Well, I am well on my way to finishing 50 books. You know, when I first settled on the number, I thought it would be a lot of books, but it only comes out to about 20/year. That's not very many at all.

This book, as you can see, is called "Victory of Eagles" by Naomi Novik. It is the fifth book in the Temeraire series, a series I stumbled upon quite by accident.

The book is set during the Napoleonic Wars, but with a twist. The twist being that dragons are a regular part of the British and French armies. A sea captain, Will Laurence, captures a French transport in the first book, and part of the prize is an egg. A dragon's egg. He tries to return the egg to England prior to its hatching, but the dragon inside has other ideas and the egg hatches at sea.

Capt. Laurence, much to his chagrin, becomes the dragon's captain and joins Britain's aerial corps with the dragon, whom he has named Temeraire.

The series follows Laurence and Temeraire through their adventures together in a series which combines some historical accuracy regarding the Napoleonic Wars, some complete fantasy, and fairly good storytelling.

I do not think that Novik is one of the better storytellers I have read, but she does weave an engaging yarn. Yes, I just said that. Anyway, it was a pretty decent book, and seeing as how I only checked it out from the library yesterday afternoon, a quick read.

If you enjoy fantasy novels, and especially if you enjoy historical urban fantasy (a genre I just created this very moment), then the Temeraire series is not a bad next stop.

As for me, I only have 48 more new books to read. Yay!