Apparently I am the big baby of BOOKGASM’s reviewing staff, because I cried twice, full out, while reading Naomi Novik’s HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON, published as TEMERAIRE in the UK. Now, you may blame it on some kind of hormonal imbalance, but I choose to believe it’s because Ms. Novik is a tremendously capable writer, and gives both her human and non-human characters such endearing attributes that one cannot but help to care about their lives. This powerful, engrossing book is the first in a trilogy, with THRONE OF JADE to be released at the end of April, followed by BLACK POWDER WAR in May.
This isn’t your parents’ Tolkienesque fantasy, either. The book is set in the heyday of the Napoleonic Era, when Britain and France are fighting bitterly across the Channel, when England has the greatest naval forces in the world and the French have one of the greatest generals ever to stride the earth, Napoleon Bonaparte. Amidst all of this comes the fantastic element: There be dragons here. That’s right, both sides have an air force, consisting of gigantic dragons of all colors, sizes, breeds and abilities. Almost everything else is spot-on historically correct for the era; it just happens that dragons are a realistic component of society. And these dragons aren’t just beasts of burden, but intelligent and thoughtful creatures who forge intimate bonds with their handlers and flyers, somewhat reminiscent of dogs in a theater of war.
We start our tale with English naval Capt. Will Laurence as he successfully boards and captures a French frigate. What lies in the French ship’s hold is truly amazing: a huge dragon’s egg that will almost certainly hatch before the English can reach land. The English officers choose lots to determine who will be the one to harness and tame the dragon, but when the beast finally hatches, it already seems more intelligent than your average third-rate swabbie, and it latches onto the captain with alacrity. At first, Laurence doesn’t wish to give up the Navy and become a dragon rider, but the relationship that develops between himself and the dragon he names Temeraire grows so strong as to break traditional familial and societal bonds.
It’s a great idea, but it wouldn’t work so well if Novik didn’t have world-class skill. While her human characters may be a little clichéd, she really brings the life and world of the dragons to the fore. They are a remarkably complex species, with innumerable varieties, all of which seem to have different requirements and characteristics, and this is all explained matter-of-factly and satisfactorily. Readers who are not used to dragons may equate them with dogs, although these would be dogs who can understand abstruse mathematics and like to talk politics. But the interspecies bond between human and faithful sentient being is definitely there, and Novik is quite strong on explaining that bond and making it sensible.
The plot is relatively straightforward: Bonaparte plans on invading England, and the happenstance team of Laurence and Temeraire are dropped into this maelstrom with little training. As Temeraire discovers that he is much more than a common dragon, and is in fact an extremely rare Chinese Celestial, Laurence goes on his own voyage of self-discovery growing from a prudish, hidebound man to one who can understand the call of a different drummer and who comes alive to perhaps a more spiritual side of things.
You, too, will come to appreciate the team of man and dragon, understand their camaraderie and their call to duty, and thrill to the epic and intense battle scenes that fill the book. Novik is superb at describing dragon fights that could never have existed except in her own mind, and equally superb about making us care about those who fight and why they do so.
HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON is an absolute winner of a first book. Even the excerpt from the second book that is included as a teaser final chapter made me angry and ready to fight with Laurence and Temeraire, and their companions Berkley and Maximus, Harcourt and Lily, Celeritas and all the rest. This is first-class dragon lore. –Mark Rose
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