It does not seem fair, because it was I who found the necklace, after all

[sovay]

The guinea drops: Naomi Novik's Temeraire is not an Aubrey-and-Maturin, but a Regency romance.

This revelation brought to you courtesy of Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian (1940) and a low-grade fever. I am sure everyone else has already noticed. I'm going back to bed.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I suppose it is, at that.

I hope your fever goes away quickly, and that you're feeling much better soon.

[sovay]

I hope your fever goes away quickly, and that you're feeling much better soon.

Thank you. No, it turned into a full-blown cold, but maybe that will go away quickly. I can hope.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thank you. No, it turned into a full-blown cold, but maybe that will go away quickly. I can hope.

Most welcome.

I'm sorry it went that way, and I hope the cold goes away quickly.

I'm not sure myself if I have a cold or if it's only allergies. I'm hoping for the latter, but we'll see.

[rosefox]

Dragons == women is much more obvious in the later books. I still like them, but you know, I'd like them more if there were also more women being women, or at least some suffragette meeting Temeraire and saying explicitly "Oh! Dragons and women have it much the same!".

[sovay]

Dragons == women is much more obvious in the later books.

(I have read all the books that currently exist; I just synecdochized them to save time. That may have been unclear.)

I'd like them more if there were also more women being women

How do you feel about characters like Jane and Emily Roland, or Catherine Harcourt? Or do they not count because they are women within the Corps and therefore not bound by historical rules of society (no stigma attached to children out of wedlock, girls preferred to boys, etc.)?

Or female dragons, like Iskierka?

[rosefox]

I like them all, but there are very few of them--I didn't say "any women being women", but "more women being women"--and they do seem to get a free pass on common womanly problems of the era.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

So you'd read Temeraire before and are now reading The Corinthian?

I've only read the first Temeraire book, and it made me restless. I could see too much coming, things seemed *placed* to happen. Others tell me the later books are more satisfying. So, judging by what Rosefox says, and what you're saying, the relationship between the dragons and the people is more romance than friendship?

I guess one day I'll really need to read, or at least dip into, a Georgette Heyer.

[sovay]

So you'd read Temeraire before and are now reading The Corinthian?

I have read up through Victory of Eagles in Naomi Novik; my only experience of Regency romances had been Heyer's Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (1957)—which I love very much, but which is more a satire of Gothic novels and their readers, I think, than a classic Regency screwball. The Corinthian is very classic and it's wonderful. And the voice of the character Pen Creed, a seventeen-year-old heiress in boy's clothing who frankly does not see the point of most of the social rituals she is supposed to observe, suddenly sounded like Temeraire to me.

I've only read the first Temeraire book, and it made me restless. I could see too much coming, things seemed *placed* to happen. Others tell me the later books are more satisfying.

The third (Black Powder War) introduces a character I am very fond of, and I think the fourth (Empire of Ivory) is genuinely different. I would recommend seeing how you feel after Throne of Jade and proceeding, if desired, from there.

So, judging by what Rosefox says, and what you're saying, the relationship between the dragons and the people is more romance than friendship?

The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire uses the language and patterning of a Regency romance; it fills the same shape of space. The same does not hold true for all human-dragon pairings (some for reasons that I will discuss if you read the books or do not care about spoilers), but the majority are conducted like arranged marriages, with the obvious caveat that they are platonic and not viewed even in the light of romance; they are matters of practical compatibility and benefit.

I guess one day I'll really need to read, or at least dip into, a Georgette Heyer.

I can recommend the two I've read with flying colors!

Sometimes the dreams are worth the sickness and sometimes...

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Sick as well. Had interesting dreams about evil creaks in an old house (evil creeks would have been better) a wanking ghost (?!) who turned into something like an elongated cello, a weeping beech, a wooden sword and a very compelling young heroine who made the sword to kill demons.

[sovay]

Had interesting dreams about evil creaks in an old house (evil creeks would have been better) a wanking ghost (?!) who turned into something like an elongated cello, a weeping beech, a wooden sword and a very compelling young heroine who made the sword to kill demons.

I dreamed that I was bleeding from the ears and waking up on an empty branch of the Green Line that does not exist; previously there had been storms. You win. Also, that sounds like a story of Sylfie. You should write it.

I know there's no such thing as ghosts, but I have seen the demon host.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I think I shall write it someday. I need to put together some notes of all the things on queue.

waking up on an empty branch of the Green Line that does not exist

That's kind of cool, except, yeah, green line. It's like the Hydra.

That reminds me - there was a rhyming alphabet monster primer in the dream as well.

A is for Annis, heating her pot.
B is for Basilisk, whose touch makes you rot.
C is for Cockatrice, whose glance makes you stone.
D is for Dagon, who sees Cthulhu alone...

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

You know, I will be lynched for saying this, lynched, but I thought the first one was just fan fiction with the serial numbers filed down.

[sovay]

You know, I will be lynched for saying this, lynched, but I thought the first one was just fan fiction with the serial numbers filed down.

Considering that I have heard people prefer her fanfiction to her published work, I do not think you will be lynched.

[rosefox]

Why would you be lynched for that? It is.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Well, because it's a quite successful series, and some might see the statement, true as I find it, to be some sort of strange aspersion on her talent, which it absolutely isn't. I just live with a low-grade Jewish paranoia at constant hum.

[rosefox]

Given that she founded the Organization for Transformative Works and probably has more fans as astolat than as naominovik, I don't think she'd be insulted. *)