His Majesty's Dragon
- 356
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Locus Award for Best First Novel
- Compton Crook Award
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Our view
“His Majesty’s Dragon” takes a charming premise, the Napoleonic Wars fought with dragons, and carries it out with real discipline. Whole crews ride into battle, period manners are observed, and the bond between Laurence and Temeraire gives the adventure its warmth. Some readers wish the dragons were more independent creatures. Easy, pleasant reading, with eight more volumes to follow.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
His Majesty's Dragon, published in the UK as Temeraire, is the first novel in the Temeraire alternate history/fantasy series by American author Naomi Novik. The story is set during an alternate-history version of the Napoleonic Wars, in which dragons not only exist but are used as a staple of aerial warfare in Asia and Europe. The dragons of the story are portrayed as sapient and intelligent, capable of logical thought and human speech. The series centers primarily on events involving Temeraire and his handler, Will Laurence.
Reading order · Temeraire
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 619 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 81% of the weight and the score stays at 8.0 — the Fantasy average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 21 | 3% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 24 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 574 | 93% |
Frequently asked
How long is His Majesty's Dragon?
It has 356 pages — shorter than 87% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
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