Seraphina and Shadow Scale

Seraphina, 467 pages,Shadow Scale, 608 pages, both by Rachel Hartman
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I realized while digging through my old posts that I never had the chance to review Seraphina, so it's a good thing I re-read it before reading Shadow Scale! Seraphina Dombegh has spent a large chunk of her life trying to remain unnoticed, and for good reason: she's half-dragon in a land that still hasn't quite accepted dragons living amongst them, despite 40 years of peace. Complicating things is the death of the queen's son in a suspiciously draconian fashion, just days before Ardmagar Comonot, leader of the dragons, is scheduled to arrive in Goredd to celebrate the anniversary of the treaty between the dragons and humans. Despite being a lowly assistant to the court composer, she still manages to find herself in the middle of the investigation, helping Kiggs, the captain of the city guard, and Princess Glisselda, unravel the mystery surrounding the prince's death. And, surprisingly for her, she finds other half-dragons along the way. Shadow Scale sees our heroine leave Goredd in search of the rest of the half-dragons, as war looms from the fallout of the ending of the first book.

I'm leaving a lot out here to avoid any major spoilers, but the important part is that both of these books are great. What Hartman (a WashU alum, I might add) does with the concept of dragons in these books is wonderful. Instead of making them incredibly deadly creatures and leaving them at that, she instead makes them intelligent beings who pursue knowledge doggedly and place logic and order above everything. They remind me a lot of the Vulcans from Star Trek, especially in their determination to avoid any and all emotion, which is complicated when they transform into humans. There's also a touch of romance between Kiggs and Seraphina, which is of course made worse by the fact that Kiggs has been betrothed to Princess Glisselda since forever, and neither of them want to hurt her. Hartman also does an excellent job of world building, drawing heavily from medieval and Renaissance history and European, African and Caribbean culture in order to create the different countries in the books. While the ending of Shadow Scale seems to wrap everything up nicely, I wouldn't mind another book in Seraphina's world.