Author Interview and Giveaway: Vanessa Ricci-Thode and the Fireborne series

Vanessa Ricci-Thode has just released the second of four books in a very cool fantasy series (just look at those covers!) It's about three generations of powerful women and the dragon they befriend. I've read Dragon Whisperer, and it's a unique story of a newly married young woman trying to negotiate her new relationship with her husband while learning more about her fire magic; then she has to deal with some truly obnoxious aristocrats who are trying to exploit dragons for their own profit. I love that the romance is the stage after the starry eyes and butterflies, the getting down to how to make a life together. And magic and dragons just complicate things further! 

I had a chance to pick Vanessa's brain about dragons, families, writing a series, and self-publishing:

What/who is your favourite dragon?

You know in Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent turns into a dragon in the final battle? Yeah, probably that. Or Toothless. 

Totally different question: what’s your favourite book/series with dragons in it? 

In the book world, it’s definitely the Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C Wrede! I love what she does with the series, which begins with Dealing With Dragons, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. In wider media, I absolutely adore the How To Train Your Dragon franchise. It’s so much fun!

What do you think is the appeal of dragons?

I think a lot of it is in the impossibility of them. They’re often depicted as incomprehensibly huge. And even when they’re basically just dinosaurs that breathe fire… they breathe fire. Which is immensely cool and deeply terrifying. Flying, sentient, magical flamethrowers. They have the potential to be the ultimate enemies, but also the ultimate allies.

What aspect of dragons appeals most to you?

Definitely all the fire. They’re like flying volcanoes, ha!

Dragon Whisperer was originally written ten years ago. How long have you been playing around in this particular world? Tell us a bit about it: what are some of the fun things you’re exploring (other than dragons)?

I’ve been knocking around in this world since just a little while after Dragon Whisperer was written. I’d never intended for it to be a series, but people started asking when I was going to write the sequel. And it took some noodling to figure out how to keep the worldbuilding but have more adventures. I’ve done a lot to explore family dynamics and also to expand the magic system. I hadn’t actually put much thought into that part when I wrote the first book way back in 2009. Playing around in this world with all the new things I’ve learned as a writer since then has been really fun!

Can you tell us more about the connections between the four books and why you decided to write about multiple generations?

Like I mentioned, I didn’t intend for Dragon Whisperer to be part of a series, and in thinking about a sequel, I was looking for ways to keep as much worldbuilding as possible but to do something new. That was how I came up with multiple generations. Book two features Dionelle’s daughter, Neesha, and book three features Neesha’s daughter. Each of these three books is I guess a coming of age story, each a different generation with different challenges. Dionelle was essentially looking for work-life balance. Neesha is a queer woman struggling to make her way amidst regressive societal norms. Her daughter faces similar issues in book three. Then for book four, I’m bringing them all together because I’m ready for a multi-generational, ass-kicking team up!

Dragons work very well as an Other in your stories: there is prejudice against them, they are misunderstood, treated with hostility and even exploited, despite being very powerful. Was this part of your original intention, or did this theme develop as your stories developed?

While I’d planned for dragons to be misunderstood from the outset with Dragon Whisperer, the hostility was something that developed with the next two books. It became the backdrop required to make those stories work the way I wanted to tell them. 

You also deal a lot with family relationships, which is a little unusual in fantasy stories. In Dragon Whisperer, the main character is recently married, completely upending the Happily Ever After = walking down the aisle trope. How does a fantasy setting help you explore the complexities of a marriage, or parent-child or sibling relationships?

Book one had a lot of exploring the hard work of making that HEA work. I like writing in fantasy settings because I’m not limited by the constrains of reality, which makes it easier to construct different norms that I hope can serve as a roadmap to something more egalitarian for those of us constrained by reality. And then I’m less into traditional romance and like looking for different sources of conflict for subplots. Family has always been very important to me, and also probably the main source of drama too! So it was a natural place to draw from in constructing new stories. There’s plenty of romance out there, I wanted to see and write something a little different.

You’ve been learning-on-the-go how to self-publish. Do you have any advice or words of warning for someone considering that route? 

Haha it’s probably better to figure out more of it before actually getting started. I’ve been doing some building my parachute on the way down sort of stuff and it’s more stressful than it needs to be. It’s a lot of work! Self-publishing is definitely the right option for me at this point, but I wish I’d taken a little more time to work out the marketing side of things before jumping into it.

