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A review by bookwyrm76
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
4.0
I have friends who claim to not be fantasy readers, but continually end up loving and choosing a fantasy book as their favorite of the year. I always tell them that they should just get over themselves and admit to being a fantasy reader. Well, I'm kind of finding myself in that situation with military fiction and historic fiction fantasy. I pretty much loath historical fiction, though I love history. I, also, never thought of myself as a military fiction fan, but the last few I've read for work I have really enjoyed. Why this applied to His Majesty's Dragon? Well it fits in both catagories.
Set during the Napolianic Wars in a version of our world where the the British Royal Navy has the help of an airforce who ride dragons. Novik created interesting characters, both human and dragon, and maintained a nice balance between historic details and plot. One of the weaknesses I generally find in historic fiction is digressions on period details which intrupt the story. The parallel problem in fantasy is digressions on world building or mechanics of how the world works. Novak does a great job of giving enough detail through action, character attitude, and necessary dialog between characters to allow the reader to understand and feel the setting of the novel without bogging down the plot.
I finished this novel and promptply went to add book two, three, etc on my Nook wishlist. I was lucky enough to get book two on NY ComicCon! It's still in my to-read pile because of work obligations, but I'm still looking forward into reading more of this series.
Set during the Napolianic Wars in a version of our world where the the British Royal Navy has the help of an airforce who ride dragons. Novik created interesting characters, both human and dragon, and maintained a nice balance between historic details and plot. One of the weaknesses I generally find in historic fiction is digressions on period details which intrupt the story. The parallel problem in fantasy is digressions on world building or mechanics of how the world works. Novak does a great job of giving enough detail through action, character attitude, and necessary dialog between characters to allow the reader to understand and feel the setting of the novel without bogging down the plot.
I finished this novel and promptply went to add book two, three, etc on my Nook wishlist. I was lucky enough to get book two on NY ComicCon! It's still in my to-read pile because of work obligations, but I'm still looking forward into reading more of this series.