New This Week: Jade Man’s Skin by Daniel Fox

Just in time for Chinese New Year and with the perfect cover to help celebrate the Year of the Tiger, the second book in Daniel Fox’s series will please the many fans who were sharply enthusiastic about book one.

I know that after reading the first installment in this series, 2009’s Dragon in Chains, I was very much looking forward to Jade Man’s Skin (Del Rey). While I wasn’t disappointed by the second book in the series, I wasn’t swept away. And I wanted to be swept away in this dragon-fueled, China-based feudal fantasy.

What was a civil division has escalated into civil war, the dragon that patrols the sky is the only thing keeping things under control, but even her freedom might be threatened. Once again, Fox’s prose is lyrical, his touch light. Don’t, however, expect a hard and fast conclusion this time out. There are lots of loose ends: book three is due about this time next year.