I’ve asked the same question in r/suggestmeabook. But I only get Space Ship books in the answers.
Can anyone suggest books that are NOT sentient space ships?
I mentioned Robot Dragon because I also want something similar to The Iron Dragon’s Daughter series. But it’s just an example.
Temeraire is about a naval captain and his dragon, giving both pretty amply screen time and development.
It’s Aubrey-Maturin with the serial numbers filed off (but the same amount of Napoleon, thankfully), so it’s more comfort fiction than genre-breaking scifi, but it’s still worth a read.