#tsadb

[maplewozapi]

I finally did it, I’ve been itching to make a to shape a dragon’s breath sona for a long time. Also just to draw myself with all the traditional things I actually have and ones I eventually want to make for myself. And Go read the book go hurry it’s by @moniquill 🎀💖🩷💜 please I love it so much

This is a dragon inspired by how we describe giant serpents and one of our sacred beings

[moniquill]

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706010/to-shape-a-dragons-breath-by-moniquill-blackgoose/

ABOUT TO SHAPE A DRAGON’S BREATH

A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series. 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.

PRAISE

“A thorough delight . . . To Shape a Dragon’s Breath reveals a world that is complex and political through deft, thoughtfully drawn characters who, like their world, are complicated and believable. I love Anequs!”—K. Eason, author of How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse “Imagine a world full of dragons where a newborn chooses you to be its caregiver. Imagine you have to go to a special school to learn how to train it. Imagine that almost no one at the school wants you there. This is how the well-written, compelling tale of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath begins, and once underway it doesn’t let you go.”—New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks

[corvidcrowned]

read a cool book recently,

[crownomancer]

One of the things I love about To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is that the author assigns different words to things which those of us who attended English-based western public schools learned growing up would already know.

For example, there’s a section in which one of Anequs’ professors explains what is essentially the scientific method, but instead of “hypothesis” the word used is “vermutun.” I haven’t looked into if this is the word used in another language, but even if it is, it creates the same effect for many of us who grew up learning the scientific method in English. It creates a sense of confusion, a feeling of being overwhelmed and out of place, just as it would for someone who was not taught these specific terms growing up.

In some small degree, it feels like we are thrown into the deep end with Anequs, and expected to swim. It’s such a cool choice.

[saintstars]

Anequs x Liberty - To Shape A Dragon's Breath (repost)

[bookwyrminspiration]

it's so unbelievably refreshing to have such honest and open communication between love interests. Liberty explaining to Anequs they'd be in severe danger if they courted, Anequs telling Theod it'd be risky if they courted openly--but her saying she'd love to later with both of them, when it was safe. and no one gets upset about it and everyone understands, even though they're disappointed. now that i'm saying this out loud--"wow its so great that people who love each other talk to each other about their feelings maturely"--i think maybe my bar was. a little bit damaged and low damn

[nighttimepatrons]

I dont know if i can keep reading To Shape a Dragon's Breath, 30% done and not a single dragon has spoken a word 😔

[gemini-queen42]

HEY LADS FUN FACT: I've been reading To Shape A Dragon's Breath and i love it dearly And I must recommend it!♡♡

[Some (mild?) spoilers under the break]

LITERALLY The only reason I didnt squeal is bcuz i was in class.

BUT SCRAMING!!! OMFG!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!

HELLO hi yes I've been AWFULLY invested in Anequs & Libertys relationship... ouggh...

The amount of HEARTS I annotated on just these 2 pages....sorry i lomv them...

Like literally Anequs's FIRST thought about Liberty... and when they next meet?? Ouugh???♡♡

Some more misc lil moments of theirs i annotated. Sorry these aren't taken with full readability but I can't retake them rn so 😭😭

[jezebelgoldstone]

for the love of ALL YOUR GODS FKIN *PLEASE* READ "TO SHAPE A DRAGON'S BREATH" BY MONIQUILL BLACKGOOSE & "IRON WIDOW" BY XIRAN JAY ZHAO. I AM UNABLE TO FIND THE WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW OFF-THE-CHARTS BRILLIANT THESE BOOKS ARE HOLY SHIT THEY'RE SO GOOD AND I LITERALLY CANNOT BELIEVE THEY'RE NOT ON THIS LIST ALREADY OMG OMG

also if you need proof that the authors themselves are awesome people i point you to the fact that they're both genuine certified tumblrinas @moniquill @xiranjayzhao

oh also! okay so im sure everyone on this webbed sight is already aware of the lesbians with swords in the gothic castle in space books, but there is some strong anti colonial stuff in the later gideon the ninth books, & afaik @tazmuir is on tumblr also whoops yep there she is

AND all of these recs are queer!!!

anyway PLEASE READ ALL OF THESE & then come talk to me abt them

also for intense dramatic breathtakingly beautiful anti colonialism from a poc if not necessarily marginalized perspective i am literally ON MY KNEES *BEGGING* you to watch rrr. it's on einthusan dot tv literally free and even legal please please PLEASE

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

[aroaessidhe]

faves of 2023: YA fantasy (secondary world)

To Shape A Dragon's Breath

Lucha of the Night Forest

Sheiné łénde

The Siren, The Song, and The Spy

Into The Midnight Void

City of Nightmares

[gigantomachylesbian]

To Shape a Dragon's Breath was very good, it was the rare YA book that didn't overly read like YA fantasy in terms of style and didn't make me feel like I was being talked down to as a reader, but still felt very accessible. It's a book that I both really loved reading as an adult and made me feel connected with my younger self and my consistent passion for dragons, and is a book I would love to share with some younger cousins because I'm sure it could be even more meaningful to them. Just a compelling, touching, enjoyable read :^) I definitely recommend either reading this one yourself and/or gifting it to any teens in your life!

