Posted on  20/08/2024 13:50:33

My rating: 4.5 stars for an absolutely original and fantastic read

Take one orphaned winged shape-shifter in search for a place to belong - a place where he can be loved that he can call home

Moon


Moon by Jessica Peffer

One of the most original non-human races I have ever read about: The Raksura


The Raksura by Jessica Peffer

And a deadly enemy: The Fell


The Fell by Jessica Peffer

That the Raksura need to face in bloody aerial battles:


Cover Art by Matthew Stewart

Add in a queen looking for a consort:

Jade

Jade by IvieMoon

Frame it all into an original amazing culture with a light and easy writing style and a fast paced story; add a little feeling and emotion to make the reader smile and laugh at times and there you go!!
The perfect recipe for a fabulous read that will literally knock your socks off!


This is the first volume in a series of books about "dragony-humany shapeshifters in a sprawling, massive, complex world of magic and creatures and cultural politics, complete with extra Feelings."- as Martha Wells herself describes.

The Raksura, are a hive-like society ruled by queens. Just like bees, most of their numbers are born sterile: neither male nor female warriors can have children. They encompass the Arbora – creatures whose dragony-forms are flightless, and the winged Aeriat who can shape-shift into flying winged forms.
Much of the Raksuran social hierarchy is dictated by birth and relies on significant physical and biological differences between individuals. They differ in both strength and size.
And they live in fabulous places, much like this one here:


2D-Art-Darius-Kalinauskas-Entrance-to-Atlantis

Moon is a shapeshifter who, in his groundling form, looks like a brown-skinned humanoid and in his shifted form resembles a winged, scaled, “dragony-humany” creature. Orphaned at a very young age, he doesn’t know what species he is or where he belongs.

The realm he inhabits, called the Three Worlds, is huge and diverse, populated with different types of creatures ranging in between groundling, sealing and skyling – some sentient and some not. Moon has spent his entire life without meeting anyone like him and trying to fit in with a variety of groundling civilisations. Rather less successful we might add, as he kept being either thrown out, or attacked and forced to leave from each and every one of them.

Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself... and his newfound kin.

I loved Moon's POV. As someone who knows he doesn't belong but yearns to be a part of the society around him, his worry that he will once again not fit even among his own kind is absolutely touching.
If you can’t fit in here, it’s not them; it’s you.
No wonder he is skittish like a wild little young dragon thrown into a fray. Because the stakes are pretty high when love and a place to call home are on the line.

The matriarchal society is refreshing and the ownership-marking-attitude of the queens absolutely fabulous.
She "stuck her claws in Monn's sleeve and hissed at Jade. "Mine.""

The queens fight for their consorts and give them gifts if they accept them. Their possessiveness is an absolute treat and so is the whole behaviour of the Raksura.

The ruffling and puffing up of feathers and the mock fights to show who's the boss, the skittishness and the sweetness of the young will make even the toughest readers smile. You can't possibly not love a little winged baby trying to claw its way up your back and chew on your fingers!

Mrs Wells gives us a great story written in an easy rhythm and with absolutely no nonsense extra info-dump. The mix of feeling and humour is just right! Enough to make you both smile and sigh.

"they're hoping we'll attack like crazy idiots, he thought sourly...The only thing they could do was attack like sane idiots and hope that worked."

Dragony-humany shapeshifters, a complex world of magic, creatures and cultural politics, complete with extra Feelings! Kick-ass warrior queens and bloody aerial battles!
And above all, a place to call home, where you can find someone to love you as you are! A place where you don't have to hide! A place where you can be yourself!

You'll find all of these and more in Martha Wells Raksura Series!
Happy reading! :)

Check out this book and more of Martha Wells on www.marthawells.com