Saturday, May 12, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman




Shadow Scale is the follow up to Rachel Hartman's "Seraphina" (Review Here), and the conclusion of the Seraphina duology.  It continues the story of Seraphina Dombegh and follows up on all of the untied plot threads from that book (so yeah, don't start here - this is not a stand-alone in any way shape or form, despite oddly being marketed on Amazon "A Companion to Seraphina").  It's also a longer book by about a hundred pages - and Seraphina wasn't exactly short.

I enjoyed Shadow Scale, but not nearly as much as I did "Seraphina" - like its predecessor, the book is enthralling and easy to get lost in, but unlike the first book, the ending didn't quite work out for me - it was a bit too abrupt, as if the book could've used another 50-100 pages to set it all up but the author felt it was too long already.  It's still worth a read to find out what happens to our fantastic heroine, and does some really interesting things, but it's not quite the same brilliant piece of work as the other two Hartman novels I've read.

Note:  As I read "Tess of the Road" before either Seraphina book, I'd been spoiled to some extent as to the events that happened here - including an event that would be a major part of the ending of this book, so it's possible my negativity is colored by that.  

 More after the Jump:

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
Seraphina Dombegh's heritage is no longer a secret to the world.  And while Goredd's Royal Family - her friend, the acting Queen Glisselda, and her love, Prince Lucian - readily accept her for who she is, the rest of the world has more important things on their minds to truly bother her about being a half-dragon.  For the threat of the Dragon Civil War is very real, and Goredd's fate hangs in the balance.

But when Seraphina receives word from her Uncle that a key to protecting the city might lie in connecting the powers - the so-called "mind fire" - of the half-dragons, she sets out on a journey to find her brethren.  Since a young age, Seraphina has seen 17 figures in her mind's "garden" and now she knows these figures are her fellow half-dragons, having met three of them in Goredd, and with her visions of the 17, only she can successfully unite them all, assuming they're all willing to join her.  And yet, while the other half-dragons she meets can see the "mind fire" her uncle talked about, Seraphina can't see the power at all.

But in searching for the half-dragons, Seraphina may find herself coming back to an old nightmare: Jannoula, the half-dragon who once tried to take over Seraphina's mind, has somehow returned and is also seeking to reunite the half-dragons...and the other such half-dragons don't seem quite as able to repress her mind controlling powers as Seraphina.  Without being able to see the mind-fire herself, can Seraphina find a way to unite the half-dragons without falling into Jannoula's plots to wreak havoc upon the world?
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Shadow Scale continues the story of Seraphina a short while after the first book's conclusion, once again telling the story from Seraphina's first person viewpoint.  Seraphina has and hasn't changed since the first book - while she's now open about her race for the most part (barring a small segment in the book where she's hiding it due to some prejudices, and even that isn't much), she's still an insecure heroine in many ways, insecure in her ability to lead, in her ability to love (especially given the love triangle), and insecure in her abilities as a half-dragon.  She's the best part of both books as an excellent lead.  And the returning characters are excellent again as well.

Many of the minor new characters are also interesting, particularly some (but not all) of the new half-dragons and the dragon-exiles of Porphyry.  The world also expands quite a bit in this novel, as Seraphina travels around the country to unite the other half-dragons.  We see 3 other cities/countries run by humans and bits of the dragon country, each of which has its own unique attributes to an extent.

The land of Porphyry is particularly great - it's a land where half-dragons are accepted wholesale, where the language has six different gender pronouns for people to identify themselves as and a culture of not assuming gender until the subject identifies it for themselves.  It's also a land that has taken in dragon-exiles, who have left dragon lands because they believe in emotion, and their kids identify more as people of Porphyry than as dragons, which is a fascinating thing to read about with obvious real world parallels.  None of this reads as heavy-handed, despite the obviously relevant subject matter, and it all works.

The book's antagonist is also incredibly chilling - the half-dragon Jannoula's powers are dark and disturbing as a mind controller's powers often are, but her background is such that it's hard for both the reader and Seraphina to blame her for her views on the world - you'll never want to root for her, but you can understand why she's so bent on destruction in the end.

That said, the book somehow feels rushed at times, despite its length (and it's over 550 pages, so it's not short).  The last group of half-dragons are all introduced at once, and don't get the development of the first few, and the book's ending is incredibly rushed, making it slightly unsatisfying as a resolution to a seemingly hopeless plot.  Again, maybe this is where reading Tess first affected things, because it was clear to me an event referenced in that book would be coming at the climax, and that event is introduced and occurs in very quick succession, which doesn't quite match the pacing of the rest of the book.

Shadow Scale is still a very solid book mind you, and if you enjoyed Seraphina, you'll probably want to read this book.  But if you didn't love Seraphina you may not want to rush into Shadow Scale, as it doesn't quite live up to its predecessor.
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