BookScapes

Seraphina (2012) This is a marvelous debut YA science fiction/fantasy novel by Rachel Hartman which has received numerous awards including:
Winner of the 2013 YALSA Morris Award for Best YA Debut Novel
Finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada)
Short-listed for the Kitschies’ Golden Tentacle Award (UK)
Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal (UK)

If you thought there was nothing new to say about dragons, here is a beautifully intricately, crafted new kingdom, Goredd, where humans and dragons have tentatively, coexisted for nearly 4 decades. Dragons attend court in human shape as ambassadors, and are noted for their rational, mathematical minds which makes them attractive to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, tensions increase when a member of the royal family is murdered in suspiciously draconian fashion.

Seraphina Dombegh fears both humans and dragons. An unusually gifted court musician, she is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queens Guard, the perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they uncover a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina must protect her own secret, the reason for her musical gift. For Phina is half dragon and half human and totally unforgettable.

This heroine’s struggle, coming of age, is one readers will remember long after they’ve closed the book. The original world (new dragonlore), fun, fascinating and complex characters also demand the sequel to be written soon! I was captivated by the story, entranced by the beautiful, evocative writing. It was a pleasure to reread sections – a delight to return to highlighted passages (thank you kindle for the ease of nondestructive highlighting!). I found myself wishing I had had this book as a teenager with its strong characters, depth of story, creative thinking and interesting example.

There is a wonderful glossary of terms and a cast of characters (examples:)
Binou – breton bagpipes
Aurochs - extinct European cattle wild
Quine – 4 sheets of parchment (medieval paper)
Saarantrai - Dragons in human form

The main character is Seraphina Dombagh, often called Phina
Claude is her father and human
Orma is mentor and uncle and dragon
Prince Lucian Kiggs – is Princess Laurel’s bastard, and fiance to Princess Glisselda
Kiggs is also Captain of the Queen’s Guards
Viridius is the court composer

Quotes:
Most of these quotes are from the first half of the book: the pages flew and I was so absorbed in the story I didn’t interrupt it with anything. Magic quickly overtakes the reader.

Dragons have no souls and must wear a bell in human form unless they are scholars. They have silver blood, no beards, a peculiar smell not normally detected by humans. ...They have sulphurous breath.

The Music…was the answer to a question I had never asked, the way to fill the dread emptiness into which I had been born.

Superstitious fakery or not, the psalter’s message was clear: the truth may not be told. Here is an acceptable lie.

My love of music eventually lured me from the safety of my father’s house, propelling me into the city and the royal court…I did not understand that I carried loneliness before me on a plate, and that music would be the light, illuminating me from behind.

They needed heaven’s peace. I knew little of Saints, but I knew about sorrow and about music as sorrow’s surest balm. That was comfort I could give. There are melodies that speak as eloquently as words, that flow logically and inevitably from a single, pure emotion.

Her Uncle Orma had…the scholar’s exemption from the bell, so few people ever realised he was a dragon. He had his quirks certainly: he never laughed; he had little comprehension of fashion, manners, or art; he had a taste for difficult mathematics and fabrics that didn’t itch.

“…dispensing with any greeting. Dragons never see the point.”

I barely noticed loneliness anymore; it was my normal condition by necessity if not by nature.

I was half lawyer; I always noticed the loopholes.

It was good to see a dragon’s teeth. A dragon with his mouth closed was far more likely to be working up a flame. That seemed completely obvious.

Under the white winter sky the dragons looked rusty, a disappointing color for so fabled a species, but I soon realised their shades were subtle. The right slant of sunlight brought out an irridescent sheen in their scales; they shimmered with rich underhues, from purple to gold.

I had practicing to do, a book on Zibou sinus-song I’d been dying to read.

The borderlands of madness used to have much sterner signage around them than they do now.

Speculus, the longest night of the year, as the saying goes: when the days lengthen, the cold strengthens.

Once I had ceased to be terrified, I was awed….pipes fitted in neat rows, making a palisade fortress of chanters; it looked like the unnatural offspring of a bagpipe and a …. A dragon.

There was no music on the stand; surely no music had yet been written for this monstrosity. Was this cacophony his own composition? I suspected it was. It was brilliant, the way a thunderstorm across the moors or a raging torrent is brilliant insofar as a force of nature may be said to have genius. (the megaharmonium – or organ!)

He released the last chord like a boulder off a trebuchet (medieval catapult)

We were friends; he just didn’t know it yet. He had a nose like a compass needle; it pointed with purpose.

Viridius planned to rehearse us within an inch of our lives.

There is danger in humanity. Do not lose yourself to the wet brain. Tempted by the chemical intoxication of emotion, dragons forget what they are.

I’d had more than my share of beautiful today. Tomorrow I’d give some back, restore and replenish the world.

4.5 stars (5 if the sequel comes soon!)
Read as an ebook from the Library, must purchase for my own library (done!).

Read on:If you liked Graceling, Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore, you will love this.
If you like the dragons of Eragon (Christopher Paolini), His Majesty’s Dragons (Naomi Novik).