Reading the Ignyte Awards - To Shape A Dragon's Breath
- Publisher – Random House Worlds
- Published – Out Now
- Price – £14.79 paperback | £8.99 Kindle
This is another book that was unknown to me before it appeared on the Ignyte ballot. The blurb promises a blend of dragon-riding and magic school, two genres that I love in theory but in practice often don't get along with. In particular I'm yet to find a dragon-riding book that I especially loved. Still, this is well-reviewed across the board, so I went into it with cautious optimism. Here's the blurb:
The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations--until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon's egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit--a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.
Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising--and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.
For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound--both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.
Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they're also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing--and they might just be the ones to do it.
I gave this about 120 pages before deciding that it wasn't for me and putting it down. Given that the Ignyte Awards explicitly has a YA novels category I was surprised when I started reading this that it felt like a YA book rather than an adult novel, and it definitely seems to have been marketed as YA or NA. That was the first thing that made me think, "I don't really want to read this". I have nothing against YA or NA books - I was a children's bookseller for years at the time when the post-Hunger Games YA boom was at its peak, and I've read and loved a ton of YA. But it's not what I what to read these days. Still, I decided to at least give this a chance.
Unfortunately it just wasn't doing anything for me. I enjoyed some of the earlier chapters, particularly Anequs' sighting of a dragon and her finding of the egg, but once the magic school elements came into play and we began to be shown some of the setting I lost interest. I was struggling to find anything to like about the main character, the world wasn't really landing for me, and after reading a quarter of the book I didn't feel like it was going anywhere.
One day I'll find a dragon-riding book I love, but this wasn't it.
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