Tag Archives: Naomi Novik

The Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen

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Synopsis:
A mage-in-training and a princess psychically linked to a dragon must work together to save the royal family from an evil sorceress.

Review:
The Dragon of Trelian has a lot of familiar elements, but fortunately it manages to feel fresh. Princess Meglynne is feisty and hot-tempered and imperial, but she’s not just tempestuous. She’s got a core of true courage that’s really appealing. Apprentice mage Calen struggles with feelings of inadequacy, but he’s also prone to an arrogance that tempers his naivete.

The dragon of the title isn’t weighted down by the baggage of medieval cosmology. He’s cut from a more modern cloth, a friend to humans much like those populating Naomi Novik‘s wonderful books. He’s not as tame as those dragons, however; he’s a wild beast who has joined souls with Princess Meglynne without her knowing it was happening. I’m really excited to see where Knudsen will take this storyline in future books. All in all, The Dragon of Trelian is a fun start to a great adventure for younger YA readers.

Check out the rest of the bloggers on the tour:

http://rebeccaluellamiller.wordpress.com/“>A Christian Worldview of Fiction, http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com“>Abby the Librarian, http://paraklesis.com/childrens_publishing_news/“>All About Children’s Books, http://blbooks.blogspot.com/“>Becky’s Book Reviews, http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/“>Cafe of Dreams, http://www.dolcebellezza.wordpress.com/“>Dolce Bellezza, http://homeschoolbuzz.com/“>Homeschool Book Buzz, http://kidzbookbuzz.com/“>KidzBookBuzz.com, http://www.novelteen.com “>Novel Teen, http://superfastreader.com“>Reading is My Superpower, http://www.readingtoknow.com/“>Reading to Know, http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com“>Small World Reads, http://the160acrewoods.com“>The 160 Acrewoods, http://sjkessel.blogspot.com/“>Through a Child’s Eyes, http://lookingglassreview.blogspot.com/“>Through the Looking Glass Reviews

The Alphabet Meme

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Picked this meme up from Melanie, in honor of two YA books I read for work this weekend.

The goal of this is to list favourite authors according to last name (with a representative fave book as well).

Atwood, Margaret — Cat’s Eye
Bronte, Charlotte — Jane Eyre
Card, Orson Scott — Ender’s Game
Dragonwagon, Crescent — The Year It Rained (with Paul Zindel)
Eager, Edward — Half Magic
Forster, EM — Howard’s End
Gibson, William — Neuromancer
Hobb, Robin — Ship of Magic
Ishiguro, Kazuo — And Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley — Hangsaman
King, Stephen — The Gunslinger
Lewis, CS — Till We Have Faces
Martin, George RR — Game of Thrones
Novik, Naomi — His Majesty’s Dragon
Oates, Joyce Carol — Blonde
Percy, Walker — The Last Gentleman
Queenan, Joe — If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble
Rendell, Ruth — Judgment in Stone
Smith, Wesley — Culture of Death
Tolkien, JRR — The Return of the King
Undset, Sigrid — Kristin Lavransdatter
Vine, Barbara — A Dark-Adapted Eye
Wharton, Edith — Twilight Sleep
X — I’ll read the next book someone recommends by an author whose last name starts with X.
Yancey, Phillip — Where is God When It Hurts?
Zarr, Sara — Story of a Girl

Superfast Birthday = Best Husband Ever

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My birthday was on Sunday, but it extended through today with a box of books that Superfast Husband bought for me! Check out this tantalizing list of books–I don’t know what to read first (after I finish The Fionavar Tapestry)!

  • The Axe, Volume 1 of The Master of Hestviken and Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset
  • Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
  • Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
  • Dreamsongs by George RR Martin
  • Come Along with Me and Just An Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson

And Superfast Younger Brother added to the fun with Ray Bradbury’s Now & Forever.

Considering I’ve entered my “period of confinement,” as my friend Catherine puts it, I am very glad to have all these great books to read. Superfast Baby could show up any day between now and the end of the month (official due date is 11/18, but that’s really just an estimate). I am very motivated now to learn how to read while breastfeeding.

Essential Books For Children

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I want to start a conversation about what readers think are the books that no child should be without. I’m building a library for Superfast Baby, and here are my 10 must haves for boys and 10 must haves for girls:

Boys:
1. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
2. A House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
3. Don’t Care High by Gordon Korman Continue reading →

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

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Review:
The second in trilogy begun in His Majesty’s Dragon finds Temeraire and Laurence traveling by sea to China where Temeraire will take his rightful place as the dragon of an emperor–not a member of His Royal Majesty’s Navy battling against an ever-encroaching Napoleon.

Review:
Throne of Jade is a more than worthy installment in the tale of Temeraire, a dragon hatched from an egg given by China to Napoleon but seized by the English. When Temeraire hatched, the first person he saw was naval officer Laurence–and this was quite by accident, to the despair of the pilot who was next in line to bond with a dragon. Laurence has to leave the navy with his beloved order and ritual, for the less rigorous though no less disciplined aerial corps, and learn to pilot a dragon and his crew to fight the air battle against Napoleon in service of the British Army. Book one covered this coming-of-age story beautifully, and by the end of the book Temeraire and Laurence were as thick as thieves and devoted to fair Albion. Continue reading →

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

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Synopsis:
The setting is the Napoleonic wars, in a world where dragons exist and are part of military operations. An English naval captain captures a French vessel, and on board is a particularly valuable treasure: a dragon’s egg, and joins the Aerial Corps with Temeraire, a very rare Celestial breed, and together they join the fight.

Review:
I loved this idea the minute I read about it in one of Entertainment Weekly’s capsule reviews. The book reads more like an adventure tale than a fantasy–lots of military proceedings and maneuvers and protocol. I’ve never read the Horatio Hornblower books or anything by Patrick O’Brien, but I imagine that this book is cut from the same sailcloth as those. Continue reading →