I finished the third part of Naomi Novik’s series last night and want more now! I thought that the first book had begin slowly but built a believable world which she has slowly extended into one that more often than not resemble the contemporary world – not that this is a bad thing.
What is beginning to really make the book for me is the discussion of the dragon’s place within the world. As Temeraire points out this is more often than not a servile one within mainstream fantasy. The neat little mesh of Wilberforce’s partial bills and this complaint hints at something happening in the future to challenge the status quo of fantasy. Like Tad Williams, Novik is writing with love for the genre and is not uncritical of it and this is what is really interesting me about her writing.
In the meantime, series is a must for anybody who wants a fun, fast, rollicking read. These books are pleasantly short but fit in more between the pages than many fatter fantasy novels.
technorati tags:temeraire, fantasy, naomi novik, dragons