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A review by blazeofredfiree
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
5.0
Excited for this one and it didn’t disappoint!
- I really liked the way the dragons were written. In dragon books generally, the convention is that one person rides the dragon- which just doesn’t make military sense at all. Here, I really liked how it did make sense- the dragon has a crew with a captain, it’s versatile. I also liked the way the main dragon’s (Temeraire) personality was written. He had a childlike innocence about him and had humanlike traits but readers were definitely reminded that he’s not human. It’s rare to find such a good balance of intelligence and bestiality.
- the combat scenes were engaging and fun as well as tense!
- I didn’t really like the main character that much but he did grow throughout. There is definitely an emphasis on the fact that this is set in different times with different social conventions and, while there was development through his relationship with Temeraire and he becomes less of a jerk, he needs a lot more change before I’d find him really likeable.
- the betrayals and plot twists were very predictable but fun nonetheless!
Would recommend for fantasy fans looking for something that puts a new spin on old tropes!
- I really liked the way the dragons were written. In dragon books generally, the convention is that one person rides the dragon- which just doesn’t make military sense at all. Here, I really liked how it did make sense- the dragon has a crew with a captain, it’s versatile. I also liked the way the main dragon’s (Temeraire) personality was written. He had a childlike innocence about him and had humanlike traits but readers were definitely reminded that he’s not human. It’s rare to find such a good balance of intelligence and bestiality.
- the combat scenes were engaging and fun as well as tense!
- I didn’t really like the main character that much but he did grow throughout. There is definitely an emphasis on the fact that this is set in different times with different social conventions and, while there was development through his relationship with Temeraire and he becomes less of a jerk, he needs a lot more change before I’d find him really likeable.
- the betrayals and plot twists were very predictable but fun nonetheless!
Would recommend for fantasy fans looking for something that puts a new spin on old tropes!