Hoist upon my own Petard

Several years ago I said I found the Naomi Novik Temeraire series fluff and a lighthearted romp. Mea Culpa.

If you read Dante you get to a point in Purgatorio in the Earthly Paradise where Dante drops a multi leveled allegory which can be read as a wish for political unified Italy, a religious reinterpretation of the book of Revelation, and a personal cleansing of his sin. Keep this in mind.

To start at the end, they are now a complete series. So they can be binged, although there are nine books, so stay hydrated.

Some general things:

Dragons exist in the world, impress upon first feeding/harnessing (thanks Pern!), and come in sizes ranging from flying pony to flying manor home. They're harnessed by riders in the aerial corps of the country which they live in, and feral dragons, the bane of the dark ages (St. George, not fake) have been confined and are fed in return for turning over eggs. The problem is that since they eat meat and are more useful if bigger... France has an aerial advantage!

His Majesties Dragon 

In the beginning the noble born captain of a frigate captures a French ship at sea. He's strict, reasonably well educated, and politically sound. In the hold of the captured ship is a dragon egg!

So when this egg hatches it must be tamed. For England!

Oh, but because riders have to live near the dragons, which sort of terrify everyone else. So they don't get to be in society, are pariahs, and no self respecting lady would marry the captain of one. Still, duty drives, so lots are drawn, and when the egg hatches everyone tries in order. Then the captain tames Temeraire, sees his social world go up in flames, and goes about doing everything out of step with how things are done. Then this causes ripples, disrupts chickens, and leads to all sorts of shifts of world view. Adventure spools out ahead of them....

It looks like a Hornblower-esque cracking good yarn, but let's look at some of the allegorical levels bouncing around...

It contains two discussions of slavery - both as the historical political issue in England , and more subtly in the ongoing discoveries brought on by Lawrence not knowing anything about dragons. This  being free of assumptions about dragons lets Temeraire grow into his own person. Having been raised an abolitionist, and attached to an intelligent dragon (more on that in a second) Lawrence treats Temeraire like a good friend (with an admittedly out of control Id) and not a talkative beast.

There's also a subtle mockery of national character and gender going on - the British dragon known as the Longwing will only allow women to tame it, has a huge reach and spits acid. The best of the British dragon "fleet" is a giant red bulldog like dragon that suns itself. Prussian dragons are meticulous but not always... quick. If there is a subtle national characteristic floating out there, it's made into an amusing side joke and shown to be ridiculous with solid character building and real humanity. Chinese dragons, it should be mentioned are known for being intelligent, but we'll get more on them in book two....

Which will be coming up.