Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina is the first book in the Seraphina series. Many years prior to the story, humans migrated into the hunting lands of dragons to form the country of Goredd. This sparked a war between the two species. Forty years prior to the events of this book, a peace treaty was made between the intelligence loving dragons and the humans. The world finally settled into an uneasy peace, but neither species truly trusts the other. The dragons (often called saarantrai) are able to take human form so they can interact with humans, but are generally emotionless because they hate the human emotions associated with their human form. The Board of Censors monitors the emotional state of the dragons and alters the memories of dragons deemed too emotional. After years of war, the humans don’t trust dragons. Anti-dragon groups have started acts of mob violence and humans confined the dragons to one area of the city. When Prince Rufus of Goredd is killed an unusually dragon-like manner, the distrust between both sides amplifies. Seraphina, daughter of a dragon and a human, puts it on herself to track down Prince Rufus’s killer.
In this story, the dragons are remarkably emotionless. With mathematical and scientific minds, they look down upon emotions and religion. To dragons, humans are too emotionally driven. To humans, dragons are emotionless monsters. Seraphina is a mix of both. She is incredibly intelligent and accepts her emotions. Despite growing up a human, she well acquainted with dragon customs, habits and language due to her dragon mentor. She often acts as a mediator, helping humans understand and accept dragons. Seraphina is also an extremely talented musician, yet is forbidden from playing to prevent unwanted attention. To keep her secret Seraphina tries to isolate herself, but finds friends as the plot continues.
Seraphina was a great story. It combined the intrigue of fantasy with the suspense of a murder mystery. Instead of painting dragons as evil beasts, dragons are portrayed as intelligent beings with morality that varies as much as human morality. To make these dragons even more unique, they can transform into humans and hold knowledge above everything. As a mystery novel, Seraphina views dragons as complex beings instead of all powerful monsters. The sour interactions between people and dragons makes the story better and adds strain on Seraphina as she tries to help humans understand dragons and keep her inconceivable secret. Unlike most fantasy books, Seraphina focuses on the political side of the world, rather than emphasizing action and adventure. It is an interesting read that keeps you hooked. I give this 451 page book 4.5 stars.
Seraphina
In the world of Seraphina, there are dragons how value math and science above everything. They are able to take human form in order to interact with humans. Despite the 40 years of peace between the species, tensions still run high.
Series Analysis
The Seraphina Trilogy is good, but short duology. The plot mainly consists of conflict between humans and an extremely unique set of dragons. Follow the half-dragon protagonist as she embarks on a journey of self-acceptance. Anyone who likes dragon books will like this duology and anyone who is getting tired of dragon books will appreciate this stories new angle on dragons. Goodreads gives this series 3.875 stars and this site gives it 4.5 stars.