A review by bluejayreads
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

adventurous emotional tense
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I had actually looked at this book a year or two ago and decided that I really wasn’t interested. Dragons are cool and historical fantasy can be good, but I’m not interested in military fiction at all, and the Napoleonic Wars are not a historical period I particularly care about. Then I started looking to see what books my library had by Naomi Novik (my surprise favorite author of last year) and discovered that she wrote this series. So I had to give it a shot anyway. 

And surprisingly (though less surprisingly considering the author), it was very good. 

Even though this is about a British Navy officer forced to switch to the airborne division after he ended up bonded with a dragon, it’s not really about the military. It’s not even about the war against Napoleon that Lawrence and Temeraire are training to fight. It’s about Lawrence, honorable and disciplined military officer and perfect 1800s gentleman, and Temeraire, very young but blazingly intelligent, and the relationship between them. 

Considering Lawrence and Temeraire don’t see a single battle until 63% of the way through the book, this story has no right to be as interesting as it is. It’s mostly about training, relationships, culture shock, strategy, and a not insubstantial amount of politics. And yet I enjoyed every minute of it. 

I really enjoyed the clash between Lawrence’s strict Navy background and clear social dynamics from being raised as nobility and the informality and social upending of the Aerial Corps. I also enjoyed the relationships. Not just between Lawrence and Temeraire (although that was a spectacular friendship), but between our human and dragon protagonists and the other humans and dragons in the Aerial Corps. 

This book is just plain awesome. There’s dragons, of course, which are always epic, but there’s also a strong emotional element to the story. It has ups and downs, sadness and joy, and some great Epic Battle Feelings in the climax. Overall, this is a fantastic book (not that I expected any less from Naomi Novik), and I am definitely reading the rest of the series. 
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