[Reading Group] March 2014: His Majesty's Dragon Discussion

Our February 2014 "dragon themed" book is going to be His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik.



Please borrow or purchase the book in your preferred format and begin reading it. We'll start discussion on March 1st, 2014. The book has 12 chapters, but they're longer than most books. However, it has three roman numeral sections. I think it may be good to break down the discussion as such:

Week 1 (Mar. 1st-8th): Section I
Week 2 (Mar. 9th-15th): Section II
Week 3: (Mar. 16th-22nd): End of Section II/Beginning of Section III
Week 4: (Mar. 23rd-31st): End of Section III/Epilogue

We'll have to see how things break down as we go, but let's make this the tentative plan.

Here's a brief synopsis of the story:

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.

When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future—and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

While this is the beginning of the Temeraire series, Ophiucha mentioned that it can be read as a complete story.

You can buy the book here: Amazon.com: His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire) eBook: Naomi Novik: Kindle Store

Looking forward to it!

 

I just bought it as well. It's not too expensive on Kindle thankfully. That's one advantage of getting a book that's been out for a while!

 

I do that with so many books. It's not always because they're bad or I don't like them, I just find something else I want to read more at the moment and then it goes away one way or another. Doing this reading group is at least making me focus on mostly one book at a time (key word mostly).

 

Yes, of course, Roan. Feel free to join in!

 

I'm glad to see so many people interested! Please remember to nominate books for April when you get the chance. Our theme for April is going to be "classics." You can nominate up to three books if you so chose. I'll be nominating some today.

 

OK, so we're going to start this book soon. I haven't gotten a chance to crack it open yet, so I'm probably going to be behind. If someone could be super awesome and start the discussion, that would be great! Of course it doesn't start until March 1st, so still some time left.

In the meantime, I'll offer up some prelim questions:

1. Have you read Novik's work before? What do you think of it?

2. What are your expectations of this book? (for those who haven't read it)

3. If this was your choice for this month, why did you chose it?

Maybe those can start us off. Looking forward to starting myself!