Author Spotlight: Naomi Novik

Artists in general are people that have toiled and toiled and have never tasted any sort of monetary success. Passion fuels them and they will live on 'ends meet' for a long time (find one at your local small art gallery). Occasionally there are some that will hit the big time after a long career in something else (Rowling). 

Novik doesn't fit in either of these groups. There aren't many people who get to do things they love at such an early age and be successful. Geeks all around the world would love to be on a design team for a computer game, let alone a geek's wet dream of Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide. 

However, Novik decided that she liked writing more than game designing so she left.

Now this would be a huge risk for anyone. You have a stable well paid job and stop that to toil away at the market of writing. Not just any kind of writing, but fantasy writing. A market that is really under read if you look at what's at the top 10 box office each year and how big the comic book market is. 

It didn't take Novik long to make a splash in the pool though. In 2006 her first book was published called 'His Majesty's Dragon'. This book is the first of the Temeraire series, which is set in an alternate world during the Napoleon war. Dragons are there to mimic aerial attack (think world war 1). In the UK, the book was published as 'Temeraire'.

The book was a huge hit with readers but if that wasn't enough, Peter Jackson (Director of Lord of the Ring Trilogy, The Frightners) also acquired the option for the Temeraire books! In 2008 her fifth book called 'Victory of Eagles' was published to much acclaim and was included in Amazon's 2008 top 10 Sci-fi/Fantasy books of the year.

I personally have liked the Temeraire books, they are fun and entertaining. I would eventually like to read works from her outside of the Temeraire series but at the moment I am content.