Reviews

To Shape a Dragon's Breath is one of the most well rounded fantasies I've read in a while. Set in a fantasy land that mirrors colonial era America. White colonizers have taken over the land and they have dragons. The worldbuilding and setting were so descriptive. Moniquill Blackgoose did a remarkable job at blending the worldbuilding aspects in, so it never felt like an info dump session. The different ways each culture views dragons and their relationship with them was so interesting.

Anequs is by and far the best fantasy character I've ever read because she knows who she is and what she stands for. You learn right alongside her. I loved her relationships with other the students and teachers and most of all her family. The way she took bits of what she'd learned in school and connected them to her own culture was very powerful!

I'm definitely looking forward to whatever comes next in the Nampeshiweisit saga!

Content Warnings

bluebirdsongs's review

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adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

dragongurrl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The most perfect dragon book I’ve ever read! So excited to see how this series plays out. Such a beautifully written story with with an incredible plot. The author has a perfect balance of world building so nothing feels too info dumpy. The dragons are so beautifully described and our main character is a true bad ass even if she doesn’t always know it herself.

noahhawthorne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

adrijaetc's review against another edition

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Soft dnf at 15% - just not in the mood for the vibes of this book currently, but might pick it up again later.

allidone's review

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tense slow-paced

3.75

This is really good and I really like a fantasy novel from the prospective - and written by - a native person. My biggest complaint about this is how dense it is with the folklore of the fantasy peoples. It's easy to see the different religions and cultures that contributed to the fantasy people's versions but it gets a little overwhelming being introduced to about 6 different folklores for 6 different cultures in a single book.
That said, I most definitely will be reading the second book in the series whenever it's released

A fact that I have always found interesting is that every single culture on the planet, no matter how far removed, has had a myth about dragons.

galexandriaw's review against another edition

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3.0

3/5 stars

There were some things I enjoyed about this book but a good few I didn't as well, so let's start with what I enjoyed.

First of all, the idea of a dragon's breath being something to use in a fantasy-chemistry, if you will, is really interesting! I think it's a clever concept of mixing science with the unknown. I wish there was less specifics on the athers and more on the concept as a whole because it got muddled down sometimes, but I enjoyed the system overall.

I really looked forward to reading a book with a native narrator and culture. I haven't read much indigenous fantasy and would love to read more in general.

Unfortunately I do think I had more I didn't like in general. For one, I had a lot of problems with Anequs as a main character. At first I was so stoked to be reading about someone who actually speaks up for herself and defends her culture. However, throughout the whole story she didn't really have any major consequences, and it seemed like she didn't have any flaws either. Don't get me wrong, European culture obviously has an unnumerable amount of issues, and everything Anequs called out was justified, but it never felt like she made a mistake or was wrong in her behavior. I don't think any character can or should be perfect. I was honestly surprised how much she got away with.

I would have loved to seen more of the side characters, especially Marta, and see them grow and change in their perspectives by being close to Anequs. You see it a little bit, but not to the depth I was expecting. Additionally, I felt the overarching plot and conflict took way too long to get into. It took me a while to get through the first couple hundred pages, but I read the last couple really fast.

There are a couple other things that bothered me about this book, more personal stuff I think. I realized I don't care for when fantasy lore is slightly different from real life. Like I get it's supposed to be clever by calling algebra "al-jabr", but it took me so long to get what it was talking about that at that point just call it what it is. I could go into the little nitpicky things but it's not worth it. I think I still enjoyed this book enough to read the next ones in the series, but I am going to be watching out to see if these issues I have improve as Blackgoose continues to write. It has a lot of potential to be a great series!

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