By: Naomi Novik
This second volume in the "Temeraire" series is even better than the first. On the surface, this engaging fantasy series is about the Napoleonic wars, with dragons - Temeraire being the main (dragon) character. And the series does a marvelous job of evoking the Napoleonic era, in addition to having some very stirring and realistic sounding battle scenes. However, the heart of the series is actually the relationship between the human protagonist, Captain Laurence, and "his" dragon, Temeraire. I put "his" in quotation marks, because in this story the dragon is really his own person, and no one can own him. In fact, the place of the dragon(s) in society seems to be an emerging theme in the series, and looks likely to be a major element in the later books. The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire, and indeed the characterizations in general, are extremely well done. These are people you will care deeply about. I highly recommend Throne of Jade, and the rest of the series. (Fiction) 07/31/09
