Black Powder War, the third book of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series was released earlier this week. I will certainly be picking it up, as I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, His Majesty's Dragon, and am impressed so far with the second, Throne of Jade.

The books are fantasy/alternate-history set during the Napoleonic War. If you're familiar with Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, portions of which were adapted into the film Master and Commander, the setting is essentially the same (and the writing style is similar, if not quite as good). England, with its powerful navy, is trying to prevent Napoleon from invading the British Isles. The addition in these books is that both sides have an aerial corps comprised of various breeds of intelligent dragons, each bonded with a captain and complete with a crew harnessed about them acting as riflemen, bombardiers, and lookouts. Very few of the dragon breeds have any sort of breath attack, so the aerial combat is very similar to ship-to-ship combat with the dragons making passes at one another with teeth and talons while their human crews are firing upon and perhaps even boarding the enemy dragon.

Without giving too much of the story away, the series focuses on a naval captain that bonds with a dragon born on his ship from an egg captured during an engagement with a French frigate. As the dragon bond is non-transferrable, the captain leaves the Navy for a life in the Aerial Corps. The dragon's breed is one relatively unknown in the West, and many hijinx ensue. The focus is on the relationship formed between the dragon and his captain and life in the Aerial Corps, but there is a decent amount of action and intrigue as well.

These are Novik's first novels, though previously she worked as a writer (lead writer, I believe) on the Shadows of Undrentide expansion for the D&D CRPG Neverwinter Nights.

That sounds pretty cool. Lately I've been liking the grittier fantasy novels, like the GRR Martin books, as they feel a little more real and immediate than the books that are based in a world that is totally fantastic.

Not that they are "realistic", just that they feel more real.

I'll have to pick these up soon, just after I finish my current book, called Wraiththu.

The only problem is that I hate hate hate getting into a series and then having to wait for the next book is finished. I don't know how many series I am in the middle of right now, just waiting for the next one to come out, but at least more than two (Harry Potter, GRR Martin, Eragon, and others!)

I understand what you're saying about the immediacy of the more 'historic' settings. I also appreciate that about Westeros, though while it is remaining gritty, it seems to becoming more magical as the books go on. I'm not sure I like the change so much, one of the many reasons I prefer GRRM's books to, for example, the Wheel of Time series is that the characters aren't throwing spells at one another constantly.

I'm also with you on the series frustration. One thing nice about these books (so far, at least -- I've got about 50pp left of Throne of Jade) is that since they're set against a historical backdrop, there's no grand plot to save the world that marches incrementally closer with each episode. While there's character progression between the novels, the first two feel like independent stories rather than simply hooks to get you to buy the next book.