His Majesty's Dragon

I had already read the first third of this collection as a stand-alone novel, so this entry represents the second and third parts of the series.

Temeraire is the story of a dragon from which the series takes its name, and his captain, one Will Laurence. Will and his dragon serve the British crown during the Napoleonic wars, fighting first at Dover and then travelling to China, Turkey, and Prussia in an attempt to prevent Napoleon and his dragons from conquering the world.

This was a lot of fun! Very reminiscent of Patrick O'Brien's work, but with less focus on the mechanics of naval travel, and more focus on giant dragons. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Will and Temeraire; in the face of the journies and challenges they faced, it helped to keep the plot grounded and focused.

The one real downside to the series, IMO, is that in Europe, at least, the presence of dragons seems to have had little to no influence on society (or, from what I can tell, the progress of the war). That seems odd to me, and I think it would have been really interesting to see how the evolution of society would have changed if dragons were historical creatures.