His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Her Majesty's Dragon came very highly recommended to me by two friends. Somehow, me (being an idiot) managed to not pick it up until it dropped in my lap. Seeing that my friends seems to have a pretty good idea of what my tastes in books are, clearly I need to move all their recommendations up the list.
So, back to the book. It's set during the Napoleonic Wars and there are dragons. The story centers around one English navy captain Will Laurence and Temeraire, the dragon whose egg Laurence captures from a French frigate. Temeraire hatches while they are en route to England and chooses Laurence as his handler. Unfortunately for Laurence, this means that he's getting transferred from the navy to the equivalent of the Royal Air Force. Training and battle happens.
The style of the book reads a little like a Horatio Hornblower novel with Anne McCaffery-esque dragons thrown in. I liked it a great deal. Temeraire is really cute for a multi-ton critter and exhibits an open, wide eyed and scaly-tailed manner as he learns how to be a good dragon in the RAF. It was endearing. I appreciated how Laurence tried very hard to be an officer and a gentleman to everyone around him regardless of if they were an officer or a gentleman themselves. I found it endearing.
I also liked how the dragons themselves were worked into the alternate history. It made sense to me that England would have fewer dragons than France (less land) and that China would guard theirs closely. the idea of using the dragons as one would use airships and airplanes seems like a no brainer, but I did like the addition of a essentially a gunnery crew for each dragon. I thought it was a neat idea.
While one looking at the cover and the blurb on the back might expect a "loud" exciting book with battle around every corner, I found that this was not the case at all... and was rather delighted by it actually. Instead there's a lot of focus on learning to work as a team and a lot of heart to heart moments that gave me the warm fuzzy feeling. I have a lot of respect for writers that make me like quiet time with characters, because it doesn't seem to happen for me very often. I've been finding that even if the book is full of action, if I can enjoy the quiet time with a set of characters I enjoy the book overall a great deal more.
That is not to say that the book is without conflict of any sort (besides the obvious war with Bonaparte). As is usual in polite English society, there are pecking orders and abuses that get quietly and efficiently dealt with in addition to the messes that major engagements of armed forces generally are.
I suppose if I have to find any fault with the book (and I'm stretching to do so!) the pacing might seem on the slow side if one's expecting action, but I found this didn't bother me in the slightest.
Well, I suppose I have to read the rest of these novels now. Yay!
So, back to the book. It's set during the Napoleonic Wars and there are dragons. The story centers around one English navy captain Will Laurence and Temeraire, the dragon whose egg Laurence captures from a French frigate. Temeraire hatches while they are en route to England and chooses Laurence as his handler. Unfortunately for Laurence, this means that he's getting transferred from the navy to the equivalent of the Royal Air Force. Training and battle happens.
The style of the book reads a little like a Horatio Hornblower novel with Anne McCaffery-esque dragons thrown in. I liked it a great deal. Temeraire is really cute for a multi-ton critter and exhibits an open, wide eyed and scaly-tailed manner as he learns how to be a good dragon in the RAF. It was endearing. I appreciated how Laurence tried very hard to be an officer and a gentleman to everyone around him regardless of if they were an officer or a gentleman themselves. I found it endearing.
I also liked how the dragons themselves were worked into the alternate history. It made sense to me that England would have fewer dragons than France (less land) and that China would guard theirs closely. the idea of using the dragons as one would use airships and airplanes seems like a no brainer, but I did like the addition of a essentially a gunnery crew for each dragon. I thought it was a neat idea.
While one looking at the cover and the blurb on the back might expect a "loud" exciting book with battle around every corner, I found that this was not the case at all... and was rather delighted by it actually. Instead there's a lot of focus on learning to work as a team and a lot of heart to heart moments that gave me the warm fuzzy feeling. I have a lot of respect for writers that make me like quiet time with characters, because it doesn't seem to happen for me very often. I've been finding that even if the book is full of action, if I can enjoy the quiet time with a set of characters I enjoy the book overall a great deal more.
That is not to say that the book is without conflict of any sort (besides the obvious war with Bonaparte). As is usual in polite English society, there are pecking orders and abuses that get quietly and efficiently dealt with in addition to the messes that major engagements of armed forces generally are.
I suppose if I have to find any fault with the book (and I'm stretching to do so!) the pacing might seem on the slow side if one's expecting action, but I found this didn't bother me in the slightest.
Well, I suppose I have to read the rest of these novels now. Yay!