His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik

[rachelmanija]

This is a heads-up, not an actual review. I'll write more about this terrific fantasy-- a perfect antidote to venom cock-- when it comes out in March 2006. (The British edition may be out earlier.)

As the advance publicity pointed out, it's basically Patrick O'Brian with dragons.

In an alternate version of the Napoleonic wars, both sides have an air force-- dragons! When English captain William Laurence captures a French ship, he finds its prize: a dragon egg about to hatch. Dragons are rare and valuable and essential to the war effort, and must bond with their handler immediately after birth, or else they'll go feral and fly away. No one wants to bond with the dragon, for aviators live apart from the rest of society, are looked down upon, and and are rumored to be quite weird. Whoever gets the dragon has to abandon his Navy career, whatever place in society he already has, and will have huge problems finding a woman willing to marry him. So the sailors draw lots for the dubious honor. Laurence dodges that bullet, but the newly emerged dragon, Temeraire, ignores the sailor who was chosen and zeroes straight in on Laurence.

And so begins the most fun novel I've read all year. From the pitch-perfect period language, to the touching relationship between Laurence and Temeraire, to the carefully thought-out aviator society, to thrilling aerial battles, this book contains everything that drew us to Anne McCaffrey when we were younger, only it's actually good! Well-written! Without bizarre gender-related hang-ups! Without creepy dragon-mediated quasi-rape scenes! And, best of all, utterly without venom cocks.

Read the first chapter here: http://www.temeraire.org/

Comments

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Without bizarre gender-related hang-ups!

Does it pass the Dykes to Watch Out For test?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Not exactly. It's tight-third person with a male protagonist, so he's present in all the scenes, and it's a male-dominated military society, so women are in the minority. However, it's pretty clear that when the women are talking to each other, ten to one it's about their dragons or how the war's going.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks for the link to the excerpt--I'd put it on my buy-when-released wishlist when alg, I think, glowed about it, but yes, I definitely want to read this. Even the brief twinge of "umm, reminded of McCaffrey, here" about the hatching was quickly dispelled by how it proceeded.

(Quite a remarkable range of authors giving blurbs, too.)

[ellarien]

Thanks for the pointer! This definitely sounds like something I'd like to read when it comes out.

[ewein2412]

I am SO looking forward to this.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Just got me ARC today, bwa ha ha! (And I'm volunteering to do an interview with SF-Site, jumping up and down and waving my hand, hoping none of the Kool Kids speak up and snitch it away from Dorksmith. That wouldn't be hard.)

Still, I'm gonna get some reading in tonight, after I slog thru some schoolcrud.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! You're going to be up late tonight.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds very cool.