Victory of Eagles

Image credit: worldofboooks.com

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.

Image credit: NPR

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.