dragons

In the Serpent’s Wake

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by Rachel Hartman
First sentence: “Once there was a girl named Tess, Who’d got herself in a wretched mess.”
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Others in the series: Seraphina, Shadow Scale, Tess of the Road
Content: There is violence towards others, including colonizer violence, and talk of rape. It’s in the Young Adult Science Fiction section of the bookstore.

Tess has promised her quigutl friend, Pathka, that she will take him to the Sea World Serpent, especially after she was inadvertently responsible for the death of the Continental World Serpent. However, even though she’s on a voyage with noted scientist Countess Margarethe and her brother-in-law (of sorts) Jacomo, this task isn’t as easy as it seems. First: there’s the competing dragon expedition, headed by Spiro, whom Tess has had (unfortunate) dealings with. And then there’s the repeated warnings that the serpent is not for her- and other Deadlanders, as the island peoples call them – and she will not be allowed near.

It’s a simple story at it’s heart, but Hartman, because she’s a brilliant writer, has managed to weave in so much. The consequences of not saying anything in the face of injustice. The assumptions that class and privilege afford you. The choices we all make, for good or ill, and the fallout of those. And, most of all, reparations for those choices, especially when they’ve done ill (whether you’ve meant it or not). I marveled just how much Hartman was able to pack into this simple voyage story, and how satisfying it was, even if Tess didn’t succeed at her quest.

I’m not sure I’ll continue with the new one, at least not yet. But, if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading one of Hartman’s books, I’d highly suggest remedying that.

Audiobook: Lady’s Knight

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by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Read by Helen Keeley & Barbara Rosenblat
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some violence – jousting and dragon-killing and the like; and two f-bombs. It’s in the YA Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Gwen has dreams. She is the blacksmith’s daughter, and is running the forge herself pretty much these days, but she has designed her own armor, and wants to try her hand at jousting. And one day, she earns enough money and enters the qualifying rounds of the tournament… and wins. She thinks it’s a one-off, but then Lady Isobelle finds her and convinces her to continue. It seems that Lady Isobelle is the prize for winning the tournament, and she doesn’t really want to marry any of the other knights. She convinces Gwen to be her champion in the tournament.

Gwen reluctantly agrees, follows Isobelle to the castle, where she pretends to be “Sir Gawain’s” sister, and… well, falls in love with Isobelle. There’s more to the plot – including terribly chauvinistic knights and a lady’s maid who might be an assassin – but that’s the basic premise.

Oh, this one was a delight. The back blurb (do audiobooks have a back blurb?) mentioned The Knight’s Tale as a comp, and I think that’s spot on. It’s Knight’s Tale but with lesbian girls, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. It’s laugh-aloud funny at parts (LOVE the narrator who breaks the fourth wall), and yet had me ugly crying and the show of unity among women at the end. It’s fierce, it’s sweet, it’s a joy to read (and to listen to!). I can’t recommend this silly, sweet, fun book enough.

Audiobook: Onyx Storm

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by Rebecca Yarros
Read by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton, Justis Bolding & Jasmin Walker
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Fourth Wing, Iron Flame
Content: It’s super sweary, super violent, and lots of on-screen sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first two books, obviously.

It’s picking up again, where Iron Flame left off – there’s venin (I think that’s how you spell it), Xaden’s turning into one (though he’s trying hard to stop it), the king won’t let refugees in, and they need to find Andara’s (is that spelled right?) dragon family.

And we’re going to spend 500+ (23 hours!) pages doing this.

I started out liking this one – Solner is still delightfully unhinged, I thought the travels around the islands were interesting, and it was nice to have Violet back being a smart badass again. But, as the book went on I lost patience with it. It dragged in the middle. I wanted to punch Xaden in the face on a number of occasions. I hated the “I wanted you but I don’t trust myself” parts and the miscommunication. The last one was a lot, but this was even MORE. And by the end, I was just not interested. (Speaking of the end: I hated it. So much.)

And, after three 500 page books in a five-book series that could have been a solid trilogy, I think I’m done. I have zero interest in where the story is going, in Violet and Xaden’s future, or in all the many plot strings Yarros left undone.

(If I consider reading the fourth when it comes out, remind me that I’m probably going to be annoyed and frustrated with it and that it’s probably not going to be worth my time.)

The Bloodless Prince

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by Charlotte Bond
First sentence: “When the universe was young and dark, light existed inside an egg.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 29, 2024
Others in the series: The Fireborne Blade
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is some violence. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first, obviously.

