Temeraire by Naomi Novik

"I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on."

Now THAT'S cute.

Temeraire or His Majesty's Dragon, as it was originally published in the US, is the first book of a series by Naomi Novik, celebrating this year its sixth installment, Tongues of Serpents. Naomi has been a very active livejournal fanfiction writer for many years now and when she read Patrick O'Brian's novels about the napoleonic wars, she was mesmerized and very quickly produced the first books of her series.

What happens in these books? Four words: dragons in napoleonic era. Sounds scary, but it's quite charming actually. A naval officer has to abandon his post (and with it the status of his former life) in order to join the air force (you know, dragon riders), a somewhat shameful position for a man of his class. New life and new people are waiting for him and suddenly Trafalgar and Waterloo take a very different twist.

If you've read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (if you haven't, beg for forgiveness by doing so asap), you're probably used to the idea of magic in the early 19th century England and the napoleonic wars. Though a less pendantic and easier, faster read than Clarke, Novik follows this recipe and does fairly well. I loved the dragons and the relationships between them and the officers and I found this to be the best part of the story. The first book though, isn't as packed with action as I'd like; we watch how Lawrence and Temeraire got together, their training, their first major challenge. But the promise the future books give is a delicious one. I still haven't found the time to lay my hands on the second book, Throne of Jade, but as soon as I do so I will let you know.

Novik is one of those new writers that take fantasy unexplored levels. After a decade of Tolkien-nostalgia and the relevant clones, it's refreshing to see such books written. Temeraire has its weaknesses, but the first book won me: I shall definitely read the rest.

Have you read Temeraire? Tell me your thoughts!

You can buy Temeraire here.

The fantastic Temeraire artwork can be found here.