Search - His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Bk 1)

A wonderful alternate history, Novik manages to give a respectful nod to the whole of dragon fantasy while taking it to new heights. Both the dragons and their crews are fully realized, the action exciting, the history perfectly drawn. I am just sorry that I allowed this series to wait as long as I did to begin reading it - this first book stands comfortably in stature with the first Pern trilogy and is a gem within the genre. If there were six stars this book would deserve them.

This was so good! I love Temeraire!

I took this with me to read on a trip and finished it yesterday on the plane home. Overall impression - exciting story with lots of details and great dragons! The author did a wonderful job of incorporating dragons into the alternate historical setting. The characters were all very well done too. The humans weren't people with present day sensibilities who happened to be wearing old-fashioned clothes - they really fit the time period. And the dragons were fabulous of course!

(By the way, it seemed especially fitting to be reading about dragon flying maneuvers and aerial battles while flying across the country in a little puddle-jumping Embraer with a lot of turbulence. I did end up rereading a lot of sentences as the book jumped away from my eyes, but that's OK - they were pretty good sentences!)

This is the most charming book! Ms. Novik has an excellent writing style that succinctly recalls the time period her story is set in. I am not at all surprised that Jane Austin is one of her favorite authors. And I was extremely impressed by her use of vocabulary, how exciting to find an author unafraid of adjectives. The story itself is wonderful, and I love Temeraire. The whole concept Ms. Novik has created only deserves the highest praise!

I love it! My fave genre of books are historical fictions, which this is, but it also adds the exciting element of fantasy dragons. Very well written. It has bounced to the top of my fave list.

Great fun! If you were a fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, or enjoy alternate histories, do yourself a favor and try this series. Well-written and with a dry sense of humor, it's a great tale; and the lead dragon is quite a character! It's great fun, and a pleasure to recommend.

This is an amazing book. Beautifully written with engaging characters. I couldn't put it down.