Maddileh and Saralene have won the blade, killed the dragon, cheated death, and have gone on with their lives. Saralene is High Mage with Maddileh as her Champion. Except all is not well: both Maddileh and Saralene keep having disturbing dreams and they are becoming increasingly intrusive. Also: maybe the dragon is not actually dead. And: maybe the Tales of Old are not just stories, but actually true, and they need to travel to the underworld to bargain with the Bloodless Princes for their lives.

Much like the first, this slim novel packs a punch. There is so much world-building in so few words, it’s breathtaking. I love the dragon in the book – it’s different from the first in this duology and it fits with what we already know and expands upon it. Bond is an incredibly talented writer, both with her plotting and characterizations. I liked how the romance was understated until it wasn’t, how Bond never let anything get overdone, and how both Maddileh and Saralene stand on their own and know how to work together. It’s quite a brilliant little book.

All this to say: I’m probably going to read whatever Bond decides to write.

The Fireborne Blade

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by Charlotte Bond
First sentence: “On my oath, I, Sir Nathaniel, do swear that what I am about to tell the Distinguished Mage is the truth.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: May 28, 2024
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is violence and some pretty gruesome deaths. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Maddileh is a knight. She’s managed to get herself disgraced – it was something to do with an ex-lover and punching him in the face because he was an ass. She figures that there’s only one way to reclaim her honor: get the legendary Fireborne Blade from The White Lady Dragon. It’s impossible, but she’s going to do it.

Of course, it’s not that simple. Her story is interspersed with chapters that are histories – some oral, some told by others – of knights who fought dragons and often didn’t live to tell their tales. If the White Lady is anything like these… then how is Maddileh going to survive? The narrative also jumps in time – sometimes you’re present with her and her squire in the tunnels, others you’re getting her backstory.

This slim novel is utterly compelling. It’s tight, it’s giving me dragons in a way I haven’t seen dragons before (yay for that), and it’s got characters I care about. The publisher is comparing it to Fourth Wing, etc. but that’s not it: it’s more comparable to T. Kingfisher, Martha Wells, or Nicola Griffith than the sprawling, over-dramatic Fourth Wing. This prose is SPARE. The action is intense. The romance is incredibly understated. It’s masterfully done, and I hope it finds an audience because I think it’s fantastic. (Bonus: the sequel is out in October.)

Audiobook: Iron Flame

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by Rebecca Yarros
Read by Rebecca Soler & Teddy Hamilton
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Fourth Wing
Content: It’s super sweary, super violent, and lots of on-screen sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Fourth Wing, obviously.

This picks up right after the events of Fourth Wing, with Violet recovering from the venin attack. From there, they go back to Basgaith for graduation and year two. But this year is a lot different. First off, Xaden and his dragon are stationed away from the War college so he and Violet are basically forced to spend their weekends together because of their bonded dragons. Of course, they don’t mind. (#sexytimes) Then there’s the wacked-out, facist new head of the war college, who has it out for Violet – like to the point of nearly killing her several times. And then there’s the whole rebellion and the fact that Navarre is hiding the impending Doom from its citizens. 

On the one hand, Soler is still delightfully unhinged (especially sped up 1.5x) and makes these books enjoyable. Because, there’s so much that is just plot holes. I was actually shouting at the audiobook this time; Violet – nay, all the characters, really – were just slow and not askign the right questions. And there were several WTH moments. And then there was the fact that it was just a LOT. A LOT of violence. A LOT of sex. A LOT of trying to make relationship work. A LOT, period. 

Will I read the next one? Maybe. Probably. They’re still fun, even if this one wasn’t as much fun as Fourth Wing was. 

Audiobook: Fourth Wing

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by Rebecca Yarros
Read by Rebecca Soler & Teddy Hamilton
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: It’s super sweary, super violent, and lots of on-screen sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Violet Sorrengail was supposed to be a scribe. But then her father passed away and her mother – who is the general in charge of the flight battle school – has different plans for her. Violet – frail, sickly Violet – is given no choice: she has to join the battle school. The place where you either graduate or die. The book takes place over the first year, as Violet learns to navigate the cruelties of the school, makes – and loses – friends, and finds an unreasonable attraction to the son of an executed rebel leader, Xaden Riorson.

