Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman. Random House, 2015. 610 pages.

Reading Level: Young Adults, ages 15-18

Bottom Line: Seraphina, a half-dragon, half-human ityasaari, is desperately trying to rally her fellow ityasaari to the aid of her country, Goredd, but must first face her own personal nemesis.

Three years ago, a debut fantasy novel about a young girl gained national attention and garnered a slew of starred reviews.  Seraphina told the tale of two kingdoms—one dragon and one human—and a young woman caught between them.  The novel concluded with war clouds gathering.

Now, in Shadow Scale, Seraphina is on a quest to find her fellow ityasaari.  Traveling to the kingdoms surrounding Goredd, she faces varying circumstances and attitudes concerning half-dragons. Meanwhile, dragonkind is engaged in a civil war.  Goredd has sided with the deposed dragon leader, Ardmagar Comonot, who is marshaling loyalist support against the dragon rebellion in the Tanamoot.

In the midst of her travels, Seraphina realizes that another ityasaari, green-eyed and cunning Jannoula, is also scheming and plotting.  While both Jannoula and Seraphina wish to unite the ityasaari, each have very different reasons and motives.

The conclusion, when it comes, doesn’t have the resolution that readers would expect and leaves some lingering uncertainty. Hartman has said Shadow Scale will be the conclusion of Seraphina’s story, but she is already writing another story occurring in the fantasy world of Goredd.

While an entertaining read, Shadow Scale does have issues.  One leading character “comes out,” and another—an ityasaari—proves to be a transvestite.  The worldview is non-Christian—though characters do discuss philosophy.  *Plot Spoiler: By the end of the story, the religious establishment in Seraphina’s world has been proved to be man- (or rather, dragon-) made.  Throughout the story, the vocabulary used to discuss the religious establishment (that is proved false) is decidedly medieval and Christian in tone (“saints” and similar terminology are used). In addition to this, ityasaari have a strange, supernatural power with no given explanation.

Most of the story is a journey similar to Prince Caspian or The Two Towers. Despite its constant motion, however, the story drags in contrast to the well-paced Seraphina.  At 610 pages, it is a weighty tome.

Seraphina created an interesting fantasy world; Shadow Scale revisits that world but adds to and expands the peripheral issues in the first book, bringing them closer to center stage.  Due to multiple cautions, we cannot recommend Shadow Scale.  Mature lovers of fantasy who enjoyed Seraphina will enjoy it, but at the end of the day, Shadow Scale falls short.

Cautions: Sensuality (LGBTQ—see paragraph above), Disturbing Images (torture implied, memory loss), Worldview

Overall Rating: 3 (out of 5)

• Worldview Rating: 3
• Artistic Rating: 3

Categories: Young Adult, Fantasy, Popular
Cover image from Amazon.  A copy of this book was received from Netgalley for a fair review.