Book completed

Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik. Temeraire #2. The dragon's egg from which Temeraire had hatched had been a gift to Napoleon, but now the resulting dragon is in the hands of a former British naval officer. China wants him back. What to do? Naturally Laurence and Temeraire must travel to China to plead their case.

In this one, they travel down the coast of western Africa, visit Cape Town, then sail across the southern part of the Indian Ocean (where they encounter a dangerous sea serpent) before making their way to Macao and China. Once they arrive, they learn a lot about the potential for dragons to become educated, coexist with humans, and choose their own lives, rather than simply being conscripted into the military from birth, as they are in western Europe.

Book completed

Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang. This was J's book club book. The premise is that the settlers on Mars have established their independence and are slowly starting to make connections with Earth again. A dozen of so children from Mars spent five years on Earth; they're now 18 and returning to Mars. Our main point-of-view character is Yuoling, granddaughter of Hans Sloan, the most politically powerful person on Mars.

So... it's a very slow read, although eventually some things actually happen that resolve some problems. The author has interesting ideas about social science and history, although they're explored in a rather simplistic way. At one point, she appeared to be critiquing authoritarian-style government, although equating Mars with today's China wouldn't hold up entirely, but at that point in the book I was impressed with her for doing it. I generally liked the book overall, but 600 pages was kind of excessive for the story she was telling.