Throne of Jade by Naomi Novak

by Chriss Cornish published: November 13, 2007 No Comments

This Book Is About

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 Tremeraire. Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands-and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate.

Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Tremeraire back to the Far East-a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await.

My Thoughts On This Book

I really enjoy Throne of Jade. The characters are realistic and the historical setting of Napoleonic War era England and China is very rich. I’ve read two books in this series and Throne of Jade is my favorite for it’s scenes on the open sea and in China. I’ll probably re-read this book in the near future.

Novak’s use of dragons as manned military aircraft is a bit of an atypical angle on the dragon-air-battle concept. I’d say she does a good job of creating a realistic air force environment. Of course, the planes in this case are various dragon breeds, all of whom talk and have varying degrees of personality and intelligence.

I like that the dragons are as much individual characters as the people are and not just fantastical things that the humans ride. I was also impressed by the thought Novak put in to the different dragon breeds in her alternative Earth. She thought about not just what kinds of dragons Europe and China would have, buy also why they would be different and how each region would treat them. In England, the populace tends to view dragons as dangerous talking animals used by the army. In China, the dragons are citizens alongside the humans.

And I also love that she has a naturalist character who specializes in dragons. Each book in the series, so far, has had a mini-chapter at the end that’s an excerpt from an ‘article’ or ‘book’ on dragons by this naturalist. It’s a cool way to get in information about dragons in the world and aids in the 1800s flavor.

Overall, Novak’s re-creation of Napoleonic War era Europe and the period military is well done. She’s clearly done a lot of research. I especially like how she handles the naval scenes. But then, I’m partial to nautical settings.

I’ve got the next two books in the series, Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory, in my ever growing “to read” pile.

The only real disappointment of Throne of Jade and the other books in the series is that the main dragon character, Temeraire, has such a hard-to-pronounce name. I stumble over it every time I try to read it and no one I know is certain how to pronounce it, even my friend who is familiar with French.