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22nd out of 628 books
—
1,016 voters
Throne of Jade (Temeraire #2)
by
Naomi Novik (Goodreads Author)
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...more
Now China has discovered that its...more
Paperback, 398 pages
Published
April 25th 2006
by Del Rey
(first published April 2006)
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A fun read, but not quite as captivating as the first book. We got an interesting look at shipboard life as they travel for a long time, which made the book drag a bit, but not too much. The story had some twists & turns, some quite unexpected. From the long build up, it seemed to end quickly & completely, much to my surprise. A bit too abruptly & neatly, perhaps. I look forward to reading the next book, which I have, but I won't be reading it next. I don't feel I HAVE to read the ne...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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3 likes · like · see review
I've read reviews that say this second book in the Temeraire series is boring... I would have to disagree. There are sea monsters, battles, assassination attemps, intrigue, and an allusion to dragon sex. What's not to love???
In this second book in the Temeraire series, Laurence and Temeraire must travel to China. In the first book it was discovered that Temeraire was a Chinese dragon meant as a gift to the French. Now, the Chinese apparently want their dragon back and they will stop at nothing t...more
In this second book in the Temeraire series, Laurence and Temeraire must travel to China. In the first book it was discovered that Temeraire was a Chinese dragon meant as a gift to the French. Now, the Chinese apparently want their dragon back and they will stop at nothing t...more
6 likes · like · see review
This second book in the series is very entertaining. I'm impressed with Novik's writing. The plot is much less predictable this time around and the action scenes are nicely timed. Novik is a fan of Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen, and her love for this period is obvious.
I do have to say that her portrayal of dragons isn't my ideal. The dragons in this series think and act almost exactly like humans, whereas I would expect them to have a less fathomable intelligence and a vastly different worldvi...more
I do have to say that her portrayal of dragons isn't my ideal. The dragons in this series think and act almost exactly like humans, whereas I would expect them to have a less fathomable intelligence and a vastly different worldvi...more
4 likes · like · see review
Mar 21, 2009
Elizabeth
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who like to be beat over the head with the author's political views.
It is a talented and subtle author who makes a strong political statement in a fantasy/sci-fi novel. Some of my favorites include: Remnant Population, Brave New World, The Gate to Women's Country, and Orlando. Some authors who aren't subtle enough, dragging down their books, include Stephenie Meyer, P.C. Cast, Larry Dixon (oh, is he bad), and, I am sorry to report, Naomi Novik.
I really liked the first book. It had lots of things going for it, including dragons, and very little time spent aboard...more
I really liked the first book. It had lots of things going for it, including dragons, and very little time spent aboard...more
4 likes · like · see review
It's a decent enough sequel. This time around Laurence and his dragon must return to Temeraire's homeland of China to see if Laurence is appropriate enough to be the caretaker of such a regal dragon. Much talk of the inscrutability of the Chinese, much Anglophilia, very little action. It reminded me a lot of the second book in Neil Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, The Confusion, in which Stephenson gets so excited with fleshing out the entire 18th Century globe that his characters seem like stand-ins...more
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This book was good, it was not as good as His Majesty's Dragon. But I think that is a risk that you take with series. Not ALL of the books in EVERY series are going to be GREAT. Some are even barely readable, but I have yet to read a series that did not redeem itself somewhere down the line. And it is not like I went from 5 stars with HMD to 1 star with ToJ. It only went down 1 whole star point. Why? Because it did what a second of a series book is supposed to do. It got a little further into th...more
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The IRC chatting is poison. I learnt from my friend about alternative history book concerning Napoleonic Wars. I had no idea how it would work with all those dragons, but I gave a try. I was surprised how good the book was. Author set up the world in war crowded with dragons and various issues concerning them. The plot is very catching and characters are developing steadily. Capt. Will Laurence went trough 180 degree flip flop as he was chosen by hatchiling Temeraire to be his rider at the first...more
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This book is simply a dredge through nothingness. It has no reason to exist. Where the original book, His Majesty's Dragon, was amazing in detail, and a sort of plasability. This book fails to deliever the same sense of action and enjoyability that the first one did. As mentioned about the other book there was a long training scene; I guess the author just wanted to go ahead and fill in some pages there. Yet in this one its a over bearing ride on an , "Air Craft Carrier" with a bunch of upset Ch...more
Again, Naomi Novik does an amazing job. I'm definitely hooked on this series now. The characters are all very likable, the story believable despite being fantasy, and the descriptions of the times they were in China were lovely and made you feel as if you were really there. The "dogfights" between the dragons were well written to a point where I could picture every move (this coming from someone who has written aerial combat scenes before, but with Nuiports and Fokkers, not with dragons!) And no...more
2 likes · like · see review
"This book picks up shortly after the other one left off. Laurence and Tameraire are being sent to China in order to work out the details. They had tried to convince Tameraire to take another ""more suitable"" captain from China but he refused. So they begin their long and perilous journey. Along the way they go under attack Tameraire gets his first cold and first really bad injury go under attack again arrive in China get attacked again and finally come to a sort of agreement. This book had its...more
Well, to start off with: I don't know how to judge anything Novik says about China here. If there are errors (beyond those that are naturally created by inserting, well, dragons into a story) I couldn't identify them.
