Dear Naomi Novik,

[urban_twilight]

I picked up His Majesty's Dragon whilst in the ruthless grip of an insatiable need for dragon-themed books. And while I'm not particularly a history fanatic, the concept of dragons during the Napoleonic Wars was intriguing enough that I signed it out from the library with a little more than the standard level of excitement. It sounded fresh. It

Comments

[bugbeary]

I couldn't disagree more - but then again, I would never take mindless marauding dragons over an amusingly posh British literary one any day. I concede that Laurence is a personality-less twat with an overblown sense of honor - but who cares, when the dragons are so full of personality, and when the bromance between him and Temeraire is so full of win? And I hardly think he took to the dragon thing without batting an eye. I kind of got irritated at him for constantly whining about not being in the navy or whatever anymore. I can't stand characters who have fabulously cool things happen to them, like getting a DRAGON, and then spend the rest of the book moping about how they want their old life back. Who would?? XD

[urban_twilight]

To be honest, it really was the semi-colon thing that pissed me off the most... XD

[bugbeary]

LOL! You either love semi-colons or you don't - me, I'm kind of a semi-colon whore, I LOVE EM.

Btw, love the icon!

[lots42]

Posh literary dragon? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozy_and_Millie

[silverflight8]

This post makes me sad, but I do agree with you about the semicolons. I don't like the way she uses so many of them.

[silverflight8]

Aren't large, fire-breathing reptiles supposed to inspire fear?
But one of the problems is they don't, and consequently is a problem for Britain...

[urban_twilight]

That was kind of my point...

[silverflight8]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant, because they don't breathe fire, should they not (by your reasoning) be docile? But the fact is, they do inspire fear - lots of it; even the ministry that is supposed to work with them is absolutely petrified.

[kat_nic]

Awe, but I LIKE that her dragons are refined and intellectual.

IAWYC, though, about Laurence. But who cares about him, it's all about the dragons anyway.

[seiberwing]

While I never noticed the problem, some people who found her writing style stilted also said it got better in the second book. So maybe it does.

Also, I really think you're projecting your own views of a completely fictional species here. Why should they be ferocious instead of obedient (as they've been both bred and trained to be for centuries)? They're dragons. They can be whatever you want them to be. Besides that, their demeanor's different in different areas, the Chinese ones are a lot more assertive and the wild ones are probably the ferocious types you prefer.

Maybe giving him some motivation would be helpful.Duty. Lawrence is Lawful Good slipping into Lawful Stupid from time to time. He doesn't like what he has to do but he does it because it's duty to his country, to his superiors and comrades, and eventually to his dragon. Yes, he's a bit milquetoast and around the fourth book (which is where I stopped reading because it just got too depressing) I got fed up with some of the more foolish things he did, but he's not a

[idemandjustice]

Honestly, if the OP reacted this badly to the first book, I really would recommend they NOT keep spending time on these, and find something else more to their taste.

[seiberwing]

Also a valid point, I'm just saying that's what I've heard.

[idemandjustice]

Well, I thought they got better, myself. But I really liked it to begin with.

[idemandjustice]

This was so totally the opposite of my reaction to these books in just about every way! Just goes to show what different taste we all have. I'm trying to think if there's some other historical fantasy that I can think of that might be more to your taste, but I just have no idea.