In the last part of His Majesty’s Dragon, Temeraire and Laurence realize that Temeraire is a not only a Chinese dragon as they already knew but a Celestial, a breed reserved for the Imperial family. After Temeraire discovers his special power, divine wind, in a battle with the French, the rest of the world knows it, too, and the second novel begins after the Chinese delegation’s arrival to determine what is to be done about Laurence and Temeraire. The group even includes the emperor’s brother, […]
Here There Be Dragons
Last December, I ended up checking out Uprooted by Naomi Novik which had an adult fairy tale vibe (I think TyburnBlossom shared a link to it on Facebook?). Curious to see what else she had written, I was surprised to see she had a nine book series about dragons during the Napoleonic Wars. Alternate historical fiction fantasy definitely was not what I was expecting to find in her back catalog, but when I needed a break from the large non fiction tomb I am reading […]
Beware an adolescent dragon with Thoughts about Injustice
Anything is better with added dragons, right? This series adds dragons to historical fiction, and it works wonderfully. Napoleon has French dragons! England has British dragons! There are dragon battles by sea and by air. It’s all pretty tremendous, and it’s anchored by dragon Temeraire and his British captain Laurence. Laurence was in the Navy, but when his ship captured a French vessel and took its dragon egg as spoils of war, he ended up with an unexpected hatchling that bonded/imprinted on him, and now […]
In Russia, dragon flies you
(note before I start this review: HALF CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!) At this point, Blood of Tyrants being the eighth book in the Temeraire series, I am still very much on board the Temeraire train, but reading all of them in a row without the benefit of waiting between books (other than brief stints when the library is out of copies of whatever’s next) has meant that a certain fatigue has set in. I think I said in an earlier review that Novik has an incredible way of […]
Dragons with feathers!
Though I’m writing reviews for Books 4-7 all at once, and posting separately, I haven’t mentioned until now that the regular cast of characters besides Temeraire and his human buddy Will Laurence has really grown to a large group of familiars. I have to give giant props to Naomi Novik for building a world of details easy to absorb and remember, and still read super quickly. This book, number 7 of the series, brings us to South America, one of the few continents not yet visited […]
Temeraire Down Under
Let’s be real: Temeraire is the Forrest Gump of dragons. He goes everywhere, just when the action where he happens to be is most important. World history hinges on his behavior. He meets all the famous people and gets to be on a first name basis with all of them. And we get to go with him and see the entire world. THE ENTIRE WORLD! This time, we get on a dragon transport and travel with Will Laurence and Temeraire to Australia. Having had a […]