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#17: Rachel Hartman, Shadow Scale
May. 6th, 2015 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareilaI feared the sequel couldn't possibly be as good as the original, and I was right. It's missing two elements that were critical to my enjoyment of the first book: Seraphina's job as court musician, and her relationship with her uncle and tutor, Orma. In this story, Seraphina spends all her time as an emissary and spy for the Goreddi court, with Fruit Bat/Abdo as her only constant travel companion, using quig technology and her unique mental gifts to communicate with her friends back home as they work to end the dragon civil war that erupted at the end of Seraphina. Orma has disappeared in exile, and surfaces only occasionally in a letter or flashback sequence.
( Mild spoilers; TW for mental abuse and loss of autonomy. )
On the bright side, this book has a positive portrayal of a transgender person, and hints at both same-sex and poly relationships off the page. It also answers a lot of questions I had from the previous book - who the other half-dragons are, what the other countries in the Southlands are like, and the origin of the Saints. It just goes to a really dark place in the process, and relies on a deus ex machina to avoid total apocalypse.
( Mild spoilers; TW for mental abuse and loss of autonomy. )
On the bright side, this book has a positive portrayal of a transgender person, and hints at both same-sex and poly relationships off the page. It also answers a lot of questions I had from the previous book - who the other half-dragons are, what the other countries in the Southlands are like, and the origin of the Saints. It just goes to a really dark place in the process, and relies on a deus ex machina to avoid total apocalypse.
