Throne of Jade

[sawyl]

It being apparent that I'm not going to get anything more done tonight, here instead are a few thoughts on a recent read, Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, which follows straight on from her first novel, Temeraire.

Will Laurence has been summoned to see the First Sea Lord. A delegation from China, headed by Prince Yongxing, have arrived in London to demand the return of Temeraire on the grounds that a Celestial dragon can only be linked to a member of an imperial dynasty — Temeraire's egg having been originally intended for the Emperor Napoleon. Despite much coaxing, the dragon refuses to be separate from his captain, forcing the British to use a dragon transport — captained by Laurence's old Naval protege, Tom Riley, — to return the Chinese delegation, Laurence, Temeraire and his crew, to China in an attempt to negotiate with the Son of Heaven.

On the long voyage to China, the transport is forced to pick up supplies in Cape Coast, where Temeraire is confronted with the unpleasant realities of slavery. Laurence, whose father is an abolitionist, explains the practice and Temeraire starts to draw parallels between the way the slaves are treated and the way dragons are treated in Britain. On picking up their mail, the crew of the transport get their first news of Napoleon's crushing victory at Austerlitz, but they learn almost nothing of the details.

On arrive in China, Laurence, Temeraire and the rest of the Air Corps are ordered to fly to Peking with Prince Yongxing, leaving Riley and the naval crew to follow on with the transport. Temeraire finds the Chinese capital much to his taste, with its wide streets and the substantial autonomy accorded to its dragon population. Laurence is less impressed, first by his gilded cage and then by an all out assault on his crew by a band of hired ruffians. Not only do the Chinese want him separated from Temeraire, it now appears they're willing to kill him to get the desired result.

Throne of Jade builds on the world established in Temeraire with a story that feels much tighter and better paced than the original — partly because it lacks a lot of expositionary material and partly because it's a second novel. The Naval aspects are quite wonderful — Laurence's praise for a French captain's club haul had me reaching for the encyclopaedia (in my defence, sailing a square rigger is quite different to sailing a fore-to-aft rigger and all the jargon is different) — whilst Temeraire's discussions of the precise differences between slavery and the way that dragons are treated as property by the British adds a currency to what might otherwise be a simple piece of scene dressing.

Delightful.