I spent the first chunk of this book made uncomfortable by the way that Temeraire (or - perhaps I should say Lung Tien Xiang) and Laurence are set opposite Yongxing. I was preparing myself for a plot that embraced the worst of East/West stereotyping.
I wasn't prepared for the way th...more
I spent the first chunk of this book made uncomfortable by the way that Temeraire (or - perhaps I should say Lung Tien Xiang) and Laurence are set opposite Yongxing. I was preparing myself for a plot that embraced the worst of East/West stereotyping.
I wasn't prepared for the way th...more
Compared to the His majesty's Dragon, a book of immediate action and high tension battles, Throne of Jade is more like a long, slow boil of polticial intrigue. While interesting, I found the second book in the Temeraire series less urgent and therefore a less engaging read. Describing a ship's journey from England, around Africa, eventually to China, provided lots of period details and information about the perils of travel during the Napoleonic period, but it was still the story of a long ship'...more
A lively continuation of the story from His Majesty's Dragon." In the series' first installment we were introduced to Laurence, a Royal Navy captain who unexpectedly became the companion and rider of Temeraire, the only Chinese-bred dragon in British service. In Novik's alternate world, dragons have been domesticated by humans for centuries, and serve as a sort of flying cavalry in the Napoleonic Wars. Laurence is initially an outsider in the closed society of dragon riders, but eventually prove...more
The second Temeraire book starts with Laurence facing a delegation from China incensed by the "theft" of the Celestial egg meant as a gift to Napoleon. Kept apart from Temeraire, Laurence is pressured by the Ministry to force the dragon to leave with the Chinese.
Things go bad quickly when Temeraire hears Laurence threatened with arrest and grabs his partner, flying off with him to the front. While this doesn't endear Laurence with the Ministry, much less to the Chinese delegation, it does earn h...more
Things go bad quickly when Temeraire hears Laurence threatened with arrest and grabs his partner, flying off with him to the front. While this doesn't endear Laurence with the Ministry, much less to the Chinese delegation, it does earn h...more
I absolutely loved the first book of this series. The reveals, the "learning the ropes" aspect of much fantasy, as well as the rather outlandish bits (leaping from flying dragon to flying dragon? Ridiculous. BUT AWESOME) all combined to make the first book a delightful romp through a re-imagined dragon world, and it didn't hurt that we're pitted against one of the most powerful forces of the last three hundred years.
Here There Be Spoilers, Turn Back Now
That said, I didn't like Throne of Jade at...more
Here There Be Spoilers, Turn Back Now
That said, I didn't like Throne of Jade at...more
England's war with Napoleon's France is still going strong. While the previous nevel ended with a major battle as French forces tried to storm the island nation over the Channel with a fleet of ships and dragons, the invasion was repelled by Temeraire, Captain Will Laurence, and the dragon/rider companions. Temeraire's new-found gift helped turn the tide.
Now, they will confront a challenge of a different sort. It is no secret the Temeraire is a Celestial dragon from the far-off nation of China....more
Now, they will confront a challenge of a different sort. It is no secret the Temeraire is a Celestial dragon from the far-off nation of China....more
Dragon Temeraire and his human captain Laurence find their friendship tested when the Chinese demand the dragon's return to his ancestral land.
Laurence, only just having become comfortable in the Aerial Corps, must face a new challenge to his ideas about duty when he is ordered to return Temeraire to China. As in the first book, he is offered bribes and threats to pry him away from his dragon's side. In China his eyes are opened to the deficiencies of England - where dragons are treated like hor...more
Laurence, only just having become comfortable in the Aerial Corps, must face a new challenge to his ideas about duty when he is ordered to return Temeraire to China. As in the first book, he is offered bribes and threats to pry him away from his dragon's side. In China his eyes are opened to the deficiencies of England - where dragons are treated like hor...more
This was a great story, especially the sections showing how Chinese society works with dragons as part of it. Laurence and Temeraire's friendship depends as it is tested and they are much more equal friends by the end of this book.
My only complaint is with the pacing. I fully realise that this is due to the constraits of the plot rather than a failure on the part of the author, but it was still a little disconcerting.
