Two amazing books in a row on this blog? We're on a roll!
I originally picked this at a quaint bookshop looking for something easy on the plane ride home. I didn't expect to get so hooked!
There have been forty years of peace between humans and dragons in the country of Gorredd. In this world, dragons can take on the form of a human, and these forms are called saarantrai. High titles in courts and army positions are held by dragons because, big surprise, they're better than humans in tactics and war. But a lot of people still don't like the dragons, feeling that they are among impostors who will stab them in the back at any minute. And little do the people know that an imminent war is brewing...
Seraphina, age sixteen, is born among two worlds; each seeing her as an abomination. She is half dragon. Keeping her lineage a secret, she conceals her scales that spread up her forearms and around her waist. It's not easy, though, for many reasons. Seraphina is an awesome protagonist to read about. She's not whiny, and you do not want to get into an argument with her - dragon's blood and your dad being a human lawyer means instant win. Also, she's funny, which can be hard to be in a formal setting book like this. I give the author major kudos for that. There's plenty of laugh-out-loud comedy strung throughout this book.
My favorite character in this is definitely Orma, Phina's uncle - a dragon. In their natural form, dragons are cold, calculating, and stoic. But when in their saarantrai, they begin to develop human emotions, which is a very bad thing in their eyes. In fact, too much emotion can lead to a dragon's arrest and memory excision. Orma finds some ways around it, though, as he raises Seraphina. The relationship between them is great, the way they tease each other. Orma can be really funny without realizing it, especially when he's learning what to do with his new emotions. Seraphina is constantly berated by his outlandish questions. And a good example of a scene is when Orma accentuates every other word as he speaks, and Phina is just sitting there, thinking "Ladies and gentlemen, the first ever attempt of a dragon being sarcastic."
Ah, one thing I feel I should inform you about. Seraphina has visions when she is young, most often of specific people she doesn't know. To keep the visions from overrunning her, she establishes a little mental thing to keep track of them all. My initial response to this was, "Okay... so she's a tad schizo." Not the case. You will find out the purpose of the people that she calls her "grotesques". Give it time, the story behind it is quite awesome ;)
All of the characters in this are so lifelike. Glissenda, Viridius, Prince Lucian, Lars, Abdo (Oh, Abdo!), Orma, Phina, each of them have their own story and I wanted to know more and more. And I find the names to be really cool, though the girl names are rather tedious. There's even a scene where they make fun of that between Glissenda and Phina. Everything that I've mentioned up to now in this post is just the preamble to the story, I haven't even reached the actual plot yet. And I'm not going to, because it's purely fascinating and touching that I want you readers to discover it for yourselves. Hate me if you will, (Ouch! Who threw that??) but it's worth it.
Another thing that's cool about this is the religion of the characters. The humans worship an array of Saints, all having different patron(esses). Each of the Saints have their own domain - truth, death, the conscience mind, etc. And there are these things called the Golden Plays where actors perform the tales behind the Saint, and I really wanted to see them!
Overall, this book is beautifully written. Everything came together perfectly. One thing about the author's style - she loves cliffhangers. At the end of a chapter, she would have you dangling off a cliffside by a rope, your heartbeat going a mile a minute, then only to find out on the next page that you're only a foot drop from the ground. It's a cheap trick, and an author has to have guts to try and pull that off without angering the readers, but I feel that Hartman did it just right. Exciting, magical, funny, heartwarming, fist pumping; these all describe this story. (I admit, when a certain character showed up in a battle scene, I did do a Freddie Mercury pose. I have no regrets.)
I want to tell so much more about this book, but I fear for spoiling things unintentionally. There's just something tucked away in every nook and cranny that fills one with wonderment, and you'll just have to read for yourselves.
Imagine my glee when I found out that a sequel will be out next year! I'm not going to spoil what it's about, but I do hope that we get to find out more about Jannoula. From what has been told, she's crazy!
Ta-ta for now,
Julia
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