Thanks to the thousand of years of domestication, dragons have come to be useful as fighting forces around the globe. England's own aviators can outfly any other nation, but Napoleon's dragons outnumber theirs two to one. So Cap. Will Laurence is pleased when his ship captures a French frigate and its precious cargo. a dragon egg... until the black hatchling unexpectedly chooses to bond with him. As master of the noble dragon he names Temeraire, Laurence must leave his beloved navy and report for training in the remote coverts of the Aerial Corps. Together, the pair will undergo a crash course in the darig tactics of airborne battle until, as Bonaparte's own dragon forces rally to breach British lines, Laurence and Temeraire soar into their baptism of fire.