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September 26, 2007

Notes from Ferdy - The Temeraire Books

Lately Nate and Bruce have been reading the Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik. The books tell the story of the dragon Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, who are fighting on the side of the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The dragons are portrayed as intelligent creatures capable of speech and reasoning. Their weakness is that individual dragons tend to get attached to their riders. If you control the rider, you control the dragon.

The tradition of the dragon/rider bond goes all the way back to the Dragonriders of Pern novels written by Anne McCaffrey in the late Sixties. Since then, it's made appearances in books as disparate as the humorous novel Another Fine Myth and the ponderous film Eragon. It's an appealing idea, because it's very like the relationship between humans and cats. A cat frequently picks a single person to be a special friend, but unlike a dog, where there is a clear leader/follower breakdown, the human/cat relationship is peer-to-peer. When an alien intelligence singles you out as special, it's a wonderful thing.

What makes the Temeraire books such good reading is Temeraire himself, who sees the human world with completely fresh eyes, and is always challenging Will's sense of right and wrong. It being the early 18th century, Will's sense of right and wrong is a strong one, and almost entirely programmed by social convention, so there are plenty of things for Temeraire to criticize. At one point in book 3 (Black Powder War), the two of them are stuck behind enemy lines, and Will orders Temeraire to steal some cows for food. Temeraire objects.

"But Laurence, aren't those property?"

"Well, yes, I suppose they are," Laurence said, in embarrassment, "but under the circumstances we must make an exception."

"But how are the circumstances any different than when Arkady and the others took the cows in Istanbul?" Temeraire demanded. "They were hungry then, and we are hungry now; it is just the same."

"There we were arriving as guests," Laurence said, "and thought the Turks our allies."

"So it is not theft if you don't like the person who owns the property?"

Bruce says that reading about Temeraire reminds him of how easy it is to get me to cooperate with him, and anything that reminds somebody of a cat has to be good literature. Even more important: Nate has been reading the books in the place of playing video games. No, this doesn't mean the world is ending, just that they're really good books.

So give Temeraire a try. If you have a cat, it will have a familiar resonance, and if you don't have a cat, reading about an utterly logical creature with incredible destructive power will help you understand what it's live to live with one of us.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

# At Wed 6:24 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More Notes from Ferdy | Tags: Anne McCaffrey books cats culture dragons Eragon fantasy historical fantasy humor Naomi Novik Napoleonic Wars Temeraire The Girl

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» A Wednesday “Back in the Habit” Reading list and OTP from The Random Yak
Been a while since I tossed up a reading list.  Guess I need to get back in the habit.  That said, here’s your Wednesday reading list of Things I Recommend From the Blogroll Today: 1.  Today’s book review (and recommendation): The Temera... [Read More]

Tracked on September 26, 2007 2:25 PM

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