Giveaway!!

Vanessa has kindly agreed to give a free e-book to the winner of a random draw: to enter, just comment below and tell us your favourite dragon. Contest open until June 30, 2023.

Vanessa is a word sorceress who loves a good story. She’s a NaNoWriMo veteran, a Halloween enthusiast, and a bookish geek who loves dragons, dogs, astronomy, and travel. If she’s not hibernating, she can be found in her butterfly garden, achieving her final form as a forest witch. To learn more, visit her website www.thodestool.ca or follow her on social media @VRicciThode

Newsletter sign up: http://eepurl.com/bqD9gL

Dragon Whisperer buy links: https://books2read.com/u/b5qgYk

Trueflame buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bPL0l7 

MMGM: The School Between Winter and Fairyland, by Heather Fawcett

I heard of Heather Fawcett because a lot of people are talking about her latest book for adults, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies. While putting that one on hold at my library, I noticed that she has a number of books for younger readers that were available to borrow. 

The School Between Winter and Fairyland is blurbed as "a fresh and exciting twist on magical boarding schools," and that it certainly is. I love that our protagonist isn't a student at Inglewood School: she's a beastkeeper. It's definitely a callout to Hagrid from Harry Potter, and anyone who has always wanted to spend more time with him and his magical beasts will love this novel.

I love that Autumn is part of a family, and that families are central to the plot and theme of the novel. Gran is the chief beastkeeper, and assigns chores to Autumn and her three brothers—and if you make Gran mad you'll be deworming the gwarthegs! I love the unique versions of mythical monsters Fawcett comes up with, and how they are all dangerous, but, like any wild animal, if you understand them and treat them properly you don't have to be afraid of them.

The plot was twisty and engrossing, with a real sense of peril but also lots of humorous and heartwarming moments. Autumn's love for her missing brother is a powerful thread driving all her actions; her reluctant friendship with Cai is beautifully developed. The boggart is another great character, loyal and frightening, and then there's Choo the relentlessly friendly dog.

This book was similar to The Phoenix Feather in the way it played with the trope of the Chosen One and notions of heroism. If the world isn't divided into people and monsters, us and them, good guys and bad guys, then a dragon-slaying hero isn't going to be much use. But there are still things that need fighting, and friendship, trust and understanding will be much more effective than swords.

Knowing that Fawcett is such a good writer, I'm now very impatient for my hold on Encyclopaedia of Fairies to come up! I've also put The Grace of Wild Things on hold: a fantasy retelling of Anne of Green Gables! And Fawcett is Canadian; she lives on Vancouver Island, not very far from where I am!

The Marvellous Middle-Grade Monday crew hangs out at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle. You can always find great Middle-Grade picks, every Monday.

This Friday, I will be back with a fun author interview! Michael Roth will talk about dogs, llamas and picture books, and give a little insight into his self-publishing journey. Hope you can join us!

Cybils winner: Fireborne, by Rosaria Munda

We had a fantastic slate of books to choose from this year, but it turned out to be an easy choice, because every judge loved Fireborne. Tense, gripping and thoughtful, with a fascinating premise and heart-grabbing characters, this debut novel blew us all away with its excellent writing and important themes.

I'm so happy this book won, because it hasn't gotten a lot of notice, and it's really, really good.

I don't know about the books they're comparing it to: doesn't seem remotely like Game of Thrones to me (thank goodness!). Seraphina I can maybe see a little. I think the best description of it is Plato's Republic meets the French Revolution, but with dragons. It's very political, but what I loved is that all the political issues are brought to life with characters and their personal dilemmas, and there's no simplistic good-guy/bad-guy dichotomy.

The revolution succeeded—we defeated the unjust, power-hungry aristocracy—but at what cost? And is the new meritocracy we created better enough to justify what we did to achieve it? Questioning the reality behind the rhetoric is a desperately important skill these days, and I love the way this book deals with truth, lies, propaganda—fake news. Then there's blind devotion to a cause, versus finding out your heroes aren't what you thought they were. Really meaty stuff!

I'm all about characters, always, and I loved Lee/Leo and Annie. He's the son of an aristocrat who watched his family get brutally executed. She's a peasant whose family was burned to death by an aristocrat's dragonfire. The story of their friendship is compelling. Their unacknowledged feelings for each other combined with the truths of their past make the tension of their competition to become lead dragonrider riveting!

