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odin45mp's review against another edition
3.0
This is a reread for book club, I originally read this back around 2009 when a friend handed their copy to me. This is a story of a man and a dragon in the service to the British crown during the Napoleonic war. It has its moments but needs some more meat to it for me to truly love it. I love the relationships that are formed between handler and dragon, and the time we spend getting to know both our officer Laurence, and Temeraire, his dragon. It is a delight to see them grow to love each other.
I enjoyed the intrusions here and there of nods to Austen, with Laurence's cold welcome when he visits home in chapter 4, and some altercations between gentlemen like Laurence and more common-born people later in the book. I can appreciate these in a way I could not when I was younger and less open to touches like these.
What the book needs is more action. We spend about 80% of it tucked away training at a remote location, while the war happens Elsewhere. While I enjoyed the relationships, not much happens except training, drills, more training, dinner, some conversation, more training, and some word from the front lines. We only have two military actions in the book (the opening does not count as the French had surrendered before we begin), and that is too little. If we're going to have dragons serving as air support and transport during wartime, we need to see those dragons in combat, doing things!
As mentioned above, I do love the relationship between Temeraire and Laurence, and I do want to read more of the series someday.
I enjoyed the intrusions here and there of nods to Austen, with Laurence's cold welcome when he visits home in chapter 4, and some altercations between gentlemen like Laurence and more common-born people later in the book. I can appreciate these in a way I could not when I was younger and less open to touches like these.
What the book needs is more action. We spend about 80% of it tucked away training at a remote location, while the war happens Elsewhere. While I enjoyed the relationships, not much happens except training, drills, more training, dinner, some conversation, more training, and some word from the front lines. We only have two military actions in the book (the opening does not count as the French had surrendered before we begin), and that is too little. If we're going to have dragons serving as air support and transport during wartime, we need to see those dragons in combat, doing things!
As mentioned above, I do love the relationship between Temeraire and Laurence, and I do want to read more of the series someday.
kittycat2302's review against another edition
5.0
BRILLIANT. I absolutely adored this book- it does a masterful job of taking actual human history and adding dragons in a wonderful way. The characters are well-drawn, the world is bright and jumps from the page, and it most certainly made me have The Feels. Dragon combat used in this manner could be hard to understand, but Novik does an excellent job crafting the scenes so that the reader doesn't just understand them- the reader FEELS them. For someone like myself who cannot tolerate animals (even mythical ones) in pain, those scenes are challenging reads... But the book offers utmost reward. I am excitedly anticipating continuing this series at soonest opportunity.
maxbauermann's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
tomasthanes's review
5.0
Flavors of Master and Commander, Pride and Prejudice, and Dragonriders mixed into an amazing book!
mtnielsen56's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
dizziedarsanga's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
graygabs's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I bought this book because it was $0.99 at GoodWill and the synopsis made me laugh out loud. So it languished on my shelf for a few months before I started hearing really good things about the author and decided to give it a shot. "There's no way the Napoleonic-wars-but-with-dragons book can be good" I thought. But I was wrong. It is good. There's enough military strategy to make the book well researched but not so much as to make it boring. The dragons are shockingly well integrated into the world and the military structure, they never manage to seem out of place. The relationships between the dragons and aviators are an absolute joy to read and I adore these characters. The prose manages to be both really readable to a modern audience and scan as loyal to the time period. I can't believe that I'm going to read this whole series now. I honestly don't have a bad thing to say about this book.
kaia_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
rainycraze's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
whitandwhimsy's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0