I'm midway through Naomi Novik's first novel, His Majesty's Dragon. It had been recommended to me by a number of people and I must confess I was hooked by the second chapter.
The conceit is that dragons--of which there are many breeds and varieties--were first tamed in Europe for warfare by the Romans--although the Chinese had accomplished it earlier. The book is set during the Napoleonic wars and the protagonist is the Captain of a British ship who captures a French vessel carrying a dragon egg. This is somewhat problematic, because dragons are under the jurisdiction of an air corps, not the Royal Navy, and dragon riders are trained from early childhood to work with dragons. The egg is about to hatch at sea.
There are three books in the series so far and Peter Jackson has the rights to film them and any future books. There's a long way between acquiring rights and seeing things on the big screen, but these are extremely visual books (the author used to work in the gaming industry) and they should translate well. With Weta doing the special effects (and we know they can make dragon-like creatures look real) it should be spectacular.
Lunch with the Barefoot Contessa
6 years ago
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