Throne of Jade

In this episode, a Chinese delegation attempts to reclaim our hero dragon Temeraire, and they all go on a long journey to China to so that China doesn't side with the French in the Napoleonic conflict. The 'journey to China' plot was fun! The sailors awkwardly joining a Lunar New Year's dinner. The visits to Macau and Dongguan. And even the expansion of world building - that talking dragons are probably more than sentient fighter jets - was interesting.

Noted on January 30, 2024

I was certain - CERTAIN - that this series would run out of steam for me in book two. Like: it's Master and Commander except the ship is a talking dragon. What else was going to happen?

But I enjoyed this more than the first, and have the happy feeling of realizing there are seven more books in this series to read, and the sad feeling that I'm going to be vaguely embarrassed by reading seven more Talking Dragon books.

Noted on January 30, 2024