Do you believe in dragons? This book is set at the time of the Napoleonic wars between Britain and France and center around the relationship and development of a dragon and his captain.
During a sea battle a British frigate captures a French sailing ship and discover part of their prize is a dragon egg. When the egg hatches the person to whom the dragon attaches himself, is thereafter his handler and basically gives up any chance at a normal life. This dragon attaches himself to the ship's captain. The book tells the tale of how the Captain and the Dragon Temeraire develop into a fighting team in the Aerial Corp for Britain.
It is delightful to see these wars from an alternate perspective which includes aerial attacks and transports by dragons of different species. The dragons which are treated as "bombers" in the Aerial Corps are separated in somewhat of a caste system according to their breed. For children, I see this as a marvelous moral tale which not only shows the cruelty of war but of how mistreatment and prejudice toward others can be perceived. The surprise of the book, is that the dragon's species turns out to be a CELESTIAL, a very rare and magical species. This is the first in the series and I will be looking for the next one in the future. Delightful for children. ( )

A very engaging book, I read it in a few hours on a very cold Sunday afternoon & evening. I didn't want to put it down. Historically, it is set about the early 19th century during Napoleon's reign. Told from the POV of a British sea captain, but the twist is that dragons are a part of the war effort between the two. Our captain/hero gets caught up in that part of the war.

Characterization is very good as is the portrayal of British society & military. There isn't a lot of military detail, but just enough to lend authenticity, while leaving the book very readable & open for a great story.

The book stands on its own, but after reading it, I want to get the other books books in the series (5 total, at this time). I highly recommend. ( )

An absolutely wonderful book. His Majesty's Dragon centers on the relationship formed between an initially unenthusiastic naval captain and the dragon who came to him in the hold of an enemy ship that he and his crew had overtaken. The language, though feeling somewhat awkward in a very few instances, is formal and elegant throughout. Captain Lawrence is successfully characterized as the very pinnacle of the English Officer-as-Gentleman, devout in his sense of duty to the crown. The anxiety with which he takes on the mantle of the Aerial Corps and the stoicism he displays when accepting the fact that his life is forever changed because of his "harnessing" of Temeraire at hatching is slowly overcome by the obvious love he begins to feel for his new life-companion. The two battle scenes in the book are wonderfully executed and quite a thrill, and though some might think the general lack of action to be off-putting, I find myself looking eagerly forward to the next two installments of the series. Over all, a very strong introduction to a brilliant alternate history. ( )

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, “If this is the sort of book you like, you’ll like this book.” So far roughly 600,00 of the books of this series have been sold, so very many people have indeed liked this book. If, however, you believe the tag line that His Majesty’s Dragon is “Patrick O’Brian with dragons” you may be disappointed.

Skilled writers of nautical fiction selectively use idiosyncratic detail to the illuminate world of a man-of-war. In His Majesty’s Dragon, the details on shipboard are often vague or simply wrong. Given the popularity of the series, most readers probably don’t mind, but as a fan of nautical fiction, I found it distracting and a bit annoying.

Overall the pacing of the book is not bad and the climactic battle to save England, fought by the outnumbered English dragons against an aerial armada of French dragons, is fine, I suppose, though by this time I reached that point in the book, I was finding all the dragon terminology numbing rather than engaging. I couldn’t tell a Yellow Reaper dragon from a Greyling, a Winchester, Poux-de-Ceil, Petit Chevalier or a Pascal’s Blue. (Perhaps I should now feel more sympathy for novice readers of nautical fiction who can’t tell a futtock from a buttock.)

The Temeraire books, of which His Majesty’s Dragon is but the first, have been very popular and I wish Ms. Novik joy in her success. As noted on the blurb on the book’s cover, Stephen King found it “terrifically entertaining.” Regrettably, I do not share his opinion.

http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2009/03/20... ( )

The concept's a cross between C S Forester and early-and-still-readable Anne McCaffrey, the writing's brisk and competent, the characters are engaging, the dragon is sweet! Other than some overlong and tedious battle scenes, a very likeable novel. ( )