Shadow Scale (Seraphina Series)

I wanted to write a review of this because the existing reviews discouraged me from reading it for four years, which I now regret very much, but also, I think, primed me to enjoy it as much as I did, which I don't regret at all. I am hoping to accomplish the latter while only discouraging people who actually won't like it.Seraphina in part played around with the themes of logic and emotion and whether love is worth spectacularly defying the expectations of your family and culture. From there, I think it would be a reasonable guess that this book is a book about how Seraphina and Lucian's love conquers all, where you get to see them spend a lot of time kissing and agonizing over whether to tell Glisselda and then they tell the truth and get married and live happily ever after. As it turns out, this book is not that book. If that is the only sequel to Seraphina that you want to read, don't read this one. You will not be able to to twist it around in your head until it becomes that book, and you will be disappointed.This book focuses on different characters and different themes than the first book. If it is a love story, it is one more about the communities we create for ourselves than about romantic love between Seraphina and Lucian. That is not to say that their love triangle isn't addressed at all, just that it isn't the main story line.That said, if you like Hartman's writing style, this book was clearly written by the same person. The author who gave us the compelling characters we fell in love with in Seraphina constructed the new characters in Shadow Scale, and you may find them just as compelling. I did.I also wanted to comment on a couple of other aspects: (a) yes, fully half this book is spent searching for the people in Seraphina's garden. That sounded boring to me and it clearly bored some people, but I was pleasantly surprised by how little fluff was actually included in those scenes. (b) The ending. The current first review ends with, "So instead, we see an ending with many beloved characters pretty miserable and without much purpose in their lives." I hope I can say without spoiling anything that this was not my interpretation in any way, shape, or form. I don't think that it is an invalid interpretation, but I think it's misleading to imply that it is the only interpretation.TL;DR: If you really like Hartman's writing style, you may greatly enjoy this book, but don't go into it expecting it to be a fairy tale romance between Seraphina and Lucian.

Incredibly unsatisfying follow up to Seraphina, which instantly became a favorite of mine. It feels like it was forced or that she was pressured to get the book done in a time frame that didn't enable her to shine to the best of her abilities. While Seraphina gave us action, social and political commentary, and many engaging characters, it seemed like Shadow Scale simply plodded along, trapped in a plot outside of what should have really been the focus. The trip to gather up the other half-dragons was painstakingly slow and took up the majority of the book; the conclusion was highly unsatisfactory, with none of the characters ending up truly contented at the end. Hartman attempted, I believe, to maneuver the text into a place so that readers could understand and embrace that duty comes first.... but it didn't feel like there was heart behind that decision. So instead, we see an ending with many beloved characters pretty miserable and without much purpose in their lives.

Shadow Scale opens up the world of Seraphina on a much more epic scale. The story begins with the dragon civil war, but it also takes us through the different kingdoms as Seraphina goes around gathering other ityasaari (half-dragons) like her. While the dragons are fighting their war, the human kingdoms are also having upheavals regarding their leadership and how their relations with Tanamoot would be continued. The story takes into it several threads, and brings them all together in an amazing finale.Seraphina's story had begun with her getting caught up in human-dragon politics and now she is becoming sort of an ityasaari ambassador of Goredd to other kingdoms. She ventures out, along with the others, to collect the other ityasaari so that they can protect the kingdom and aid in the civil war. At first, I thought it was a thin excuse to have her going around meeting everyone, but soon as one of the half-dragons from her garden starts to take centrestage, the real stakes of the story are established. Jannoula, who Seraphina had locked away in her mind, is reaching out to the other half-dragons, and her presence during the dragon civil war is not a good sign. Seraphina faces the challenge of standing against a powerful ityasaari whom she had barely outwitted the last time, and as Jannoula's influence spreads, Seraphina's allies keep dwindling. Coupled with this is the question that we had been asking in Seraphina about how rare the ityasaari are.While Seraphina takes us through each kingdom, Ninys, Sam Sam and then Porphyria, we see how the attitudes towards the dragons shapes the ityasaari in each kingdom. Ninys and Sam Sam are vehemently anti-dragon, the latter more so, and the half-dragons there live a life of seclusion. In Porphyria, however, they are given amnesty, so their treatment is different. Even so, existing political ties to Tanamoot mean that the saars living in exile there also are invested in the outcome of the dragon civil war. Seraphina's challenge is to get her allies to cooperate on a single objective, and to prevent Goredd from being ravaged by dragon armies and the new leadership of Sam Sam. The ending was a bit surprising, and considering the way it was basically a Deus Ex Machina, I also felt it was wrapped up too easily. The buildup until that point had promised a much more intense climactic scene than we got, but that worked, too, in a way.As for the world, as I said before, we get a much more complex and detailed building in this one. Much of what had already been established in Seraphina is now further examined in the light of new revelations. Also, I loved Porphyria very much, particularly because of their more open attitude towards dragons, and a much more inclusive society. In Seraphina, we had come across Lars and Viridius being Daanites (as in, gay) but here, in Porphyria, seven genders are accepted, and there is also a trans secondary character. There is also, in fact, a minor arc about gender identity and asking for pronouns, and not assuming anyone's gender, which I really liked.When it came to the romance, however, Shadow Scale took the less is more approach. Yes, Kiggs is still a love interest for Seraphina but their relationship is on the DL for Glisselda's sake. Even so, at the end, that part is resolved in a very nice manner, befitting the relationship these three characters have with each other. I wish it had been more explicit about it, rather than leave it to subtext and one line that had me going - umm, please explain? Suffice to say, I agree with Seraphina that it is their business but still, as a reader, I can't help but feel a little robbed of a clearly defined resolution to that love triangle.Overall, this book is an epic journey and a fitting sequel/finale to Seraphina

