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Throne of Jade (Temeraire, Book 2) | 
 enlarge | Author: Naomi Novik
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $1.68
You Save: $6.31 (79%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 60463
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 3.8 x 1.7
ISBN: 0345481291
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345481290
ASIN: 0345481291
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargo–an unhatched dragon’s egg–Capt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. As new recruits in Britain’s Aerial Corps, man and dragon soon proved their mettle in daring combat against Bonaparte’s invading forces.
Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands–and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far East–a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 A crushing disappointment July 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved the first Temeraire book. It wasn't without its weaknesses (mainly the poorly written battle scenes) but I never had any reason to believe that it wasn't the start of a great series. How wrong I was.
Throne of Jade is honestly the most overwritten book I have ever read in my entire life. In this rambling, bloated 375 oddessy there's a decent 50,000 word book screaming to get out. Even if all of the flab were cut out it would have bearable with a plot or without it.
Sadly, even in 375 pages there's certainly not much plot to be had. The entire story is basically the Chinese demanding their dragon back, the British giving and sending Laurence to China with Temeraire. Over 200 pages are dedicated to them just sitting about on a boat on the way there. It's an obscene waste of trees.
The dragon is very cute and I wish I had him for a pet. But he's outweighed by innumerable dead weight human characters who never really seem to differentiate between each other. It's a chore to read this book, I kid you not. I think I might give up on this series despite the fact I already own book three. It's just so damn boring and a MAJOR let-down.
 Slow Boat to China April 10, 2008
The mystery of what a Celestial dragon egg was doing on a French ship is solved when a massive Chinese delegation, headed up by the Emperor's brother, comes to England demanding Temeraire's return because in their opinion Celestials are only suitable for pairing with royalty, and as Throne of Jade begins, the British government has happily acceded to the Chinese demands. The only problem is that Temeraire refuses to leave Laurence, and Laurence refuses to lie to Temeraire. Mutiny, battle, and chaos ensue.
The problem is that readers will have more difficulty believing this than ANYTHING Ms. Novik has presented us with so far. Napoleonic warfare with dragons? That's easy to swallow compared to the idea that England, involved in a death struggle with Napoleon, desperate to breed or acquire fire-breathing dragons, would give up with barely a whimper a far superior Celestial, who SINGLEHANDEDLY saved England from aerial invasion and conquest in His Majesty's Dragon, something no fire-breather could POSSIBLY have done, out of fears that an angry China might disrupt their TRADE in retaliation? POPPYCOCK!
Unfortunately, for reasons I guessed at in my review of His Majesty's Dragon, Ms. Novik seems to feel the need to send our heroes to the periphery of the Napoleonic Wars in order to make their NOT changing history more plausible; I just wish she had come up with a less hopelessly unrealistic excuse. Nevertheless, once you succeed in swallowing the un-swallowable, you are in for quite a ride.
Making the best out of a total fiasco, it is agreed by all concerned to send BOTH Laurence and Temeraire, and a portion of their crew, to China by sea aboard a colossal dragon transport and see what develops. Admiral Lenten warns Laurence that he is "in for a hellishly long trip"; he doesn't know the half of it!
The middle part of the book covers this truly hellish voyage in which everything that can go wrong does go wrong: French attack, foul weather, spoiled supplies, sickness in man and beast, interservice rivalry, crippling superstition, differing agendas, murder attempts, and sea monster attack. Seriously.
In the process Laurence suffers the tortures of the damned at the thought of losing Temeraire forever, for as Temeraire learns Chinese: speaking, reading, AND writing, discovers a love for Chinese cuisine, and expresses excitement, even joy about seeing his native land and meeting his relatives, Laurence fears that Temeraire WILL choose China over England... and some Chinese prince over him. Or worse perhaps Temeraire might truly WANT to do so but feel honor bound to Laurence, leaving Laurence with a terrible choice. Then upon arrival in China, they find odd (and deadly) things beginning to happen as the real reasons behind Temeraire's forced homecoming and his original gifting to Napoleon become clear.
All in all a worthy sequel; amidst all the catastrophes, both Laurence and Temeraire grow and change in fascinating ways. I look forward to reading the rest: Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, and Victory of Eagles. It will be interesting to see how Ms. Novik manages the alternate history implications going forward. The China of this world is tremendously more powerful than the China of our world because of its incomparably superlative, if untested in modern warfare, dragon air force; it is hard to imagine it EVER being subjectable to comparable treatment by Europeans in a couple or three quarters of a century. The entirely female makeup of the Chinese dragon corps must eventually play havoc with Chinese paternalism, and the fact that dragons are much more free but humans much less free in China than in England has implications for the future and maybe even lessons for us. (WHY are dragons so free in so absolute a dictatorship? Because they are too well-armed to safely bully.)
Note: if you find yourself intrigued by the idea of Napoleonic warfare with dragons, how about American Revolutionary warfare with dragons?
Dragon America
Or American Civil War naval action...
with magic?
Land of Mist and Snow
Throne of Jade April 3, 2008
Thoroughly absorbed by the first in the series, I bought the sequel as soon as it was released. Novik's proficiency with both story structure and the English language is brilliant and has already earned her due acclaim. She has created wonderful characters in Temeraire and Captain Lawrence that are thoroughly endearing, and has now placed them in an unfamiliar environment surrounded quietly hostile acquaintances ...
Don't miss this, it's brilliant.
 good but with a few flaws..... March 22, 2008
while Throne of Jade was a good book, it was not as good as book one in the series. There seemed to be less interaction between Temeraire and Lawerence-which was a big attraction of the first book. That vacancy made the book drag a bit for the first 100 pages, and in the middle. Luckily, the engaging, dramatic, and moving parts of the story are done very well, so you want to finish the story.
Book Two doesn't throw me off wanting to read later books, but I'd only suggest it to fans of the series, as you do get some vital information about Temeraire that I'm sure will prove important in later books. So, I'd only recommend book 2 for fans of the series, as I'm sure it would be confusing for anyone to follow as a stand alone book. 3.5 stars.
Character-driven dragon tale January 28, 2008
This was a good book. While it may not have wall-to-wall action, it's simply not that kind of tale. It is a very interesting character piece, and you learn more about the world, and about Temeraire. Sit back, grab your coffee cup, and enjoy.
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