The prize then would become a deadweight, bringing to an end 'any semblance of ordinary life. A substantial prize, it puts Laurence - the Reliant's captain - and his officers - gentlemen and aspiring gentlemen - in a difficult position: One of them must become the creature's rider when it hatches. Reliant captures a French ship carrying a dragon egg that is primed to hatch.

In His Majesty's Dragon, Novik plunks her scaly beasts into the Napoleonic Wars, as members of the Aerial Corps, air cover for the beleaguered Royal Navy as it fends off a French invasion. So all hail Naomi Novik for seizing on an entirely different set of literary conventions for her fantasy debut - the dashing Brits-on-ships genre perfected by Patrick O'Brian. Certainly, no one needs any more fantastical medieval theme parks, full of dragons and swords and sorcerers all doing their bit to get the ring or crown the lost king or save the elf damsel or finish off whatever heroic quest their hack creator has set for them. Is there anything more to say about dragons? Stalwart presences in myth and fantasy, they've hoarded gold, incinerated villages, been slain by countless heroes and (sing it with me) 'frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.' After the enormous popularity of the teen wunderkind Christopher Paolini's 'Inheritance' series, even the subgenre of dragon-as-noble-steed seems as if it should be played out. By Reviewed Rachel Hartigan Shea June 25, 2006

Jade war trilogy