2019/14: Temeraire -- Naomi Novik

Certainly no man not raised to the life could be easy at the prospect of suddenly becoming an aviator, and he loathed the necessity of asking his officers to face it. It meant, after all, an end to any semblance of ordinary life. It was not like sailing, where you might hand your ship back to the Navy and be set ashore, often whether you liked it or not. Even in times of peace, a dragon could not be put into dock, nor allowed to wander loose... [p. 11]

First read as an ARC in 2005, acquired at the Worldcon. Reread because after seeing How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World I wanted a cheering story about human/'animal' friendship and partnership, and this seemed to fit the bill. (I am over-familiar with McCaffrey's earlier works, which sustained me through my teens: I know whole paragraphs by heart, and besides there is insufficient sense of friendship between her dragons and their riders.) Indeed, the dragons Temeraire and Toothless share some traits, though Temeraire is rather larger, can speak several human languages and likes jewellery.

Novik carries off the nineteenth-century prose style rather well, and the story itself bears rereading (not least because I'd forgotten quite a lot of the details in the intervening 14 years). I found Will Laurence more congenial this time around, and enjoyed the ways in which his world view was broadened by his unlooked-for association with Temeraire.

My previous review is here: the 'inexcusable Americanisms' were amended before publication*, and -- perhaps knowing that this is the first in a series, which I don't think was clear in 2005 -- I am less concerned about lack of 'edge'. The wider world in which Temeraire and Laurence exist is fleshed out in subsequent volumes (which I am gradually acquiring and reading) and there is opportunity for depth, resolution et cetera.

I wish I could remember why I said, in that review, 'don't believe Stephen King'. Ah yes: he described it as a cross between Susannah Clarke and Patrick O'Brian. I happily concede the O'Brian, but feel as though there may be a McCaffrey influence too, especially in terms of the emotional bond between dragon and handler. Which is what makes the books a delight, because Temeraire is a decidedly opinionated dragon.

*why, yes, my name is in the credits ... :)