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I was fairly skeptical of His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, which is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars featuring a navy captain called William Laurence who gives up his posting on the H.M.S. Reliant to work as an "aviator" with a dragon called Temeraire. It seems like it shouldn't work, on account of combining too many things that shouldn't go together, like bacon and ice cream. But it does work, and the unlikeliness of it makes the book even more fun.

Overlook the silly title; like other good fantasies (can you name two other examples?), the first installment of this series had a smarter title in England. (Temeraire, after the dragon--it means "reckless" in French.) The plot involves Laurence's friendship with the dragon (who can talk) and his adjustment from the strictures and formality of navy life to the freewheeling, coeducational atmosphere of the aviator corps. At times, the book deals with manners and honor, and in those passages, Novik writes with an air of Jane Austen. At other times, Novik writes of complex aerial maneuvers and battles. In this, she reportedly evokes Patrick O'Brian, but I haven't read any of his books, so I can't comment. Laurence is a sympathetic figure with decidedly mature concerns--as a former sea captain around age 30, he is a far cry from the adolescent protagonists of most fantasy novels.

Not only does Novik manage to weave fantasy and history together, but she does it so seamlessly that within 50 pages, you forget that it's an unusual melange. The book may not have much original to say about the human condition, but it's a very good read. Also, it has been optioned by Peter Jackson, so you might as well read the book now so that you can get into an appropriate nerdly froth with the film fails to capture the nuance of the original.