His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik

The Temeraire series is one I actually started a couple years back, but spotting Blood of Tyrants on the shelf at Half Price Books reminded me that I had forgotten to continue it once I caught up to (I think) Victory of Eagles. Naturally, I can't just pick up the unread books, though. My memory is so terrible that I barely remember what happened in previous books--a mixed blessing, shall we say, for though I have to remind myself of what-happened-when it does make for pleasant rereads. It's practically a new book! Ahem. Anyway, that meant that clearly, I had to restart back at the beginning. Luckily I still had most of the paperbacks still on my shelves, and they're such a quick read that it ain't no thing.

A not-particularly-accurate-to-text Temeraire. Todd Lockwood pretty much draws all dragons exactly the same.

So His Majesty's Dragon is the first book in the series, and opens with Captain Will Laurence capturing a French vessel during the Napoleonic Wars. By chance this vessel happens to be carrying a prized dragon egg, and it's close to hatching. England is so hard-up for aerial cavalry that they can't risk letting this dragon go wild, so it's up to the members of the crew to try and harness it, for the good of the nation. Naturally, it's Laurence himself who wins the prize, and his life is forever changed by the deep bond that grows between man and dragon. Laurence and Temeraire must face the prejudices of Navy, family, and Aerial Corps; rush through their training to help in the war; and learn how to navigate not only a new place in the world, but also the tricky political position of having acquired a priceless Chinese breed, which alone may be a grievous insult to the Emperor. 

Much of this book is devoted to establishing the relationship between the main pair, and to Laurence learning the differences between his old and new life. The incident that stands out the most, naturally, is that of Captain Rankin and his dragon Levitas. Laurence befriends him at first, I think grateful for anyone to show him the kindness of acquaintance, when so many aerial men treated him coldly as an interloper. But when Laurence meets poor little Levitas, the neglected and harshly-treated dragon that aches for a kind word, he doesn't make the connection between Levitas and the cold treatment of Rankin by the other aviators as well.

The way Novik portrays the dragons here are like hyper-intelligent dogs, in the sense that they seem to ache deeper than anything for the bond between them and their handlers. It's not as if Rankin, say, beats his partner, but he withholds all affection, and the way that Levitas responds is quite heartbreaking.

"Stay here quietly; I do not want to hear that you have been pestering the crew when I return," Ranking said sharply to Levitas, after dismounting; he threw the reins of his harness around a post, as if Levitas were a horse to be tethered. "You can eat when we return to Loch Laggan."
"I do not want to bother them, and I can wait to eat, but I am a little thirsty," Levitas said in a small voice. "I tried to fly as fast as I could," he added. 

I guess in this way I understand aviators like I understand dog people. Those of us who know the heartstring tug of a dog who only wants to be near you, touch you, be with you; know the same affection that flows from these dragons. I compare this kind of bond to the kind we see in, say, McCaffrey's Pern series. The dragons there are, too, separate beings, and extremely intelligent; but they also share a kind of telepathic bond, and I think the line between human and dragon gets blurred a lot. Which is not a terrible concept, but by this point (McCaffrey began writing Pern in 1967) we've seen a LOT of telepathic dragons, and it's getting a little worn. In Novik's series we spend a lot more time exploring the social effects of dragons existing: can you consider them human? Beast? Somewhere in between? Where is the line drawn? What rights do dragons inherently have? Can you very well keep them in essential slavery if you consider them sentient?

Novik's worldbuilding here also heavily reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. In that book, Robinson theorizes about what the world would be like the black plague had killed off nearly all of Europe's population, leaving China and Islam as the major world powers. You can tell that a lot of thought went into the building of this alternate history, thinking of how that gap in European power would lead to this effect, to this effect, and so on and so forth. Novik, similarly, has obviously placed a lot of thought into what the world would be like with these dragons as transport and weapons. In this way it's as much the setting that fascinates as the plot itself, which, I'll be entirely honest, isn't particularly mind-blowing or anything. But it's comfortable, like a warm fireplace on a rainy day. It doesn't have to excite to be pleasant.

All in all I do really enjoy this series, and while I have a tendency to do rereads of whole series every couple years (coughGameofThronescough) once the last book is out (slated 2016) I'll probably retire it in favor of new reads.

Overall: 4 stars

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His Majesty's Dragon on Goodreads (Average 4.04 stars)