I enjoyed this first book of the Temeraire series and my first book by Naomi Novik. She provides an interesting alternative history, in which the Napoleonic Wars feature aerial troops on dragon back. The book opens with an English naval vessel capturing a French ship with a dragon egg aboard. At first, there is general celebration, until a bit of research reveals that the egg is likely to hatch before they can reach a port. What will they do with a dragonet on a ship?
When the egg hatches, the dragonet staggers about a bit but ignores the man who has drawn the short straw and is obliged to try to bond with it. Of course the hatchling fixates on the ship's captain, Will Laurence. This situation reminded me of Anne McCaffery's Pern books, where potential dragon riders gathered on the hatching grounds and waited to be chosen by a dragonet. Unlike the dragons of Pern, Novik's dragons are capable of speech, not just telepathic communication. Caught flat-footed by the bonding, Laurence choses a naval name for the beast, Temeraire, the name of a ship.
Dragons seem to inhabit an uneasy place between men and beasts. Most of them are intelligent and all are capable of speech. Yet they are treated largely like extra-intelligent horses, harnessed and used as weapons of war. My cousin and I frequently marvel at the willingness of horses to obey humans—they are much stronger than us and we truly require their co-operation for us to work together. How much more would this apply to a being the size of a dragon? And Laurence sometimes must do some fancy explaining to convince Temeraire to participate in some activities. Dragon and human spend time together reading and I expect that soon Temeraire will soon be better educated than most of the humans around him.
Also similar to Pern, dragon-rider society seems to run along different mores than regular English society. We get to realize it as Laurence navigates the differences from naval culture. The distinctions make sense—dragons tend to overwhelm a person's life, making marriage unlikely. What spouse would put up with playing second fiddle to a dragon? Unlike Pern, there are few female dragon handlers, but they seem to be treated with more respect than the women of Pern.
As you have probably gathered, I think the Pern series was a major influence on Novik, but she has written an updated version (and one that I prefer, though others may feel otherwise). With the obvious intelligence of both Temeraire and Laurence, I expect future books will feature these two shaking up the established order.
Book number 478 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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