Sunday, 20 June 2021 08:36 pm
Book Review: Seraphina
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deckardcanineAs I mentioned, Runaway Ralph is too short and kiddie to rate a review here. I went right on to one of my birthday books, Rachel Hartman's debut, for my first read about dragons in...OK, less than half a year.
In a pseudo-Renaissance world, humans and dragons have had 40 years of relative peace thanks to a treaty, but many of both are unsatisfied. Among other things, the treaty demands that dragons in the human-led land of Goredd remain in human form (which they can assume at will), wearing bells to distinguish them from natural humans, except under extraordinary circumstances. As you can imagine, some dragons hate the limitations. And some humans figure that the dragons are just biding their time, which isn't hard given their long life expectancies. It gets worse around the story's beginning, when Prince Rufus is found assassinated in a dragonesque fashion.
First-person narrator Seraphina is something that few entities believe possible, fewer still believe could look like her, and perhaps fewest of all can tolerate: a hybrid. She can easily pass for human in all ways, until adolescence causes her to sprout scales on her left arm and waist. Her human dad, the only surviving parent, urges her not to call attention to herself, but her musical talent wins her favor with the Goreddi royal family. She is also prone to sudden influxes of memories magically inherited from her mother, plus visions connected to other peculiarly talented misfits around the known world. As a result, it's not so surprising that she gets caught up in the quest to bring the assassin to justice before the peace crumbles for good.
If hating her body, living in fear, receiving paltry familial warmth, doubting whether she has a soul (the somewhat undercooked universal human religion denies the existence of dragon souls), and periodically passing out from unexpected psychic forays aren't adding enough to her 16-year-old angst, she and Prince Lucian develop feelings for each other. Lucian, a.k.a. Captain Kiggs of the royal guard, finds her intriguing in multiple ways, from her intellect to her combination of secretive and foolhardy (she does a few things she can hardly excuse in retrospect). As a bastard, he stands on ceremony less than most royals and can relate to her loneliness. Alas, a man who loves solving mysteries is not a good pick for a woman who doesn't dare let anyone know the whole truth about her. Besides, he's betrothed to his cousin, who's also on good terms with "Phina" despite shallow preconceptions about dragons.
I should say how these dragons differ from those of most stories. They remind me of people on the autistic spectrum or, better yet, Vulcans. Their primary goal is to set the world in order, or at least their idea of it. They barely understand and thus despise emotions, and a board of Censors erases memories from dragons deemed too loving or hateful. They have largely sublimated their hoarding urge with intensive study, and they hold their teachers in the highest esteem. In light of that, it makes sense that Seraphina's teacher/uncle is unaffectionate but often vitally helpful, much as he wonders why.
There aren't a whole lot of made-up words, so they're not hard to keep track of, but I had to look up a bunch of antiquated terms like "houppelande." At least I didn't see fit to make a list like I did for The Magicians or The Once and Future King. There turns out to be a glossary as well as a disarmingly sarcastic cast list right after the story, but the glossary wouldn't answer all my questions, and since they're followed by lengthy excerpts from the sequel and threequel, you'd best get a second bookmark to refer frequently. (The map in the front, meanwhile, is both easy to find and unusually sparse.)
As a mystery, it's not the next Storm Front. Only occasionally do we feel like they're working toward a solution, and only occasionally are we surprised. But it does get exciting. I sped up toward the end.
Things are only marginally resolved at the end of the first volume. I am definitely putting Shadow Scale on my wish list, and I'd recommend Seraphina to my mom if she didn't have her own backlog. I hope Hartman finds more success with unrelated novels, young adult or otherwise, in the years to come.
For something very different, I have chosen Lavie Tindar's The Violent Century. It is definitely not for children or teens.
In a pseudo-Renaissance world, humans and dragons have had 40 years of relative peace thanks to a treaty, but many of both are unsatisfied. Among other things, the treaty demands that dragons in the human-led land of Goredd remain in human form (which they can assume at will), wearing bells to distinguish them from natural humans, except under extraordinary circumstances. As you can imagine, some dragons hate the limitations. And some humans figure that the dragons are just biding their time, which isn't hard given their long life expectancies. It gets worse around the story's beginning, when Prince Rufus is found assassinated in a dragonesque fashion.
First-person narrator Seraphina is something that few entities believe possible, fewer still believe could look like her, and perhaps fewest of all can tolerate: a hybrid. She can easily pass for human in all ways, until adolescence causes her to sprout scales on her left arm and waist. Her human dad, the only surviving parent, urges her not to call attention to herself, but her musical talent wins her favor with the Goreddi royal family. She is also prone to sudden influxes of memories magically inherited from her mother, plus visions connected to other peculiarly talented misfits around the known world. As a result, it's not so surprising that she gets caught up in the quest to bring the assassin to justice before the peace crumbles for good.
If hating her body, living in fear, receiving paltry familial warmth, doubting whether she has a soul (the somewhat undercooked universal human religion denies the existence of dragon souls), and periodically passing out from unexpected psychic forays aren't adding enough to her 16-year-old angst, she and Prince Lucian develop feelings for each other. Lucian, a.k.a. Captain Kiggs of the royal guard, finds her intriguing in multiple ways, from her intellect to her combination of secretive and foolhardy (she does a few things she can hardly excuse in retrospect). As a bastard, he stands on ceremony less than most royals and can relate to her loneliness. Alas, a man who loves solving mysteries is not a good pick for a woman who doesn't dare let anyone know the whole truth about her. Besides, he's betrothed to his cousin, who's also on good terms with "Phina" despite shallow preconceptions about dragons.
I should say how these dragons differ from those of most stories. They remind me of people on the autistic spectrum or, better yet, Vulcans. Their primary goal is to set the world in order, or at least their idea of it. They barely understand and thus despise emotions, and a board of Censors erases memories from dragons deemed too loving or hateful. They have largely sublimated their hoarding urge with intensive study, and they hold their teachers in the highest esteem. In light of that, it makes sense that Seraphina's teacher/uncle is unaffectionate but often vitally helpful, much as he wonders why.
There aren't a whole lot of made-up words, so they're not hard to keep track of, but I had to look up a bunch of antiquated terms like "houppelande." At least I didn't see fit to make a list like I did for The Magicians or The Once and Future King. There turns out to be a glossary as well as a disarmingly sarcastic cast list right after the story, but the glossary wouldn't answer all my questions, and since they're followed by lengthy excerpts from the sequel and threequel, you'd best get a second bookmark to refer frequently. (The map in the front, meanwhile, is both easy to find and unusually sparse.)
As a mystery, it's not the next Storm Front. Only occasionally do we feel like they're working toward a solution, and only occasionally are we surprised. But it does get exciting. I sped up toward the end.
Things are only marginally resolved at the end of the first volume. I am definitely putting Shadow Scale on my wish list, and I'd recommend Seraphina to my mom if she didn't have her own backlog. I hope Hartman finds more success with unrelated novels, young adult or otherwise, in the years to come.
For something very different, I have chosen Lavie Tindar's The Violent Century. It is definitely not for children or teens.