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A review by iam
Temeraire by Naomi Novik
5.0
This used to be one of my absolute favourite series when I was a teenager, so I was kind of scared reading this again some ten years after my last read.
Luckily, my fears were unfounded, because I'm still totally in love with it!
Content warnings include: graphic violence and gore, death, war, abuse and neglect followed by death because of it, misogyny (partly challenged in the sense that the main character begins to question his views), use of the word "queer" as meaning "weird" or "strange" as well as some other old-timey words and definitions, sex off-page.
The Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons!
That premise appealed to me as a young teen, and it still does today. Naomi Novik does an excellent job with the worldbuilding, marrying these two concepts, including a whole new aspect to culture and warfare into the beginning of the 19th century as we know it.
And not only is it a super cool concept, it's also extremely well presented and appealingly written. I have no interest whatsoever in historic wars, military ranks or operations, protocolls or training, and yet I am totally drawn in by all events in this book, including the quite detailed parts about the workings of a ship, how dragon warfare works, or elaborate naval or aerial battles.
The biggest appeal for me, however, (aside from the fact that there's dragons, duh) was the characters, particularly in combination with each other and their surrounding situations. The writing style is admittedly kind of... removed. We do mostly not get any deep views into Laurence's psyche or feelings, though it is by no means hard to follow his mood or what he is thinking. This, however, fits perfectly well with his personality. Being a man of the Navy he is kind of reserved himself, very married to rules and regulations and following what's proper or expected, and very conscious of rank, hierarchy and the subtleties of polite society.
This makes it even more entertaining when he is unexpectantly and somewhat reluctantly thrust into the chaotic and informal world of the Aerial Corps when his ship comes upon a hatching dragon egg.
Temeraire, the dragon, is a delight. He's extremely intelligent right from the egg, and has a variety of quirks, partly due to his dragon nature and partly due to his specific personality. Being just a young hatchling at first he has no idea about how anything works, of course, and it's hilarious reading about Laurence teaching him the way of the world. This leads to the much more serious matter of Laurence beginning to question the ways he always considered normal, both through Temeraire's unconscious pointing out natural flaws in logic and through being forced to explain and thus rethink nonsensical concepts that he always accepted as standart (for example the way women are seen as weaker.)
This becomes more prominent and more extreme throughout the series, but is very much present here already.
Another part I absolutely adored was Laurence and Temeraire's relationship. The true affection, love and loyalty between the two made my heart melt and is so incredibly cute, and continuously made me smile since showing affection can be quite tricky when one is a massive dragon and the other a human. This leads to more comical situations as well as wonderfully sweet and honest moments.
Their relationship is very much the main one and focus in the series. Both have engagements with women and female dragons, but nothing trumps their devotion towards each other. As such there is no romantic subplot.
The side characters furthermore are also interesting, though I recommend making attachments with caution - a big plot thread of this book is, after all, a war, so there is a lot of death. Like, a lot of it. The main cast remains the same and is more or less safe, but a lot of drama and shifting in who is present happens.
Overall I do not regret starting a reread at all, and I'm already excited to experience this series anew once more!!
Luckily, my fears were unfounded, because I'm still totally in love with it!
Content warnings include: graphic violence and gore, death, war, abuse and neglect followed by death because of it, misogyny (partly challenged in the sense that the main character begins to question his views), use of the word "queer" as meaning "weird" or "strange" as well as some other old-timey words and definitions, sex off-page.
The Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons!
That premise appealed to me as a young teen, and it still does today. Naomi Novik does an excellent job with the worldbuilding, marrying these two concepts, including a whole new aspect to culture and warfare into the beginning of the 19th century as we know it.
And not only is it a super cool concept, it's also extremely well presented and appealingly written. I have no interest whatsoever in historic wars, military ranks or operations, protocolls or training, and yet I am totally drawn in by all events in this book, including the quite detailed parts about the workings of a ship, how dragon warfare works, or elaborate naval or aerial battles.
The biggest appeal for me, however, (aside from the fact that there's dragons, duh) was the characters, particularly in combination with each other and their surrounding situations. The writing style is admittedly kind of... removed. We do mostly not get any deep views into Laurence's psyche or feelings, though it is by no means hard to follow his mood or what he is thinking. This, however, fits perfectly well with his personality. Being a man of the Navy he is kind of reserved himself, very married to rules and regulations and following what's proper or expected, and very conscious of rank, hierarchy and the subtleties of polite society.
This makes it even more entertaining when he is unexpectantly and somewhat reluctantly thrust into the chaotic and informal world of the Aerial Corps when his ship comes upon a hatching dragon egg.
Temeraire, the dragon, is a delight. He's extremely intelligent right from the egg, and has a variety of quirks, partly due to his dragon nature and partly due to his specific personality. Being just a young hatchling at first he has no idea about how anything works, of course, and it's hilarious reading about Laurence teaching him the way of the world. This leads to the much more serious matter of Laurence beginning to question the ways he always considered normal, both through Temeraire's unconscious pointing out natural flaws in logic and through being forced to explain and thus rethink nonsensical concepts that he always accepted as standart (for example the way women are seen as weaker.)
This becomes more prominent and more extreme throughout the series, but is very much present here already.
Another part I absolutely adored was Laurence and Temeraire's relationship. The true affection, love and loyalty between the two made my heart melt and is so incredibly cute, and continuously made me smile since showing affection can be quite tricky when one is a massive dragon and the other a human. This leads to more comical situations as well as wonderfully sweet and honest moments.
Their relationship is very much the main one and focus in the series. Both have engagements with women and female dragons, but nothing trumps their devotion towards each other. As such there is no romantic subplot.
The side characters furthermore are also interesting, though I recommend making attachments with caution - a big plot thread of this book is, after all, a war, so there is a lot of death. Like, a lot of it. The main cast remains the same and is more or less safe, but a lot of drama and shifting in who is present happens.
Overall I do not regret starting a reread at all, and I'm already excited to experience this series anew once more!!