Loyalty is one of my favourite themes, and I loved watching all the characters navigate through the conflicting pulls of family, friends, mentors, duty, morality. YA books live for impossible choices: what I loved about Fireborne is that none of the agonizing dilemmas felt contrived in any way. I completely believed in, and ached for, all the choices Lee and Annie and their friends had to make.

If I had to say anything negative about this book, it would be that I wished there was more about the dragons and their connections to their riders. But really, there was hardly time, with all the plot twists and action!

The writing was assured and quite lovely. I particularly enjoyed her use of epic poetry (adapted from The Aeneid, apparently) to give heft to emotional beats.

The second book in what looks like a trilogy won't be out until 2021, alas. There was a nice conclusion to this novel but the story continues, and I will be there for it!

Roasted winter vegetables with herbs and lemon (I can't get enough of roasted vegetables lately: the sweetness, the heartiness) and a rotisserie chicken. So satisfying!

Spark, by Sarah Beth Durst

What if something that was making your life wonderful was also making someone else's life miserable? If you found out about it, what would you do?

This seems to me one of the central moral questions of our time, and Spark is a lovely, gentle but remorseless engagement with it. This is such an important book; all adults should be required to read it!

It's also a sweet, fun story about following your heart and finding your voice and figuring out where you belong. And it has dragons! (Well, storm beasts. But close enough as makes no mind!)

Durst says she got the idea for this book from the first line: Mina was quiet. "But I didn't want it to be the story of a quiet girl who learns how to be loud. I wanted it to be the story of a quiet girl who discovers she's strong, exactly as she is." I love that.

I loved Mina, I loved her passion, her intelligence, her patience and her frustration. I appreciated the depictions of her boisterous family and the way she loves them and belongs without being like them.

I adored her storm beast Pixit and their relationship, they way they remind each other of their strengths and bring out the best in each other.

I was so happy with the school scenes—Mina is unlike all the other students, but she finds friends and figures out her talents and discovers that she belongs. It's an outcast story without any bullying, and isn't that a good thing to have examples of?

The world of Alorria was fascinating and colourful; simplistic in the way middle-grade fantasies often are, but with enough complexity to be believable and to generate an interesting plot. The concept of storm beasts and the use of them to control weather was a lot of fun. The prime minister is a great character. I thought Mina's solution to her dilemna was brilliant and quite relevant to our own world.

I've consistently been impressed with Sarah Beth Durst's work. She is incredibly imaginative, thoughtful and has a deep understanding of psychology. My copy of Spark had a sample chapter from The Stone Girl's Story,  and I'm now anxious to get my hands on that one!

Since we just celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, I'll compare Spark to the tasty and very different stuffing my son made for his turkey: it had walnuts and apples and pomegranate seeds, so it was colourful and crunchy and had all the sweet, sour, savoury and salty flavours. (His gravy was great too: had notes of lemon and fennel and white wine.) I love that my kids are all better cooks than I am!

Note that today is your last day to nominate books for the Cybils award. Spark has been nominated in the Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction category, along with a lot of other great books. If there's one you know of that's missing, hurry and nominate it!

Novellas get me out of my reading funk! Also dragons.

It helps that the novellas were written by Lois McMaster Bujold, Becky Chambers, and T. Kingfisher.  And the dragons are from Marie Brennan's series that I finally got around to starting, and why did I wait so long (though it's nice that all the books (I think?) are written now) because she is an amazing writer!

There is nothing like putting yourself in a capable writer's hands. Suddenly, the world seems like a more hopeful place.

Becky Chambers is infinitely imaginative and also owns a deep well of hope. I haven't reviewed her Wayfarers series, I guess because it's adult and I'm mostly a YA/Kidslit blog, but I adored it. So, so interesting—her world, her characters, her narrative style. How does she manage to be both thought-provoking and feel-good? When I saw a novella with yet another amazing title (she is hands-down the best title-er out there, just saying), I bought it right away. To Be Taught, if Fortunate is another fascinating exploration of humanity's possible future, while also being a deep character study of science—yes, of scientists, but also of science itself: what it values, what it's good at, why it's a hallmark of our species and the ultimate reason to have hope for where we're headed. By the end of the novella I cared as much about the future of science as I did about the characters—who were all lovely and interesting and maybe they got along a little too well to be believable, but isn't it sometimes nice to read a book where the conflict isn't about people being mean to each other? Just saying.

