Temeraire (His Majesty's Dragon U.S. title) is American-born Naomi Novik's debut novel and flys the onerous flags of cross-genre. Temeraire can be summarised as Napoleonic Wars with Dragons, and indeed the premise provides enough intrigue to warrant exploration.

Being an alternate-history set during a time when society was much more reserved, Novik's biggest concern was to create a fiction that didn't petrify as soon as she injected Dragons into an historical timeline. For the most part the union is successful, mainly in part to Novik reigning in the scope of the narrative to chiefly encompass her fictional military circle of aviators, who by-and-large are despised by contemporary society and therefore have little contact with the world outside their covert.

Readers are eased into the fantasy-world by accompanying Captain William Laurence as he hauls himself from a lifetime of naval traditions and into the roguish lifestyle of the aviator. Novik has clearly poured a lot of time into research to create a believable world right down to her choice of language, not just dialogue but description as well, which is almost completely void of american-isms and lends a more authentic air to the novel's atmosphere.

Being a debut novel it is easy to forgive some of the more prominent issues with the book, largely that Novik writes without a clear voice and many of her characters (most unforgivably, Laurence) seem to be amalgamations of stereotypes from the era, which essentially creates characters who are by no means unlikeable, rather, just uninteresting. The novel's pace is also rather off-beat, with a lull of any meaningful action during the mid-chapters, but this is rectified in the stirring conclusion which proves Novik is quite adept at drumming a steady rhythm when writing action.

Of course, this is only the first in a series (at the time of writing there are three succeeding novels with a fourth due for release in the coming months). Despite the novel's often flat characterisation and depressions in flow, there is a real sense that the series only need soar a little higher to really wow readers.

If the promises made at the conclusion of Temeraire are to be believed, there's little doubt that the second novel, Throne of Jade, will be a pay-off.

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