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What better way to kick off my participation in Series paloozza than with an enthusiastic review of a book from one of the many series I currently have in progress? See how totally on the ball I am blogging world?I read ‘Throne of Jade’, last week (so it doesn’t officially count as a Series palooza read), following the extremely emotional ‘The Day the Falls Stood Still’. My main criteria for selecting a book to read next was ‘no one really important, or wonderful must die’ and since I knew there were at least two more books after ‘The Throne of Jade’ in Naomi Novik’s ‘Temeraire’ series I could be pretty sure that both Temeraire and Laurence would come out of this adventure alive. Has everyone been off to check out the world that the first book sets up so that I don’t have to explain about there being dragons and Napoleon and Novik’s idea being super cool awesome? Good, let’s proceed ;)
The Chinese have realised that the English have ‘stolen’ the Celestial dragon egg they sent to Napoleon as a gift and have come to demand that Temeraire, the dragon that hatched from the egg, be returned to China. Temeraire refuses to be separated from his beloved handler Laurence and Laurence will not lie to Temeraire, so that the British government can trick him into going to China. As Temeraire possesses special gifts that are of extreme use to the British in battle Laurence expects the British government to fight to keep him, but the government are more interested in keeping the Chinese sweet, as their attempt to supply the French with a dragon seems to suggest an alliance between the two nations. Temeraire and Laurence find themselves making the long trip to China aboard a dragon transport aware that this may be their last journey together.
By forcing the main characters away from the colleagues and situations they encountered in ‘Temeraire’ Novik does her best to avoid simply repeating the entertaining formula of the first book. New conflicts are created as the sailors on the transport, the aviators and the Chinese royal envoy come into daily contact with each other. To stave off the battle boredom that can set in when reading fiction about the military lifestyle she has created some more unusual battle scenes, where Temeraire fights new and surprising enemies. However, Novik knows that readers will have become attached to the characters from the first book and will always relish a good dragon battle with the French, so she makes sure this element isn’t entirely absent from the sequel. The championing of progressive ideas (women in the military, abolitionism and freer relationships between the sexes) that make her fantasy world a joy to inhabit remain and are expanded on as the reader learns about the Chinese and their positive attitude of female warriors.
‘Throne of Jade’ is mainly concerned with the growth of Laurence and Temeraire’s relationship, specifically the things that may drive them apart. Laurence has always accused Temeraire of harbouring revolutionary ideas about the liberties dragons should be allowed, but in ‘Throne of Jade’ both Temeraire and Laurence begin to see that Britain’s ideas about dragons are not universally held. The Chinese allow dragons to walk the streets, they are taught to read and write and have their own property, as well as the freedom to govern themselves. At first Laurence sees the Chinese treatment of dragons as unnecessarily indulgent and this weakens his relationship with Temeraire. Apart from this Temeraire’s fascination with what the Chinese have to teach him, his discovery of his dragon family and his association with a female dragon all leave Laurence feeling as insecure and jealous as Temeraire has often been in the past.
Personally I think that this focus on the central friendship of the book is what makes ‘The Throne of Jade’ so special. Male friendships often turn up in military fiction, but they’re rarely as deeply examined as this one. The only other example I can think of that is as well observed is Caesar and Brutus’ relationship in Conn Igullden’s ‘Emperor at the Gates’ series and that doesn’t end well. Male interspecies friendships seem to be becoming rarer in fantasy as the main interspecies relationships shift to be straight romantic pairings (vampires, werewolves, fairies etc). It’s wonderful to be so privy to the inner workings of a male friendship that faces difficulties, but rebounds because of the friend’s willingness to put aside their own interests. By the end of the novel Laurence is forced to see the parallel between the situation of British dragons and human slavery, which he has argued against and his partnership with Temeraire shifts to a greater equality of control and thought than readers have previously seen:
‘ “Would you prefer us to stay?” Seeing that he had surprised Temeraire, he added, “Hammon and Staunton tell me we could do a great deal of good for Britain’s interests here. If you wish to remain, I will write to London and let him know we had better be stationed here.”
“Oh,” Temeraire said, and bent his head over the reading frame: he was not paying attention to the scroll, only thinking. “You would rather go home, though, would you not?”
“I would be lying if I said otherwise,” Laurence said heavily. “But I would rather see you happy; and I cannot think how I could make you so in England, now you have seen how dragons are treated here.” The disloyalty nearly choked him; he could go no further.'
To me the ending of this book feels a little rushed. A character was required to suddenly have a revelation and explain the entire back story to the villains evil plot quite quickly, there’s a fight and then everything works out for the best. I almost always more interested in character than plot so this wasn’t a big stumbling point for me, but it’s probably worth mentioning for readers who like their fantasy plots entirely reasonable. I’m interested to see if the foreshadowing meeting at the end leads to something spectacularly villainous in the next book, where I think the pair are heading to a new area of the Empire.
Crossing fingers for dragon shaped Christmas presents.
You might also be interested in reading about the first book in the series 'Temeraire' .
Other Reviews
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