Review by linguisticali - To Shape a Dragon's Breath

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linguisticali 's review for:

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

I received a digital copy from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this! The worldbuilding is excellent. It reminded me of Lyra's world in His Dark Materials - a universe brushing up against our world, but profoundly different at the same time. Exploring colonialism realistically in a fantasy setting is something I haven't seen done in this way (or this well) in many other books. The use of language, especially academic and political terminology, as part of creating a distinctive world and its power structures is very effective.

Anequs is a fantastic character and she often surprised me with her strength and directness. I love how she pulls together very different people to create a group of friends. I adore Sander in particular and want so much for him to live his best autistic life. Also, the dragons are wonderful.

The plot didn't have much forward momentum, which came to feel frustrating by the end. I felt like we kept going round and round and having to deal with the same issues. There's some political intrigue in the last few chapters, but most of it happens off-page and is summarised very briefly.

I love that Anequs is from a culture where queerness is normalised and monogamy isn't compulsory. That said, I do think this book suffers a bit from presenting the Masquisit as perfect in comparison to the Anglish on every point - although that choice also makes sense to me as a correction (maybe an overcorrection?) to colonial notions of indigenous people as savage. I do appreciate that individual characters, like Anequs's father, are allowed to be complex and difficult without being wholly evil or unlikeable.

I hope the next book is a bit more plot-driven, now that the foundations of the world have been established. But if this is just the author's style, I'm sure I'll enjoy it either way.

Content Warnings