- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; First Printing edition (3 Jan 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007219091
- ISBN-13: 978-0007219094
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.6 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 155,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Temeraire (Temeraire 1)
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Product Description
Review
'I took a jaundiced view of dragon books until Novik won me over with her first novel. the combination of military history, sympathetic characters, and engaging style makes this series great, intelligent fun.' The Times 'Plenty of intrigue, swordplay, exotic locations, plausible invention. In short a treat.' The Telegraph 'These are beautifully written novels, not only fresh, original and fast-paced, but full of wonderful characters with real heart.' Peter Jackson 'Novik has stirred the passions with a genre-busting historical fantasy of the first order.' Sunday Sport 'In the best tradition of fantasy, historical fiction and nautical novels.' Guardian
Product Description
Naomi Novik's stunning series of novels follow the adventures of Captain William Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire as they are thrown together to fight for Britain during the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars. As Napoleon's tenacious infantry rampages across Europe and his armada lies in wait for Nelson's smaller fleet, the war does not rage on land and water alone. Squadrons of aviators swarm the skies -- a deadly shield for the cumbersome canon-firing vessels. Raining fire and acid upon their enemies, they engage in a swift, violent combat with flying tooth and claw! for these aviators ride dragons. Captain Laurence is a satisfied man with a respectable commission aboard the ship Reliant. His career is born from a love for the sea and he takes his duty very seriously Months before the battle of Trafalgar, on patrol in the Atlantic, The Reliant takes a small French frigate, storm-damaged and possessing a fierce crew unwilling to surrender as easily as they should. On board Laurence finds a dragon egg -- a great prize as England is in sore need. Having spent months on a slow journey from Asia, the egg hatches. A sinewy new-born emerges from the fragmented shell, ignores his harness-bearer, approaches Laurence and changes his life. Hatchling dragons must be put in a harness immediately otherwise the dragon-young become hard to control -- fit only for the breeding colonies. The person chosen to first harness the beast must be an aviator, for the dragon will accept no other captain. The life of an aviator is not a desirable one; reviled by fashionable society, they live hard, lonely lives bound to duty and they frequently die young. Laurence must now join them; duty demands it, though his heart is broken. But, more astonishing than the dragonet -- named Temeraire by Laurence -- are the documents found with him, documents addressed to Napoleon from the greatest, most skilled dragon-breeders in the world -- the Chinese. The dragon Temeraire was meant for the Emperor Napoleon himself and promises to grow into no ordinary creature.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Regency dragons - irresistible!,
By Medsec "Gill27" (East Yorkshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Temeraire (Temeraire 1) (Hardcover)
As a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, as well as the much under-rated Georgette Heyer's beautifully observed Regency novels, I found this story charming and absorbing. Temeraire himself is quite delightful, the book is well-written and easy to read and I think fans of C.S. Forester's 'Hornblower' would also be intrigued by this unusual mix of naval battles and dragons. There is plenty of action, but not too much to put off those of us not entirely enthralled by battle scenes. Well worth reading; I can't wait for the sequel!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a wonderful read,
By Larewen Evenstar (Renfrewshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Temeraire (Temeraire 1) [a.k.a. His Majesty's Dragon] (Paperback)
I got this book, mainly because amazon seemed insistant on recommending it to me constantly. But I am very glad that I did.
Not only is this an incredible story, with some great characters that you cannot help but love from the outset, it is also rather heartwarming. The relationship between Laurance and his dragon, Temeraire, is just so special. The only other relationship I have read like it is that between Fitz and Nighteyes in Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, and that was a perfect relationship, so for Laurance and Temeraire to come close (for me anyway) that is something special. Each of the dragons and characters have their own personalities as well. In some stories I've read, dragons often get lumped with the same generic persona, but here they have as much personality, if not more, than the humans. Temeraire himself is just lovely! He is just so pure and true that I couldn't help but love him! Simple things like his excitement over a sparkly trinket or getting a bath are just fantastic little additions to this story. Laurance, being the main character, is also rather charming. In the first few pages, I wasn't sure about him, but then his personality really began to shine through once Temeraire hatches, and I loved him from then on. What I also enjoyed was the fact that there is a distinct lack of over-complicated phrases to do with sailing or war, everything is kept to a good, understandable minimum, making it easy to follow, but still very realistic. I was dubious about 'Temeraire' as I'm not usually a fan of books like this, where the author has taken an event in the past, and changed it for fantasy purposes, in this case putting dragons into the battle against Napoleon. But Novik certainly pulls this off without a hitch! Another thing I worried about, before reading this book, was the perhaps the opening would be far too long, given the descriptions on the backs of books usually tell you roughly what will happen, but usually turn out to be telling you what happens once you get about a third of the way into the book, I was worried that we would have to wait at least 100 pages before the dragon hatched. But luckily I only had to wait a few pages, as you are thrown right into the story, just after the battle where Laurance's crew manage to get the dragon egg from the French, so no waiting around, which was excellent! I really look forward to reading the other books in this series, as I have high hopes for them given how much I enjoyed this one! Highly recommended!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, but perhaps a little too disposable.,
By A. Whitehead "Werthead" (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Temeraire (Temeraire 1) [a.k.a. His Majesty's Dragon] (Paperback)
Temeraire is an epic fantasy/alternate history crossbreed novel by Naomi Novik, first published in 2006. Confusingly, it is also the first novel of the Temeraire series, an open-ended series which now encompasses five volumes with several more on the way. In the USA, possibly more sensibly, it is called His Majesty's Dragon.
The Napoleonic Wars are raging across Europe, but this is not the history we are familiar with. Dragons exist in this world and most nations have harnessed them to be used as weapons of war. Captain Will Laurence of the Royal Navy wins a great coup for Britain when he captures a French vessel transporting a rare Chinese dragon egg to Napoleon. The egg hatches and the newborn dragon immediately bonds with Will, to his consternation. Once a dragon has chosen its rider, the bond cannot be severed and Will has to give up his career in the navy to train as a dragon-rider. The rest of the novel follows Will as he learns the basics of serving in Britain's aerial corps and bonds with the young Temeraire, who rapidly grows to maturity, before taking part in a series of engagements with Napoleon's forces culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar and a French aerial assault on the British coast. Temeraire is a fun read. It's light but enjoyable. Novik paints her characters with a light touch, and after numerous recent dark and gritty fantasies it's something of a relief to read something that is enjoyable and amusing without being drenched in blood every five pages. Conversely, this makes the book something of a popcorn read: a somewhat disposable product. There's some fairly broad characterisation going on and some of the background doesn't make sense (it's still unclear to me why aviators are considered the scum of the earth compared to soldiers and naval crew), not to mention some fairly wince-inducing, Eddings-esque dialogue between the aviators and their dragons. However, that tends to get forgotten when the muskets start blazing and French and British warships are pounding away at one another with giant lizards battling one another far above, which is all splendidly exciting and well-realised. Given Novik's background in computer programming, it's appropriate to describe the Temeraire concept as an obvious 'killer app', and it's no surprise it was rapidly snapped up for a movie adaption by Peter Jackson (it would be interesting if Smaug in the upcoming Hobbit movie adaption turns out to be a prototype for the dragons in the Temeraire move to follow). Temeraire (***) may be fluff, but it's fun and easy to read, and I really need to get around to reading the sequels, but as I said with so many other, meatier books around it's easy to forget about this series.
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