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Temeraire by Naomi Novik (UK Title)/His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (US title)
01/02/2006 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Voyager/HarperCollins. 330 page enlarged paperback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-00-721909-1). His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (US title). (pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. 356 page paperback. Price: $ 7.50 (US), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-345-48128-3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.voyager-books.com, www.delreydigital.com and www.temeraire.org
released: UK: already out. US release: March 2006
Publishers can sometimes be very naughty, especially these days when it is easy to get books from either side of the Atlantic via the Internet. In the old days, it didn't matter so much. I have no objection to a simultaneous publication of a novel on both sides of the Atlantic. It may even be advantageous to all parties - author, agent and publisher. It only causes problems when trying to decide which volume is the actual first edition. There is not even a problem with the paperback edition being published in America a mere three months after the UK hardcover edition. The problem arises when the one is completely reset, recovered and produced under a very different name. They look like different books. A reader who has enjoyed one, will purchase the other, thinking they are getting, at least, another book from the same author and possibly, another in the same series. Unless they have the shelf-space to collect every edition on an author's works, they will be wasting their money.
Therefore, BEWARE!
The UK hardcover 'Temeraire' is the first edition of exactly the same book as 'His Majesty's Dragon', repackaged and re-titled in paperback by the American publisher. The words inside are the same. There is nothing in either book to suggest the novel has been re-titled. I prefer the look and feel of the hardcover but the paperback is cheaper and takes up less space on the shelves. A case of swings and roundabouts.
At the core of the book itself is a brilliantly original idea and this alone will endear it to many readers. It is an alternate world historical fantasy novel. In Novik's universe, dragons are as much a part of the natural history of the world as are horses or elephants. Dragons have been domesticated. Only a very few of them can breathe fire. Then the problems start.
The setting is the Napoleonic wars, a period when Britain was at war with France. The French fleet is bottled up in port by the British Navy blockade. Except for the dragons, history has paralleled ours. Other authors have done similar things. Freda Warrington's 'The Court Of The Midnight King' tells Richard III's story but with pagan magic wielded by the women. John M. Ford told a similar story in 'The Dragon Waiting' but with vampires. Both of these are stronger books than Novik's, but this may be partly because they are more experienced writers. In both the former books, there is a very strong sense of period which is not evident in Novik's novel. She has not woven her dragons sufficiently into the fabric of the politics and culture.
The book opens in the middle of a battle between a British and a French frigate. The language is clumsy and convoluted. Two of us read the first sentence three times before we could make sense of it. Neither was I convinced by the scene described. Nevertheless, the British captain, Will Laurence, prevails and discovers a dragon's egg in the Frenchman's hold. It is about to hatch. Unless someone is able to harness the hatchling on emergence from the egg, it will become feral and be untrainable. With echoes of Anne McCaffrey's dragons of Pern, the dragon decides that only Laurence will do. At this point he has to resign himself to leaving the Navy and joining the Aerial Corps. Man and dragon have bonded. In what is a relatively short book, we then have related the problems of feeding a dragon at sea. They eat rather a lot, the training of the dragon and their part in rebuffing Napoleon's invasion of England. The rest is fairly standard fare. Laurence and his dragon, whom he names Temeraire, initially don't fit into the elite society of dragon riders. Gradually this changes.
The concept behind the dragons is good but not quite convincing enough. They are huge beasts when fully grown. They are like airborne sloops, equipped with a crew of marines and other ranks who swarm all over them while in flight. The ability of a fifty ton behemoth to fly is explained by internal bladders! The quantity of meat required to feed them - two or three sheep a day each - is enormous and it is difficult to see how supply would be sustained, unless by the time of industrial expansion they are redundant and confined to remote landscapes bare of human industrialisation.
Novik is very coy about telling us the actual date of her novel's setting although a knowledge of English history will eventually pin it down to 1805 as the Battle of Trafalgar happens off stage (with air cover). There is no report of Nelson's death. Perhaps this is an oversight as it would be a shame if history was changed at this point when she has been careful to follow it almost exactly so far.
The biggest problem with the novel, which may be because she is an inexperienced writer, is that it lacks depth and characterisation. It is fast-paced and action-packed. There is good description of the dragons and the landscapes but if you take away the dragons, the writing has little substance. I have no doubt, though, that it will prove to be a popular series.
Pauline Morgan
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