Shadow Scale (Rachel Hartman)

Author Biography

Rachel Hartman is a Vancouver-based comic book artist and music lover. Seraphina and Shadow Scale are her first two novels.

Published By: Random House

Year: 2015

ISBN: 978-0-375-86657-9

Reading Level: Grades 10 and up

Reader’s Annotation:

As a dragon war rages, Seraphina sets out on a quest to find other half-dragons like herself. But can she elude a powerful villainess who aims to hijack her mission for her own sinister purpose?

Plot Summary:

Civil war has raged for three months between the dragons near the kingdom of Goredd. If the rebel dragons, the Old Ard, defeat the Loyalists, Goredd itself will surely be attacked. Then the half-human, half-dragon Seraphina Dombegh, court composer and friend to Queen Glisselda and Prince Lucian Kiggs, learns that half-dragons like herself can psychically link their minds together, and by doing so they can form an invisible barrier in the air, strong enough to stop a dragon in midflight. In hope that such a barrier will protect the kingdom, Seraphina and her fellow half-dragons Abdo, Dame Okra and Lars set out on a journey to find others like them.

Traveling through Gorredd’s neighboring lands, the search party meets a fascinating array of half-dragons: kindly kleptomaniac doctor Nedouard, spider-loving hermit Blanche, monstrous Gianni Potto, and more. But the quest turns dangerous with the sudden appearance of Jannoula. A half-dragon with immense psychic powers who once possessed Seraphina’s mind from afar and who now enters the minds of her companions. She claims to want to help Seraphina in her mission… but who knows what her true, dark intent might be?

Critical Evaluation:

This sequel to the New York Times Bestseller Seraphina, set in a world where dragons can take human form and interbreed with real humans, is a masterpiece of world building. As she journeys beyond the first book’s England-like setting of Goredd, Seraphina explores a diverse array of lands, each with its own richly detailed culture, and meets an assortment of half-dragons with a wide range of physical traits, abilities and experiences. She also learns the startling origins of her homeland’s religion, grapples with her forbidden love for Lucian Kiggs and with fear for her exiled uncle Orma, and makes new discoveries about herself and the potential of her psychic powers. But all the while, her quest is hounded by Jannoula, a compelling villainess with a horrific backstory and terrifying powers of manipulation, both supernatural and psychological.

The first book’s graceful mirroring of real-world social issues also continues here. The parallels between the lives of people with dragon blood and those of minority cultures and/or the mentally disabled are clearer than ever. But rest assured, real-world diversity is very present among the humans too. The cast features numerous people of color, a transgender woman, two male lovers, and a resolution to Seraphina’s own romance subplot that’s far from conventional. The latter detail is part of an ending that's slightly more uncertain and bittersweet than the first book’s, but which sees the characters working resolutely to create a world where “all reasoning beings are equal.” Lovers of Seraphina should waste no time in devouring its sequel too.

Curriculum Ties:

•Fantasy worlds

•Diversity

Challenge Issues:

•Mild profanity

•Violence

•Bodily function references

•Rape references

•LGBTQ themes

•Implied open marriage and polyamory

Why This Book?

With rich world building, humor, terror, heartbreak, epic fantasy and intelligence, Shadow Scale is a fully worthy sequel to Seraphina.