Shelf Life: Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik

Genre: Alternate history adventure

The Pitch (series): In her Temeraire series, Naomi Novik envisions an alternate version of the Napoleonic Wars, with the added wrinkle of flying, sentient dragons who serve simultaneously as fighters and aircraft. William Lawrence, formerly a captain in the Royal Navy, is both pilot and beloved companion to the giant dragon Temeraire. Think “Master Monster and Commander.”

The Pitch (this book): In the series’ sixth outing, published July 13, Laurence and Temeraire begin their exile on the fledgling colony of Australia, where they deal with the original Captain Bligh, revolting colonists, a hostile wilderness, the surprising fate of three dragon eggs and evidence of a powerful nation working against England’s interests.

First line: “There were few streets in the main port of Sydney which deserved that name, besides the one main thoroughfare, and even that bare packed dirt, lined only with a handful of small and wretched buildings that formed all the permanence of the colony.”

Geek factor: Sky-high, but as much for military-history obsessives as the Dungeons and Dragons crowd.