His Majesty's Dragon

His Majesty’s Dragon written by Naomi Novik. 

I don’t know if this book should be classified as sci-fi or fantasy. Yes it has dragons in it but it’s not set in a typical fantastic world. It’s set in the Napoleonic time period where Britain and France are at war with each other, only in this time period there are dragons. A lot of dragons and everyone uses them in their wars, thus changing the way warfare is thought about and fought throughout the countries. Every country has basically created an Air Force where the dragons are the airplanes. So I wonder if this is considered sci-fi, because this is basically an alternate universe Novik has created? I don’t know the answer to that question, but setting aside this deliberation, this is a very good book and had me turning the pages with ease. 

One of the fascinating things Novik does with the story is to tell it using the words and the writing style of that time period, but then she mixes in modern era characterization and pacing. I must admit it was a great marriage of two styles and made for a very unique read. I think it’s one of the things that really kept me reading because I haven’t read anything in this type of style before. Novik didn’t use it as gimmick either.  The style was never burdened by the story and the story never felt burdened by the writing style; they blended easily together and were a match made in heaven. Noik also tackles the dragons in this book in a unique way I’ve thought about before but never read about; she creates actual characters out of them. They can talk, think, and form coherent thoughts just like people. She treats them just like very large people in the book and explores the use of them this way, by how people respond to them in the book, where basically there are two responses: treat them like animals or treat like people. By doing this she creates a whole host of characters that weave themselves throughout the story but Noik is not overwhelmed by so many characters as she chooses to focus on the two main characters of the book: Lawrence and Tameraire. She uses these two characters to explore all sorts of thinking in that time period and also to wonder about what Mary Shelly had wondered about with Frankenstein namely: nature versus nurture. Don’t get me wrong Novik explores all kinds of themes in this book but she stays focused on Lawrence and Tameraire never once losing the narrative to them. They are the main characters of the story and she is telling their story. This is a really good world building book with some great writing. I’m looking forward to reading the next books in the series.