I have written quite a bit about Lois McMaster Bujold, despite her never writing anything remotely YA—I just love her so much I can't help myself. She's been dropping novellas about Penric and his resident chaos demon, Desdemona, like little surprise fruits for the past several years, and I'm always thrilled to get another one. Penric is getting pretty powerful these days, as he and Desdemona figure out how to work together, and in Orphans of Raspay he gets very pissed off. You shouldn't piss off someone harbouring a chaos demon. Just saying. What I love about this series (and the World of the Five Gods series, same world, same religion) is the way she explores how gods could work in the world without infringing on human agency. I also love the humour. And Penric. I just love Penric. He has to be one of the best depictions of an ethical character—his conflicts are all about how to be ethical when you have the power to do whatever the hell you want, and there's room for a lot of humour there.

Speaking of humour, I can always rely on T. Kingfisher. She understands that all plots are jokes (you have to set up your punchline), and her comedic timing is impeccable. Also she has a deep well of absurdity. Don't be misled by the young protagonist and his armadillo familiar: this is not a children's book. When Ursula Vernon is being T. Kingfisher, she can do pretty horrific violence and some genuinely scary bits. (Some reviewers have pointed out that kids do read scary and violent things. I would recommend reading it yourself before giving it to anyone under 13.) Minor Mage has everything I like about Vernon/Kingfisher: unflinching understanding of the worst of humanity combined with loving depictions of its best; not-particularly-special protagonists who muddle their way into heroism; folktale elements teased apart and turned into very weird, very brilliant world-building. And laugh-out-loud funny scenes juxtaposed with insight and wisdom, in the best Terry Pratchett style.

Speaking of science (we were a few paragraphs ago!), A Natural History of Dragons is another delightful exploration of the scientific method and the characters of people who are obsessed with Finding Things Out. (And if you think "delightful exploration of the scientific method" is an oxymoron, this might not be the book for you.) I loved Isabella, and I loved the narrative style, which pretends to be all distant and objective but actually reveals how deeply Isabella feels. (And is also quite slyly funny a lot of the time.) This first book of The Memoirs of Lady Trent describes a young Isabella desperate to study dragons but destined to lead the restricted life of a Victorian lady. The narrator is older, wildly successful dragonologist Isabella, so we know she succeeds, but the gap between where she begins and where she apparently ends up is a fascinating one to see slowly filled in. These books are gorgeous, with lovely illustrations, and I now have a terrible dilemma: do I buy the discounted e-book collection that has all five books, or do I fork out for the paper editions?

I'm feeling my way back into reading and writing, and authors who know what they're doing and who believe the world, and people, are full of potential and are worth saving are a lifeline to me. Have you read anything lately that has given you hope and confidence? Or just made you laugh?

The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library was utterly delightful, with huge servings of awesome-sauce on the side. It gave me the happies on almost every page. I mean, there's a Library, so, yeah. And dragons. You'd think that would be enough (that would be enough for me). But, no, there's more! There's a super-smart detective who could convincingly be played by Benedict Cumberbatch. And airships. And remotely-controlled alligators, because, every plot can be improved by the addition of remote-control alligators.

(And Cogman gets the tone pitch perfect: just self-aware enough to take itself seriously without being ridiculous.)

Irene is a fabulous character, right up there with Prunella (from Sorcerer to the Crown. This book is right up there with Sorcerer to the Crown. Possibly even surpasses it. Wouldn't want my life to depend on picking one over the other.) She's competent, firm, thinks on her feet, rises to the occasion, but she's also still a junior Librarian who doesn't have all the information or experience she needs. She has moments of panic, doubt and sheer frustration and it's lovely to watch her deal with them—actually, it's lovely to listen to her narrate how she deals with them.

It gets better. There are, not one, but two really hot guys who spend the whole book being impressed by Irene, talking to her as equals and respecting her opinions and decisions. I could eat this stuff with a spoon; it's better than ice cream. There is a wonderfully complex rivalry between Irene and another woman Librarian. There's a fascinating alternate London, plausibly steampunk and infested with chaos (in the form of Fae, vampires and werewolves, among other things). And there's the Library, with its strange rules, twisted politics and mysterious purpose.

