{"id":265,"date":"2006-06-04T20:35:01","date_gmt":"2006-06-05T03:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=265"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:07:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:07:38","slug":"throne-of-jade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/265","title":{"rendered":"Throne of Jade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throne of Jade<\/a><\/em> (2006) Naomi Novik<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Temeraire is not just a Imperial dragon, but a rare Celestial dragon, and upon discovering that the English have him, the Chinese are demanding his return, and the military is commanding Will Laurence to give him up–and to lie to Temeraire to convince him to return to China. Temeraire will not accept separation, and Laurence will not lie to him, so both the Chinese delegation and the English military are attempting to find a solution acceptable to both parties. A solution that seems likely to be unacceptable to Temeraire and Laurence.<\/p>\n

Like the start of the first book, the first half of Throne of Jade<\/em> is as much a sailing book as a fantasy about dragons. And it is very much about the relations between China, France, and England, and how Temeraire effects those relations. <\/p>\n

This book explains why the Chinese had sent a Celestial egg to Napoleon, but more delves into how dragons are treated in England, especially in comparison to how they are treated in China. <\/p>\n

I very much liked how we are shown the differences between the Chinese system and the English system, and how both Temeraire and Laurence feel about them. The political intrigue between England and China is also interesting, especially since I know nothing about relations between England and China during the Napoleonic era.<\/p>\n

This book was good, although not quite as strong as the first book. Part of the problem may have been that much of the tension of this book was the question of whether Temeraire and Laurence would be separated. However, since there is a third book, that question seemed pretty well answered, so it just didn’t feel very suspenseful.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Temeraire and Laurence continues to develop, although it is quite clear that they are do bonded that a separation is acceptable to neither (which again pretty much killed any suspenseful element regarding their possible separation). <\/p>\n

She also obliquely addresses the issue of slavery. Although she does not directly put forth the arguments for or against such as would have been found at that time, the ideas resonate in her descriptions of the differences between the treatment of English and Chinese dragons.<\/p>\n

These are some gorgeous covers. Just lovely. I have to admit that the covers are part of what enticed me to pick up these books in the first place, as I found it hard to believe that a book with such a wonderful cover could be bad. (And I was right.) May publishers take note, and put out more covers this lovely.<\/p>\n

Although Throne of Jade<\/em> isn’t quite as good as Her Majesty’s Dragon<\/em>, it’s still a very good second book. However, I would not recommend reading it without having read the first book. The back story is there, but I’m not sure the story would be as good if you were not already emotionally invested in the characters from the first book. So go get Her Majesty’s Dragon<\/em>, and then you can read Throne of Jade<\/em>. Meanwhile, I am going to start reading the third book.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throne of Jade (2006) Naomi Novik Temeraire is not just a Imperial dragon, but a rare Celestial dragon, and upon discovering that the English have him, the Chinese are demanding his return, and the military is commanding Will Laurence to give him up–and to lie to Temeraire to convince him to return to China. Temeraire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291],"tags":[911,509],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-naomi-novik","tag-temeraire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17704,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17704","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":0},"title":"Throne of Jade","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Throne of Jade (2006) Naomi Novik (Temeraire) Set in an alternate timeline, 1805 After the Chinese discovered that their treasured dragon egg ended up with an English naval captain, they started insisting Temeraire be returned to China. However, Temeraire will not be separated from Lawrence. First, a major chunk of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Throne of Jade","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Throne-of-Jade.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Throne-of-Jade.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Throne-of-Jade.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Throne-of-Jade.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Throne-of-Jade.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17618,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17618","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":1},"title":"His Majesty’s Dragon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"His Majesty's Dragon (2006) Naomi Novik (Temeraire) Set during the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons. Michael has been listening to the Aubrey\u2013Maturin series, and I wasn't quite up for that, but decide that a revisiting of Temeraire would fit the bill. Captain Will Laurence of the HMS Reliant does not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"His Majestys Dragon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/266","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":2},"title":"Black Powder War","author":"Michelle","date":"June 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Black Powder War (2006) Naomi Novik Trilogy? Did I say trilogy? BAH! This is no trilogy! This is a series, nowhere near done! It is, however, still good, and although the war still rages, she does complete the story arc of this book, and does not leaving you hanging--at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Black-Powder-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":263,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/263","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":3},"title":"His Majesty’s Dragon","author":"Michelle","date":"June 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"His Majesty's Dragon (2006) Naomi Novik During the Napoleonic wars, Captain Will Laurence of the HMS Reliant captures the French ship Amitie and its valuable cargo: a dragon egg. Unfortunately, the egg is close to hatching, so someone on the ship must become bonded to the dragon upon its hatching,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/His-Majestys-Dragon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/452","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":4},"title":"Empire of Ivory","author":"Michelle","date":"September 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Empire of Ivory (2007) Naomi Novik I've been waiting for Empire of Ivory to come out since I finished Black Power War last year. The war with Napoleon is still raging, and Lawrence, Temeraire and the rest of their group are returning to England, where they hope to learn why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Empire-of-Ivory.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2709","url_meta":{"origin":265,"position":5},"title":"Naked City","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Naked City (2011) edited by Ellen Datlow This collection of urban fantasy stories has several of my favorite authors, so it was a no-brainer to get. The bad thing is that I've been reading this collection for several months, so I now have no idea what the stories at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Naked-City.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}