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This Alternate History series sets out to answer a vital question that has intrigued historians for millennia: What would the Napoleonic Wars have been like if the countries involved fought them with dragons? The series centers on William Laurence, a Navy captain who takes possession of a French ship transporting a valuable dragon egg home. Unfortunately for Laurence, the egg is very close to hatching when he takes it on board, and an "unharnessed" dragon who doesn't choose a captain within a day of hatching becomes feral and thus useless for anything but breeding stock. He ends up harnessing the baby dragon and naming him Temeraire, after a famous French ship captured by the British; the books center on the pair's adventures together.
Five books currently make up the series:
- His Majesty's Dragon (2006)
- Throne of Jade (2006)
- Black Powder War (2006)
- Empire of Ivory (2007)
- Victory of Eagles (2008)
The series was remarkable in that, upon reading the manuscript for the first novel, the editor was so excited she asked the author, Naomi Novik, to finish the next two quickly for an unusual push: the first three novels were released back to back over the course of three months. Novik has said she has a definite endpoint for the series, but she does not know how many more books will be required; she currently estimates the series will total nine.
Peter Jackson has reportedly optioned the series for being made into movies.
Provides examples of:
- A Boy And His X
- Action Girl: See Action Mom and consider all the childless female aviators and dragons there must be.
- Action Mom: Captains Roland and Harcourt. Since dragons almost always outlive their captains, said captains are expected to have children who will hopefully be amenable to the dragon after the original captain's death. Since one very valuable breed of dragon, the acid-spitting Longwing, will only accept female captains, Action Moms are probably rather common. Also, technically speaking, any female dragons that have laid eggs which have hatched.
- Alcohol Is Poison: Averted during Harcourt's pregnancy.
- Alternate History: For obvious reasons.
- Amazon Brigade: See Shout Out.
- Baigar Is The Antidote: The mushrooms in Empire Of Ivory.
- Berserk Button: Don't hurt a captain unless you want a dragon's multi-tonne shit to flip out. And for that matter, don't hurt a dragon unless you want to turn the captain into The Determinator.
- Conversely, threats to a captain's well being (whether by a boarding party holding one at gunpoint or keeping one imprisoned on the ground) is considered the most certain means of controlling an otherwise hostile dragon... but even that can backfire.
- Big Bad: Napoleon, of course, at least from the POV of the British. Whenever we actaully see him, he's characterized as an Affably Evil Anti Villain.
- Bilingual Bonus: There's not much, but occasionally there are snippets of a non-English language transcribed.
- Bling Of War: Iskierka is fond of displaying her treasure, and insists Granby dresses to match.
- Bond Creatures
- Bratty Half Pint: Iskierka
- Butt Monkey: Admit it, half the humor is the petty indignities Laurence gets subjected to.
- There's a Running Gag through the first couple of books where Laurence is presented with an unusual social situation and immediately assumes something scandalous is happening. He mentally chastises himself for jumping to conclusions, only for the other characters to embarrass him by cheerfully confirming his first impressions.
- And then there's poor Granby
 .
- Child Soldiers: The cadets, and almost certainly the midshipmen as well.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Lawrence and a girl he knew made a half-serious marriage proposal when they were young, just before he went off to join the Navy. When he became an aviator in his mid-twenties, his prospects and suitability greatly reduced by it, they sadly called it off.
- Christmas Cake: Subverted; see Eternal Sexual Freedom and Married To The Job
- Did Not Do The Research: Averted. As an example, Naomi Novik travelled to Botswana and spoke to a number of Tswana people, as well as poring over history books.
- Some have accused her of getting the fine points of the sailing thing wrong.
- The Ditz: Volatilus is a sweetie, but brains are not his strong point.
- The Dragon: Lien, appropriately enough.
- Dragon Rider: Hurf durf derp derp what a surpriiiiiise.
- Egg Mc Guffin: "There's something queer in the hold, sir."
- Eternal Sexual Freedom: Used rarely and always justified. Dragons are too important for anything short of treason to be levied at their captains, so aviators live in "a sort of outrageous libertinage" (as the rest of the world sees it), not constantly having bisexual orgies by any means but quite happy to receive occasional casual sex. Even an illegitimate child by a female aviator has a chance of being a good thing.
- Evil Albino: Lien.
- Fantastic Racism: Used in a somewhat Anvilicious manner, because the series also enumerates the many forms of discrimination still in place in 19th-century Britain, but because this has to be brought home to the creatures-of-their-time characters, not the reader, it's also Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped.
- The Fettered: Laurence.
- Fish Out Of Water: Captain Laurence in the beginning of His Majesty's Dragon is rather dismayed at the level of informality common amongst aviators, coming as he does from a naval background. He eventually adjusts, but remains markedly more formal than most captains of dragons—and his crew, when things are normal, tries to emulate him out of respect. And that's before this group of English folk go to China...
