The series of books beginning with His Majesty's Dragon has been getting great reviews, and when Naomi Novik won the Campbell Award at the recent WorldCon, I knew it was time for me to see what all the fuss was about.Here's the deal. It's the Napoleonic Wars, but this time with dragons. Dragons, it seems, hatch from the shell able to speak English (and French, too), and they choose their partners at once. Will Laurence captures a dragon's egg from a French frigate, little suspecting that he will no longer be captain of his own ship but a member of the Aerial Corps, fighting sky battles from the back of the dragon Temeraire.
For whatever reason, corps members are practically outcasts from society, and Laurence isn't looking forward to becoming a member. He has no choice, however, and soon he's trying to adjust to the informality and strange ways of the group. He's noble, fair, and right-minded in the extreme, however, and he makes his way without too much difficulty. Soon he and Temeraire have bonded in a way that makes any thought of a return to his old life impossible.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and I've already obtained the next two in the series to read at a later date. If you like fantasy, dragons, or alternate universes, check it out.
Note: Some of you might not be aware that Novik is the wife of Charles Ardai (sometimes known as Richard Aleas), of Hard Case Crime, so I just thought I'd mention it.
2 comments:
I wish I had your ability to skip from genre to genre and completely immerse yourself in each, finding its strengths, accepting the new world. It's a real strength in a reader and probably contributes to the skill of a writer.
Reading this book is sort of like reading a historical novel, except with dragons.
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