Books – Naomi Novik’s “His Majesty’s Dragon”
by chris ~ April 13th, 2009. Filed under: Books.
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
His Majesty’s Dragon is a tender story about the beautiful, homosexual, inter-species love between the protagonist and his gigantic black dragon.
Ok, so that’s not really what it’s about, but seriously … the homoerotic undertones in what is otherwise a fun, if not particularly challenging, historical fantasy are pretty amusing. Not only does the main character basically forgo women entirely in favor of his dragon (with the exception of a single night spent with a fellow “aviator” who basically forces herself upon him), but he frequently refers to the flying beast as “my dear” and at one point apparently engages in some accidental dragon masturbation while stroking the creature’s whiskers.
The premise of the book is basically “What if everything about our world, at the time of the Napoleonic wars, was exactly the same … except there’s dragons?” It makes for a unique fantasy setting, as the great naval battles of that era are now expanded to include aerial battle as teams of dragon-handlers scurry along the backs of their giant flying friends, firing at the enemy, dropping bombs, and occasionally even sword-fighting enemy boarders.
Our hero starts the novel as a ship’s captain, but is shortly removed from that post forever when a dragon egg his crew has captured hatches, and the dragon imprints on him. Dragons, you see, fall in love with their future master almost immediately at birth, and few can ever be persuaded to fly with any other. Older than most new aviators and not well-trained, the captain nonetheless throws himself into learning this new life. What follows is the description of his training, along with several battles with the French, leading up to a final climatic scene.
The book is a quick, easy read, enjoyable enough that I’m unsurprised there are several sequels. I may pursue the next volume in the series sometime this summer, when I’m looking for more of the type of “beach reading” that the series provides.
