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Jan. 19th, 2024 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI've been meaning to write up To Shape a Dragon's Breath for a couple months now, and was reminded of this again since Moniquill Blackgoose was at Arisia (I didn't actually make it to any of her panels, mostly due to cross-scheduling, but the spirit of the thing nonetheless.)
This book is set in a somewhat alternate America with a significantly more Nordic-influenced history of 'Anglish' colonization (genarti's theory about the point of historic divergence underlying the worldbuilding if I remember right is 'no Roman Empire?' but I could be misremembering that, it's been a minute); also magic, and dragons, which pick and pair-bond with dragonriders in a manner that's deeply reminiscent of Pern.
In the area of not!New England where the book is primarily set, the vast majority of dragons are of Anglish origin and guided to bond with young aristocrats; meanwhile, the indigenous island village where our heroine Anequs lives has their own specific dragon-related lore and customs, but hasn't encountered one in generations until, of course, the start of the book, when Anequs unexpectedly finds a dragon egg.
Although everyone at first is very excited about this, Anequs-and-dragon are immediately faced with the grim reality that unless Anequs goes to Anglish dragonrider school and completes all the necessary bureaucratic requirements to keep her dragon, the force of the colonizing government is going to come down on her, her dragon, and her village like a hammer. Thus Anequs resigns herself to leaving her much-beloved community to experience a Classic Magical Boarding School Story amongst a lot of people who think she should be thrilled and honored to be granted such an unexpected opportunity for quote-unquote betterment, civilization, advancement in society, etc.
The two main charm points of this book, for me, are the confidence of a.) its worldbuilding (full, rich, interesting, consistently feels real and like it expands beyond the edges of what we're shown) and b.) its viewpoint. Anequs knows what exactly what she needs to get out of this experience and what she does not want to get out of this experience and she is Going to bring her cultural ethos to this Classic Magical Boarding School Story and she does not care at all if anyone else is interested in meeting her halfway, or not at all. Her two main foils at school as far as Other Unconventional Students go are an indigenous young man who grew up in an city orphanage and an Anglish young woman who is constantly trying to compensate for her unusual interest in dragons by otherwise buying strongly into conventional femininity; both of these relationships are really interestingly uneasy because those characters both have an investment in being Accepted by Anglish Society in a way that Anequs does not, and never will, and basically thinks is kind of stupid. As a protagonist, she doesn't change herself throughout the story so much as cause change in various situations by being exactly who she is, and Blackquill is extremely good at leaning into this premise and making it consistently fun and interesting and compelling.
The flip-side of this, and my one real complaint about the book, is that some of the dynamics ring a little weak because they don't trigger any particularly interesting changes in Anequs. The two main culprits here for me were the relationship with her dragon, who is much more of a plot device than a character in a way that does not feel quite satisfying for me when we are talking about a SOUL BONDED DRAGON, and Anequs' lesbian romance with a maid at the school about whom I still do not really know very much other than what Anequs knows, which is 'she is nice and she is cute.' Regret to inform that Anequs' het romance has more tension and is more interesting ... (As far as I recall I don't think either of Anequs' love interests currently know that Anequs is happily romancing both of them, and may have different feelings about this than Anequs herself who has never considered that anyone might be bothered by it, but presumably this is a problem for another book.)
Anyway, all that said, I enjoyed it a lot; it scratches the itch of being exactly the kind of Magic Dragon Boarding School Book that it is (we're studying frantically for magic class! we're going into town with our classmates for tea! we're dressing fancy and dancing with our crush at the Magic Dragon Boarding School Ball!) while also confidently engaging its own story-model from a strong and critical perspective. A difficult line to walk and I think the book does it well!
This book is set in a somewhat alternate America with a significantly more Nordic-influenced history of 'Anglish' colonization (
genarti's theory about the point of historic divergence underlying the worldbuilding if I remember right is 'no Roman Empire?' but I could be misremembering that, it's been a minute); also magic, and dragons, which pick and pair-bond with dragonriders in a manner that's deeply reminiscent of Pern.In the area of not!New England where the book is primarily set, the vast majority of dragons are of Anglish origin and guided to bond with young aristocrats; meanwhile, the indigenous island village where our heroine Anequs lives has their own specific dragon-related lore and customs, but hasn't encountered one in generations until, of course, the start of the book, when Anequs unexpectedly finds a dragon egg.
