This is a boarding school story with a difference; two differences. This is an alternative history setting, and there are dragons. TO RIDE A RISING STORM is the second in a series featuring Anequs, a girl native to the land we call eastern Canada and the northeast of America. The start of the tale shows us life on her home island, Masquapaug, gathering berries, fish and fresh greens during summer. Life is changing for her people.   In Anequs’s version of history, the Viking people of Scandinavia overwhelmed most of Europe, which did happen through the Normans, but this time the Norse culture came out on top. So instead of kings, there are jarls (our word earl came from jarl), literature is mainly the sagas, and Canada is Vinberland, based on Vinland the Good. This is all set back in the 1800s, and the meeting with Native people, called Nackies, was relatively recent, so they are not accepted in society. The Norse are now referred to as the Anglish, having teamed up with what we call the British. A considerable amount of this story concerns itself with history lessons. There are also classes in using magical aethers, which turns out to be molecular chemistry, but the elements have different names such as vetna, brinesna, grunesna, kalisna and silber. We wade through lesson after lesson, and we’re told dragons can help change elements to other elements, but we don’t see it.   School for Anequa and her dragon, Kasaqua, means the famed Kuiper’s Academy for dragonfolk. With Theod, the only other Native student and his dragon Copper, the sixteen-year-old girl navigates uncertain waters. Anglish social customs prevail, with rigid rules, chaperonage and schedules. A version of slavery practiced here means a thrall, Liberty, from another culture has to work off an indenture. High society girl Marta doesn’t even deign to speak to thralls. Almost all other students are male.

I’ve read a good many dragon series, starting, of course, with Anne McCaffrey’s Pern, and more recently the Temeraire and Lady Trent series. With this series, called Nampeshiweisit, I feel we are spending too long with classes and debates and young people giving lengthy lectures to other young people. Readers of fantasies about dragons want some danger and action. We’re told some of that did occur in the first book, when Kasaqua was too small to fly, but for now, we’ll concentrate on how to build a saddle. The author has created a really elaborate world, with background undercurrents of menace, but I feel it’s too slow for YA readers, while adult readers just can’t get worked up about a shot-silk ball gown. I would be interested to try the first story, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which won awards, and find out more about the local breed of dragon and why they are endangered. Moniquill Blackgoose has written chiefly about culture and alternative history, but the dragons are what steal our hearts. TO RIDE A RISING STORM provides a few interesting alternatives in one adventure.