{"product_id":"his-majestys-dragon-isbn-9780593359549","title":"His Majesty's Dragon","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the first novel of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling Temeraire series, a rare bond is formed between a young man and a dragon, and together they must battle in the Napoleonic Wars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A terrifically entertaining fantasy novel.”—Stephen King\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant  warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft  but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When HMS \u003ci\u003eReliant\u003c\/i\u003e captures a French  frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt.  Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected  kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the  Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the  daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally  to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must  soar into their own baptism of fire.\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Just when you think you’ve seen every variation possible on the dragon story, along comes Naomi Novik. . . . Her wonderful Temeraire is a dragon for the ages.”—Terry Brooks\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDon’t miss any of Naomi Novik’s magical Temeraire series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON • THRONE OF JADE • BLACK POWDER WAR • EMPIRE OF IVORY • VICTORY OF EAGLES • TONGUES OF SERPENTS • CRUCIBLE OF GOLD • BLOOD OF TYRANTS • LEAGUE OF DRAGONS\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eHis Majesty’s Dragon \u003c\/i\u003eand the Temeraire series\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“These are beautifully written novels—not only fresh, original, and fast paced, but full of wonderful characters with real heart. [The Temeraire series] is a terrific meld of two genres that I particularly love—fantasy and historical epic.”\u003cb\u003e—Peter Jackson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A terrifically entertaining fantasy novel . . . Is it hard to imagine a cross between Susanna Clarke, of Norrell and Strange fame, and the late Patrick O’Brian? Not if you’ve read this wonderful, arresting novel.”\u003cb\u003e—Stephen King\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A splendid series . . . Not only is it a new way to utilize dragons, it’s a very clever one and fits neatly into the historical niche this author has used.”\u003cb\u003e—Anne McCaffrey\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Just when you think you’ve seen every variation possible on the dragon story, along comes Naomi Novik. Her wonderful Temeraire is a dragon for the ages.”\u003cb\u003e—Terry Brooks\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Enthralling reading—it’s like Jane Austen playing Dungeons \u0026amp; Dragons with Eragon’s Christopher Paolini.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Time\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A completely authentic tale, brimming with all the detail and richness one looks for . . . as well as the impossible wonder of gilded fantasy.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (Editor’s Choice, Grade: A)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Novik has accomplished something singular with her Temeraire series. . . . At its heart, it’s a story about friendship that transcends not only time and class, but species.”\u003cb\u003e—NPR\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Naomi Novik] is soaring on the wings of a dragon.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A thrilling fantasy . . . All hail Naomi Novik.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An amazing performance . . . [I] was immediately hooked by the writing, the research and the sheer courage of the whole enterprise.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Novik’s influences run the gamut from Jane Austen to Patrick O’Brian, with a side trip through Anne McCaffrey. Her books are completely involving and probably addictive, their central conceit explored in clever detail with a great deal of wit and historical insight.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Something new and quite wonderful . . . The Temeraire trilogy could well be this year’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A superbly written, character-driven series . . . What keeps one turning the pages is the urge to find out what happens next to Captain Laurence and Temeraire, characters who win one’s heart from the beginning. Bravo!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eNaomi Novik\u003c\/b\u003e is the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eA Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Enclaves,\u003c\/i\u003e the award-winning novels \u003ci\u003eUprooted\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSpinning Silver,\u003c\/i\u003e and the Temeraire series. She is a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own. She lives in New York City with her family and six computers.The deck of the French ship was slippery with blood, heaving in the  choppy sea;  a stroke might as easily bring down the man making it as the  intended target. Laurence  did not have time in the heat of the battle to  be surprised at the degree of resistance,  but even through the numbing  haze of battle-fever and the confusion of swords and  pistol-smoke, he  marked the extreme look of anguish on the French captain’s face  as the man  shouted encouragement to his men.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was still there shortly thereafter,  when they met on the deck, and the  man surrendered his sword, very reluctantly:  at the last moment his hand  half-closed about the blade, as if he meant to draw  it back. Laurence  looked up to make certain the colors had been struck, then accepted  the  sword with a mute bow; he did not speak French himself, and a more formal  exchange  would have to wait for the presence of his third lieutenant, that  young man being  presently engaged belowdecks in securing the French guns.  With the cessation of  hostilities, the remaining Frenchmen were all  virtually dropping where they stood;  Laurence noticed that there were  fewer of them than he would have expected for a  frigate of thirty-six  guns, and that they looked ill and hollow-cheeked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Many  of them lay dead or dying upon the deck; he shook his head at the  waste and eyed  the French captain with disapproval: the man should never  have offered battle. Aside  from the plain fact that the Reliant would have  had the Amitié slightly outgunned  and outmanned under the best of  circumstances, the crew had obviously been reduced  by disease or hunger.  To boot, the sails above them were in a sad tangle, and that  no result of  the battle, but of the storm which had passed but this morning; they  had  barely managed to bring off a single broadside before the Reliant had  closed  and boarded. The captain was obviously deeply overset by the  defeat, but he was  not a young man to be carried away by his spirits: he  ought to have done better  by his men than to bring them into so hopeless  an action.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Mr. Riley,” Laurence  said, catching his second lieutenant’s attention,  “have our men carry the wounded  below.” He hooked the captain’s sword on  his belt; he did not think the man deserved  the compliment of having it  returned to him, though ordinarily he would have done  so. “And pass the  word for Mr. Wells.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Very good, sir,” Riley said, turning  to issue the necessary orders.  Laurence stepped to the railing to look down and  see what damage the hull  had taken. She looked reasonably intact, and he had ordered  his own men to  avoid shots below the waterline; he thought with satisfaction that  there  would be no difficulty in bringing her into port.