But I did get an advance copy of the upcoming Victory of Eagles for my birthday, and have been finally resolving the Cliffhanger of Doom that Empire of Ivory left us on. And I can honestly say that while I love all the Temeraire books, my favorite was the first. But without spoiling anything this one recaptures all the things I loved from His Majesty's Dragon; I find myself just grinning in some chapters. I stayed up rather too late last night reading the first half, and fully intend to finish it off tonight. Things are coming to a head in this book, and it looks like all our plot threads will finally be tied up.
I have a feeling I need to finish it off quickly anyway, because several folks will want to borrow it. I'll have to buy the normal edition anyway in July, since I want to make sure my set still matches. As I'm a dork. (But actually the ARC doesn't fit on the shelf where the rest of the Temeraire books live, so this is a practical concern anyway!)