It's all fun as heck, and I can't wait to dive into the next book!

This might not technically be YA, since the characters are over twenty, but it would work just as well for YA or adult.

I'm feeling another music analogy this time: "Starlight" by Muse.

MMGM: This list should keep my 13-year-old nephew busy all summer!

This started in response to my sister-in-law's request for book recommendations for her 12-year-old son last year, and I've been very (very) slowly fulfilling it, one post at a time. Sorry, Stacey, it's taken me so long to compile this, and this is by no means a complete list, but I think it's long enough now! Be sure to visit my previous posts, here, here and here, and check the comments for more recommendations.

Science Fiction

The Fog Diver, by Joel Ross. Earth is covered in a dangerous nanite fog, so people have to sail around in airships. There are pirates.
Mars Evacuees, by Sophia McDougall. Dangerous adventures on Mars with a hilariously useless robot companion.
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Classic military academy adventure.
Nomad and Ambassador, by William Alexander. Kid chosen to be ambassador to aliens (because adults just aren't open-minded enough.)

Adventure in non-modern (usually fantasy) settings

Airborn trilogy, by Kenneth Oppel. Straight up adventure with airships. Great series.
Leviathan trilogy, by Scott Westerfield. More adventure on airships, but these ones are whales. No, really, it's awesome.
Sabriel series, by Garth Nix. Really cool magic and necromancy. The Old Kingdom is one of the best created worlds out there.
Graceling trilogy, by Kristen Cashore. Kick-ass heroine who's even better at using her brain.
A Stranger to Command, by Sherwood Smith. Might be hard to find, but if you liked Ender's Game, this is similar (just not in space).
The Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner. If you like tricky, unpredictable main characters, he's the best. (I don't know what happened to my copy of The Thief, but you can see sequels The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia in the photo.)
Jinx trilogy, by Sage Blackwood. Reluctant hero has to save enchanted forest; he's quite grumpy about it. Very fun.
The Floating Islands, by Rachel Neumeier. Flying people, what more do I need to say?

Dragons

Wings of Fire series, by Tui T. Sutherland. Magic, friendship, adventure, finding out what you're good at: Harry Potter except everyone's a dragon.
Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley. Boy grows up in a natural reserve for dragons, rescues a baby dragon. Turns out dragons are very hard to raise.

Adventure (possibly fantastical) in modern settings

Submarine Outlaw series, by Phillip Roy. Canadian libraries might have this one. Kid builds his own submarine and sails around the world having adventures.

Heir series, by Cinda Williams Chima. For everyone who knows they're really a warrior/wizard/dragon/sorcerer at heart.

Inkheart trilogy, by Cornelia Funke. A classic for a reason: books come to life. Because they do.
100 Cupboards trilogy, by N. D Wilson.  Not just one door to another world, but 100.
The Grimm Legacy trilogy, by Polly Shulman. What if you could borrow fairy tale objects from a library?
The Chronus Chronicles, by Anne Ursu. Looking for more Greek mythology after Riordan? These are really well done, and funny, to boot.

Humour

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex. Aliens invade and it's really, really funny.
Terry Pratchett. If you like witches, try the Wee Free Men series. If you loved The Borrowers, try the Bromeliad trilogy.
Skullduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy. A wisecracking skeleton solves mysteries with a snarky 12-year old.

Intriguing mysteries (fantastical or not)

The Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy, by Trenton Lee Stewart. For geniuses only. (The Society, not the books.)
Any and all of Frances Hardinge's books. They're fantasy, but I'm putting them under mysteries because they all have a certain creepy mysteriousness about them.
Greenglass House, by Kate Milford. A bunch of strangers trapped by a blizzard in an old house with a history of smuggling.

Phew! Isn't it wonderful how many wonderful books there are? Please add more to my list in your comments!

For ongoing recommendations, every Monday you can go to Shannon Messenger's blog for Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Also Boys Rule Boys Read! is a great blog aimed at boys: always new books to find there.

MMGM: Villain Keeper, by Laurie McKay

Villain Keeper is the first book of The Last Dragon Charmer, a middle-grade series that would have fallen right under my radar if Charlotte and Ms. Yingling hadn't reviewed it and its sequels. It doesn't have a particularly  eye -catching cover, and the title doesn't really stand out, but it's got a great premise that isn't used nearly often enough, if you ask me: someone falls through a portal into another world, but the world they land in is ours, and the one they come from is the fantasy world with kings and magic and dragons.

