Happy New Year!

This was my least favourite of the novels so far.

While this novel was still fine to read and not as boring as some other books I’ve read this year, it was not as interesting as the others in the series. Most of the book was spent in the wilds of Australia. Frankly, it was boring reading about the excursion. I do not enjoy reading about going thirsty in deserts. Usually, the action in these novels picks up at the half way mark, but I felt the actual plot did not begin into at least three quarters of the way through. Even then, it felt more like political filler than actual plot and character development.

Speaking of characters, there were are lot of annoying ones. These books do have some amusing and interesting cast of characters. I have liked a lot of the supporting characters when Laurence has irked me. Since the last novel, I’ve grown more use to Laurence, so he and my other favourites (Temeraire, Granby, Roland) helped me through the long passages. However, there were many annoying characters including the new dragons and various random British characters. I know this is not a romance series and in war, there are lots of jerks, but goodness, even the dragons were annoying in this novel. That’s not a good sign.

Of course, all this makes me want to read the next book more in the hopes things actually pick up.

This was my 42nd read of 2015 which means that I achieved my modest reading goal this year in some part thanks to this series. Wonderful!

Read December 29-31, 2015 mostly on Kindle and a bit on hardcover.