And, indeed, I’d definitely recommend this series to an older fan of the How to Train Your Dragon books or movies who wants some slightly older dragon-themed literature. There are more dragons here than there is fighting. Throne of Jade reminds me of How to Train Your Dragon. And then we finally get to China, and more politics and even some drama ensues. It’s alternatively charming and boring and hilarious. So there are storms and sea serpents, dinners and parties, and Temerair shows that he knows how to swim. Oh, and the presence of a Chinese delegation certainly doesn’t help anything. This is one of the longest journeys undertaken by a transport, so there is considerable time for tension between the navy men and Laurence’s aviators (including the scandalously female Roland). Rather than handwave an eight month journey, Novik chooses to examine the unique situation of our protagonists. So Laurence and Temeraire set off via dragon transport, the least stylish way to travel. Despite dragons being a thing, there is no magically faster method of travelling to China. Novik remains committed to a certain level of realism.

That was true for the first book, and it is no less true for Throne of Jade, even though most of this book is spent on a tedious journey around Africa to China.

Novik ends her chapters abruptly, not always on cliffhangers but often enough in ways that make you want to keep reading, even when you know you should be going to bed, or doing something more … er … productive. Even though it isn’t perfect, it is compelling. Sure enough, I flew through this in about a day. I chose to read this book now because I wanted a quick read. Whereas His Majesty’s Dragon features plenty of aerial battles and dragon-fights, Throne of Jade is more about the political fallout of William Laurence captaining a Chinese Celestial dragon for the British.

Naomi Novik provides little in the way of backstory or exposition here, but any reader paying attention will quickly clue into the fact that his is an alternative history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. It’s not that you will be lost so much as bored. If you haven’t read His Majesty’s Dragon yet, then you have no business jumping into the series with the second book. Yes, I’ve downgraded it to a satisfactory three stars.

So it’s only fair I give it a review it deserves. Throne of Jade, however, has been lingering on my to-reread shelf for years, a somewhat hyperbolic five stars attached to it, no explanation. I didn’t post a new review of His Majesty’s Dragon, because I felt my original review said everything that needed to be said. I started re-reading the entire Temeraire series recently.

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik