TWIB-III: 40 (7/27-8/2)
Aug. 15th, 2009 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanOnly one book this week. It was a good book and the writeup is short because I am tired.
1) Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade is the second book in Novik's Temeraire series, and as with most second books, my reactions are mixed. Novik does an excellent job of expanding the world of His Majesty's Dragon, as well as explicitly tackling many of the issues implied by but not tackled in the first novel (e.g. if dragons are so intelligent, why are they essentially beasts of burden? Just how "human" are domesticated dragons?).
The majority of Throne of Jade takes place on the high seas; the remainder in Qing-dynasty China. And here's where my reservations come in. While Novik handles the clash of civilizations aspect admirably, and while she sets up no black-and-white good guys or bad guys, I found it just a tad too unbelievable that both the Chinese and British translators spoke the other's tongue perfectly. Which is not to say that I was hoping for some Long Duck Dong action--far from it. Just that repeated, diplomatically charged interactions in unfamiliar languages conducted without mishap strains my suspension of disbelief more than the existence of dragons. Make of this what you will.
That will be all.
1) Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade is the second book in Novik's Temeraire series, and as with most second books, my reactions are mixed. Novik does an excellent job of expanding the world of His Majesty's Dragon, as well as explicitly tackling many of the issues implied by but not tackled in the first novel (e.g. if dragons are so intelligent, why are they essentially beasts of burden? Just how "human" are domesticated dragons?).
The majority of Throne of Jade takes place on the high seas; the remainder in Qing-dynasty China. And here's where my reservations come in. While Novik handles the clash of civilizations aspect admirably, and while she sets up no black-and-white good guys or bad guys, I found it just a tad too unbelievable that both the Chinese and British translators spoke the other's tongue perfectly. Which is not to say that I was hoping for some Long Duck Dong action--far from it. Just that repeated, diplomatically charged interactions in unfamiliar languages conducted without mishap strains my suspension of disbelief more than the existence of dragons. Make of this what you will.
That will be all.
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on 2009-08-15 06:37 am (UTC)and, *ahem* I am wondering if I will get to read your words before I go to bed tonight-ish. :D