Although everyone at first is very excited about this, Anequs-and-dragon are immediately faced with the grim reality that unless Anequs goes to Anglish dragonrider school and completes all the necessary bureaucratic requirements to keep her dragon, the force of the colonizing government is going to come down on her, her dragon, and her village like a hammer. Thus Anequs resigns herself to leaving her much-beloved community to experience a Classic Magical Boarding School Story amongst a lot of people who think she should be thrilled and honored to be granted such an unexpected opportunity for quote-unquote betterment, civilization, advancement in society, etc.
The two main charm points of this book, for me, are the confidence of a.) its worldbuilding (full, rich, interesting, consistently feels real and like it expands beyond the edges of what we're shown) and b.) its viewpoint. Anequs knows what exactly what she needs to get out of this experience and what she does not want to get out of this experience and she is Going to bring her cultural ethos to this Classic Magical Boarding School Story and she does not care at all if anyone else is interested in meeting her halfway, or not at all. Her two main foils at school as far as Other Unconventional Students go are an indigenous young man who grew up in an city orphanage and an Anglish young woman who is constantly trying to compensate for her unusual interest in dragons by otherwise buying strongly into conventional femininity; both of these relationships are really interestingly uneasy because those characters both have an investment in being Accepted by Anglish Society in a way that Anequs does not, and never will, and basically thinks is kind of stupid. As a protagonist, she doesn't change herself throughout the story so much as cause change in various situations by being exactly who she is, and Blackquill is extremely good at leaning into this premise and making it consistently fun and interesting and compelling.
The flip-side of this, and my one real complaint about the book, is that some of the dynamics ring a little weak because they don't trigger any particularly interesting changes in Anequs. The two main culprits here for me were the relationship with her dragon, who is much more of a plot device than a character in a way that does not feel quite satisfying for me when we are talking about a SOUL BONDED DRAGON, and Anequs' lesbian romance with a maid at the school about whom I still do not really know very much other than what Anequs knows, which is 'she is nice and she is cute.' Regret to inform that Anequs' het romance has more tension and is more interesting ... (As far as I recall I don't think either of Anequs' love interests currently know that Anequs is happily romancing both of them, and may have different feelings about this than Anequs herself who has never considered that anyone might be bothered by it, but presumably this is a problem for another book.)
Anyway, all that said, I enjoyed it a lot; it scratches the itch of being exactly the kind of Magic Dragon Boarding School Book that it is (we're studying frantically for magic class! we're going into town with our classmates for tea! we're dressing fancy and dancing with our crush at the Magic Dragon Boarding School Ball!) while also confidently engaging its own story-model from a strong and critical perspective. A difficult line to walk and I think the book does it well!
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Date: 2024-01-20 06:13 am (UTC)It's fascinating to me that you think Anequs's het romance is more interesting! I loved that relationship -- it's deeply complicated and interesting -- but was very "sure, why not, I guess" about the fact that it was clearly going romanceward. Whereas her lesbian romance I liked a lot, because of all the class and race issues that meant they immediately clicked with a certain "oh thank god, YOU understand the signals I'm sending and want to be sending" especially on Anequs's part. Will it survive beyond school? Who knows! Maybe not! But that's true of any teen romance, and I found it extremely plausible as a "bonding through shared understanding while being surrounded by people who do not have that shared understanding" kind of thing.
(The dragon relationship also worked better for me than for you, but I'm expecting that that will ramp up some in future books as the dragon's personality stops being fundamentally Baby. We'll see! But as you know I was overall more into this book than you; I loved it.)
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Date: 2024-01-20 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-29 04:01 am (UTC)tbh I think the immediate click was part of my problem with the lesbian romance, they were coming from such different places that I simply didn't buy that they'd Get Each Other that easily, but that may well be a me problem & as you know I am glad it worked for you!
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Date: 2026-02-09 03:44 am (UTC)the confidence of a.) its worldbuilding (full, rich, interesting, consistently feels real and like it expands beyond the edges of what we're shown)
I really enjoyed that feeling of the worldbuilding extending deeper/broader than we got to see, especially as Anequs doesn't really care about all this Anglish history that's got nothing to do with her. That was a neat approach that's quite unusual for a fantasy book with well worked-out worldbuilding, especially such restraint in a debut SFF novel!
while also confidently engaging its own story-model from a strong and critical perspective. A difficult line to walk and I think the book does it well!
Yes, that was very impressive! :D