Rachel Hartman’s Shadow Scale is the second book in the Seraphina duology. War is coming to Goredd. Set three months after the events of Seraphina, the dragons are in the middle of a bloody civil war. Seraphina soon learns about a strange power that can protect Goredd from dragons. This power can only be achieved if the half-dragons (ityasaari) collaborate. She goes off on a mission with Abdo to find and unite the ityasaari, but she meets a lot of opposition along the way and is reintroduced to a powerful villain. Her journey becomes more than just a mission to find others like her, it becomes a journey of self-discovery as well. Seraphina soon finds herself in the middle of a war that affects not only Goredd, but the entire world.
Seraphina has grown significantly. Throughout the story, Seraphina has proven herself to be kind and caring. The depth of her caring nature is only truly seen when she refuses to harm someone who has harmed or will harm her. Her most obvious growth is shown through her learning to accept herself. Seraphina’s scales caused her years of shame, self-hatred and isolation. Along with her kindness, Seraphina is known to be dedicated, talented, intelligent and loyal to her friends. As she begins to accept herself, she also begins to open up to others. As she learns to trust and rely on others, she encounters an enemy that forces her to distance herself from her newfound friends. She began to learn and accept herself.
Shadow Scale was a great book. The book remained interesting throughout, but the plot had a tendency to drag. As expected with a book that exceeds 500 pages, the story was full of deep descriptions and plenty of slower paced parts. Despite the ever present urgency of an approaching battle, the plot can occasionally be described as boring and slow. Even that sense of urgency is lost when the duration of Seraphina’s mission is revealed. In this book, things don’t happen in days, they happen in weeks. Pacing aside, this book greatly expanded on the world of Seraphina. It introduced many cultures and countries. Each one had different views of the mysterious Saints, powerful dragons, and strange ityasaari. Not only was it interesting and exciting, it also created a full picture of the world of Seraphina. All questions are answered and explained in this final book. Those who were expecting a romance will be sorely disappointed. While there is some love going on, its presence in the story is massively underplayed. In all, the series was extremely interesting as it gave a new and exciting perspective to dragons. I give this 587 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.