Robert Fromont reviewed Temeraire by Naomi Novik
Naomi Novik's stunning series of novels follow the global adventures of Captain William Laurence and …
What if dragons were real?
3 stars
Well, they'd be used as weapons to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, their handlers a special Corps like the RAF, with their own rules and social mores. And the Chinese would have celestial dragons as companions to the Emperor and his family.
This is a fun series imagining an alternative history where dragons are real creatures, who can be born wild, but learn human languages the hear from inside their eggs and can be tamed if it's done as soon as they hatch.
These stories are told from the perspective of a very stuffy (and not necessarily too bright) English Naval Captain during the Napoleonic wars, who very reluctantly becomes the handler of a Chinese dragon who hatches from an egg carried by a French ship he seizes. Nobody in his world approves, but he rapidly comes to love his draconic companion Temeraire, who turns out to be very intelligent …
Well, they'd be used as weapons to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, their handlers a special Corps like the RAF, with their own rules and social mores. And the Chinese would have celestial dragons as companions to the Emperor and his family.
This is a fun series imagining an alternative history where dragons are real creatures, who can be born wild, but learn human languages the hear from inside their eggs and can be tamed if it's done as soon as they hatch.
These stories are told from the perspective of a very stuffy (and not necessarily too bright) English Naval Captain during the Napoleonic wars, who very reluctantly becomes the handler of a Chinese dragon who hatches from an egg carried by a French ship he seizes. Nobody in his world approves, but he rapidly comes to love his draconic companion Temeraire, who turns out to be very intelligent and earnest, with a few surprises in store.
I would have absolutely lapped up these novels when I was a teenager.