Customer Reviews

Temeraire

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First part of an absolutely brilliant series - and thanks to the handiness of the Kindle have just downloaded the fifth book, having consumed the other 4 in two weeks!

My only minor gripe would be that the formating on the first two books wasn't brilliant - lots of spaces in the middle of words, often resulting in words being split randomly over two lines. Would have thought that for $6.79 someone could have run a spell check over the document before publishing!

No complaint about the other two however!

I expected Temeraire (called 'His Majesty's Dragon in America' for some reason) to be a hard-edged, serious book. It's like watching a movie and expecting Dragonslayer but getting Dragonheart instead. I crap simile, I know, but it's immediately what I thought of when the tone of the book turned out to be radically different from my assumptions.

William Laurence is the Captain of a British Warship who captures one of Napoleon's vessels. As his prize he takes a dragon egg from the French ship and becomes best friends with the curious reptile once it hatches. Naming him Temeraire (after a famous ship) the new friendship is honestly one of the sweetest things I've read in a long time and the best part of the book is merely the middle section as they learn and grow together.

Ditching the Navy for the Ariel Corps, Laurence meets a bunch of new dragons and experienced 'pilots' when he begins training in Scotland. The interaction between the dragons is quite amusing as is Temeraire's unusual intelligence and interest in the world around him.

It does run out of steam towards the end I'm afraid, but the last moments do come quite abruptly. Naomi Novik faulters when the book comes to the action and it's not as exciting to read as it is dull and confusing. But such a harsh criticism means nothing when the rest of the book is so good.

A great start to what I hope is a wonderful new series/universe.