This (mostly) cozy draconic fantasy hits high points of transformation, romance—and gathering the confidence to find your own place in the world.
Review: Dragon’s Soul
Arilin Thorferra
If you had nothing but the first chapter to judge, you might consider describing Dragon’s Soul as a “cozy fantasy” a category error. As we’re introduced to Teku, our protagonist (put an asterisk there), nothing about his situation screams cozy. In a town whose parents always, without exception, give birth to two pairs of twins, he’s an unexpected and unwanted fifth child, seen as having literally no purpose: “Because there had never been a fifth child in the history of their village, no one knew what he should do. Ever since his first days on the farm as a boy, there was nothing to occupy his time. Every task was specifically crafted and allocated for one person to do in conjunction with their twin. If he helped, he got in the way. If he tried to do anything by himself, he got stuck. Instead, he just cleaned tools when they weren’t being used and tried to look busy, lest his father snap at him for not contributing to the farm.”
Teku has but one self-assigned task: moving a lever at the edge of their field from the position it resets itself to every morning to its opposite position. At the end of the first chapter, after completing that task one final time, Teku makes an impetuous decision to run away, guided only by moonlight—and promptly tumbles into a ravine.
Now, the asterisk: when Teku awakens, he’s in a different body: that of a dragon. How? Why? This is the core of the story. A curious gryphon who introduces herself as Firebrand meets the panicked, sobbing new dragon and befriends them, also suggesting the possibility of a new name, something more draconic rather than a name that might belong to their past.
If you read that and think this sounds like it could possibly be an allegory for being transgender, I don’t think I’m spoiling the story by confirming your suspicion. Firebrand and the newly-renamed Ember soon meet another dragon, who recognizes Ember’s newly appropriate she/her pronouns before Ember does. The trio of Ember, Firebrand, and Caly make their way to the Sacred Mountain, home of the dragons. While both Caly and Firebrand know Ember used to be a human, Ember is terrified of other dragons finding out, that she’ll be revealed as a fraud, not a real dragon. Meanwhile, her relationship with Caly and Firebrand deepens, as do mysteries entwined around Ember’s transformation.
Once it truly kicks off, Dragon’s Soul lives up to its billing as cozy, queer romantasy; there aren’t any real antagonists other than Ember’s own self-doubt—which is, to be sure, formidable (and, even if you are neither transgender nor transdraconic, relatable). The mystery fan in me might wish the mysteries weren’t quite as easily guessable, but that’s a quibble, not a flaw. The writing is solid and the major characters are all lovely. The world-building around the dragon’s culture is absolutely marvelous, textured and complex without ever tipping into stereotype. (The same can’t be said about Ember’s human village at the story’s start. I appreciate that we want a dramatic contrast with the new life she’s struggling to accept, but it’s hard to see how anyone in that miserable village is ever anything but miserable for their entire miserable lives.)
Dragon’s Soul is, as far as I know, only available as an ebook. If you’re a dragon fan, a transformation story fan—or a cozy, poly lesbian romance fan—it’s more than worth the price.