His Majesty's Dragon

SYNOPSIS:

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors ride mighty fighting dragons, bred for size or speed. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes the precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future – and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

REVIEW

4.5 STARS

Putting into words how much I loved this book is going to be hard, but before getting into this mission impossible, I would like to thank @youknowwhohoo for “advertising” this series - had she not done so, I think I would never know I needed Temeraire in my life.

One chapter in, I had already fallen in love with this story. How couldn’t I? It’s about dragons… THAT TALK. They actually say words just like us people. They are human except in the physical meaning of the word and trust me, after finishing it, I would totally trade my body for one of theirs.

The second thing that sold this story for me was the fact that the set and time of it were the Napoleonic Wars, a bit before the Trafalgar Battle (1805). Of course, there are a lot of events that didn’t happen (duh, dragons), but seeing facts and fiction collide in such a magnificent way made me gleeful to the point I felt like a child opening her most anticipated Christmas present.

If nothing I wrote until now convinces you, then there’s something terribly wrong with you.

Jokes aside, my expectations are now super high. Novik’s writing is exquisite and she manages to capture phenomenally both the high society’s mannerisms, the ancient rivalry between England and France, the nineteenth-century landscapes and the jargon of sea and aerial professions. All this, while she creates a fictional world on top of our own, where dragons are complex creatures and represent an important part in the fight against Bonaparte.

Another truly amazing prowess is how she keeps us interested in every second of it. This is a well-woven narrative: Novik doesn’t jump into the middle of battles, waving the “look at all this non-stop action” flag. She lets us see Temeraire and Laurence grow and learn the ways of the Aerial Corps. It’s a skillful, intricate book with a beginning, a middle and an end, where everything is explained, but not exhaustively; where nothing is left to chance and yet there are a lot of surprise elements and things that don’t get a straightforward answer. There wasn’t a time when I felt bored: everything felt important and meaningful, so much that I finished the story knowing exactly the world I was living in.

The fact that our characters aren’t geniuses born with all the knowledge and wisdom they’ll ever need also made me appreciate this book more. This is a story with A LOT of character development, especially for Laurence. Our aviator is a naval Captain with no clue of how to train or ride a dragon. It’s not like he discovers an innate ability to do so after the egg hatches. It’s a slow process, especially because it’s hard for him to abandon the life he’s known forever.

However, what I found most appealing in this transformation was how he learned that Aerial Corps was as much a man’s world as a woman’s. Used to a misogynistic trade and having been raised in an important family, Laurence never saw women as capable beings, only as mothers and wives. I loved to see his slow transformation and open-mindedness.

Of course, we can’t forget this book is a depiction of the nineteenth century, so gender equality was far from being a subject of discussion or even reflection. Of course, this bothered me since it’s never pleasing to read works where women are undervalued and underappreciated, but at the same time, there was nothing Novik could’ve done since this is historical fiction and she can’t change the past society.

The author tried to keep the events as close to real life as possible in this first installment. I don’t know how this series will progress, but I hope she keeps as close to History as she can!

There were, however, a few things that I didn’t enjoy as much:

* Novik’s excuses for Temeraire speaking in English (if you know, you know, I don’t want to spoil anything). He doesn’t know many things and is learning them, however, he learned English in a week? It didn’t seem plausible to me.

* How we don’t know how Victoriatus’ recovery was, just that he was injured and then he’s completely fine, no follow-through whatsoever.

* Volly's story was the saddest one for me and his arc felt extremely pointless. I was hoping he would pass on to Hollin, but no. Seeing Laurence’s passiveness on this matter annoyed me and disappointed me as well.

* Lastly, the lack of a timeline really got into my nerves. We only realize eight months have gone by on page 261 until then we have no clue how long Temeraire and Laurence spent on training. Also, I think the year is 1805 because Novik mentions the Trafalgar Battle but it might be just a hunch, there’s no way of being certain.

However, overall I think this book is deserving of 4.5 stars. I had to order the second one half-way through 'His Majesty’s Dragon' for I knew for sure I wouldn’t be disappointed.