C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: His Majesty’s Service – Three Novels of Temeraire by Naomi Novik

by

Featured Fantasy: His Majesty's Service - Three Novels of Temeraire by Naomi Novik

$2.99 as of October 12, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US (The first Book is 2.99 in the United Kingdom—it’s just called Temeraire there.)

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

***LOVED EVERYONE OF THESE NOVELS***

Together in one volume, here are the first three novels in Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestselling Temeraire series, combining the gripping history of the Napoleonic era, the thrill of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books, and the excitement of Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures. In His Majesty’s Service also includes an exclusive original Temeraire short story.

Capt. Will Laurence is serving with honor in the British Navy when his ship captures a French frigate harboring most a unusual cargo–an incalculably valuable dragon egg. When the egg hatches, Laurence unexpectedly becomes the master of the young dragon Temeraire and finds himself on an extraordinary journey that will shatter his orderly, respectable life and alter the course of his nation’s history.

Thrust into England’s Aerial Corps, Laurence and Temeraire undergo rigorous training while staving off French forces intent on breaching British soil. But the pair has more than France to contend with when China learns that an imperial dragon intended for Napoleon–Temeraire himself– has fallen into British hands. The emperor summons the new pilot and his dragon to the Far East, a long voyage fraught with peril and intrigue. From England’s shores to China’s palaces, from the Silk Road’s outer limits to the embattled borders of Prussia and Poland, Laurence and Temeraire must defend their partnership and their country from powerful adversaries around the globe. But can they succeed against the massed forces of Bonaparte’s implacable army?

Book Review : Throne of Jade

by

Throne of Jade: A Novel of Temeraire Kindle Edition by Naomi Novik (Author)

UPDATE: I finished the whole series, adored it, and went into a state of withdrawal afterwards. It is traditionally published and very popular…and therefore available at libraries, though the first two ebooks are reasonably priced.

Fresh off reading His Majesty’s Dragon, I picked up this book from my local library. (Hooray for ebook lending! So helpful in this age of “Come on Eileen”–errr…think of what that title rhymes with. I will not speak the name of the pestilence aloud! Or type it and make you hear it in your mind.)

I loved the first book: it was just such a lovely imagining of what Britain would be like during the Napoleonic Wars if dragons existed. The characterizations were also spot on–something that is really important to me. I typically drop a book immediately if characters don’t ring true.

As much as I loved His Majesty’s Dragon, Throne of Jade was better. It was funnier. (Do you have a problem? Your dragon will eat it.) But it was also deeper. Some of the things that niggled at me in the first book, the British populace not knowing that dragons are completely sentient and self-aware, for instance, were addressed. As was the issue of the dragons being perhaps manipulated into service of the crown, almost, in fact, slaves.

It was also nice to see a China that was strong instead of weak when the West came knocking–mostly because they treat their dragons very differently than the British treat theirs. I wondered if this fictional China will start to decline in later books as it did in the real world. I am going to keep reading to find out. I love Chinese history, and there were many reasons beyond the British that caused it to slide. I suppose, Dragons or no, it could happen.

Again, characterizations were spot on–but I laughed more. Oh, and there were some phenomenal battle scenes! They were even better than the ones in the first book–and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like battle scenes. (Battle scenes are like sex scenes, when they don’t further the growth of the character, or aren’t intrinsic to the plot, to me, they’re just …meh. These aren’t like that.)

Black Powder War is available at all vendors, but in some regions only in dead-tree & audio format. Ebook: Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon DE, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, GooglePlay

Dead-tree: Amazon UK, Amazon CA

Also, check your local library!