Seraphina [Hardcover]

I hate it when I have the impression that I am reading a different book from other readers whose opinion I value. Hate it. Unfortunately, it happened with this book. I've read some really glowing reviews but, alas, I can't just - partially - share the love.

Objectively, Seraphina meets all the requirements to become the next epic fantasy series: it has an original take on a fairly exploited theme - dragons -, an amazing world-building, a well formed, strong main character, a 5-star-worthy writing style.

But let's go in order:
The story is set in a world where two species exist: dragons and humans.
Dragons, powerful creatures, mathematical minds, able to take human form (saarantrai) to interact with people, reject all emotions as weakness, to the point of excising them from their brains.
Humans, constrained in their fragile bodies, fear dragons above all else and despise them, even in their human form, to the point of racial discrimination. These two species have been at war with one another for the longest of times, except for the past forty years when a rather unstable truce gave apparent peace to the world. Now it's the time to renew the peace.
So, dragons. And humans.
And then, there's Seraphina. She is the unthinkable, a half-dragon. It is imperative her identity remain a secret, but when the Prince of Goredd is found brutally murdered and all fingers point to the dragons, Seraphina becomes the unwilling protagonist of an investigation to unveil a plot that is threatening to jeopardize an already unstable peace and which will oblige her to face her most dreaded nightmare: the truth about herself.

Sounds awesome, doesn't it?
Dragons that can take human form, that speak their own language (Mootya), that are organized and regulated by an Ardmagar and a council of Censors. I found it fascinating. In fact, the world-building is extremely well developed and detailed. To be honest, I haven't read that many books about dragons, and I'd say this is probably on the same level as Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, as far a world-building goes.

Seraphina is an amazing character. Caught in the middle between two worlds, neither here nor there, she has been taught to despise a part of herself, to keep it secreted. She lives a lie and will never be accepted by either worlds. She is an abomination.
I loved her passion for music, her witty personality, her intelligence and self-deprecating sense of humor. I loved how she grows during the story, how she comes to term with her feelings, how lies do not belong to her but have only been inculcated in her, how she is fundamentally honest. Even the love story, which could have been a potential love triangle, comes out as believable, growing and sweet. Lucian is a bit too much the perfect guy for me, too good through and through, but still very likable. I found much more interesting a whole set of bizarre side characters: Madame Okra, Abdo, Viridius, Orma, Basind. They had me laughing most of the time and were truly what MADE this book for me.

Hartman's writing is what I'd define sophisticated and recherché. I had to look up a fair amount of words, my favorite probably being houppelande. There are no doubts about the quality of her writing and truly, there isn't much more to say about it.

But I have to defend my 3 stars.
I'll sum it up in one word: pacing.
Despite the fantastic world-building, the amazing characters and the luscious writing, I had such a hard time getting through this book, I considered abandoning it on more than one occasion. The quantity of information to take in in the first, say, 150 pages of the book is massive and not always explained in a way to make it crystal clear. Some things are just thrown there and then explained 50 pages later. There's a whole universe of saints to digest that... really, were they necessary? And there is barely any action up until - I marked it - page 168.To be honest: too slow for me, sometimes it really could not keep my attention.
I had a hard time wrapping my head around Seraphina's "garden" and her grotesques, I felt the need for a bit more physical descriptions - of the Quigutl, for example - and a MAP. I really, really wanted to see a map. How is this world? Where is the Tanamoot? How many other kingdoms are there and where are they in respect to Goredd?

So three stars. I enjoyed it because I was stubborn and kept reading and was finally rewarded in the second part but I'm not sure everybody would get through those first 100 and odd pages. Or maybe it's just me, other readers seem to adore it.
I'm looking forward to seeing the cover for it and I will surely pick up the sequel to this adventure with dragons, hoping that, with the infodump out of the way, I will find it a bit more fast-paced.

One of the things which instantly caught my attention in the descriptions of this novel was the ability of the dragons to change their shapes to mimic the human body. That concept just absolutely opened up an entire realm of possibilities for this author. As it turned out, the saarantras (dragons in human form)are still not able to feel human emotion, but at least they can interact with humans without scaring them to death. That was simply one of the new world concepts this author invented to make a fascinating novel. The broad concepts of mathematics and music are also key to this new world along with bigotry and diplomatic negotiations. But I'm getting carried away and rushing too far along. The book description states that it is intended for ages 12 and up and it is perfectly appropriate for someone as young as 12. There is nothing of a sexual nature in the novel. I do think that the story was a little slow to engage my interest because the world building is so prominent in the first third of the novel, but don't give up on it. You will miss a real treat if you do.

