His Majesty’s Dragon

His Majesty’s Dragon (2006) Naomi Novik

During the Napoleonic wars, Captain Will Laurence of the HMS Reliant captures the French ship Amitie and its valuable cargo: a dragon egg. Unfortunately, the egg is close to hatching, so someone on the ship must become bonded to the dragon upon its hatching, and then leave the Navy to become one of Britain’s aviators, a fate no one on the ship wants.

I was reluctant to pick up this book initially, because I’m not a fan of Anne McCaffery, so I wasn’t interested in a book about dragons. However, the idea of dragons and the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars struck me as very interesting, so I decided to take a chance and pick up His Majesty’ Dragon.

I have to say that I was really impressed. I liked the characters, I loved the setting, and I really enjoyed the story. Temeraire was a very interesting character, and I very much liked the relationship between him and Laurence. Although some things were not clear–such as why Levitas put up with Rankin–other things became more clear as the story progressed–such as why they wanted to pair Temeraire with Dayes.

But mostly I really liked Temeraire.

Although this is an alternate history, she chose to keep things pretty much the same, except for the addition of dragons. I enjoyed this very much, because I particularly like books set in Regency/Victorian England, (No, I don’t know why. I just do.) so in addition to a well written story, the setting was one that I like.

The writing is also different from what I had expected. Right or wrong, I expect dragon stories to be written more for teenagers, but although there were romantic elements (plus sword fighting!), and it wasn’t a hard book to read, it didn’t strike me as particularly light and fluffy. Additionally, I thought some of the elements of the story were quite well done (particularly dealing with Laurence’s adjustment to the air corps).

However, there were a few things that were a little to easily dismissed, particularly, the estrangement between Laurence and his father. Perhaps Laurence was so busy he didn’t have time to dwell on this issue, but I really thought he should have been more upset than he was.

Otherwise, this was an enjoyable book, and one that I think Michael will really like. I can’t wait to read the next two (which I went out and picked up today,before I even finished His Majesty’s Dragon.) And, although this is a trilogy, this book stands on its own. You’ll want to read the next book not because you were left hanging at the end of this one, but because you like the characters and want to spend more time with them.
Rating: 8/10

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