Book Review: To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniqull Blackgoose

 

Indigenous dragon riders! Need I say more?

 

To Shape a Dragon's Breath follows a young woman, Anequs, who bonds with the first dragon hatchling on the island of Masquapaug in recent memory. But her situation is complicated by the Anglish colonizers and their strict regulations of dragons and dragoneers. After signing up for an academy on the mainland, Anequs is plunged into a world different from her own, with new rules and new threats she never imagined. But she must survive and succeed, or risk the death of her dragon.

 

I keep wanting to say that this book is a breath of fresh air (and not just because of the pun), but the more I think about it, the more Blackgoose's book feels like a return to what I liked about dragon books as a kid. Well, at least it felt closer to that than other dragon books I've read recently (I'm looking at you, Fourth Wing). Books that turn dragons into sentient fighter jets and limit them exclusively to military service or to royal bloodlines. The world of To Shape a Dragon's Breath isn't devoid of all that. Anequs enters into a realm where dragons are mostly owned by the rich, or by the military, and are bred and sold in the same as way as racehorses. But for Anequs' community, among other in Markesland, treats dragons as partners, helpers in planting crops and stopping hurricanes. It's a return to what I remember seeing dragons as when I was a kid: helpers, friends, partners.

 And aside from all that, the book is just an engrossing read. The kind that kept me up late. The world-building is fun! The "Anglish" colonizers might sound familiar, but Blackgoose defamiliarized a society we should be used to by re-imagining the Anglish as colonized themselves by Norse culture. Readers have to learn the confusing ins-and-outs alongside Anequs, and traverse a world where no one explains the rules until you've already got them wrong. As if that wasn't enough, Anequs also has to negotiate the active colonization of her community, and the difficulty of balancing Anglish rules with her own beliefs and desires. 

 It all wraps up in a book you really lose track of time with! I can't recommend it enough.

 See you next time,

Aleks