2021 fantasy romance. In Regency society, the essential accessory
for every young lady is a dragon to sit on her shoulder. But Elinor
Tregarth is still a poor relation…
After Good Neighbours, and considering the clear influence of
Heyer, I was expecting something of a comfort read; but this isn't
just that. There is a romance and a happy ending, but it's all
profoundly fraught until then, with Elinor under pressure from
multiple sides to do various mutually impossible things. The advent of
magic does not make things even slightly less complicated.
As for the dragons, the ones we meet here are pretty much fantasy
shoulder cats with very occasional magic. That works, and at least
leaves them reasonably consistent.
There's not much depth to it but it's still an intriguing story, well
told.
- Posted by Jyrgen N at
10:45pm on
18 June 2024
Read on some vacation I think last year. I liked it as fresh take on Heyer-style romance, but don't remember the details. I got what I expected and a bit more. Intriguing indeed.
- Posted by David Pulver at
05:37am on
20 June 2024
I think there's at least four "regency, but with dragons" novels or series out now. It's becoming a subgenre!
- Posted by RogerBW at
10:04am on
20 June 2024
The only one I know offhand is Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which I think is more Napoleonic than Regency in emphasis; I'm afraid I don't get on with her writing style.
One thing that works quite well here is that it doesn't fall into the classic steampunk error or "lots of things are different, but society is exactly the same". Yes, dragons are fashionable, but there aren't very many of them, they're a recent discovery in South America, and they don't do anything special (at least as far as anyone knows). So the otherwise Regency society feels far more plausible than it might, because there just hasn't been that much time or pressure for divergence.
- Posted by David Pulver at
11:06pm on
24 June 2024
There's also The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, which seem to be a regency-inspired fantasy world, and Jane Austen’s Dragons series by Maria Grace. Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw has been referred to as both Regency Romance and Victorian in reviews (I haven’t read it), though I think the latter is perhaps the author's intent.
I enjoyed Naomi Novik's first couple of Temeraire books, but had trouble finishing the longer, later ones in the series, an issue shared with some of her other recent work like Scholomance.
- Posted by RogerBW at
09:02am on
25 June 2024
Oh, good point on the Brennan. I read volume 3 because someone was suggesting it should be Hugo-nominated, but it didn't grab me. Probably I should start from the beginning; that usually suits me better.
(Also she has good videos on how to fight in a dress.)
I don't really get on with Jo Walton's fiction and (to a first approximation) everyone whose opinion I respect does. Probably this is a flaw in me.
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