I read Seraphina and enjoyed it. It was a moving story with strong characters and plot development. I had high hopes that this sequel story would be a good conclusion to all the loose ends and cliff hangers. Boy was I wrong. I spent days reading (since I am a busy mother of many children and have limited time), at first avidly, slowly excusing the increasing shortcomings, growing more concerned, and then the ending confirmed all my fears. I can't tell you a single thing done right. I was very disappointed.

I loved Seraphina so I was looking forward to this. Looking at some of the reviews, this is not a book to jump into without reading the first one. Events pick up pretty quickly from the end of Seraphina. She now has a bond with Queen Glisselda and Prince Lucian and is more confident - especially now she has her fellow Ityasaari (half dragons) Abdo and Dame Okra. This book focuses on her going to find other half dragons and it works well. I have always found Seraphina's relationship with her dragon uncle Orma the most moving aspect of these books: his reason and logic not always able to explain his loyal devotion for niece and her faith in him. The lack of Orma in this book means I didn't find this one quite so moving but Hartman finds a good antagonist for Seraphina. My minor criticisms are that at points the events can come so hard and fast that is a bit tricky to understand them and the major denouement is a bit odd. My major criticism: the mess that is the love triangle of Glisselda, Kiggs and Seraphina. She seems to be jumping from one bizarre choice to the next and how it appears to end is just unsatisfying and a bit silly. This may well be the final book - refreshing if it isn't a trilogy; sad if it's finished - and certainly ends in a way that this could be the end of our visit to Gorredd.

In the interests of full discolure I should state that I am an OLD not YOUNG adult - and as such am not the target audience for this tale of a young woman's search for her soul, her place, her identity. Seraphina is looking for her people - other half-dragons - and on the way we are treated to a range of different cultures and customs, which sometimes confound, but often intrigue our curious heroine. The scenarios of search, disclosure, loss and betrayal do repeat but are told with such a clear eye for detail that I was beguiled into surprise each time. In truth, I found the first book the more enchanting and fresh - and the climax of this story had me humming 'Let It Go' from Disney's 'Frozen' - which was not helpful at a point of the novel when there are momentous and paradigm- changing revelations. But there you go. I couldn't help myself. Seraphina has an enormous number of relationships - and Hartman manages to make each one distinct and interesting (or nearly) and the ending was genuinely moving and surprising. I understand that this is not to be followed by a third book - and can only applaud her for her restraint. This is a perfect ending to Seraphina's story.

I really enjoyed this thrilling novel. The characters were well developed from the first novel "Seraphina" and Rachel did not shy away from her heroine making mistakes along her journey which had impact on other characters with whom she was deeply involved. I also liked the decision not to go for the romantic "love will out" ending but a much more realistic closure was created which was more believable in the world the author had created.

Enjoyed the next phase of better knowing our much loved half dragon characters. The garden, journies full of adventure, battles of honour for the future of good. Pure escapism at its best and we have opening for a third book should Rachel Hartman choose !!

I found this a very difficult read, the characters failed to come to life for me. Gave uip reading it half way through. May go back to it when I am desperate