So what would happen if a twelve-year-old prince on a quest to kill a dragon landed in Asheville, North Carolina? He (and the annoying sorceress acquaintance who got sucked through the portal with him) would get picked up by the police eventually. The police would confiscate the prince's sword and take his proud Galvanian snow stallion to a boarding stable, and the prince and the sorceress would end up in foster care and have to go to school.

Of course, the school is more nefarious than it first appears. There's a suspiciously nasty math teacher and a frighteningly mysterious vice-principal, not to mention the lunch-workers (aren't they always evil?). But of course the police aren't going to believe Caden when he warns them. They already want to give him a psych evaluation because he keeps insisting he's a prince and he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much.

I loved the tension between Caden and Brynne's beliefs about their capabilities and the well-meaning adults' desire to care for them and keep them safe. (I suspect this will resonate particularly with middle-grade readers.) I love that the villains at the school are the only ones who take Caden seriously.

I love that Caden is really annoying because he was brought up as a prince, and gracious and commanding behaviour doesn't go over well at a public school. I love the developing relationships between him and his foster brother Tito, who tries to teach him to fit in while gradually coming to believe his story, and Brynne, who seems annoyingly adept at coping with this strange world.

I really loved all the characters, including the adults. There's a nice underlayer of poignancy to Caden's adventures, because what Rosa and Officer Jenkins believe about him is actually true: despite his skills, training and magical gift, he is a lost child who needs someone to take care of him. (This probably resonated more with me, the adult reader.)

Villain Keeper ends with one plot thread neatly tied up, but a lot of questions still unanswered, and I look forward to the next book.

Belgian double-cooked fries: super crispy on the outside and super soft inside, with garlic aioli and chipotle mayo to dip in.

The Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, by E. K. Johnston

The cover and the blurb of The Story of Owen were enough to make me pick it off the New shelf at the library. And lo and behold it's by a Canadian author, so double excitement!

I love the premise: imagine a world exactly the same as our world in every respect, except that it's infested with dragons. Not your wise, telepathic dragons, either; these are just pests, mindless, destructive, fire-breathing beasts, particularly dangerous to modern humanity because they are attracted to carbon emissions.

This book was funny with the kind of sly, satirical poking at society I really enjoy. Of course there are dragon slayers in this world (and there's a perfectly valid explanation for why dragons have to be killed single-handedly, with swords), and of course dragon slayers are required by international law to spend a certain amount of time defending oil fields, and when their Oil Watch tour of duty is over most of them are hired by big corporations or governments to defend big population centres. Leaving little towns like Trondheim, Ontario in the lurch:

When a dragon attacked you had to petition town hall (assuming it wasn't on fire), and they would send to Toronto (assuming the phone lines weren't on fire), and Queen's Park would send out one of the government dragon slayers (assuming nothing in Toronto was on fire). By the time the dragon slayer arrived, anything not already lit on fire in the original attack would be, and whether the dragon was eventually slayed or not, we'd be stuck with reconstruction. Again.

The juxtaposition of glorious dragon slaying with petty politics and bureaucracy hits my funny bone at just the right place. So does the incongruity of skinny adolescent Owen, who is failing algebra, as the latest in a long line of famous dragon slayers.

The story is narrated by Siobahn, a music student who is good enough at algebra to tutor Owen. His family asks Siobahn if she will be Owen's bard—a noble, traditional role that's been on the decline ever since the Beatles started singing songs that weren't about slaying dragons. Turns out the bardic job really means being a PR manager, because of course dragon slayers are celebrities and they want to be able to spin their publicity the right way. More juxtaposition of epic myth with modern reality. Johnston really gets our society, right in the solar plexus!

But you can't help rooting for Owen and his family, because they're just trying to do their job and do right by their town. Owen is courageous and competent and despite all evidence to the contrary he has faith in what he's doing, in the people he's protecting, and in Siobahn, who has her own courage and selflessness when it counts. We may have written off Michigan, but darn it we're not letting the dragons get southern Ontario!

I think some of the politics of dragon slaying might go over the head of younger readers, but there is plenty of sword-swinging action, and the developing friendship between Owen and Siobahn is a treat. (Very slight spoiler: they don't fall in love! How novel!) There are great, believable family dynamics, too.

