Throne of Jade (2006)

The 2nd book was just as good as the first. ( )

Better than His Majesty's Dragon, because the plot was much more exciting. Other than that it's similar: vivid historical details and lifelike atmosphere, characters I've grown to like, and of course dragons. ( )

One of my faves. And my dads too. ( )

A very good book for a second one in a series. A tad slow. Raises issues of slavery, class, culture, and servitude but is not strident, and I suspect could be read without realizing their prominence. ( )

Novik, Naomi. Black Powder War. Temeraire No. 3. Del Rey, 2006.
Say this about Naomi Novik: she does her homework. In this third installment of the Temeraire series, which has by now grown to nine volumes, not counting the short stories and interstitial novellas, we are in the campaign of 1806 in the Napoleonic wars. Both sides have dragons. Novik treats seriously the problem of fighting a war with cannons, muskets, and flying dragons of various sizes, only some of which can act as flame throwers. Napoleon Bonaparte is supposed to have said that an Army moves on its stomach. Well, what if it had dragons as well as horses to feed? The story in BPW begins when Temeraire and his team are sent by the Chinese emperor to Istanbul to retrieve some dragon eggs. This involves a trek more or less along the old Silk Road trading route. Yes, dragons can fly, but their food sources, mainly camels here, cannot. Once they get to Istanbul, they find that there has been espionage and sabotage, and it is still a long way to Scotland. The character of Temeraire continues to develop and is now sometimes more interesting than the action. Good dragon stuff, if you like dragon stuff.
; ( )