Review: Temeraire

I'm normally quite wary of picking up books off shelves in bookstores (I'm reliably disappointed), but when I noticed Temeraire poking out between Neil Gaiman, Trudi Canavan and Philip Pullman at Blackwell's in Cambridge, I thought I'd take a chance.

Essentially, Temeraire is an alternate fantasy history of the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons. I know, dragons.

Temeraire's egg winds up being captured from a French naval ship by a British ship, where he proceeds to hatch and imprint himself upon a British naval officer.

The dialogue between the two of them is extremely entertaining, and their relationship reminded me quite a bit of the Saphira/Eragon relationship in the Eragon books. I guess there's a fairly standard dynamic between humans and dragons.

I really enjoyed it (and have passed it along to a number of friends who've loved it, too). I'm working my way through the series (2 books finished, 7 to go!), and by the time I'm done, Peter Jackson should be finished with the movie.

P.S. Can I have a dragon? Please?