like she never has yet. Indeed, Weatherwax and the Lancre coven become a very funny narrative tool that is metafictively analysed midway through the book, bringing an even cleverer layer of humour to an already towering cake.

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Filled with magic, murder, madness, and meddling, Wyrd Sisters is a hugely entertaining story that makes up the history of the Discworld.

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1988

Published: Published in Great Britain by Victor Gollancz. 1988. Corgi edition (pictured) published 1989.

Wyrd Sisters is the sixth book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, following behind The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, and Sourcery.