I love the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik, involving dragons and set in the Napoleonic wars, which began with His Majesty's Dragon. In some ways this book is a departure from the last few books, which were something of a travelogue. The second book took us to China, the third to Turkey and Germany, the fourth to Africa. Now Laurence and Temeraire are back in Britain, and a lot of threads in the previous books begin to be tied up and pay off. Throughout the first books liberty and responsibility had been related themes. A lot of what sets this dragon series apart is that the dragons are not beasts, or simply pets--but fully sentient persons with different characters, intellects and taking us around the world we had seen different dragon/human relations. Now they're back home, and Laurence and Temeraire's personal liberty is at stake as well as that of the dragons. For once a lot of the book is from Temeraire's own point of view, and that's a lot of its appeal--his musings are amusing, fresh and entirely his own. But I also like that a lot of consequences come home in this book instead of just being tidied up.
