The Greatest Book About A Dragon You Probably Haven’t Read

His name is Temeraire. And he’s hell-bent on saving his rider from Napoleon’s vast army.

Now you may be thinking that this book was published in 2006 – so why are we reading about this eight years later. My response would be: would you never watch The Matrix just because you didn’t see it right when it came out? No, you’d watch it. You’d watch it.

First, Naomi Novik knows how to write with both an extensive vocabulary and a penchant for not annoying you when you read it. Like that one high school English teacher you actually learned something from. The action moves forward, the protagonist Captain Laurence is a freaking stud. Seriously, this guy is like all the hardass-ness of General Patton coupled with Tiger Woods’ endurance (pre-marital blow-up of course). You like him, and not in a dark and mysterious kind of way. You like him because he’s more of a man than the Fresh Prince could ever hope to be.

Another reason to let your eyes play page-to-page ping pong is because the dragon is an actual character. Like Smaug but on the fun team. He’s intelligent but not condescending. And he’s a natural fighter. Like a hungry Mike Tyson at 19. Plus, and I won’t spoil it, but he spends the book…um…discovering something about himself.

Oh, and it’s an alternate history fiction piece. Like when you told your friends she was a 9 when she was really a soft 6.

If you’re not sold yet, then just stop reading now. If it piques your interest, go snag it up stat. I did. I was hooked one page in. Yeah – Novik is that good.