Nampeshiweisit · #1
To Shape a Dragon's Breath
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.
The series
In Moniquill Blackgoose’s Nampeshiweisit series, dragons are not simply creatures of legend or weapons to be mastered. They are part of a world where knowledge, culture, and power have been shaped by generations of conflict. When fifteen-year-old Anequs, an Indigenous girl from the island of Masquapaug, discovers a dragon egg and raises the hatchling Kasaqua, she awakens a bond her people have not seen for generations. That discovery draws her into a society determined to teach her its own rules, history, and ideas about dragons.
Read full series description
Sent to Kuiper’s Academy to learn the Anglish approach to dragon training, Anequs finds herself caught between two very different ways of understanding the world. The academy offers education and opportunity, but it also carries the assumptions of a colonial society that views its own traditions as superior. Anequs's struggle is therefore not simply about learning to control a dragon. It is about deciding what knowledge is worth keeping, what she is willing to change, and how much of herself she can protect while navigating a world intent on defining her.
As the story expands beyond the academy, the stakes become increasingly political. Anequs returns home to find that her growing reputation has brought Anglish attention to Masquapaug, threatening the independence of her people. Dragon fantasy, alternate history, and coming-of-age storytelling gradually give way to questions of sovereignty, cultural survival, resistance, and the cost of imposing one society's values upon another.
The series' distinctive Indigenous perspective and thoughtful world-building helped To Shape a Dragon's Breath earn the Nebula Award, the Lodestar Award, and the Astounding Award, alongside nominations for other major speculative fiction honors. Its sequel, To Ride a Rising Storm, carries Anequs's journey into a more dangerous chapter, where the personal bond between girl and dragon is increasingly entangled with the fate of her homeland. The result is a character-driven fantasy series in which dragons open the door to a much larger story about identity, colonialism, belonging, and the right to shape one's own future.
Be the first reviewer
Sign in and write the first reader review.
