Just in case there was any doubt, dragons are still my JAM.
I should clarify that it’s specifically the dragons in Naomi Novik’s world that I am adoring. I’ve never encountered such interesting characters inhabiting and giving personality to such mythic bodies. Sure, lots of great stories have dragons, or dinosaurs, or talking frogs, or whatever. But these dragons are the heart and soul of this corner of the multiverse and I am ON BOARD.
Throne of Jade picks up just a few weeks after the end of His Majesty’s Dragon, and as I had hoped, there is a lot less dragon-on-dragon violence and instead, more political and personal drama. The Chinese government (remember, this is parallel to our own timeline, and takes place during the Napoleanic wars, so China is ruled by an Emperor) has caught wind that Temeraire, the titular Celestial dragon, a rare and exalted breed who had been intended as a gift from the Chinese to Napolean himself, has chosen for his companion our hero, Will Laurence, a former British Naval officer who won Temeraire’s egg in a battle at sea at the beginning of Book 1. The Chinese delegation to England is pissed, and insist that Laurence let Temeraire go. He declines, both respectfully and disrespectfully, and the Brits send him off to China with his flight crew on a huge dragon-carrying ship, in the hopes of keeping peace with China, eventually unloading Temeraire, and other political things that don’t feel good when your heart and soul just want Temeraire and Laurence to hang out and read books together and fight the French nobly and with distinction.
But, of course, at the end of the long boat journey to China (which includes a sea serpent, kaboom! always a winner for me!), and lots of personal drama and political intrigue, including several assassination attempts, Laurence, always the maverick, finds a way to make inroads with the Chinese royalty, Temeraire gets to meet his mom and gets lucky with a Chinese dragon, and we forgive the Brits for being so bull-headed and myopic, because they at least did one thing right by empowering Laurence and Temeraire.
I’m looking forward to the next book, because most notably in this one, Temeraire and Laurence get a taste of what it means for dragons to live elsewhere in the world. In China, dragons can walk the streets of the big cities, and they have financial independence. Throne of Jade leaves us with the seeds of the next mission, which is probably to return to England (another long boat trip, but hopefully another sea serpent?), and lead a civil rights movement for dragons. Sounds pretty cool to me.