Victory of Eagles
Book Jacket
Temeraire [5]
Naomi Novik’s triumphant debut, His Majesty’s Dragon, introduced a dynamic new pair of heroes to the annals of fantasy fiction: the noble fighting dragon Temeraire and his master and commander, Capt. Will Laurence, who serves Britain’s peerless Aerial Corps in the thick of the raging Napoleonic Wars. Now, in the latest novel of this dazzling series, they soar to new heights of breathtaking action and brilliant imagination.It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service–and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon’s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon’s prime objective: the occupation of London.Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon’s forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon’s foothold on England’s shores can become a stranglehold. If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain’s scattered forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before–for king and country, and for their own liberty. But can the French aggressors be well and truly routed, or will a treacherous alliance deliver Britain into the hands of her would-be conquerors?
Acknowledgments
So many, many thanks to my fabulous beta readers for this one: Sara Booth, Francesca Coppa, Alison
Feeney, and especially Georgina Paterson. I also have to say a big thank-you to my copy editor Laura
Jorstad for all her hard work, and especially for the lovely, lovely timeline, which was ever so much more
splendid than my sad Excel worksheet.
Special thanks to my agent, Cynthia Manson, and to my very patient editor, Betsy Mitchell, who did not
heap too many coals of fire on my head as the deadlines crept quietly away from me. (They do this in the
night. Tricky creatures, deadlines.) And to my sister, Sonia, who put me up when (on more than one
occasion) I had to flee the dangerous temptations of my home Internet connection and shiny desktop in
order to get the book over the finish line in the last nick of time.
I also want to take advantage of my little soapbox here this time to say a special thanks to the whole fan
community. I’ve been participating in this community and writing fan fiction since my teens, and I
wouldn’t be anywhere near here without that experience and all the incredible people I’ve met thereby.
I’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of different beta readers, and serving as one myself for
many fellow writers, and I’ve learned tremendously from each and every one. Though I can’t thank them
individually and knew most of them only by their online names, I still want to say a heartfelt thank you to
them all, and to all the amazing volunteers that I’ve been working with this last year on the Organization
for Transformative Works.
And last and first, all my gratitude and love to Charles, my very best reader, whom I trust and who trusts
me with the priceless gift of honest critique, and the even better gift of happiness.
His Majesty’s Dragon
Throne of Jade
Black Powder War
Empire of Ivory
Victory of Eagles
Page 1
About the Author
NAOMINOVIKis the acclaimed author of
His Majesty’s Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder
War,
and
Empire of Ivory,
the first four volumes of the Temeraire series, recently optioned by Peter
Jackson, the Academy Award–winning director of the
Lord of the Rings
trilogy. A history buff with a
particular interest in the Napoleonic era, Novik studied English literature at Brown University, then did
graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and
development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide. Novik lives in New