I just finished reading this book recently, so I thought I’d do a review. It’s the first book in a set by Naomi Novik, and I quite enjoyed it. It’s a cross between fantasy and historical fiction, which made it an interesting mix. The book is set during the Napoleonic wars, as Britain works to defend itself from invasion. Along with the traditional armies, however, nations also have aerial corps composed of dragons and their crews. There are a few fire breathing or acid dripping dragons, but mostly the dragons fight rather like modern aircraft. They carry crews with guns and bombs, but the crews also have to be able to defend themselves from boarders from enemy dragons.
The main character of the story, Captain Laurence, actually starts out as a naval captain, but ends up capturing the egg of a dragon who’s about to hatch, and out of fear of losing the dragon, he becomes the dragon’s “handler”. His dragon, Temeraire, is a great character. Temeraire is intelligent and curious, and he questions a lot of the customs and laws that Laurence takes for granted. The discussions they have can be quite humorous. The action of the battles really drew me in, too.
There was something about Novik’s writing style that I really enjoyed, and kept me reading long past my bedtime, but I can’t put my finger on it. All I know is I liked the book. She does spend a bit too long for my taste elaborating on the stuffiness and formality of British customs in the early 1800s, but I think that may be more a consequence of the differences between then and now. It becomes a semi-important part of the book, and of the sequels, so she had to stress it in order to impress upon the reader how different their society was from ours. Overall, I thought it was a good read.
I wish I had more time in a day to read books. Ever since Lizzie came I think I have read about five books, and four of them I had read before. Hurrah to you!!!!
My dad’s talk in two Sundays is on President Hinckley’s October 2007 talk “Slow to Anger”. Hopefully that helps with the music selection. I don’t think he’s decided what to focus on yet.
I hope the girls are feeling better. We missed all of you at the party. We will probably see you next at Erica’s wedding. Jai and I are planning on going, but we will see when the time comes. Hope all is well.