I have read a lot of books about dragons- see my entire "dragon books" goodreads shelf- but this one has some delightful elements I've never read before. It begins with an English's Navy ship's capture of a French vessel during the Napoleonic Wars. Captain William Laurence is at first delighted when he learns that the captured ship was carrying a prized dragon egg; then he is dismayed, when he learns how near it is to hatching. To be considered "tame" a dragon must be named and harnessed by a human before it's first feeding; the human who does this will be paired with the dragon for life, and during war-time serve in the Air Corp of his majesty's army. Laurence has no desire to upend his successful Navy life for an entirely new (and less respected) branch of the military- but he is the one chosen by the dragonet, who he names Temeraire. This is the beginning of a growing friendship, a coming of age, and a deepening education for them both. They are eventually assigned to re-training at a distant Scottish dragon covet. I loved the scenes of their practices and maneuvers, and the fact that a military dragon in this world is staffed by an entire crew. Aside from the captain, each dragon has a signal-flagger, a medic, bombers, gunmen, runners, a team of harnessers and more. These dragon fights are more like high-speed tall-ship battles in the air than like two eagles clawing at each other. Well researched and very engaging, with the emotional relationship of humans and dragons at it's heart. Laurence would not have chosen Temeraire, but once Temeraire has chosen him, his life is changed forever.

I need to say up top that my review of this book is biased, because I am one of the contributors. Regardless- this book is FANTASTIC. Each story plays with the premise of a world in which faster than light speed engines exist, and can be built at a relatively low cost by a layperson. Many of the stories feature queer or POC characters. Some include contact with alien life- others with colonization, scientific exploration, families, separation and reunion, depression, joy- it's a rich feast. I can't even pick out favorites, because all of the stories were so strong!

This book is a BLATANT self-insert 1D fanfiction turned into a novel, and you know I eat that shit up with a spoon. The main character is Rose Reed, a 26 year old assistant at a PR firm in New York. The chance of a lifetime lands in her lap when she is asked to sit in on a PR strategy meeting for Archie Fox (cough*Harry Styles*cough) a former youtube singer-star who has developed a mega following of teenage girls. Unfortunately, his latest album wasn't a hit and his manager is worried his next one won't be either without some major help. Rose proposes a winning strategy- a manufactured romance with up and coming pop darling Raya. Archie accepted this plan with one condition- Rose must be his contact and head of the project at the PR firm. How much romance can Rose invent without getting caught up in it herself? Will her lesbian best friend be able to contain her feels when the opportunity comes to plan outfits for Archie/Harry? Will Rose's growing crush ruin everything and cost her her job? You can probably guess the answers to all of these questions yourself, but if you don't a bit of predictability, there's plenty to enjoy in this celebrity whirlwind romance.

Maia Drazhar is the youngest son of the Emperor of the Elflands, relegated to distant country estate after the death of his mother, a Goblin princess. Spurred for his dark skin and yellow eyes, Maia's life is barren and full of suffering. Not long after his 18th birthday he is rudely awakened in the middle of the night with a bewildering message: his father and older brothers have all died in an airship crash; he is summoned to the capital, and must serve as the next Emperor. And so begins a second kind of exile, in the hostile territory of the royal court. His ministers and kin attempt to curry favor to his face, while plotting behind his back. Maia must do the best he can to learn the skills he needs for a job he was never intended to hold. He begins to build tentative alliances and fragile friendships, but all are threatened by a new realization: the death of his father was not an accident, but a murder.

I listened to this story as an audio book and I absolutely adored it; my one trouble with it was that it is packed with fantasy names, and it was at times hard to remember who was who. I ended up keeping a little list on which I wrote down every new character who was introduced. I think I would have had an easier time with the names if I had been reading in it print, but at times my confusion seemed appropriate, as Maia himself was often overcome by the amount of names and faces he had to learn and remember.

This book didn't leave a very strong impression on me. It begins with four women, who are never named, entering the mysterious region named Area X as part of the twelfth mission to try and uncover some of its secrets. The main character's husband had died as a result of his part in the previous mission, partially motivating her own participation. This rare reversal of the Women in Refrigerators trope was one of the things I found engaging about the story. Unfortunately, the eerie body horror aspect suffered in comparison with the similar but more interesting virus in the first volume of The Expanse, and the fungal zombies in The Girl With All The Gifts. The theme of a bizarre world slowly expanding its territory into our own reminded me of the pocket universes and alternate dimension intrusions of Kelly Link's short story "Light" from her collection Get In Trouble and John Chu's short story "Repairing the World" (which LeVar Burton performed in episode 13 of LeVar Burton Reads). Except that each of those stories made me fall in love with their characters, something this book failed to do. Essentially, this book felt like several good ideas mashed together but left half-baked. At only 185 pages, it felt too short to be a properly satisfying novel. I was left wondering why it had not been combined with the second volume, which came out a mere three months later.

This second volume of the Temeraire series when down just as easily as the first. England is still battling the French, and dragons are desperately needed for the war- but an envoy from China, no less a person than the Emperor's own brother, has arrived in England demanding the return of their Celestial dragon. To avoid forced separation, Laurence and Temeraire must agree to the 8 month voyage to China, to negotiate with the Imperial family in person. The normal dangers of a sea voyage are heightened by attacks from unexpected quarters- two murder attempts, a wild sea serpent, rumors of ghosts and illness beset the crew. The last danger only rears its head once they have reached their destination: Laurence's fear that Temeraire will fall in love with his homeland and never want to return to Britain and the war.