Chill out for god´s sake!

 

Little edition.

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik.

Or how to very slowly lighten up. There is a rude expression the fits better, but hey… this mostly works.

I liked the book, but it was a slow process to get in tune with it. First of all, I have to confess that I read it in a weird mood, so maybe in another time I would get pulled in right way, I don’t know.

The idea of a historical setting spiced up with… dragons, was marvelous and chilling, imagine all those colonist enthusiasts with dragons… yikes! Anyway, that was a nice twist with a very detailed execution.

The characters are very interesting and well defined, humans and dragons, it is just… well, a lot of the book is dedicated to being stiff and having good manners and the constant shock of having those challenged. Like… a lot. Our main characters, Temeraire (the dragon) and Laurence (the human) are very likeable, but Laurence, oh my, he is stiff as a stick, like a walking rulebook your aunt and mother (yeah, both of them!) would love to have in every social meeting. I like him, he is a good chap and the time setting had all these sets of rules for decency and behavior, if you add that he is a noble and in the navy, it fits quite right, but there is a lot of effort in the book and in Laurence to guide us through them. Every. Damn. Moment. I guess I would find lovelier to have more plot or character interactions than the constant shock of decorum, even when he is finally over the abbreviation of some protocol, he kindly informs us, how he is not pulling his shorts because some crewman didn’t call him sir. In short, I found that very annoying.

In part, I guess being bothered by it is a personal projection, I hate giving so much importance to those things and being judged and reduced for something you like, have, are, do, whatever; so, this may be taken like a pinch of salt. The note I think it is worthy of attention is the constant effort to portray this issue through the book. That being said, I enjoyed the story a lot, after I finally got in tune, it was a very fun ride. Let´s see how the next books are.

Useless note. I wish there were some word about all those mighty Aztec feathered serpents roaming around or maybe they were boring themselves to death, babbling about the duality of life while eating tacos, who knows.