Reviews

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

elizabethbunston's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

5.0

itsfreelancer's review against another edition

4.0

Here's what they don't tell you when you pick up the second of a series. It can go either way.

Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire are the darlings of England. They should be, since they made a total mess of Napoleon's dastardly plans.

Here's what you expect from a second book : more battles, strength of friendships, innocuous romance, nefarious schemes and dragon humour.

Here's what you get : a 400 page travelogue and pages upon pages of what people had for lunch or dinner.

I swore I cursed more than the illiterate seaman on a voyage that does nothing but tell you about the weather and how you're bored with the boring weather. There has been good moments. Some absolute gems aboard the ship fighting sea dragons and French frigates.

So here's the gist. Apparently our lovely dragon is a Chinese Celestial. That means it's only for the Chinese royalty and they want him back. Sans his rider. Yes, you can imagine the fury and consternation of our heroes. While Lawrence and Temeraire are absolutely fuming, the English government is shitting their pants in pleasing the Chinese for fear of their support to Napoleon. Bureaucratic bullshit.

So we have book 2, and 70 percent of it is hogwash. It's like a Famous Five book where they'll go to a picnic with people they don't like and the majority of the emphasis is on fooooooood. If you can get over that, the fun begins once you've reached Asia. Oh boy, Temeraire is in for a huge treat and a delightful shock. The pages flipped past, keeping me engrossed with every word and every snort, every swish of sword and the clank of the rifle.

Now for some personal input. And this really didn't click with me. Our Laurence has to bow and prostrate in front of Chinese Emperor as per their customs. This chagrins Laurence, along with the members of the East India Company stationed there. They felt it's insulting and they deserved more respect. Hah! I wonder why Laurence never thought how the East India Company was treating Indians when they invaded.
*end of personal musings*

This was a slow tale, albeit fun to read. I would have given this 3 and a half but I'm unabashedly in love with Temeraire.

I'm too invested now to stop. Onwards, to book 3

rcrikkit's review against another edition

4.0

Man, I love this series. As mentioned in other reviews, this book is slower, but I love the ideas and how it seems to be setting up the rest of the series. There's a lot of time spent traveling to places, but I didn't mind since I love details and the journey.

whosevita's review against another edition

3.0

I'm gonna be hones, I listened to the audiobook on 2x speed and for most of it my brain was just off. I really don't like politcal fantasy and this book was very much that. This book was mostly just court politics and them being on a boat to China. And to be honest, there are many characters in this book and I still don't know who's who. When people died, I did not care. I literally didn't remember who they were. Sometimes a little description would be nice. Especially at the beginning of the book. It's very ambitious that Novik thinks we remember all the characters by name only. Anyway, I really liked the friendship between Laurance and Temeraire as usual. It seems to me that this book will follow seperate plots per book with the overarching thread of the Napoleonic wars. I haven't decided yet if I want to continue. If I didn't have the audiobooks to my disposal I would have definitely already quit. It just isn't that interesting to me. Normally I read this stories mostly for the characters. Even though I really like Laurance and Temeraire, the rest of the characters leave me cold. There's also barely any real development. There was like a slight tension between them but it gets quickly resolved. Temeraire has loved Laurance unconditionally since the very beginning-like all dragons and their handlers- so there's no real development in their relationship. Laurance is just as perfect as always. He actually annoys me a bit lol.
Super disturbing that temeraire has dragon sex though. I know that's he's like matured in dragon years and stuff, but I still saw him as a child. But I guess it wil come back later? Maybe like a seperate arch that temeraire has a child? I would so not enjoy that lol.

nyom7's review against another edition

4.0

Slightly slow middle pacing but otherwise an interesting read. Managing to expand upon characters and concepts already portrayed while also introducing new ones. Definitely glad that they will be returning to England though as I do like the dragons and their captains in the Dover covert.

stephpalko's review

adventurous hopeful tense slow-paced

5.0

noranne's review against another edition

4.0

I was rather meh on the first book, but I am glad that I opted to continue because I enjoyed this one much better. It was a quick read with interesting themes on cultural relativism, self determination, and friction between friends/allies. Laurence is much more bearable in this book, and Temeraire continues to mature but is still pretty childish. The proposed solution seemed obvious to me from the start, but there were a couple unexpected wrinkles that kept it from being too predictable.

ekunes's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

winterscomin's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

fitzofinspiration's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0