- Genius Bruiser: Temeraire is a 20-ton dragon. He's also, apparently, one of the smartest people in Britain. Now consider that many of his fellow dragons can follow along with him as he discusses advanced mathematical problems...and that includes Maximus, who's about the second-largest dragon in the series.
- Good Bad Girl: The female aviators, rather like the male ones, tend to have more of this than might be expected. See also Eternal Sexual Freedom.
- Groin Attack: Harcourt mentions in passing that she once poured coffee into the lap of a man who wouldn't stop bothering her.
- Have A Gay Old Time: The casual, if period accurate, use of "my dear" among male friends.
- Historical Domain Characters: Horatio Nelson, William Wilberforce, Arthur Wellesley, William Bligh,, and some obscure Corsican fellow; among many others.
- This troper's personal favorite so far is none other than Georges Cuvier.
- Historical Fantasy
- Hot Shounen Mom: Arguably, Jane Roland.
- Ho Yay: Even with Laurence having a woman for a lover—or, more accurately, a woman having Laurence for a lover (especially as the series progresses and she becomes admiral)—it's mostly dudes aboard Temeraire. This results in some behavior that keen-eyed Yaoi Fangirls haven't left unnoticed, popular pairings being Laurence and Granby, his first officer and later Iskierka's captain, and Laurence and the guide Tharkay. Given that Novik was a very popular slash fanfic writer before she went pro, this is almost certainly deliberate. And this is to say nothing of how "mannish" Laurence's canon lover behaves—smoking, drinking, playing cards, fighting, commanding, walking "like a man", showing no shyness with regards to sexuality...
- The homoeroticism between Laurence and Temeraire. Case in point: Laurence calls Temeraire "my dear" and cuddles him a lot, as well as mentioning how he can't see how any dragon captain could marry and divide their affections between dragon and spouse. Also Temeraire going through puberty and Laurence touching the wrong part of Temeraire.
- In fact "my dear" is perfectly acceptable address between close male friends of the same species during the Regency without homosexual implications. Compare Aubrey and Maturin.
- Yes, it's true, Temeraire could not possibly have any connection to Aubrey/Maturin slash...
- Well, the Laurence/Temeraire undertone is more like Interspecies Romance than Ho Yay. If it weren't for Temeraire being a dragon, there would be absolutely no question that the series was a romance story between the two...
- On that note, during of Throne of Jade, Temeraire hears a myth in which a human turns into a dragon and wistfully considers the idea of either turning himself human or Laurence draconic.
- I would move that it is, in fact, used as a term of endearment, as a father to a son, which in context makes perfect sense.
- In Spite Of A Nail: Having dragons for the entirety of recorded history hasn't actually changed that much. At least in Eurasia; in Africa and the Americas, the differences from actual history seem considerably larger — for example, the Incas were a strong civilization as of the 1800s, having forced Pizzaro out.
- Interservice Rivalry: As an extension of society in general, the other branches of the British military aren't terribly supportive of the aerial corps. Understandably, the Corps responds by bristling back. The Navy and the Corps in particular seem to share a fair bit of enmity, which makes things rather awkward for Laurence at first.
- Its Raining Men: At the climax of the first book, Napoleon attempts to bypass the British blockade by constructing dragon-carried troop transports while decoying much of the Aerial Corps to Spain. It would have succeeded were it not for Temeraire's breath weapon kicking in.
- In the third book, Napoleon and/or the banished Celestial Lien, who apparently has a spot on his General Staff adapt a form of Chinese mass transit (dragon harnesses with lots of straps for carrying large numbers of passagers) to gain vast mobility advantages during his invasion of Prussia.
- Lady Of War: Plus Eternal Sexual Freedom plus Good Bad Girl plus Action Mom equals Roland. Her awesome cannot otherwise be summed up.
- Lawful Stupid / Stupid Good: Laurence's actions at the end of Empire Of Ivory. This is made quite clear when Admiral Roland tells him in Victory Of Eagles a simple thing he could have done other than being a stiff-necked idiot, which would have had the desired effect of saving the Continental dragons without getting himself branded as a traitor.
- The Libby: Miss Montagu is a sort of proto-Libby. She ignores Laurence, almost to the point of rudeness, in his parents' own house, entirely because he was an aviator, and later also makes a point of telling him his ex-sorta-fiancee had gotten married while he was fighting for England.
- Living Ship: Ships-of-the-line rather than spaceships in this case, but the principle is the same. One of the earliest touching moments is when Laurence compares Temeraire's vocalized fondness for him to what he imagines it would feel like if his old ship had said she liked him for her captain.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: The Celestials' "divine wind".
