Laurence orders every officer aboard to prepare to make the attempt, but the dragonet, unusual with all-black hide and six spines on his wings, chooses Laurence, who names him Temeraire, after a second-rate itself named for a French ship likewise brought into service of Britain.

Unfortunately, the egg is near hatching, and in order to bring the resulting dragonet into service with Britain's Aerial Corps, it must accept harness and a handler as soon as possible. Laurence and the crew of the Reliant find an unhatched dragon-egg on board and declare it a prize captured from the French. In the winter of 1804 ('the year four' as the characters call it) or thereabouts, during the War of the Third Coalition, HMS Reliant under Captain William Laurence seizes the French Amitie, a 36-gun frigate. It won the 2007 Compton Crook Award for best novel in the science fiction/fantasy genre during 2006 by a first-time author.

The first book of the series tells how Laurence, formerly a Captain in the Royal Navy, becomes Temeraire's handler, and of their early training in preparation for battles against Napoleon's aerial fleet. The series centers primarily on events involving Temeraire (the titular dragon) and his handler, Will Laurence. The dragons of the story are portrayed as sapient and intelligent, capable of logical thought and human speech. The story is set during an alternate-history version of the Napoleonic Wars, in which dragons not only exist but are used as a staple of aerial warfare in Asia and Europe. His Majesty's Dragon, published in the UK as Temeraire, is the first novel in the Temeraire alternate history/ fantasy series by American author Naomi Novik.

His majesty's dragon