The Story of Owen was loads of fun, intriguingly original, and very Canadian. The sequel just came out, and I think I'm going to buy it rather than waiting for the library to get it. It's worth owning.

It's like one of those fusion dishes that are so popular in restaurants now, where they take a traditional dish from one country and prepare it with ingredients or spices from a different tradition, and it ends up being really good in a surprising way and makes you look at both food traditions differently. Like butter chicken poutine. (Because, poutine. And butter chicken. And if you've never tried either, you should come to Canada and try them! Separately and together.)

This review counts as book 9 toward this year's Canadian Book Challenge. For more wonderful Canadian books, don't forget to visit John Mutford's blog, and check out all the reviewers who read way more than the minimum 13 Canadian books a year!

Shadow Scale, by Rachel Hartman

Where on earth did January go??

Back at the beginning of Jan I mentioned that I had my very own ARC of Shadow Scale. Well, I read it. And I've been trying to figure out how to review it ever since.

First off, this is a sequel, so go read Seraphina first. I promise, you'll love it: dragons, Renaissance-like court, music, assassination plots, did I mention the dragons (really awesome dragons: think Spock with wings). It's close enough to Shadow Scale's publication date that you won't be incredibly frustrated when you finish! (Lot's of amusing GIFs on the Shadow Scale Goodreads page from people who've been waiting for, well, years.)

If you loved Seraphina for the rich world-building and fascinating characters, then prepare to be overwhelmed by Shadow Scale. Seraphina leaves Goredd and travels through not one or two but four different countries, all with different cultures and values and attitudes toward dragons (and half-dragons). (Lots of opportunity to explore prejudice from a bunch of different angles.)

We meet a whole new cast of variously complicated and tortured characters, each of whom could have an entire novel to themselves. Nedouard, the doctor who hides his deformity behind a plague mask; Blanche, living half-wild in the woods protecting herself with magical traps. Jannoula, imprisoned, tortured, and now in a position to get revenge on all those who wronged her.

Hartman plays with the intersection of character and society: what makes us who we are? Given different circumstances, how might we have turned out? Then there's the politics, history and religion of five nations and three races, all of which Hartman develops in overlapping interactions with character. Shadow Scale could easily have been two books long—and maybe should have been. I wonder if all the fan whining about how long the sequel was taking didn't influence Hartman to squish everything into one book. I would willingly have waited another five years for a third book if it would have allowed for more development of, well, all the really cool stuff in this book!

Seraphina is actually the least interesting character in the book, much as I love her, and therein lies my one problem with Shadow Scale: I think Seraphina is the wrong narrator. She has an important role to play, and certainly has her own character arc, but a lot of the action and conflict happens to other characters, so we end up hearing about events that I wish we could have experienced first hand. I would love to have read some parts of the book from Abdo's point of view, and from Eskar's. Jannoula would have been a fascinating narrator. Glisselda and Prince Lucien don't have a huge role in this book, but events at the end would have been interesting from their perspective. I don't often find myself arguing for multiple points of view, but I think Shadow Scale is an example of where it would have really worked.

What will you love about Shadow Scale? All the half-dragons and their stories. Jannoula: not knowing what to make of her. The country of Porphyry. Surprising reveals about, um, stuff that I don't want to be spoilery about! The way everything comes together at the end.

What might disappoint you? Orma is off-stage for almost the entire book. And Kiggs isn't around as much as you (and Seraphina!) might like him to be. It also starts out rather slowly, with a lot of explanation, though you'll find the explain-y bits helpful if it's been a while since you read Seraphina.

My final feelings about the book? Shadow Scale is a satisfying conclusion to Seraphina with a suitably epic scope. I just think there was potential for it to be so much more. There's a rumour she'll be writing more books in this world; I look forward to them with great anticipation!

There's a pastry I can't remember the name of that my husband once brought me home from France: it was like a cinnamon roll, but flaky and buttery like a croissant, except crispy—well, it's not like anything you can get anywhere in North America. Divinely delicious and distinctly French. Shadow Scale is like my husband only bringing one of these home for me.

I almost forgot: Rachel Hartman lives in Vancouver! So this counts as a Canadian read for me (I'm sadly behind in my goal). I love the image John Mutford chose for his February Roundup of Canadian book reviews. Visit his blog to find out about Canadian books of all genres