Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 9, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
To Shape a Dragon's Breath is subtitled "The First Book of Nampeshiweisit" and as that subtitle might lead you to expect, it's the first book in a new Indigenous American-inspired fantasy series.* The story features a 15 year old indigenous young woman** named Anequs who lives on the island of Masquapaug, an island populated by her indigenous people who live otherwise unmolested by the colonizing Anglish as long as they pay their taxes on time and don't come into anything of value to the Anglish. But when Anequs finds a dragon egg, a Nampeshiwe dragon rather than a colonizer dragon, she finds that she has no choice but to go to the Anglish world with her dragon Kasaqua in order to learn about how to properly train and handle the dragon...for her own people's dragons had been lost long ago, together with their own knowledge of how to handle them. Naturally this results in conflict, for the colonizers do not view Anequs and her people as civilized at best, want to exterminate them at worst, and nearly all have little interest in them having a dragon....
*Some places online, like goodreads, list this book as Young Adult, presumably because the story is in some sense a "coming of age" story, features a teen protagonist, and features as a major plot point the protagonist going to a special school. However, neither the publisher website nor Amazon list the book as such and it does deal with adult themes, and I know one reviewer I trust for YA has rejected the distinction for this book. So I will be treating this as adult fiction.*
**Anequs' culture treats adulthood as coming at 13, so despite her age I will be referring to her as a "woman" and not a "girl" in this review.**
The result is a fascinating story, which features a rigid prejudiced, sexist, and classist colonizer society like that of Victorian England (with a Norse-like religion mind you) being constantly interrogated and run up against by the far more liberal and flexible Anequs. Anequs encounters not only colonial power and the aforementioned prejudices, but also has to deal with the Anglish society's rules against queerness (Anequs is Bi and would like to date two different people at once) and its misogynist and ableist teaching in society that lead another friend of hers, an Anglish boy who is clearly autistic, to be constantly bullied and punished. And how Anequs struggles through it all as she tries to learn how to handle Kasaqua and to help her people survive and get use out of the dragon (including trying to figure out the setting's really interesting alchemical/chemistry based dragon magic) is really interesting to read. That said, the book sometimes feels like it makes Anequs too perfect, as if she has the answer to everything such that she can never truly go wrong, which kind of is a personal issue of mine with certain books, even if the book never goes quite too far in this direction to the point of being really annoying....
More specifics after the jump:
Plot Summary:
It had been ages since dragons had been seen on Masquapaug. But when 15 year old Anequs was gathering mussels one day on Slipstone Island, she saw a dragon - one who belonged there, a true Nampeshiwe dragon. That dragon flew off into the sea, never to be seen again, but when Anequs returned to make an offering, she finds an even bigger supply: the dragon had left an egg. And days later the egg hatches and reveals a baby Nampeshiwe dragon, named Kasaqua, who bonds immediately with Anequs.To Shape a Dragon's Breath takes place in a world that's different than ours, but is still very recognizable, with cultures, attitudes, and histories that are inspired by combinations of real Earth cultures...except with dragons. The colonizing nation of Angland is basically a combination of English Colonizers with a Victorian Noble Culture to go along with a religion that is basically Norse with the names of gods filed off. And the Anglish relation to the natives of the continent is just as the American Colonists is and was - disdainful, treating them as uncivilized and peoples who can at best be elevated to "civilized" society and at worst must be eliminated for the good of "civilized" society. Add in the way that black citizens tend to be indentured by Anglish society - and were formerly enslaved - and well, what you get here is a setting that feels very much like early 20th century America (with automobiles just coming into fashion in the hands of the very rich).
This is a special moment, one for the whole tribe, but it also presents a few problems. First, there's the fact that the Anglish colonizers, who normally leave Masquapaug alone if the people there duly pay their taxes, are certainly not going to do nothing when they find out the people there have acquired a dragon. And Second there's the fact that the Nampeshiwe have been gone so long that Anequs' people no longer know how to handle such a dragon, especially when it becomes old enough to unleash its powerful breath...a breath that the Anglish and other colonizers are able to use to perform powerful alchemical reactions.
