Naomi Novik's first novel,
His Majesty's Dragon, is a wonderful discovery. (Thank you to Michael and Evo's
DragonPage for the heads-up!)
British naval captain Will Laurence's ship captures an unhatched dragon-egg bound for France during a battle with a French ship. During the journey to take their spoil back to England, the egg hatches, giving birth to the dragon Temeraire. Laurence bonds with the dragon as his handler, soon leaving behind British Navy to join the Aerial Corp of dragons. This decision brings about some heart-ache from his family, espeically his father who was none to happy Laurence joined the Navy to start with.
The book covers three distinct sections--the hatching of Temeraire, the training of Temeraire and then Termeraire and other dragons role in a battle with a French fleet. Laurence and Temeraire's relationship grows and deepens over the course of the novel in a fascinating, compelling and completely convincing way. One nice element is that Novik has more than one breed of dragon and that they all can interact with their human handlers and crews as well as each other in unqiue, interesting ways. This is off-set but superlative battle sequences that are easy to follow, edge of your seat and entertaining.
As the first book in a new trilogy,
His Majesty's Dragon does what a good opening novel should do--entertain, draw the reader in and leave you wanting for more. I am pleased that DelRay has such faith in Novik's books that they are releasing all three within a relatively short time span. After finishing
His Majesty's Dragon, I was satisfied with the story (it is fairly self-contained and while there are threads left open for future novels, there isn't a massive cliffhanger) and left wanting more.
His Majesty's Dragon will probably be found in the sci-fi/fantasy section of your local bookstore but that description hardly does this book justice. The story is an interesting hybrid of real-world historical fiction and fanciful dragon flights.
Definitely recommended and a great way to start off
my summer reading. Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 6/02/2006 02:27:00 PM |
|
