To Ride A Rising Storm is book two of Nampeshiweisit by Moniquill Blackgoose and continues the story of Anequs. Having successfully navigated her first year at Kuiper’s Academy she now has some knowledge of skilta and various other so-called necessary skills for a dragoneer. As she prepares to return for her second year though she faces new and rather considerable challenges and difficulties. The Anglish, led by a group called the Ravens of Joden, are working on becoming more and more upset about the presence of the Nackies. Due to the increased friction there are guards stationed on Masquipaug who track every one who travels to or from the island, and don’t like anybody moving there. Under increased scrutiny, Anequs also struggles to handle the somewhat baffling differences between the two cultures as she works on navigating them. The one thing she continues to push for despite everything going on is the right to be seen as equal and the right to live her life the way her culture has for centuries. Something that also increasingly thrusts her right into the middle of the increasing unrest despite her stance against such unrest and violence.
This book adds to what was already shaping up to be a pretty good story and it is definitely one that I am enjoying so far. It deals with some interesting and potentially complex topics with a certain deftness that makes them feel remarkably simple. I am rather impressed by how well it handles the balance and clash between the cultures that is shown without being overly biased or derogatory. There is some bias since the protagonist is native but overall it is not putting down any one culture. I will admit that it does poke fun at Anglish culture but not necessarily in a mean way, at least it doesn’t feel that way to me. Honestly my one issue with the book and the series overall so far, is very minor and more of a personal preference than anything. I would love to see more of the dragons. They are present but they are very much shoved in the background a lot of the time. It almost feels like that was nothing more than a reason to throw Anequs in to the culture clash of the school situation at times. I know there is more to it than that but it does sometimes feel like that nonetheless. Again this is a personal preference as I just really like reading and hearing about dragons. The story itself is actually really good and a nice, relatively easy and enjoyable read. I am happy giving it four out of five stars.
I would probably classify this one as young adult fantasy so it would probably hold the most appeal to young adult readers who enjoy the fantasy genre. It would also hold some appeal to adult readers as well so keep that in mind. The book does contain some mild violence and extremely mild adult references as well as discussions and references to what we would call trans people, gay or lesbians and polyamory as well. Nothing that I would consider an issue and I would still feel pretty comfortable referring this one to teens as young as fourteen or fifteen all things considered. Definitely a book to consider reading, especially if you tend to prefer fantasy works or books about dragons. I would suggest reading the previous book before trying this one though or you will have some difficulty understanding what is going on. If you decide to try it, consider sharing your thoughts in the comments.