Ex Libris: Much Ado About Dragons

I must admit that when it comes to book hype, I've succumbed several times-- but with good results.

I cite here Hal Duncan's Vellum and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I was overjoyed to find copies on our local shores upon learning about them on the Internet. So when Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon came out with a lot of fanfare and hoopla (i.e. reports of a major advertising push by its publishers and general positive reviews), how could I not be giddy?

However, after all the hype, everything depends on whether I-- as a reader-- would like the book. Unfortunately, this is one time when I felt the hype didn't match the material.

In Novik's alternate-history, dragons are no myth but flesh-and-blood creatures. Given such strength in the dragon's clashing jaws, the powerful wings, and the slashing claws, it would come to no surprise that humans have managed to tame dragons to fight their wars. This is how Novik's story begins as the British and the rest of Europe try to survive during the Napoleonic wars.

Despite the availability of dragon power, Britain is still the captain of the seas-- to the advantage of young Capt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant when they capture a French ship carrying a dragon's egg. Unfortunately, the egg hatches and before you could say "Smaug", Lawrence is catapulted from the British Navy to the fledgling Royal Air Force with the child-like black dragon which he names Temeraire. From there, it's a mad dash for training even as Lawrence deals with being uprooted from his whole life as well as trying to raise an impressionable yet smart young dragon.

But all doubts must end and in the story's climax, it's up to Lawrence, Temeraire and his companions to stop a massive French invasion of British shores.

So, what's not to like about Novik's book?

Well, on one hand: the story was well-paced and pretty exciting, the prose was above average (but not as florid as that other 19th-century book, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell) the characters were nicely-drawn out, and the setting was well-detailed including the practical uses of dragons. (How do dragons dogfight? Like World War II bombers combined with 19th century warships, complete with ground crew and boarding parties.) In fact, this was one of the best things about the book: Novik manages to hint broadly about the depth of the role of dragons throughout the world while filling in the details that would flesh out the reality of the story. This is one element writers of alternate-history books sometimes flub when introducing that differing factor in the story.

On the other hand: I guess the whole thing didn't work for me. It's a not unusual feeling for me to read a book that a lot of people loved but left me feeling cold (i.e. Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code) . However, this is one of the few times that it actually happened to a book that I wanted to like. It was frustrating: the feeling akin to slowly sliding from a slippery roof after recently cutting your nails.

I guess in the end, I would recommend this book to other people. But for me, I'd have to pass.

*sigh*