I’m sure three-quarters of the people reading this journal have already caught at least some of the hoopla over these books, but I finally got around to reading Naomi Novik’s elegant alternate Napoleonic novel His Majesty’s Dragon. Short form: think Patrick O’Brian, but on dragon-back. My recommendation for it (and its subsequent series) is up on my site.
Cementing my desire to get around to these books. I just heard her interview with the “Dragon Page” guys. Apparently she sent her agent sample chapters and quickly heard back “we like it and we want three of ’em”. So I wonder how much the story changed from what she originally intended? Everyone seems to love them, though.
It didn’t feel like she had to stretch very hard at all for sequels — you learn early on in the first book that Temeraire is a Chinese breed of dragon, which quite handily sets up a reason for a Chinese-based plot in book two.
That sounds awesome…I dig Patrick O’Brian. 🙂
As do I. Less technical jargon in these books, but they’ve got some of the same flavor.
Yes, but…
You should read that book by Marie Brennan first. She’s just fabu, donchaknow.
Re: Yes, but…
I have read it. It was spiffy…and I hear there’s a sequel coming out. 🙂
