Well, to make a point actually relevant to the discussion at hand, what I actually think Naomi Novik did was sort of the opposite of the same-character-with-serial-numbers-filed-off. At a glance, Laurence has Jack Aubrey's outward 'serial numbers' - personable young naval captain, well-liked by crew, good-ish family but somewhat awkward father figure, etc. - but during the evolution from fanfic to originalfic, became very distinctly his own character, with his own personality. Likewise, Temeraire's initial status as the alien newcomer to the naval world, traits like his bookishness and curiosity, and his total disregard for social propriety, definitely suggest to me that he started out as dragon!Maturin. But again, along the way, he stopped being Maturin and became Temeraire instead.
tl;dr, while there are definitely some fannish fossils hanging around Novik's story that allow for a degree of I see what you did there, by and large, she Did It Right.
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Date: 9 Feb 2010 04:45 am (UTC)tl;dr, while there are definitely some fannish fossils hanging around Novik's story that allow for a degree of I see what you did there, by and large, she Did It Right.