Laurence, Temeraire and part of their crew spend seven months on a dragon trans...more
My only complaint is with the pacing. I fully realise that this is due to the constraits of the plot rather than a failure on the part of the author, but it was still a little disconcerting.
Laurence, Temeraire and part of their crew spend seven months on a dragon trans...more
Originaltitel: Throne of Jade
Umfang: ca. 490 Seiten
Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 14- Jahre
Serie: Die Feuerreiter seiner Majestät, Band 2 (→ Band 1,)
Leseprobe: hier unter dem Buchcover
Inhaltsangabe
Napoleon ist in die Flucht geschlagen worden! Aber für Temeraire und Laurence bleibt keine Zeit zum Feiern, denn ein anderer weitaus mächtigerer Feind droht die Freunde zu trennen. Eine chinesische Delegation mit einem der Prinzen an der Spitze fordert die Herausgabe von Temeraire. Er war eigentlich...more
Umfang: ca. 490 Seiten
Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 14- Jahre
Serie: Die Feuerreiter seiner Majestät, Band 2 (→ Band 1,)
Leseprobe: hier unter dem Buchcover
Inhaltsangabe
Napoleon ist in die Flucht geschlagen worden! Aber für Temeraire und Laurence bleibt keine Zeit zum Feiern, denn ein anderer weitaus mächtigerer Feind droht die Freunde zu trennen. Eine chinesische Delegation mit einem der Prinzen an der Spitze fordert die Herausgabe von Temeraire. Er war eigentlich...more
This is the second book in the alternate history series about Temeraire, the dragon captured as an egg from the French and inadvertently hatched at sea and induced into captivity by the ship's captain, Will Laurence. Where the first book focused on Temeraire's growth and training as a part of the Aerial Corps, engaged in fighting the French during the Napoleonic wars, this book is about his personal history. For it turns out that Temeraire is a rare Chinese Celestial dragon, the egg was sent as...more
It's a change of gear from the first book, but personally I don't see that being all that bad a thing. With the Napoleonic Wars being the forefront event of the era there was ample opportunity for the series to have continued in a comfortable pattern of English dragons engaging in merry battle with French dragons, rinse, repeat - and there's so much that could be done even in that conext that there'd probably be little to complain had Novik gone that route. Throne of Jade takes a much more socio...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I'm kind of bewildered by the fact that I had so little interest in the first book in this series, because I picked up Throne of Jade on a whim and devoured it in the space of an evening. I think I called the writing in His Majesty's Dragon dull and flat, but Throne of Jade is the opposite, assured and wonderfully descriptive.
I also described the protagonist, Laurence, as being so painfully noble that there wasn't much room left for an actual personality, and that's still true enough. He's just...more
I also described the protagonist, Laurence, as being so painfully noble that there wasn't much room left for an actual personality, and that's still true enough. He's just...more
The second volume of Novik's dragon rider alternate history is a worthy successor to the first. After defeating Napoleon's attempted invasion of England and learning the unique heritage of Temeraire's ancestry, a Chinese delegation arrives in England, demanding the return of Temeraire to the Emperor. In classic British imperial fashion, the politicians intervene and agree to comply, in hopes of placating the Chinese and winning some advantage. With that, Laurence and Temeraire are off to a rous...more
A Strong Second Novel
It's hard to write a second novel in a series to meet all the expectations present. When a first novel rises out of nowhere, part of its allure is how it takes people by surprise and pulls them into that type of fantasy world that only rarely happens. The second novel then comes with those expectations and the unasked question is whether that first book was a fluke.
This book sealed for me that the first one was not a fluke. It also, was a very brave decision to avoid the tem...more
It's hard to write a second novel in a series to meet all the expectations present. When a first novel rises out of nowhere, part of its allure is how it takes people by surprise and pulls them into that type of fantasy world that only rarely happens. The second novel then comes with those expectations and the unasked question is whether that first book was a fluke.
This book sealed for me that the first one was not a fluke. It also, was a very brave decision to avoid the tem...more
Throne of Jade finds Laurence and Temeraire in the midst of an international political scandal after the word gets out to China that one of their rare Celestial dragons is in the hands of a common Western military man. Celestials in China are treated with reverence and are raised as scholars and philosophers, so the Chinese find it especially demeaning that Termeraire is serving in a brutal military role. At this point, we have no idea what else they expected to happen when they sent his egg to...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temeraire Rp Group? | 1 | 3 | May 10, 2013 01:36pm | |
| Temeraire: Throne of Jade | 3 | 7 | Feb 25, 2012 12:42pm |
An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, when she first made her way through The Lord of the Rings, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to partic...more
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“I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.”
—
41 people liked it
“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," he added, fiercely, to Lord Barham.
— Temeraire”
—
17 people liked it
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— Temeraire”
Mar 17, 2009 11:24pm