A Language of Dragons is a debut fantasy novel by S.F. Williamson, featuring a world where dragons and humans live side by side in London, 1923. Aspiring dragon linguist Vivian might have started a civil war by trying to save her family from a death sentence. Now, in her last chance at redemption and saving her family, she must work at Bletchley Park as a code breaker in an attempt to help the government decipher another way dragons may be communicating with one another.

The book hits like Hunger Games meets Fourth Wing meets Babel. The characters were complex and flawed in a way that felt real. I enjoyed reading how the characters struggled to make decisions and figure out one another’s motives. The story and political plot was so intriguing, with quite a few twists and turns. Williamson’s writing style was also very engaging.

Highly recommend this novel to fantasy lovers. Though it’s marketed as YA, I think that readers of adult fantasy would also enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperCollins for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

This was an interesting mashup of academic and action, intrigue and soft romance. I knew I was going to like this one, but I was unprepared for just how much I liked it!

Viv shines as the main character, and while I wish some of the side characters were given a bit more time on page, I couldn’t get enough of Viv’s conflicting emotions of guilt and self service. She isn’t a bad person, but faces a host of challenges that risk not just her life but that of her family’s. For those of us familiar with YA fantasy we know just how far these heroines will go for their family members (looking at you, Katniss!) Viv’s reactions and choices reflect a different side of protectiveness that I found refreshing. I do want to point out that Viv is supposed to be very smart, however there were several times she wasn’t making the connections and it was overly frustrating.

As I mentioned, this is a slow burn, super soft romance that doesn’t supersede the main plot of the story. Our MMC, Atlas, is steamy but holds himself at arm’s length for much of the story, and with good reason!

But let’s talk about the most anticipated part of this book- Dragons. It’s called A Language of Dragons for a reason because yes, here be dragons! Although they did appear far less than I was expecting in this novel. With the comparison to Fourth Wing, I definitely anticipated the same amount of dragon interactions, but sadly that is not the case. Hence the four stars. Now, I think the next novel has so much more potential in this regard since the ending is, well, explosive, and I am ready to find out what will happen next for Viv!

I’d recommend this to YA readers who are new to fantasy and enjoy speculative history. I know I would’ve paid more attention to World War 2 classes if dragons had been involved!

A Language of Dragons was an entertaining, high-stakes fantasy read. The dystopian setting paired with dark academia vibes was well executed. I really enjoyed the political relationship between the humans and dragons. I'd have liked to see more dragon-to-dragon interactions, but I have a feeling that'll ramp up in the next book.

The aspect of decoding dragon language via ecolocation was distinctive, fun, and brilliant! The characters were in a race against time to earn their freedom back, but this freedom felt weighted due to the class system set in place. I really liked the parallel between freedom and injustice. I struggled with the MC, Viv—I get she is young, but her selfishness was infuriating. This story offers second chances, though, so I hope to see some character development in the next book. Romance was a subplot in this story, which I liked.

Overall, the action, high-stakes environment, political intrigue, talking dragons, and the importance of language made this an exciting read. I am looking forward to what happens next.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

The premise of this is super interesting; I've always been fascinated by wartime code breakers. Sadly though, Vivien doesn't work so well for me as the protagonist. We're supposed to believe that she's smart because she's so studious and picks up dragon languages, but everything she does is the opposite of smart. She insists that the class system and way the country is run are good things; yet she herself seems to bristle at the privilege of First Class and dreads being demoted to Third. She committed very blatant treason without thinking it through at all and seemed almost surprised that she got caught.

The dragons themselves are cool, and I like that there are different types from different countries and areas. But the underlying world building doesn't make a ton of sense when you get down to it, and Vivien is a frustrating protagonist.

This book was fantastic. Imagine if Fourth Wing, Babel, and Divergent had a baby - that's this book. Viv is just trying to survive and save her family. She doesn't want to risk being demoted to a lower class, and she can't imagine leaving her sister alone in that world. So when she's arrested for starting a war, she's gotta figure herself out.

Working to understand dragon languages and decipher different dialects and codes is her job. Her success will equal the release of her family from the prison they're currently in. But this is so much bigger than working to save her family. Viv slowly learns the truth and begins to understand the ramifications of her actions, but also the actions of others. Knowledge is power, and Viv has a lot of it....if only she'd let herself be confident.

