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Novik, Naomi - His Majesty's Dragon/Temeraire
Unlike other people on LJ, I don't know Novik at all, nor do I read her LJ. I'm always somewhat wary when I read reviews by people who know the author on a personal level. I don't think bias is intentional, but one wonders, and I'm quite sure I do it as well.
From what I can tell, all the praise that Novik and her book have been getting in my LJ circles is entirely deserved; this is a wonderful, wonderful book.
I love that it's set during the Napoleonic Wars, I love the dragons, I love Temeraire, I love Will Laurence, I love the world, I love the aviators, I love the dialogue. Also... semicolons! People speak with semicolons! Including the dragons!
Captain Will Laurence of the British Navy manages to captures a French ship with a dragon egg on it. Dragons in this world have been bred and domesticated for quite some time; different countries breed different dragons, and some of my favorite parts of the book are the throwaway mentions of dragons in history (the Yellow Emperor was a dragon!). He's rather put off when he becomes the handler of said dragon, largely because while aviators are desperately needed, they tend to be shunned by polite society for their eccentricities.
I adored Temeraire, who has a marvelous personality, and I adore the bond between Laurence and Temeraire. Usually I'm not much for animal-human bonding stories, despite my teenage adoration of Mercedes Lackey. I never was too rabid about Anne McCaffrey. I think the best thing about this book is that Novik makes it clear that there isn't some mystical magic psychic bond between a dragon and its handler. It's very much a friendship. Also, I liked all the different breeds of dragons and such.
The other thing I really loved was the description of dragon training, which sounds very military and rather boring. It wasn't glamorous. No teleporation, no flaming, lots of practice and lots of training, which makes perfect sense. The battles themselves were also very easy to follow.
But mostly I adored the narrative voice and the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire, which is so cute!
I'm a little scared of the next book, because it looks like it's taking place in China. My tolerance for Asian settings in fantasy is sadly low. I mean, Novik has done such a good job with Regency England + dragons that I feel better, but extra reassurance is always good.
Links:
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija's review
-minnow1212's review
-tenemet's review
-buymeaclue's review
From what I can tell, all the praise that Novik and her book have been getting in my LJ circles is entirely deserved; this is a wonderful, wonderful book.
I love that it's set during the Napoleonic Wars, I love the dragons, I love Temeraire, I love Will Laurence, I love the world, I love the aviators, I love the dialogue. Also... semicolons! People speak with semicolons! Including the dragons!
Captain Will Laurence of the British Navy manages to captures a French ship with a dragon egg on it. Dragons in this world have been bred and domesticated for quite some time; different countries breed different dragons, and some of my favorite parts of the book are the throwaway mentions of dragons in history (the Yellow Emperor was a dragon!). He's rather put off when he becomes the handler of said dragon, largely because while aviators are desperately needed, they tend to be shunned by polite society for their eccentricities.
I adored Temeraire, who has a marvelous personality, and I adore the bond between Laurence and Temeraire. Usually I'm not much for animal-human bonding stories, despite my teenage adoration of Mercedes Lackey. I never was too rabid about Anne McCaffrey. I think the best thing about this book is that Novik makes it clear that there isn't some mystical magic psychic bond between a dragon and its handler. It's very much a friendship. Also, I liked all the different breeds of dragons and such.
The other thing I really loved was the description of dragon training, which sounds very military and rather boring. It wasn't glamorous. No teleporation, no flaming, lots of practice and lots of training, which makes perfect sense. The battles themselves were also very easy to follow.
But mostly I adored the narrative voice and the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire, which is so cute!
I'm a little scared of the next book, because it looks like it's taking place in China. My tolerance for Asian settings in fantasy is sadly low. I mean, Novik has done such a good job with Regency England + dragons that I feel better, but extra reassurance is always good.
Links:
-
rachelmanija's review-
minnow1212's review-
tenemet's review-
buymeaclue's review
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(I have no way to demonstrate this to you, but my pout is legendary in some circles, and thus reserved for special occasions like the lack of a good book. ^^)
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It is extremely good! Eh... not to rub it in ;).
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Oooooooooooooh.
I've been a little wary of this book, because everyone's been so squeeful over it and that inevitably means I won't like something, but semicolons? oo oh.
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Ditto with the military stuff and the training. It's just a cool world.
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I did meet the author, but AFTER I read the book.
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One of my favorite parts was Laurence deciding that Temeraire was totally worth the social stigma of being an aviator.
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The third is also out a month from now. I believe it's less a trilogy than the first three books, released close together for marketing purposes.
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