Finished the temeraire novels for the first time. Thoroughly enjoyed 9/10 series, would recommend. Here is my personal ranking just as I finished the whole series
Victory of Eagles- Everyone is in top form, except for Laurence who is actively dissociating through a good portion of the book. As a lover of character driven stories and a bit of good angst 10/10 no notes
2. Black Powder War- Introduces my fave Tharkay; one of the more traditionally structure books plot wise. I thoroughly enjoyed the harrowing escapes 8.5/10
3. Empire of Ivory- Dragon plague is sad:( Hanging with the formation captains is grand :) meeting the #1 brother duo Demane and Sipho is spectacular :)) (although this is the not the book with their full potential, they need to come in at some point) AND the plot point (treason) that shapes literally all the books after 8/10
4. Tongues of Serpents- The actual plot of this one was sorta meandering and intermediary--HOWEVER, the characters were firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed the new 'Australians', fictional or otherwise. This is where Laurence/Granby/Tharkay really became THAT trio, literally the besties of all time due to one overlong trip through the continent . PLUS my fave Demane gets his dragon! Pop off my love! 8/10
5. Blood of Tyrants- I personally enjoy a good side quest. Amnesia, what-if episode, who dunnit where every character tells their version of the story, all of it--I eat that up. So while much of this book feels like side quest, I am still a very happy camper. And it doesn't hurt that I did enjoy what of the actual quest happened-although maybe not as much as for other books (lowkey a little convoluted) 7.5
6. His Majesty's Dragon- I actually quite liked this one, I mean it did inspire me to read the next 8 books. There are a lot of sweet character moments and this is the simple times. Baby Temeraire wanting to stop every 5 secs to show Laurence the most mundane shit has my heart. Forgettable at times in the scope of the series but delightful anyhow 8/10
7. League of Dragons- Feels like two separate books. I liked both and would have been okay with 10 rather than 9 books. The pacing was actually fine but I just would have liked more time with Admiral Laurence and maybe a less abrupt ending but lowkey that's in keeping with the series 7.5/10
8. Throne of Jade- I liked it and the stand off they had before being brought to Mianning Palace was pretty good. I even enjoyed parts of the sea voyage! Just a little forgettable for me overall looking back 7/10
9. Crucible of Gold- one of them had to be last, and I guess its this one. My top were clear while the rest remained murkier. CoG has the honour of being the book that took me the longest to read (mostly due to changes in my personal life) even if I did like it. I was happy to see Laurence (briefly) get to sail a ship again (rip tom riley I would have liked you so much if you weren't pro-slavery) The marriage thing was kinda funny (rip Granby's hair- I know it went white from stress even if the narrator is too kind to mention) 7/10
Anyway top 5 characters (in no particular order):
Laurence, Demane, Tenzing, Granby, Chenery (and shout out to Jane and Emily Roland- real mvp out here)
