Rules of Deception by Christopher ReichI used to love a good spy novel when I was younger, but for some reason I haven't indulged in many recently. Well, I sought to remedy that with this one. To me the key to a good spy novel is, even more than action and intrigue, to have enough twists to make it exciting and that, most importantly, those twists are believable. Nothing worse than investing time in a book and then be forced to call shenanigans at the end. Fortunately this one fit the bill. Sure, you could kinda see the big surprise coming, but it was explained sufficiently well enough; unlikely, but still possible. There were times where it was hard to tell who was on what side and what the sides even were, but it never got too frustrating. Overall a satisfying diversion.
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
I don't know what it is, but I've been on a little bit of a fantasy kick lately. Whatever, I'm going to run with it. This is the first in a series of quasi-historical fiction novels set during the Napoleonic wars, except there are dragons and the countries use them as an air force. Laurence, a captain of a ship in the English navy, finds himself in (what seems to him at the time) a devastating position when a dragon egg his ship has captured from a French vessel hatches and the newborn dragon chooses him as its handler. In this world, a dragon and its handler are linked for life, which means he'll have to leave the navy and join the generally disdained aerial corps. He grows devoted to his dragon, Temeraire, however, and predictably they save the day in the end. I liked this one quite a bit and recommend it to anyone who likes action and dragons and the like. I look forward to reading the rest in the series.
1 comment:
That last one sounds sort of clever, actually.
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