Shadow Scale

Shadow Scale opens up the world of Seraphina on a much more epic scale. The story begins with the dragon civil war, but it also takes us through the different kingdoms as Seraphina goes around gathering other ityasaari (half-dragons) like her. While the dragons are fighting their war, the human kingdoms are also having upheavals regarding their leadership and how their relations with Tanamoot would be continued. The story takes into it several threads, and brings them all together in an amazing finale.

Seraphina's story had begun with her getting caught up in human-dragon politics and now she is becoming sort of an ityasaari ambassador of Goredd to other kingdoms. She ventures out, along with the others, to collect the other ityasaari so that they can protect the kingdom and aid in the civil war. At first, I thought it was a thin excuse to have her going around meeting everyone, but soon as one of the half-dragons from her garden starts to take centrestage, the real stakes of the story are established. Jannoula, who Seraphina had locked away in her mind, is reaching out to the other half-dragons, and her presence during the dragon civil war is not a good sign. Seraphina faces the challenge of standing against a powerful ityasaari whom she had barely outwitted the last time, and as Jannoula's influence spreads, Seraphina's allies keep dwindling. Coupled with this is the question that we had been asking in Seraphina about how rare the ityasaari are.

While Seraphina takes us through each kingdom, Ninys, Sam Sam and then Porphyria, we see how the attitudes towards the dragons shapes the ityasaari in each kingdom. Ninys and Sam Sam are vehemently anti-dragon, the latter more so, and the half-dragons there live a life of seclusion. In Porphyria, however, they are given amnesty, so their treatment is different. Even so, existing political ties to Tanamoot mean that the saars living in exile there also are invested in the outcome of the dragon civil war. Seraphina's challenge is to get her allies to cooperate on a single objective, and to prevent Goredd from being ravaged by dragon armies and the new leadership of Sam Sam. The ending was a bit surprising, and considering the way it was basically a Deus Ex Machina, I also felt it was wrapped up too easily. The buildup until that point had promised a much more intense climactic scene than we got, but that worked, too, in a way.

As for the world, as I said before, we get a much more complex and detailed building in this one. Much of what had already been established in Seraphina is now further examined in the light of new revelations. Also, I loved Porphyria very much, particularly because of their more open attitude towards dragons, and a much more inclusive society. In Seraphina, we had come across Lars and Viridius being Daanites (as in, gay) but here, in Porphyria, seven genders are accepted, and there is also a trans secondary character. There is also, in fact, a minor arc about gender identity and asking for pronouns, and not assuming anyone's gender, which I really liked.

When it came to the romance, however, Shadow Scale took the less is more approach. Yes, Kiggs is still a love interest for Seraphina but their relationship is on the DL for Glisselda's sake. Even so, at the end, that part is resolved in a very nice manner, befitting the relationship these three characters have with each other. I wish it had been more explicit about it, rather than leave it to subtext and one line that had me going - umm, please explain? Suffice to say, I agree with Seraphina that it is their business but still, as a reader, I can't help but feel a little robbed of a clearly defined resolution to that love triangle.

Overall, this book is an epic journey and a fitting sequel/finale to Seraphina