Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon

"This may be my favourite of the lot, because it tickles so many of my hobbies and things I love. I love gunpowder weapons – I used them in the ‘Summoner’ series, but I wasn’t sure I could pull off Roman Empire with guns for Dragon Rider ! But in any case, what’s fantastic about His Majesty’s Dragon is this historical setting. I grew up reading the ‘ Sharpe ‘ series by Bernard Cornwell, which are all about the Napoleonic wars – it’s the most interesting time of warfare in history for me – so then came this fantasy version with dragons, and I was just completely smitten. It’s set in 1804 during the War of the Third Coalition. But I really don’t think you need to be a history buff to get on with this book – you don’t need to know what was going on in the real Napoleonic Wars – if you are, that’s great, because there are lots of cool little Easter eggs as you read, but it certainly doesn’t slow down the story. It’s about Captain William Laurence, who’s on the HMS Reliance. He captures a French ship, and it happens to be carrying a rare Chinese dragon egg. And fate ensues! The dragon Temeraire chooses Laurence as its handler. Once Laurence is bonded to a dragon, he can’t be on a ship anymore – he needs to be fighting with this dragon that he’s bonded with. So he’s brought into Britain’s aerial corps and he’s trained in the art of aerial warfare. That’s my favourite part of the book actually, where he learns how to fight on dragon-back. I think every book with a dragon rider should have this, if they can. Paradoxically, I’ve not been able to fit that into my own story because of the plot that I’d chosen, but I love it. It’s a fantastic series. The first book is very straightforward, the plot is not too convoluted – it’s very much: gets dragon, trains, a little bit of intrigue, big climactic battle at the end. But it’s just a great experience and journey as you’re reading it. I highly recommend that one."

"It’s our world. England and France are at war, but there are dragons – intelligent dragons, and they are taking part in battles. Napoleon is conquering, and he has dragons, and so does England; the two are competing with each other. It’s the story of this one dragon, Temeraire, who becomes… well, I don’t want to say ‘the property’ of William Laurence, because they’re supposed to be much more linked, the dragon and the rider. It’s about him, as much as the dragon – and the way dragons are used in this world. I thought the book was amazing. I love dragons, so if you throw dragons into a history, I am immediately fascinated. There’s the way dragons battle, there are people who try to capture other people’s dragons, and you lose your dragon if someone succeeds… I just thought it was really intelligently done, and still rooted in so much of the history of the 18th century. Later books show that there are dragons elsewhere, like China – and there is an entirely different way that slavery and the slave trade are taking place because of dragons in South Africa. So, as the series builds it really intensifies. I was interested every time – what are we going to see next? How has the world changed because of these dragons in these different parts of the world? Yeah! And they have their own thoughts. Some of them will be very loyal to the places where they’re from – for example, dragons from China see themselves as part of Chinese civilisation and culture. They’re trying to protect it. And the dragons from Africa are really angry at the slave trade . They’re burning slave ships and trying to destroy them. The dragons from France are very pro- Napoleon ! So, you have these dragons who take on in many ways the national or social persona or politics of the age, but they also have their own stake. I thought that was fascinating."