EMPIRE OF IVORY, by Naomi Novik

4/series. Dragon Temeraire and his captain Will Lawrence return to England to find dragons dying from a mysterious virus. Bonaparte's dragons grow daily more aggressive as they lay the groundwork for an invasion by France's victorious armies. But Temeraire, exposed to the virus, does not succumb. Why? A race to darkest Africa for a possible cure pits Lawrence and his dragon against ferals both dragon-kind and humans. In a tense and moving finale, both dragon and man sacrifice themselves for the good of the dragons. Novik just keeps gettiing better and better. One of the great pleasures of these books is that the emotional challenges are so very well drawn. And she has really done her historical homework, right down to the personalities of the age. Another 5.