My first reaction when listening to this? It’s not objectively a good book. Like, the writing is not great. But, it’s a lot of fun. I think it helped that Soler was slightly unhinged reading the book. She was chewing through scenery, which honestly, is what this book needed. It’s not a book to be taken seriously at all. That said, Yarros is a good storyteller. There was a lot of action, the battle scenes were pretty intense, and there were some nice surprises as well. I will probably read the second book in the series, just to see where it goes.

So, do I respect this book? No. Will I recommend it? Depends on the person. Do I understand why it’s the Big Thing that it is? Oh yeah. I get it now.

Tidesong

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by Wendy Xu
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some bullying/strict parenting on the part of parents, which might be triggering. It’s in the Middle Grade Graphic novel section of the bookstore.

Sophie comes from a long magical line of women who have taken care of the island and communicated with the dragons in the sea. Sophie wants to make her mother and grandmother proud, and get into the magic academy. So she s shipped off to live with her Great Aunt and learn how to refine her madic for her aplication process. She’s not great at magic though and keeps messing up, which makes her Auntie Lan irritated. Sophie is attempting some magic, which goes wrong, and accidentally gets her magic entangled in with a young water dragon, Lir. He’s human, without memories of who he really is, and they can’t get their magic detangled.

I’m not making this sound anywhere near as good as it really is. It’s a little bit learning to make your own path in the world – Sophie learns that it’s not the wishes of her elders that she needs to follow but her own hear – and a little bit learning how to be a good friend – which means not remembering that other people’s wishes are valid as well your own. It’s a solid coming-of-age story, one where Sophie really learns to shine, but in her own, special way.

Xu is an excellent storyteller, and this is no exception.

Dragondrums

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by Anne McCaffrey
First sentence: “The rumble-thud-boom of the big drums answering a message from the east roused Piemur.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger
Content: There is some bullying and one very off-screen sex scene. It would be in the YA section of the bookstore if we had it.

Piemur — who was a minor character in Menolly’s story of the first two books — takes front and center in this one. A few turns have passed since we last heard from our friends in the Harper Hall, and Piemur, known for his clear boy soprano has had the worst thing happen: he’s started to go through puberty and his voice is changing. That means, he’s no longer the center of all the choruses, and Master Robinton needs to find something to do with him. That something is learning the message drums. Except precocious Piemur does it too well and he’s bullied. One thing leads to another and Piemur finds himself stranded on Southern lands, without a hold, but with a stolen fire lizard egg. Will he ever find a place again?

In some ways, I felt this was just “Dragonsong: part 2”. I guess McCaffrey felt like Piemer needed an arc ‘like Menolly’s: he was bullied, and pushed out of a place he thought he loved, he went holdless, he found joy in a new place. There are some Pern politics in the backdrop that give it a bit more depth than Dragonsong — the tension between the new dragon riders and the Oldtimers in the south, for instance. But, it was mostly just a reprise. Except that Piemur is a delightful character, and Menolly’s in the background giving him support. So: it’s really a better Dragonsong than Dragonsong is. In fact, this might be my favorite of the trilogy, as much as I want to wholly love Menolly’s books.

It holds up as a triolgy, though.

Dragonsinger

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by Anne McCaffrey
First sentence: “When Menolly, daughter of Yanis Sea Holder, arrived at Harper Craft Hall, she arrived in style, aboard a bronze dragon,”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Dragonsong
Content: There is some bullying. It would be in the YA section of the bookstore if we had it.

This picks up exactly where Dragonsong left off: with Menolly, discovered by Masterharper Robinton, arriving with her nine fire lizards at Harper Hall to become an apprentice. It takes place over her first week, where she makes some friends and a lot of enemies, gets into more trouble because of her fire lizards, and tries to find confidence in herself.

I think this one is better, overall, than Dragonsong, but only because there’s a lot more going on and a lot fewer awful people. In the first book, it’s Menolly against the world. In this book, Menolly makes some friends and it isn’t quite her vs. everyone. Though it seems that in McCaffrey’s world, Menolly’s enemies are mostly empty-headed girls, which bothered me. I disliked the lack of female support, and the one-dimensionalness (not a word, I know) of the other women in the book. M pointed out that most of the secondary characters are one-dimensional, but still, for all of Menolly’s talent and awesomeness and that I’m glad she learned to stick up for herself, I kind of wished she had developed more of a circle of female friends rather than becoming “one of the guys”. But, the book was published in 1977, so maybe that’s too much to ask.

At any rate, it was a fun little read.