[moniquill]

https://locusmag.com/2024/05/2024-locus-awards-top-ten-finalists/

To Shape A Dragon's Breath has been nominated for a Locus award!

[dovand]

hello hi TSADB fan here—can confirm, that book is fucking excellent! And the author is here on tumblr also; you should go let her know how cool it is once you’ve read it :P

Hello, I have a question, and probably a strange one. The short version: any tips on how do I and other writers should approach naming Lakota-based characters? Are there any good sources, that can be trusted?

The long version: so I'm making a story where one of characters comes from a nation based of Lakota. Since all main characters are dragon riders, I figured it wouldn't be odd for them to be one too. But I'm not sure how do I go about native people and dragons combination in terms of names. If I'm know what do I do with the rest of the crew but here I feel lost. There are not much sources online about Lakota naming convention avilable in my native language but I'm trying to do my best in what it comes about research. So recently I started digging in English. But not all online sourses seems to be relatable. So I decided I should better find a Lakota person and ask directly, regardless of how stupid I may look. Because one of the last things I want to do, is calling a character or their dragon "ten fighting bear asses" or something just as ridiculous (or, worse - offensive) by an accident.

Ok I’m gonna use this to talk about several things because time and time again I get asked this question over and over, and the out come is always the same, that there’s a deep rooted problem with how people write native people in fantasy. For one thing I’m not sure how you are even representing Lakota people in your story, and you are just going to call these characters Lakota names in English? Do they talk English? Then what does this nation of "Lakota inspired fantasy people" even look like? Are they backed dropped with elves and dwarfs? Why is it that not just Lakota but any native nation is a back drop for a fantasy world? Then there’s the fact that the Lakota tribes are made up of seven sub tribes and then itself is apart of a seven group tribe. You can’t just up root a REAL LIFE people and remove them from what makes them them. You aren’t the only one I have to talk about this with and I end up getting ghosted by the people asking for help because they end up realizing they can’t actually write this weird Frankenstein story of native people. It’s a lot more nuanced to writing about native people and it takes collaboration with people to make a genuine story. Idk if people disconnect us from our land and people just haven’t realized WE ARE NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, you just can’t take us away from our history, what we are apart of and then if you are including one tribe where’s the rest of them? I wanna bring up Xiran Jay Zhao videos because I really think it brings up this whole issue with nitpicking cultures and misrepresenting them. No hard feelings or anything but so many authors come to me for advice and their whole stories and works just crumble and fall apart because they just don’t understand and can’t, you’ll never have a native person perspective. I honestly think instead of forcing it and writing from bull shit you don’t know is a reliable source then maybe you should step back and learn about native people, support their writings, and enjoy their work and authenticity./gen

Here’s a great book focusing on dragon riders, completely from a Wampanoag perspective written by Wampanoag author.

I am so glad you have an interest in our culture and I have no hard feelings about misunderstandings./pos

[e-b-reads]

Just finished To Shape a Dragon's Breath (just in time, it's due back to the library) and I really liked it! While reading I found myself contrasting it with Babel. Now obviously they're different books (and differently complete, as TSaDB is first in a series) but they are both books about (among other things) colonialism and academia so I think some comparison is warranted.

A conclusion I came to is that R. F. Kuang really wanted to say some things with Babel, and so she made certain that those things came across! To the point of footnotes that were like "in case you missed it..." Meanwhile in To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose definitely had things to say, but she doesn't hammer those things home. Her main character is an indigenous young woman in a colonized society, and she has things that she wants for herself and her family (and other things she's still grappling with) and Blackgoose makes sure that those are clear, but the rest of the larger societal implications are kind of, well, implied.

I did like Babel and I think it's skillfully written (not always the same thing) but I think I like To Shape a Dragon's Breath more. Looking forward to a sequel.

[crownomancer]

Kasaqua.

-

I thought I was going to draw Anequs first, but I love Kasaqua’s design so much. I missed up on the neck in the main drawing, but I’ll fix it in later stuff.

[bookwyrminspiration]

I'm quite fond of the detail that when other characters try to say certain places/names (e.g. Maswachuisit, Naregannisit) their dialogue instead represents their mispronunciation. It so perfectly captures in writing the feeling when you hear someone mispronounce a word in another/your language, and succinctly conveys everyone else's unfamiliarity and inexperience with what/where they're talking about. And in the case of the jarl and other authority figures, their unqualified positions/knowledge to be making the political decisions they do. of course it's not the only thing conveying that, but it's just another layer to it I appreciate