Victory of Eagles is the Temeraire novel that many have been waiting for: it's packed from start to finish with Napoleonic warfare augmented with flying dragons. Its blood-soaked pages are filled with plenty of combat culminating in a truly epic last act. Woven throughout is Temeraire and Lawrence's intriguing relationship, but also the advancement of our understanding of dragon culture and society. This is alternate-history worldbuilding at its finest.

On the downside, it's a depressing novel compared to the buddy adventures in the preceding stories. Lawrence's narration is filtered through the culture of an Age of Sail Captain, with its strange notions of social rules and honour. Since he is depressed, so too are many of the pages of Victory of Eagles. To balance this, Temeraire is given a direct POV, and those pages really elevate this novel beyond another Hornblower-clone. The dragon is clever and naive, but not childish. It's a joy to read.

Highly Recommended.