Did you read the appendix? "...during the reign of Elizabeth I new methods of harnessing were developed which secured the general domestication of the breed, and they were instrumental in the destruction of the Armada." It made me wonder about a direct royal connection. (Based on essentially no text evidence. Just wondering.)
I disagree with you that humans necessarily control who the dragons bond to, even as generally as gender selection. These dragons have just enough alien in them that I found it plausible that some of them *might* prefer women, and just as plausible that some of them might not bond to humans at all, for reasons of their own. They're not ships, or even horses.
1) Hmm, that's interesting about a royal connection.
2) Is the reference to humans controlling to the idea that dragons are told in-shell to pick a women? Well, I put that down as a possibly, and also as coming from the parent dragon rather than humans.
I admit I may be making too much out of this, and that my problem is based on a lack of evidence, which is a dubious thing in the start of a series. But all the same, I'd be happier if we had some evidence that other breeds tended towards preferences--even not *absolute* requirements, just preferences--but we don't.
And the fact that they _aren't_ horses makes it harder to believe for me. I could sort of imagine that you could breed horses or dogs who tended to prefer people with higher or lower voices, for instance. But dragons are _people_, and having *every single* Longwing insist on a female handler is like having *every single* ethnic-group-of-your-choice insist on marrying--whatever. If that makes my objection clearer.
But assuming that the basic set-up and story stays the same, without the hand-wavey thing about one breed only bonding with women, either there would have been no significant female characters in the book, or, if she had gone with the more intuitively logical idea that male dragons only bond with men and female dragons only bond with women, then the aviator society would have been half female and would have borne little resemblance to actual British society at the time.
So I'll take the hand-wave for the sake of having important female characters while still keeping the general social set-up pretty close to the way it historically was-- because there have always been a couple female explorers and soldiers and so forth even in the most male-dominated society, even if they have to disguise themselves as men, but they don't change society as a whole so long as there are only a few of them and they're seen as exceptions to the rule.
Yes, I know, and I know it's important to have *some* female characters in the book because it's part of Laurence learning to look past superficialities. I don't object to the result, I just think the means was hand-wavy enough that it jolted me out of the story when I was told it.
The hand-wavy "Longwings only like females" thing made me scratch my head a bit, too--but not enough to pull me out of this story since it wasn't actually part of this plot. I would really like Novik's explanation as to why the breed prefers female handlers, though. There's plenty of story there.
I have a hefty spoiler-laden review post of my own over on my journal, but here I will simply say that I really loved Temeraire and Laurence both as characters, and Temeraire especially had all the best lines. Especially his being cranky about dragons not being invited to Parliament. ;)
Yeah, I'm a bit surprised I haven't seen anyone complaining that the non-POV character was much more colorful than the POV character. (Laurence has personality too, it's just quieter.)
I don't know if this would be the same for all readers, but I think I prefer that Laurence has a quieter personality. Were he more flamboyant of nature, I think that'd set a completely different tone for the book.
Also, having him have a quieter nature works better as a complement to Temeraire. :)
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I disagree with you that humans necessarily control who the dragons bond to, even as generally as gender selection. These dragons have just enough alien in them that I found it plausible that some of them *might* prefer women, and just as plausible that some of them might not bond to humans at all, for reasons of their own. They're not ships, or even horses.
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2) Is the reference to humans controlling to the idea that dragons are told in-shell to pick a women? Well, I put that down as a possibly, and also as coming from the parent dragon rather than humans.
I admit I may be making too much out of this, and that my problem is based on a lack of evidence, which is a dubious thing in the start of a series. But all the same, I'd be happier if we had some evidence that other breeds tended towards preferences--even not *absolute* requirements, just preferences--but we don't.
And the fact that they _aren't_ horses makes it harder to believe for me. I could sort of imagine that you could breed horses or dogs who tended to prefer people with higher or lower voices, for instance. But dragons are _people_, and having *every single* Longwing insist on a female handler is like having *every single* ethnic-group-of-your-choice insist on marrying--whatever. If that makes my objection clearer.
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So I'll take the hand-wave for the sake of having important female characters while still keeping the general social set-up pretty close to the way it historically was-- because there have always been a couple female explorers and soldiers and so forth even in the most male-dominated society, even if they have to disguise themselves as men, but they don't change society as a whole so long as there are only a few of them and they're seen as exceptions to the rule.
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I have a hefty spoiler-laden review post of my own over on my journal, but here I will simply say that I really loved Temeraire and Laurence both as characters, and Temeraire especially had all the best lines. Especially his being cranky about dragons not being invited to Parliament. ;)
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Also, having him have a quieter nature works better as a complement to Temeraire. :)
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