His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

On duty, the more I learn about it, the least I appreciate the notion

Why I read this book?

This was the December Alternative Pick for the Sword and Laser. I was lucky enough to find both picks in my library and taking advantage of the extra time that comes with holiday season I decided to read both of them.

What's the book about?

The book is set in an alternative time frame during the war against Napoleon. Besides their armies and navies countries also have Dragons. The story follows Captain Lawrence and his dragon Temeraire. It also presents the dynamics between dragons and their pilots.

What about the characters?

I really enjoyed the dragon's personalities, all of them, but off course you get more acquainted with Temeraire; he has a very sweet personality and every time I would read him it would feel like a very endearing huge puppy...with wings, sure, but adorable nonetheless. The human characters however, didn't hit the right cord for me, and I was not attached to any of them.

Final thoughts

It's been a long time since a book makes me cry, as in real tears streaming down my face cry, and this book did that towards the end. As always, I will not give away what happens, but I was very touch by a certain event towards the end of this installment.

I absolutely loved the interaction between dragons and how they are portrayed not only as very smart animals but also much attached and very loyal, no matter what. I liked how Temeraire would question this ways since he is a young dragon, much like a kid would question the way we do things. I think the author usage of this to explain to the reader how this world works is very clever.

I also enjoyed the historical side of the book; the twists applied to combats versus Napoleon to keep the uniqueness of the history were well executed, while keeping enough details to make feel like an historical novel indeed. One great point was the presence of not only female dragons, but female pilots that are perfectly capable and not portrayed as damsels in distress.

The reason why I didn't give a higher rating to the book and the reason why I doubt I will continue with this series is the fact that I mentioned earlier. I did not like any of the human characters and while I liked the dragons it wasn't enough to carry me to the next book.