Naomi Novik has written an entertaining and easily read novel her first time out. The book’s main merits lie in the author’s obviously thorough grounding in the period she’s dealing with (the early 1800s) and the writing. Novik has good control of her prose, the style of which reflects the time period quite well. Sentences are ornate; semicolons abound; some paragraphs are composed of nothing but such sentences, curling back upon themselves as though turned out on some literary lathe. There are also lots of small touches that speak of her easy familiarity with military customs and ways of thinking.
In a nutshell, Novik has taken the early 19th century and injected dragons into it. In her world, flight has come several centuries early to humanity, and she weaves a military story of what likely might have happened against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.
The plot follows the adventures of a man, Laurence, who raises a dragon, Temeraire. I found their relationship to be a bit unsettling. Temeraire is a male dragon, and Laurence’s constant cuddling up to him, stroking him and referring to him as “my dear” gave the book a sort of odd, almost homoerotic flavor in places. Others might not be bothered by this, but it made me cock my head and squint a few times.
Other than that there’s little to complain about. The story for the first two-thirds of the book doesn’t really fit what one might think of as “a dragon book” — there are no fights to the death, no fire-breathing antics — but the characters are sympathetic and the reader wants to see what happens to them. Then in the last third things heat up.
I doubt I’ll find myself coming back to read this book again and again, but it’s certainly well worth the cover price. Novik even injects a bit of Oriental flavor into the appendix, deftly managing to explain a bit of Chinese and Japanese myth by way of her dragons. Given that the sequel is titled Throne of Jade, I’ll probably want to check it out as well.
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