Promising Series

I have read all of Robin Hobb's previous books, preferring the Liveship Traders to the Fool and Assassin books. I approached the first of the Soldier Son trilogy with some trepidation because it was a first-person narrative like the Fool and Assassin books. Also I'd heard they were quite a different to Hobb's previous work.

I should not have been nervous. Shaman's Crossing was quite different, with a much slower pace, but still excellent. In many ways, it is the tale of unintended consequences. A father, concerned that his soldier son will be a good officer, hands him over to a conquered enemy for a lesson he believe the boy cannot learn from an ally. When the boy is returned gravely wounded, his father realises his mistake, though he has no idea how far it extends.

I thought the book provided an intriguing look at both cultural and gender differences, as well as the kind of shenanigans that go on in all-boys environment. It reminded me a bit of the Song of the Lioness books that I read when I was younger and I enjoyed it a great deal. I definitely intend to read the rest of the books, though I have to say Hobb did not seem leave any clues as to the direction future books will take.

Another first book I have recently devoured is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. I had heard good things about Novik's books and a friend, knowing I like fantasy, had bought me one of the books from the series as a birthday gift. So when suvudu.com offered the first book in the series for free, I downloaded it. Despite the headaches reading on a computer screen gives me, I devoured the book in short order. If the intention of making the first book freely available was to whet the appetite for the rest of the series (which I have no doubt it was), then it has amply succeeded.

Set in an alternative history where dragons are real and important component of any fighting force, it is the story of a British naval officer thrust into the life of an aviator when he captures a French ship carrying an about-to-hatch dragon egg. Aviators live apart from the rest of society, let alone other fighting forces, and he has to adjust to a strange new life aided and abetted by his new companion Temeraire.

I loved the story and the concept. I thought the characters were well-constructed and the plot well-balanced. It is probably one of the best books I have read in quite some time and I look forward with great eagerness to reading the continuing adventures of Laurence and Temeraire.