bookoftheweek: His Majesty's Dragon

Ah, Booksale! Remember them? They used to sell books and magazines at a discount price. Stuff you couldn't find at National Bookstore you could find here. One of my prized finds from this place was Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. It was a series set in the world of Pern, a planet which dealt with the threat of "thread", mindless organisms that burrowed through living things. The "dragons" in this series were genetically engineered from flying lizards, and were mentally linked to their riders.

His Majesty's Dragon and the succeeding books (Throne of Jade, Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory) takes this basic formula and transplants it to early 19th-century England, when Napoleon was still emperor and was bent on taking over the world. Dragons were used as aerial fighting units, carrying riders and materiel. The series focuses on one dragon in particular: Temeraire, a Chinese Imperial born on a ship, and his relationship with William Laurence, a captain in the British Navy who unwillingly becomes bonded to Temeraire. As the book progresses, he becomes attached to Temeraire, and the two quickly become important parts of the Aerial Corps.

The book is quite exciting and hard to put down; there are the dragons, who are quite intelligent and quite different from, say, Dragonlance dragons. They are classified into different categories, from the lightweight couriers (think recon aircraft) to the heavyweight Regal Coppers (think bombers). Different countries have different types of dragons as well; the French probably have the coolest dragons, from the night-vision Fleur-de-Nuit to the fire-breathing Flamme-de-Gloire.

I can easily see this being made into a multimedia property--movies (already optioned by Peter Jackson--think of Master and Commander with dragons--how cool will that be?), comic books, and even tabletop/computer games (Real Time Strategy definitely; RPGs, not so sure). The last one is not surprising, as Naomi Novick helped develop the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide.

This book--heck, the entire Temeraire series--is highly recommended. Pick it up if you see it.