Book Review
Jun. 28th, 2023 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariShadow Scale
by Rachel Hartman
This is the sequel to Seraphina and finishes the title character's story. A war between two opposing dragon factions has broken out and is drawing the human kingdoms into the conflict. Seraphina has gone on a mission to locate the other half-dragons and persuade them to come to Goredd and work with her in defense of humanity. This proves more challenging than she had originally thought, for two reasons: not all half-dragons are isolated and living in secret so some of them are content where they are, and Seraphina is working against Jannoula, a manipulative and destructive half-dragon who is also attempting to gather the half-dragons, but for a darker purpose.
Shadow Scale was a wonderful and very satisfying follow-up to Seraphina, if not quite as amazing. The road-trip nature of the plot allowed for some good world-building and elaborating on aspects that had only been hinted at before. I loved all the other half-dragons - they had very different experiences and lives as well as different manifestations of their half-dragon-ness. Even Jannoula was a good character - she was a terrifically complex and almost sympathetic villain. I do wish Seraphina had unlocked her power a little earlier so that we could get a more complete idea of how it worked. Even though Seraphina's relationships with Kiggs, Glisselda, and Orma were all left in a slightly ambiguous state, I still liked the ending very much in that it left room for the reader to fill in the details themselves.
by Rachel Hartman
This is the sequel to Seraphina and finishes the title character's story. A war between two opposing dragon factions has broken out and is drawing the human kingdoms into the conflict. Seraphina has gone on a mission to locate the other half-dragons and persuade them to come to Goredd and work with her in defense of humanity. This proves more challenging than she had originally thought, for two reasons: not all half-dragons are isolated and living in secret so some of them are content where they are, and Seraphina is working against Jannoula, a manipulative and destructive half-dragon who is also attempting to gather the half-dragons, but for a darker purpose.
Shadow Scale was a wonderful and very satisfying follow-up to Seraphina, if not quite as amazing. The road-trip nature of the plot allowed for some good world-building and elaborating on aspects that had only been hinted at before. I loved all the other half-dragons - they had very different experiences and lives as well as different manifestations of their half-dragon-ness. Even Jannoula was a good character - she was a terrifically complex and almost sympathetic villain. I do wish Seraphina had unlocked her power a little earlier so that we could get a more complete idea of how it worked. Even though Seraphina's relationships with Kiggs, Glisselda, and Orma were all left in a slightly ambiguous state, I still liked the ending very much in that it left room for the reader to fill in the details themselves.
