His Majesty's Dragon: Temeraire, Book 1

The comparison is a little simplistic, but this alternative history is tons of fun. The characters are consistant with the period, the writing is good, and Simon Vance is one of the best readers anywhere. I loved every minute of this book. A great adventure!

4 and a half was what I wanted, but it didn't quite reach my 5 star threshold.

The tone of the writing fits the setting perfectly, and the narrator matches as though the book were written specifically for him.

Some reviewers have complained that the story is tedious. Certainly the writing style is deliberate and considered, but as I said, it matches the setting and especially the naval character of Lawrence, the main character whose perspective is our own. Anyone who needs a very fast-paced writing style (like Carl Hiassan) might dislike it, but anyone who can tolerate Tolkein would have no trouble.

Temeraire is delightful, and Lawrence is such a good man. His gradual shift from the navy to the aerial corps is believable and involving; his struggle with integrating himself into the new culture is fraught with pitfalls that are paralleled nicely by Temeraire's difficulty with being a rare breed.

Lawrence's stiff manner and preoccupation with propriety stem from a powerful and selfless desire to do the right thing, both for his country and for his loved ones, making behavior that would come off as pompous in another man seem heartfelt and honest from him.

What little aerial combat there is (surprisingly little if you're expecting a war, but for the story and Temeraire's age it's appropriate) is occasionally paced a bit oddly, but in truth, the action sequences are exceptionally easy to follow, dramatic, and realistic, with real consequences and believable decision-making, none of the absurd posturing of the usual fantasy battle scene.

In short, Naomi does an excellent job of convincing the reader that her world is real, that dragons are real, that we know a guy named Lawrence, that he has a dragon named Temeraire, and that we care about them both.

Story is very well written. The narration is enjoyable. I loved the Stieg Larson series in a big way because of Simon Vance's narration. I found out about this Dragon series from a list of favorite authors listed by Jim Butcher. It was a great pick! Well worth the Credit

I truly enjoyed this book. The author did a great job of combining fantasy with history. This novel is a combination of Hornblower and Eragon (but much better than Eragon). The author developed characters that are believable and have depth to them. The battles that the dragons fought is were fast moving. It is a great book to past your time in traffic, you may wish your drive was longer so you did not have to turn it off.

(I'm 57) I haven't finished the book and probably won't. They are reasonably well written, well-narrated and so forth, but as I was listening to the rather predictable "plot", I realized how much I would have enjoyed this at age 10....seriously, these are excellent children's books.

Good storytelling with believable characters (including the dragons) set in the Napoleonic wars. She does a fine job of keeping the flavor of historical fiction like C. S. Forester and Cornwal. There are still a couple of problems you need to try to overlook. The author has no sense of scale and no understanding of physics. Dragons change size, people jump from one to another in flight with wing spreads of hundreds of feet. Even with this I enjoyed it.

Tall Ships and Nepoleonic battles are not my usual cup of tea but this book was a pleasure to listen to and has me hooked on the series.

The concept and characters are great and I immediately felt the connection that will keep me coming back for more. The narration was excellent as well.

I am looking forward to listening to the next 4 books. The characters are very real in my mind, they are very well developed. I like the narrator, too - he does a very good job of bringing the characters to life.

I fell in love with the author's depiction of sentient dragons whose morality rivals those of men. The underlying themes of duty and obedience vs honesty and loyalty resonate with our world today. I only wish the author could continue this series! I look forward to more from Naomi Novik.

This is a twist of fate that you will never guess. It talks about true friendship and everlasting love. You will cry, you will laugh and you will get mad but you will stick with it to the end. Leaving you craving for more.