His Majesty's Dragon - 4 stars by Naomi Novice

[Amy]

Cross posted to general feed, and to decathlon July reporting, as well as to the His Majesty's Dragon general thread.

Taking a breath before I write the review. I'm going to savor the moment. And write the review with no spoilers whatsoever, and save the rest of my thoughts for the ongoing discussion.

I did not expect to like this book, but I in fact did. The history of the read, is that is has been recommended to me for years by lots of folks with whom I share taste. I admit the idea did not appeal to me. I am neither generally a lover of historical fantasy or dragons. But when Jason suggested we read it together - I said yes. "Lets do the damn thing!" (Reference to ABC's the Bachelorette, for those of you too erudite and scholarly to be following bad reality TV.) Now we are reading it with 8 or 9 people, and there are plenty of folks who have loved this book, who are behaving as onlookers to the spectacle. Here we go.

I did surprise myself and love it. Still not my genre, but yes it got to me. Why? Simply because of the tender relationship between the dragon and the handler, and I loved this dragon. I consider him mine - which is the strangest thing I could possibly say. But its clear to me that I would not have perhaps enjoyed this book, or enjoyed it half as much, if I were not reading it in this fashion. If I were not exchanging long conversations with Jason and soon to be others about the nature of marriage and relationship, and about dragon intelligence, compassion, and loyalty. Being able to talk and think about this book, considering both its tenderness and its relational, even political implications, absolutely has raised this book for me. Its been as much fun to talk about it, possibly more, than it has been to read it. I'm still not a dragon lover - but this particular dragon has indeed captured my heart.

[Jason]

I will be writing my review tomorrow. I am glad you liked it, surprised I liked it (I may continue the series) and love the discussions.

[Joanne]

Jason wrote: "I will be writing my review tomorrow. I am glad you liked it, surprised I liked it (I may continue the series) and love the discussions."

So happy to see that you and Amy both found it worthy! I loved your description of Lawrence (in a different thread) as "a manly man". I adored Lawrence. Although a female of the 70's and women's movement- I have no qualms loving a well mannered gentleman!

[Book Concierge]

Hi, AMy ... you might want to edit your thread title

Author is Naomi Novik ... I'll bet auto-correct spelled it "novice" ... LOL