This story concerns the central character of a young woman, Seraphina Dombegh, who has spent her entire 16 years of life hiding a secret. Now circumstances are beginning to change and Phina is having a harder time dealing with all the new happenings in her life which make the secrecy more urgent and yet harder to maintain. She has recently been hired as the music assistant to the court composer and her first difficult job will be to play a flute solo at the Invocation for the funeral of Prince Rufus. Feeling is running high because it would appear that the forty year peace accord between humans and dragons has been violated. Prince Rufus's dead body was found but his head was not, surely a clue pointing to a dragon as his murderer. Admagar Comonot, the leader of the part of the world where the dragons live, will be coming to Goredd in a week to celebrate the anniversary of the peace treaty but there are those who see the death of Prince Rufus as a chance for war, not continuing peace.

The characters in this novel are wonderfully developed by this author as is the world they live in. It is a very deep and complex world so the first portion of the novel is focused on acquainting the reader with how the humans, with all their feelings and emotions, can co-exist with dragons, who think completely with logic. So logical in fact is their thought process that it is based on mathematical equations. I found these two extremely differing concepts fascinating as I watched two races try to deal with every problem from a diplomatic standpoint knowing all the time that they had completely different starting points. This novel also has a very perceptive concept of bigotry running through it. Even though the peace treaty has been enforced successfully for almost forty years these two groups have never actually gotten to know each other. They think they understand each other, but when given the slightest opportunity their ignorance comes bursting to the surface and the leaders understand that they have simply been avoiding problems, not solving them.

This is a very different type of dragon fantasy. It is not based on fighting and killing and flaming each other out of existence - even though there is a small portion of that in the book. This fantasy deals much more with the emotional aspects and attempts at diplomacy that lead to learning about each other. It lets the reader see how easy it is for an enemy to be hiding right in our midst and we never even suspect because they look and sound just like we do. How perceptive this author is. And I also love the little examples of wit she places within the novel. Just reading the information in the Glossary and the Cast of Characters shows her willingness to take a lighthearted approach to her own work. Even though I haven't seen anything definite I simply cannot believe there will not be a sequel to this novel. The ending of the book tugged at my heartstrings and I really want to know if everything will come right for Seraphina. She has carried her secret for a long time, but it is obvious that she has the strength to keep on going. Besides, I need to find out how Orma fares in his exile. And what about Lars and Abdo? No, there are simply too many friends I want to keep reading about so there has to be a second book in the works.

I didn't know much about this book other than that it featured dragons which was reason enough for me to read it. As popular as dragons are, I still have not read much fiction with them. I had also seen several positive reviews of the book, albeit with some cautions about a slow beginning.

So recently I picked the book up and was soon consumed by the world created and especially the characters. I just loved them all so much and I really want to underscore that as I don't always have such a powerful positive reaction to characters. Of course there is main character Seraphina, half-human, half-dragon, who reminded me very strongly of Alanna from Tamora Pierce's series, perhaps because of the deception both must perform to maintain their place at court. Seraphina is not even supposed to exist, living in a country where humans and dragons maintain an uneasy peace. She must keep her dragon parts tightly under wraps even as the two world collide and she possesses a unique mindset to maintain that peace. Because of her covert way of life, Seraphina often lies, trying to maintain the masquerade; although this usually bothers me in a character, I completely understood her reasons and strongly sympathized with her.

After Seraphina, we have her uncle Orma, a dragon secretly masquerading as a human. He has served as her teacher and mentor and serves as our prime insight into the mind of dragons. They're kind of like Vulcans, with an emphasis on logic and pursuit of knowledge while despising human emotions like love, and Orma seriously reminded me of Spock in his careful way of speaking as well as his confusion over the human world. The other major character I have to mention is Prince Lucian Kiggs, who I pictured as Richard Armitage in North and South-sawoon, captain of the Queen's Guard and betrothed to the princess-heir but whose mind is dangerously perceptive to Seraphina's secrets and lies. I realize that of the three characters I mention, I also compared them to others, which I find to be a good thing. They're not exact copies; they just elicit positive comparisons to characters I already love in one way or another.

As for pacing, I can see some people finding parts slow, especially those who generally don't like fantasy. I did struggle with some of the names and new words, being unsure of pronunciation. But I am also comfortable with a slow pace so I can't really comment on that section. I can say that I thought information was doled out at a pretty appropriate pace and I don't have any complaints. It was maybe a bit on the long side but since fantasy has a lot to establish, I am understanding of that.

You may notice that I didn't share much about the plot. That was intentional as I don't want to accidentally reveal any of the many twists and turns. There are so many more great characters I didn't mention as I don't want spoilers and just a lot packed into this book. I am very excited for the next book.

Overall: Pretty dang perfect fantasy!

Cover: Not my favorite-I tend to like bold, bright covers that catch the eye. This seems more muted although I'd have to see it in person to really judge properly.