Temeraire; or, Napoleonic-era naval ranks and weapons

Warning: may contain spoilers (but probably only small ones)

My thoughts on these subjects, in slightly more detail; but I'm writing from memory here, and I'll need to check the book to confirm some of this.

On rank, Naomi Novik seems to have made two mistakes. The first is having no rank between Lieutenant and post-Captain. Now, I do not think that the modern naval rank structure (with, I think, Lieutenant-Commander and Commander) necessarily applied two hundred years ago. However, I did think that not every (ship) captain necessarily had the exalted rank of (post) captain.

On weapons, she has her dragon-borne "men at arms" armed with rifles. Rifles were *very* new in those days, and I wonder if such new technology would have been adopted by the air force so quickly. Secondly, rifles then were very slow to load and fire; even if some were armed with rifles, it would make sense to also have some armed with the quicker, if less accurate, muskets.

Of course, there's nothing to say that her fictional world is just like the Real World, with added dragons; but these points do have the feel fo mistakes, rather than deliberate changes.

Comments from those better-versed in such matters would be welcome!

And while talking about the book - the blurb is so horrible as to make us suspect that it was written from an earlier draft of the book.

A meme

This one from didiusjulianus

Dork Spectrum: Where Do You Fall Inconspicuous Dork- (Moderate Abnormality)- This rank of Dorkiness is a combination of a playful spirit with an ignorant social perspective. The Inconspicuous Dork is awkward in all or some of the following; posture, physical movement, gestures, facial expression. They also may display some deficit in the area of appropriate humor and social communication interactions. Their humor is seldom appropriate or understandable to anyone other than themselves. The main distinction between an Inconspicuous Dork and a Full-on Dork lies primarily in the awareness and effort of the alleged Dork. If awareness and effort are low but result in the same awkward actions and comments this is endearing and often considered “Quirky”. On the other hand, if there is a considerable amount of effort put forth to formulate related humor or obviously rehearsed actions that are not well received, this increased effort and somewhat evident awareness of awkward actions can be classified as “Annoying”. Anyone who is annoying has reached the gateway to Full-o

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