And so the only way Anequs can handle either problem is to do what she never wanted: to temporarily leave the islands to go to an Anglish school for those chosen by dragons so that she can learn to shape her dragon's breath. But the Anglish are a rigid and strict society of a kind Anequs has never dealt with before and many of them would prefer to destroy her people than ever to let them have a dragon, nevertheless to train it, and Anequs will find learning what she needs may not be the most difficult part of her journey, rather than just surviving Anglish prejudice and evil.....
Of course this setting also does include dragons of various types, even if the indigenous people have largely lost their own dragons due to plague and war (although indigenous peoples who are still fighting the colonizers out West are said to still have them). And in a really creative touch, the dragons' breath is known to be usable, in combination with certain formulas and symbols, to create well chemical reactions. It's a magic-like system that resembles real world chemistry, just powered by dragon's breath, and it's really fascinating...especially when the reveal happens about how the indigenous people had come up with their own effective version of the same thing.
For that's a large part of this story. Yes there's a story here about Anequs dealing with school as an oppressed minority full of colonizing students and professors amidst prejudice, and how she helps an autistic student who struggles with crowds and verbal communication and prefers communicating with writing as he deals with bullying and becomes a very good friend. And how she deals with a romance she wants to have with a young black servant girl, despite Anglish prejudices against queerness and societal ranks; and how she deals with a potential romance as well as potential friendship with a fellow indigenous boy with a dragon, the only other one at the school, who was orphaned by fighting and has been raised by the Anglish...and how that boy doesn't know anything about his culture and wishes he could be Anglish even as he knows he never will be treated as such. There's a lot of such things here, and those aspects of the story are done well, but to me they aren't the main focus or what makes this book special.
Instead what makes this book special is how much it shows how indigenous culture has already developed the answers for what problems plague colonizer society...if only colonizer society was willing to listen to them and understand what they consider as "uncivilized" was better. Issues of class and social need are not an issue for Anequs' people, nor are issues of queerness and gender - by contrast the Anglish are so obsessed with social status and gender/sex that those who fit in find themselves either having to hide their true selves and/or twisted into knots. The toxic masculinity that plagues Anglish society, where boys are raised in all boy schools to prioritize dominance instead of helping others, is not a thing in Anequs' culture, and she is shocked to see how the adults of Anglish Society are so willing to let such horrible acts - like bullying an autistic boy who is shy and introverted and won't fight back - go on because they don't know any other way and think that such things are just natural signs of being boys. And well, even the better people in Anglish Culture, the ones who are willing to teach Anequs and have her at the school, find themselves just resigned to this being natural and insisting that Anequs and her people's thinking otherwise is "uncivilized" and something to be changed, even when Anequs' people clearly show a better way if anyone would bother to look at it through neutral eyes.
Indeed, Anequs seemingly has the answers to everything, which to be honest, gets a little bit ridiculous at a point. This is even called out by another character in story, which shows that the author recognizes that, and well, the way Anequs' actions almost always work out as being better is a little beyond belief. But there are countless books about colonizer peoples having all the answers for the indigenous peoples they conquer, so honestly, it's not as much of a problem as it would be in other books for me - and it helps that Anequs and her other side characters are very good and interesting to read about. There's a likable cast here and a story that occasionally defies conventions, which keeps things interesting and less frustrating for me than it could be otherwise. Also this is only book 1 of a series, and while the conclusion to this book is a little bit unsatisfying - there's no clear climax or anything, it just kind of ends - it does lead me to believe that struggles that you'd expect will be coming in future books.
All in all, To Shape a Dragon's Breath is a fascinating novel, and I've barely touched on the characters, some of the themes, and the plot in this review. But I don't like to write too much more, so just take it from me: this book is very very good and well worth your time.
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