- Mama Bear: Averted. Certainly those cadets' mothers who are also aviators care for them, and will protect them from unfairness, but they tend to be a bit more practical, seeing as how their children are going to go in hard service, and think it's best if said children take knocks so long as said knocks are earned.
- The Manette: Take The Ladette and mature her — not just physically but mentally and emotionally — and you have, in many ways, Captain Roland.
- Married To The Job: Most aviator captains. It's explicitly pointed out that it's hard to fight with a dragon for your spouse's affections.
- Military Maverick: Temeraire. And how. See Victory of Eagles.
- No Mr Bond I Expect You To Dine: This being the Napoleonic wars, found often, but especially prevalent towards of the end of Empire Of Ivory.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Used by several characters in Throne of Jade.
- Officer And A Gentleman: Laurence, most notably, but implied to be expected of Navy officers. Not so much aviators, though out of respect for him his crew starts imitating his more formal habits.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are divided into many breeds, a few of which have special abilities, including fire-breathing, a sonic attack, the ability to vomit copious amounts of water, and spitting venom so potent it's effectively acid and can affect nonliving and inorganic materials. Most breeds are without these abilities, and fire-breathing breeds in particular are highly prized for obvious reasons. In the West, all dragons are property/soldiers in their country's military and form an Aerial Corps, though in France under Napoleon's leadership they are treated somewhat better than Britain or Austria. They function rather like airborne ships, as each dragon has its own crew, including riflemen and bombers. The latter make even those breeds without any special capabilities a force to be reckoned with in war. Each dragon also has a captain with whom he or she shares a special bond. And that's not even getting into the complex air-bladder-related biological handwave inserted as an extra at the end of the first book to explain how they fly in the first place.
- Pepper Sneeze: Used as a weapon against dragons.
- Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits: The odds and sods in the Breeding Grounds Temeraire gets exiled to are not exactly prime military sorts by any real measure. The only two that may have ever been was a Parnassian that 'mislaid' his captain and a Longwing that remembers Queen Elizabeth's time.
- Shout Out: In Throne of Jade, it is explained that the Chinese aerial corps is composed entirely of women. This has its basis in a legend of one girl who sneaked away from home, partnered with a dragon, and won a great battle that saved China, and as a result the Emperor issued an edict announcing that girls were allowed to serve in the corps. The references to the legend of Hua Mulan are obvious.
- As are, no doubt, the references to the Amazons of ancient Greek legend, who - of course - were supposed to live in China.
- Stalker With A Crush: Iskierka towards Temeraire... much to his annoyance.
- Stalker With A Test Tube: Iskierka wants Temeraire for his genes.
- Tomboy/Plucky Middie: Emily Roland. She takes after her mom.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Volly and cows.
- Trauma Conga Line: Laurence in Victory Of Eagles. When getting exiled to Australia is arguably the best thing to happen to you in the story, things have not gone well.
- The Un Favorite: Laurence's father does not approve of his son's new career choice, even though Laurence doesn't exactly have a choice in the matter (not that he approved much more of Laurence as a Navy captain). Unusually, Laurence spends almost no time angsting about this; he's more prone to sigh and try to find a way to avoid his father's ire where possible. What his father thinks of Laurence's becoming an adopted son of the Emperor of China as a measure of keeping Temeraire in British hands...
- Lord Allandale does mellow a little by book four, but then we get the whole Treason thing....
- The Un Fettered: Tharkay.
- Unusual Euphemism: Since it takes place in the Napoleonic era from the perspective of a British officer and gentleman (see above), whenever something impolite occurs we are generally treated to Laurence's appalled, embarrassed, or indignant reaction (justified or not). This results in such well-hidden gems as a masturbation joke involving a dragon.
- Wham Episode: The end of Empire Of Ivory probably counts.
- What If: Effectively, "What if the Napoleonic wars were fought with dragons!".
- Also, what if Nelson survived the Battle of Trafalgar? Not that major but still cool to see the guy, for this troper anyway.
- What Measure Is A Non Human: In most of Europe, dragons are considered (by non-riders) talking beasts of burden. In many other lands—including, eventually, France—they're considered the same as (if not better than) humans. Possibly an extended Take That towards the time period's European attitudes towards anything that wasn't strictly European.
- What The Hell Hero: Roland's short, but sharp verbal smackdown of Laurence in Victory of Eagles regarding his actions at the end of Empire of Ivory.
- Note that she was not upset over his treason (although the note he left was a bit of an embarassment) so much as his quite literally suicidal lack of subtlety and discretion.
- The Woobie: Levitas; arguably Laurence himself in Victory of Eagles
- Wooden Ships And Iron Men: Or rather, "Scaled Dragons and Iron Men".
- X Meets Y: Horatio Hornblower meets Pern, among others.
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