Wow, Rankin. Last time Laurence saw him he had a lap full of dying Levitas, right? And then got his next posting (i.e. dragon) snaked out from him on Laurence's word? That one's gonna be... interesting, to say the least. Temeraire is older and wiser now--wonder what that perspective is going to do for him, meeting this old nightmare of a captain?

I actually kind of hope Tharkay doesn't get a dragon; he's very particular about independence and self-sufficiency and when you're looking after a dragon, at some point one is going to have to make some apologies for transgressions against livestock. Also Temeraire would be very distractingly jealous that his captain's had another boyfriend traveling buddy yanked into a strange dragon's crew.

Personally, I'm hoping for a little more Demane and Sipho. Those guys have had a really odd time of it so far, yet we haven't heard hardly anything of them since they first came on board.