Age of Sail + Dragons = Coolness!

Finally got around to reading one of the books I brought home from Worldcon... and promptly went out and bought the next two books in the series, these being all that are out.  His Majesty's Dragon,   Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War  by Naomi Novik are extremely well written and researched novels of the Napoleonic Era, or at least what it might've been like with dragons added.  Sapient dragons, though the only place that really recognizes this officially is China who, as you might've guessed, were first to associate with them.  It's not my era of expertise, but the author certainly does seem to know her subject, and has managed the tricky job of giving both sides air power and still providing an air of reality to it all - yes it would affect their tactics, and yes it has.  The adventures of Captain Will Laurence and his black dragon Temeraire (why yes, the captain IS ex Navy... :) ) take them all over the globe,  (and fit the "somebody elsewhere having a really frightful time" description) and I look forward to finding out what happens to them  next.  The author even manages to avoid some of my pet overdescriptive annoyances; battles are described without drowning you in page after page of strategy and tactics, and when characters have sex they are refreshingly discreet about it. 

Highly Recommended.