Victory of Eagles

Being held pending trial for treason, Laurence and Temeraire are again separated. Temeraire is relegated to the breeding grounds where he is bored and irritated with the apathy of the other dragons. His attempts to convince them that they deserve more rights are initially unsuccessful, but when Laurence is reported lost at sea during Napoleon’s invasion of England, Temeraire flees the breeding grounds and takes all the other dragons with him. Using Temeraire’s knowledge of battle strategies and Chinese dragon culture, the wayward dragons organize themselves into their own army and take off across England to thwart Napoleon’s advance and avenge Laurence’s apparent death. While this book was a bit slow moving in places, it still advanced the plot. It did have me scratching my head and checking my history books with fictional events like Napoleon’s occupation of London. Novick weaves alternative history beautifully into the fantasy/historic fiction genre.