Book Review: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

 Book title: Throne of Jade
Author: Naomi Novik
Genre: Historical fantasy
Published: April 25, 2006
398 pages
My rating: 4.5/5

“Those men want to take Laurence from me, and put him in prison, and execute him, and I will not let them, ever, and I do not care if Laurence tells me not to squash you.”

A Chinese delegation has come to London to demand the return of the Chinese dragon Temeraire to his native land. Unwilling to part with Temeraire, his handler Captain Will Laurence must join him on a perilous sea voyage to the Far East in an attempt to convince the Emperor to let Temeraire stay in Britain.

Throne of Jade is the second book in Naomi Novik’s historical fantasy series Temeraire set during the Napoleonic Wars and featuring dragons. I listened to the audio book of the first book, His Majesty’s Dragon, a few weeks ago. This was also an audio book listen, and I will be continuing to listen to audio books of this series as long as they are available on my library app. I’m really enjoying this series so far! 

The second book picks up where the first book left off. Throne of Jade features lot of political intrigue and tons of new worldbuilding where we learn about dragons and their treatment in China and how it differs from the way dragons are treated in Britain. I found the worldbuilding fascinating and I would have loved to see more of the Chinese dragons.

I noted in my review of His Majesty’s Dragon that it had a rather slow pacing, and that is even more so the case with Throne of Jade, although at first it seemed that the pacing would be faster than in the first book. Quite early on, there is a battle scene, but it ends when Laurence is knocked unconscious, and we never learn how the battle ended (unless I missed something in the audio version). After that, the plot moves on to taking Temeraire to China, and we have a very long and rather tedious section of the book set during the sea voyage where very little happens. The pacing picks up again in the final part of the novel when Laurence and Temeraire reach China, but the ending felt rushed.

As a result, I didn’t think this book was as good as the first, but I still enjoyed the story, and I’m eager to see how the series progresses. If you loved the first book and don’t mind slower pacing, I think you’ll enjoy this book as well. I gave it four and a half stars.