Reviews tagging 'Death'

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

20 reviews

iaraya's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence

saltycoffee's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, War, Colonisation, Death, Gore, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death and Classism

Minor: Child death

studiomikarts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I enjoyed this book just as much as the previous one! In fact, it began so smoothly, following immediately the concluding events of the first book, that it didn't even feel like a separate thing. I'm not sure I've ever felt that way when reading other book series before, even my favorites like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. Some of the things that were especially well done in this volume included the tension at the beginning (enough to keep me reading, but not so much as to be annoying), all of the action scenes, Temeraire's amusing bloodthirstiness somehow harmoniously married to his deep compassion for other living things, and Lawrence's constant show of character flaws that miraculously do not make him any less likeable as a protagonist. Excited to get reading volume 3!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Animal death, and Death

Minor: War, Slavery, and Violence

bluejayreads's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed *His Majesty's Dragon* more than I expected to. I am not much for historical fiction, especially military historical fiction, even if it does have dragons, and I was delighted by how much I enjoyed the relationship between proper gentleman William Lawrence and smart but young dragon Temeraire. I had pretty high hopes for the second book.

*Throne of Jade*, though, was ... rough.

I love the ideas at play. It's fascinating to see how dragons - the massive variety, large enough to be ridden by a whole crew of men - fit into society in the early 1800s. But *Throne of Jade* is weirdly plotted and weirdly paced. Admittedly, much of the story is spent on a long sea voyage and there are only so many ways to make a long sea voyage interesting. But someone keeps trying to assassinate Lawrence, and besides a little conjecture, nobody really bothers to try and figure out who or why. There is someone powerful trying to kill him, there are four different attempts (several of which result in injury), and it's just kinda ... ignored? And then that whole attempted assassination plot thread is resolved too easily and entirely by accident - the culprit is revealed unintentionally while the characters are working on something else entirely.

The pacing here is so weird that I did not recognize the climax was even the climax. Part of that could be because there isn't really one overarching plot in this book. There's a bunch of smaller plots that overlap in parts, but nothing that could be called The Plot, and so no main thing to be finally resolved in a climactic scene. Because of that, it also seems much shorter than it is. There are a lot of words, but it says little and not much happens.

This book overall had less of what I really loved about the first one. There was less action (actually next to no action), and less of the Lawrence/Temeraire dynamic that I loved so much. There was less Temeraire in general, actually, and less of him being awesome and exceptional. (China was a really cool setting, but it took away much of Temeraire's awesomeness since Celestial dragons are rare but not unknown in China.) This book was more about Lawrence - his fears, insecurities, and jealousies. It made for an okay story, but it set him and Temeraire at odds sometimes when I really loved seeing them work as a team.

I am really not sure what *Throne of Jade* is supposed to be, and it feels like the book itself isn't sure either. It seems like in the next book things will be pretty much back to normal, so I'm not even sure what the point of this was - unless the events at the end of this will come back and be important later in the series. Overall, I'm going to chalk this up to growing pains. The Temeraire series are Naomi's first books, and sequels are hard. I'm going to keep reading and I expect book three will be better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Moderate: War, Animal death, and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexism and Misogyny

Animal injury

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Animal death

Minor: Slavery, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

szuum's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Slavery, Misogyny, and Sexism

readandfindout's review

adventurous slow-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5 stars
Plot: 3.5 stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, and Animal death

Minor: Death, Misogyny, and Racism

veeronald's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

kathytwitch's review

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Another intriguing twist on the Napoleonic Wars, this story actually departs the continent for long, eventful sea voyage on a diplomatic mission to China. Our young dragon seemed well satisfied with his lot in life as a member of His Majesty's Aerial Corps, until he sees how the other half lives. The difference between the honor the intelligent dragons are awarded in China and the fear and suspicion with which they are regarded in England cannot be missed, either by a brilliant dragon or a discerning reader. I don't think this book will be the last to address this discrepancy. Our characters continue to unfold new facets, I am very much enjoying this series so far.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Death and Sexual content

There's less battlefield violence than in the first book, and more intrigue and subtlety, but there are still scenes of violence and death. This is especially the case when the protagonists try to escape an extended house arrest. None of this violence is treated casually, and it does serve to further the plot line. On a long sea voyage, our dragon hero learns about the human slave trade, and being the intelligent creature that he is, he starts to form some revolutionary ideas about the treatment of dragons. This treatment is much different in China, the setting of this story, than in England, the starting point of this journey. Again, this practice (slavery) is not glossed over, nor is it defended, as the abolition movement in England is strong at this time (at least in regard to human slavery. ) While most of the bedroom scenes are again behind closed doors, the interactions of human lovers in this book are more noticeable than in the previous volume. However, the development of our dragon hero into a mature adult is a bit more obvious. While he is off screen to do his fatherly duty in China, it's clear that he's involved in an intimate relationship with a lady dragon.

greeneyes's review

adventurous lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

So, this one is a much slower paced read than the first book, and most of it takes place on a lengthy sea voyage to China. That said, there's some enjoyable interactions between everybody on the ship, and once they do finally get to China there is some fascinating worldbuilding that I personally found completely worth the build up. I should also mention that the time between the books is very short: you could almost compile them all together as parts of one book and the time skips would feel as fleeting as moving to a chapter within any given book. The first three of this series would probably best be read back to back for that reason.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Violence