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His hair had slipped  out of his short queue, and now fell into his eyes as  he looked over. He impatiently  pushed it out of the way as he turned back,  leaving streaks of blood upon his forehead  and the sun-bleached hair;  this, with his broad shoulders and his severe look, gave  him an  unconsciously savage appearance as he   surveyed his prize, very unlike his  usual thoughtful expression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Wells climbed up from below in response to the  summons and came to his  side. “Sir,” he said, without waiting to be addressed, “begging  your  pardon, but Lieutenant Gibbs says there is something queer in the hold.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Oh? I will go and look,” Laurence said. “Pray tell this gentleman,” he  indicated  the French captain, “that he must give me his parole, for  himself and his men, or  they must be confined.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The French captain did not immediately respond; he looked  at his men with  a miserable expression. They would of course do much better if they  could  be kept spread out through the lower deck, and any recapture was a  practical  impossibility under the circumstances; still he hesitated,  drooped, and finally  husked, “Je me rends,” with a look still more  wretched.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Laurence gave a short  nod. “He may go to his cabin,” he told Wells, and  turned to step down into the hold.  “Tom, will you come along? Very good.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He descended with Riley on his heels,  and found his first lieutenant  waiting for him. Gibbs’s round face was still shining  with sweat and  emotion; he would be taking the prize into port, and as she was a  frigate,  he almost certainly would be made post, a captain himself. Laurence was   only mildly pleased; though Gibbs had done his duty reasonably, the man  had been  imposed on him by the Admiralty and they had not become  intimates. He had wanted  Riley in the first lieutenant’s place, and if he  had been given his way, Riley would  now be the one getting his step. That  was the nature of the service, and he did  not begrudge Gibbs the good  fortune; still, he did not rejoice quite so wholeheartedly  as he would  have to see Tom get his own ship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Very well; what’s all this,  then?” Laurence said now; the hands were  clustered about an oddly placed bulkhead  towards the stern area of the  hold, neglecting the work of cataloguing the captured  ship’s stores.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Sir, if you will step this way,” Gibbs said. “Make way there,”  he  ordered, and the hands backed away from what Laurence now saw was a  doorway  set inside a wall that had been built across the back of the hold;  recently, for  the lumber was markedly lighter than the surrounding planks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ducking through  the low door, he found himself in a small chamber with a  strange appearance. The  walls had been reinforced with actual metal, which  must have added a great deal  of unnecessary weight to the ship, and the  floor was padded with old sailcloth;  in addition, there was a small  coal-stove in the corner, though this was not presently  in use. The only  object stored within the room was a large crate, roughly the height  of a  man’s waist and as wide, and this was made fast to the floor and walls by   means of thick hawsers attached to metal rings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Laurence could not help feeling  the liveliest curiosity, and after a  moment’s struggle he yielded to it. “Mr. Gibbs,  I think we shall have a  look inside,” he said, stepping out of the way. The top  of the crate was  thoroughly nailed down, but eventually yielded to the many willing  hands;  they pried it off and lifted out the top layer of packing, and many heads   craned forward at the same time to see.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e No one spoke, and in silence Laurence  stared at the shining curve of  eggshell rising out of the heaped straw; it was scarcely  possible to  believe. “Pass the word for Mr. Pollitt,” he said at last; his voice   sounded only a little strained. “Mr. Riley, pray be sure those lashings  are quite  secure.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Riley did not immediately answer, too busy staring; then he jerked  to  attention and said, hastily, “Yes, sir,” and bent to check the bindings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Laurence stepped closer and gazed down at the egg. There could hardly be  any doubt  as to its nature, though he could not say for sure from his own  experience. The  first amazement passing, he tentatively reached out and  touched the surface, very  cautiously: it was smooth and hard to the touch.  He withdrew almost at once, not  wanting to risk doing it some harm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Mr. Pollitt came down into the hold in his  awkward way, clinging to the  ladder edges with both hands and leaving bloody prints  upon it; he was no  kind of a sailor, having become a naval surgeon only at the late  age of  thirty, after some unspecified disappointments on land. He was  nevertheless  a genial man, well liked by the crew, even if his hand was  not always the steadiest  at the operating table. “Yes, sir?” he said, then  saw the egg. “Good Lord above.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It is a dragon egg, then?” Laurence said. It required an effort to  restrain  the triumph in his voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Oh, yes indeed, Captain, the size alone shows that.”  Mr. Pollitt had  wiped his hands on his apron and was already brushing more straw  away from  the top, trying to see the extent. “My, it is quite hardened already;  I  wonder what they can have been thinking, so far from land.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This did not  sound very promising. “Hardened?” Laurence said sharply.  “What does that mean?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Why, that it will hatch soon. I will have to consult my books to be  certain,  but I believe that Badke’s Bestiary states with authority that  when the shell has  fully hardened, hatching will occur within a week. What  a splendid specimen, I must  get my measuring cords.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He bustled away, and Laurence exchanged a glance with  Gibbs and Riley,  moving closer so they might speak without being overheard by the  lingering  gawkers. “At least three weeks from Madeira with a fair wind, would you   say?” Laurence said quietly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “At best, sir,” Gibbs said, nodding.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I cannot  imagine how they came to be here with it,” Riley said. “What do  you mean to do,  sir?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His initial satisfaction turning gradually into dismay as he realized  the  very difficult situation, Laurence stared at the egg blankly. Even in the  dim  lantern light, it shone with the warm luster of marble. “Oh, I am  damned if I know,  Tom. But I suppose I will go and return the French  captain his sword; it is no wonder  he fought so furiously after all.”New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education","brand":"Del Rey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304188530917,"sku":"NP9780593359549","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593359549.jpg?v=1767729084","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/his-majestys-dragon-isbn-9780593359549","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}