His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1) in Beyond Reality

Jul 07, 2010 Sandi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2010, e-books

Call me crazy, but I like fantasy novels to be plausible. I like magic as long as it has an explanation or usage that seems "realistic" within its own fictional world. Mythological creatures need to make some sort of sense.

When Barnes & Noble offered the first book of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series as one of its Free Fridays books, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to read it for free. It has received so much praise from people who know their fantasy. I just have to say that it was okay, but it Call me crazy, but I like fantasy novels to be plausible. I like magic as long as it has an explanation or usage that seems "realistic" within its own fictional world. Mythological creatures need to make some sort of sense.

When Barnes & Noble offered the first book of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series as one of its Free Fridays books, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to read it for free. It has received so much praise from people who know their fantasy. I just have to say that it was okay, but it didn't wow me. The first part was really good, but it started dragging enough in the middle and the end that I started questioning the world Novik created and it started seeming really implausible.

The first thing that got me was the way dragons are hatched with a full command of the English language or whatever language they are exposed to in the egg. They not only know human language, they speak it. I'm pretty sure dragon physiology would not allow them to speak any human language. Novik doesn't even use the telepathic communication angle that other writers have used to work around this.

The second thing that got me was the feeding of dragons. They seemed to subsist on very little given their size and there were always plenty of cows and sheep around to keep them fed. Given the number of dragons in captivity, it seems like it would take an awful lot of resources to keep those dragons fed. I'm sure the environmental impact wouldn't be pretty.

I also wasn't convinced by the battle scenes. It just seems like it was impossibly difficult to fight a war from the back of a dragon, especially with all the harnesses.

There was a lot more that didn't convince me, but I won't go into it. However, I will say that Novik's formal prose was perfectly suited to the period of His Majesty's Dragon. She got the language right and never slipped into modern usage.

If you love dragons, you might love this take on them. I'm not a big fan though. This book was okay, but not great. I don't think I'll be reading the rest. ...more

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Aug 02, 2013 Banner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Enjoyable read about a dragon and his rider set in the Napoleonic Era of the British French wars.The dialogue is quite Victorian and while enjoyable to listen too, I sometimes found it lacking in expression (but not distractingly so). The how and why dragons are so intelligent and among us is never explained, it "just is". Maybe this will be dealt with in future books of the series. However this is an alternate history so no explanation is really needed. But the dragons are quite interesting and ...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Sandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-horror-althistory, audio, read-2009, library-express

The Napoleonic War with Dragons. Think Hornblower mixed with Pern. Lots of fun and Simon Vance did a great job with the narration.

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Jan 29, 2010 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Bit like fantasy version of O'Brien books - Master and Commander etc, and reminiscent of Susanna Clarke as well.

Fight scenes could have been a bit better described, and I'm not 100% convinced about the details of how dragons fight - would also have liked to know a bit more about the sensation of flying for the first time for Laurence - seems to take to it too quickly. ...more

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