I was going to make sure that the Anglish understood that we had never gone anywhere. That despite their best efforts, we were still living here among them on the lands where we’d always lived. I was going to show them just how many of us there were. [loc. 6012]
Anequs is fifteen, two years a woman, when she discovers a dragon egg -- the first her people, the Naquisit, have seen for many years. When the egg hatches, in Masquisit's meeting-house and surrounded by the people of the island, the hatchling Kasaqua chooses Anequs to be its person -- its Nampeshiweisit. (If the unfamiliar names and words in that summary have put you off, this is not the book for you.) Anequs quickly learns that the Anglish colonisers have Rules about dragons: they must be registered, and properly trained, because a dragon's breath can reduce any material into its component atoms. Anequs and Kasaqua have to go to Kuiper’s Academy of Natural Philosophy and Skiltakraft in Varmarden, run by the formidable Frau Kuiper: almost all of the other students are male, and there is only one other Naquisit at the Academy.
This is a world in which history happened rather differently. Christianity doesn't exist (despite which -- and I realise this is a minor vexation -- the year is 1842: on what calendar?) and science and culture seem to have their roots in northern, rather than southern, Europe. The Anglish are not English, but a Viking-flavoured hegemony of colonisers. Their religion features Fyra, Joden, Enki and Rune: their interests are conquest and exploration. (There's a map, but it's not very readable on the Kindle.) The Naquisit -- nicknamed 'nackies', a name that they use among themselves and which doesn't seem to have any negative connotation -- mostly inhabit coastal islands, sharing resources communally. Anequs misses her brother Niquiat, who's working in a fish cannery on the mainland, but he sends back enough money that they can buy kerosene and calico 'to share with our neighbours'. Niqiuat also has some ideas about bringing the Naquisit into the modern world, and Anequs is determined to learn all she can about the Anglish.
This is, apparently, a YA novel (it's shortlisted for the Lodestar Award for Best YA Book), so it's unsurprising that a great deal of the novel deals with Anequs' attempts to fit in at Kuiper's Academy. She befriends a Black maid, Liberty, despite Liberty's protests that it is not the done thing; she also befriends the autistic Sander, and Theod, the other Naquisit at the Academy. She stands up to bullies -- some of whom are teachers -- and studies hard, and even manages to get along with her snobbish roommate Marta. She forms not one but two romantic relationships (bisexual and polyamorous!). And she learns skiltakraft, which is basically chemistry, and finds ways to connect it to her own experience.
I would have liked more of Kasaqua, especially her development and personality: she's no Temeraire. I did occasionally find Anequs a bit humourless, though one can hardly blame her in such an atmosphere of racism, social unrest and prejudice. But I enjoyed this alternate history a great deal, and I'm very much looking forward to the next in the series.
Fulfils the ‘featuring indigenous culture’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge.
Fulfils the ‘a fantasy by a non-Caucasian author’ rubric of the Something Bookish Reading Challenge.
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