Dragons are the Answer
I honestly wanted everything to go back to normal after the election. I'm a writer. All I want is peace of mind and freedom to tap away at my keyboard. But as the first month of the presidency has simultaneously turned into a sham, a dumpster fire, and a train wreck, and I'm faced with scary headlines every time I log onto social media, I've found myself unable to go on as before.
One thing I've found that gives me a small respite is Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, an alternate-history fantasy set during the Napoleonic era, where wars are fought with dragons.
I read her novel Uprooted last year and have to say it was one of my favorite fantasy/romance novels ever. It ranks with Cat Valente's Deathless and is the sort of novel I'd want to be writing if I were a brilliant genius with connections in the fantasy genre and time for years of research. So I decided to give His Majesty's Dragon a try even though it is a very different sort of book.
Listen when I tell you that dragons are the answer to all of your post-election ennui.
Captain Will Laurence is a member of the Royal Navy, but when a rare Chinese dragon captured from the French hatches aboard his ship and allows no one but him to harness it, he finds himself with no choice but to join the rugged Aerial Corps, where men and women live with one another and their dragons as outcasts from all other society. Few of the rules or social cues Laurence has been brought up to know exist here, and it is no place for a gentleman, but for Temeraire, perhaps, Laurence is willing to endure it.
In the Temeraire series, you will find both aerial and seafaring adventure written in a high style, combined with Jane Austen-style dialogue, descriptions of food to make any hobbit jealous, and of course, lots of English tea-drinking. Novik has invented a refreshing, draconic version of history with her own style of dragon warfare, but it is the bits of gentle humor, likable characters, and lengthy-quest aspects of the second and third novel that make these books so palatable. Captain Will Laurence and his intelligent, talking dragon share a Black Beauty meets Shiloh sort of connection that is approached with good humor and affection, and still manages to raise questions about the ethics of both human-animal and master-servant relationships.
I'm not saying that a fantasy series is going to help you fight fascism (or is it?), but when you need a break be sure to log out of twitter, make some tea and biscuits, and settle into this book.
