“Send up another, damn you, send them all up, at once if you have to,” Laurence said savagely to poor Calloway, who did not deserve to be sworn at: the gunner was firing off the flares so quickly his hands were scorched black, skin cracking and peeling to bright red where some power had spilled onto his fingers; he was not stopping to wipe them clean before setting each flare to the match.

Dragons and the Napoleonic wars. What could possibly be better? Well, I suppose there really isn’t too much of the Napoleonic wars in this book. Laurence and Temeraire are back from their trip to China, but they had returned to a plague. The dragons of Britain are ill; some are dead and more are dying. So off they head to maybe track down a cure. And of course they get embroiled in plenty of adventures along the way.

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