hiii crab how are u doing. ive been seeing u post about temeraire(?) recently and i had like, 0 idea what it was. i think someone checked it out of the library yesterday? is it a book? i could search this but im interested in hearing what u find compelling about it......
they're a series of books! i've been rereading them and liveblogging, i will sometimes mention specific book names. wikipedia page with all of the titles although my set is also numbered
the setting of the books is britain* in the napoleonic wars, except dragons exist. the british (and most other countries) keep an 'aerial corps' of dragons (and human crews). dragons get very attached to the person that names them/feeds them/puts them in harness (for baby dragons this is like a little cat leash) for the first time
enter William Laurence, a british naval captain. he loves his job so much he loves his ship. his ship takes a french ship (they're at war) (napoleonic) and the french ship has a dragon egg on it.
the british desperately need dragons so William Laurence who is nothing if not dedicated to king and country is like okay. this egg is probably going to hatch before we hit land and we cannot let it not become harnessed and fly away. we Must harness this thing. for our country.
through various errors, who ends up harnessing the dragon but William Laurence himself?! now he has to quit his job he loves so much because you cannot keep a heavyweight dragon on a ship:( his poor ship:( but also the dragon is dainty and has sleek black scales and likes baths and napping in laurence's hammock so maybe its not all that bad.
*they end up going a lot of places so much of the books are not actually set in britain
i like these books a lot but they're hard to talk about without spoilers because a lot of the interesting bits are like. unpacking stuff you are told in the first book. laurence is 100% biting all of the british propaganda*, both real stuff and fictional stuff about dragons, and the books are aware of this as a specific character trait. the plot is sort of designed to make him question every single one of his morals from the ground up. i think it is really really easy to make a character questioning outdated beliefs very clunky and unbelievable but while he is not like... statistically realistic, i buy that having those experiences in that order would change that specific guy like that. i am also never not on laurences side even when he is thinking some fuck ass shit. this is mostly because a) he is so infallibly polite that he avoids being a dick to most other characters about this, and b) he does immediately start examining his beliefs when prompted
*EXCEPT slavery. he is an abolitionist. they do not make you watch him defend the slave trade in any sense, he is actively and loudly opposed from the beginning
as an example, there are female members of dragon crews, which is technically a spoiler but i need you to know there are women in these books and this happens early. laurence is not like..... totally cool with the idea of women being ~subjected to so much danger~ for their country but he is aware enough to never voice this concern to any of the female officers and he is always respectful of following their lead. and then you get to watch him Get Over It. (there are non-white characters in these books, too. i don't want to spoil who specifically ends up important, as i think this makes their introductions less fun, but i promise several important characters are not white by the end) (if this is a serious barrier i can give more detailed spoilers)
the pacing can be odd; they are mostly set up like an old style travel log where there is sometimes 3 chapters dedicated to Being On A Ship. people have various levels of tolerance for this. i actually love that sort of shit but admittedly there are some chapters in a reread where im like oh god the fucking desert again
if you like books focused on platonic relationships (they are bonded forever) (laurence can't get married because he already has temeraire) (he sleeps on temeraires leg when he's upset) (i didn't say this so for context temeraire ends up the size of a house) then you will probably like temeraire. this is mostly what i come to dragon books for so i was delighted.
there is also just so much Shit that Happens. its all mostly spoilery but if you are a fan of Characters in Situations........ laurence is getting put on tumble dry there is truly just always some new event he has to deal with now.
temeraire likes math!!
please read them (i will find you epubs* if you want<3) warnings for: period typical racism, incl. not... super graphic slavery but like. it is slavery handled realistically. period typical misogyny, homophobia, etc. mostly non-graphic blood, death, warfare etc.
If you’re ever having a shit day, remember that William Laurence once made a failed marriage proposal, got sued for £10,000 and committed an unrelated capital crime all within 24 hours
🖤 The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Deluxe Edition II by Nagabe
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
The plot thickens as Teacher starts to learn about Shiva’s past; while Shiva deals with grief, loneliness, and questions for her Teacher. Soldiers are afoot, looking for the girl from the other side and their home is no longer safe.
I started reading the second deluxe edition a while back and just now picked it up again to read. When I do read this series, it has such a chokehold on me. It’s mysterious, suspenseful, and dark. I really like how it’s getting more and more complicated.
Libraries are sneaky, because once you go in, it's soo easy to get a library card, and once you have one, you can pretty much grab one of everything of all the stuff they have there with no consequence, and take it home. But then once you're home and you've read all the stuff you'll have to go back to the library to return the stuff, and once you're at the library again, you're at the library again, so might as well pop in to see what they got, and then you're hauling half their shit home again, and then you'll need to return to the library to return them, so you're at the library again
And the next thing you know you've read 3000 books, your crops are clear and your skin is watered, an angel descents from the heaven to suck your dick twice a week, and also you've got some books to return so you've got a perfectly valid reason to go pop in to the library. Just a little bit.
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