Let me start by saying I am blown away by this being a debut novel. The world was detailed, the character development was substantial and the plot pacing was decent. The middle of the book did slow down quite a bit and that ending left me a bit upset, but I’m hoping there will be more?

Viv was hard to like. BUT she was created that way. She was used to following the rules and trusting those in power. It took a long time for her to start opening her eyes. She was also portrayed as a “center of the universe” type character and it showed.

The romance was a subplot but fulfilling. I really loved the loved interest. I’m HOPING we get more but I was under the impression this was a standalone so we shall see.

I read this courtesy NetGalley and HarperCollins. I was a linguistical anthropology major long ago, so when I found out that SF Williamson had crafted a story about young linguists studying the various dialects of dragon language in the midst of a war, I was immediately sucked in. The author does a splendid job of putting together a story about impulsive actions, redemption, family pride and family secrets, and how the characters put together dragon tongue! I couldn’t put it down!
#ALanguageofDragons #NetGalley

A PERFECT market filler if you want something like Fourth Wings meets Naomi Novik's historical Temeraire series. I can't wait to read more!

I was interested in the book by name alone. Any book with dragons in the title will grab my attention. I was not prepared for the emotional rollercoaster this book put me on. The dystopian society created through a so-called “Peace Agreement” was uncomfortably unjust. The main character you follow, Vivian Featherswallow, was driven by her ambition of doing great things with dragon languages. Not thinking too deeply about what “Third Class” citizens were like beyond the fact that she never wanted to become one. This fear colors the decisions of every citizen of Britannia.

I struggled to read this book at first because it was making me so upset, and I couldn’t understand why. Until it hit me. In other books with these unfair societies, the main character is usually an undercover rebel that is critical of their government. In this book, Vivian is so trusting in her government and the propaganda that she has been fed from a young age that she doesn’t even have rebel thoughts. A huge part of this book is how she struggles against everything she has ever known. Once I figured that out, I appreciated how much of a masterpiece this book is!

Viv has such realistic character development in this book that I was blown away. Truly, what else can you expect from a 17 year old that has only known the information fed to her by government controlled education. Of course, she wouldn’t drop everything and join the rebel cause even when they’re holding her parents and little sister hostage. She believes them justified due to the laws broken.

Every twist and turn of this book is so worth reading that I will say no more. A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson is the next big fantasy book! I highly recommend this book to any fantasy lover who is looking for a book about rising against your government even when the odds are not on your side.

Thank you S.F. Williamson, Harper Collins Publishers, and Net Galley for electronic ARC of this book.

This book starts off running! I instantly wanted more. I struggled at times with the FMC's selfishness yet also being naive. I would have really liked her to have more of a moral dilemma with being selfish wanting to save her family but also knowing doing this other thing was really bad rather than her being like oh I'm bad so I have to be selfish. Her character development happened a little fast for me. I will have to say that I really liked the author's explanation as to why bratty teenagers are left to save the world when there were other experts still at play. There is one character that is like Umbridge level of hatred for this character which I loved. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Although I enjoyed the world-building in this book, I didn't connect with it. Despite its many positive aspects, there were also some things that disappointed me. It is possible that I will revisit this book eventually, and I am invested in this world's future as well.

A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson is a story that feels both new and wonderfully familiar. It is very easy to empathize with our main character Vivien Featherswallow as she struggles to navigate her obligations to family, country, and self, making Williamson's writing incredibly compelling. A Language of Dragons is an enthralling story, that will keeps readers wondering what comes next.

Vivian Featherswallow has set her sights on qualifying to learn dragon languages in University, and has let nothing get in her way, including her friends. But her total focus has blinded her to the realities of her society and political situation, and suddenly, and violently, she is yanked into personal upheaval and civil war. Unsure who or what to believe, she is forced into secret work at Bletchley Park related to her specialty of dragon languages, and hopes her work there will free her parents or at least rescue her little sister. But all is never as it seems, and the action comes quick and steadily, with lots of intrigue and betrayal at every turn. Vivian is fairly naive, and can get quite annoying in her waffling decision making, but gradually the realities of her world begin to clarify in her mind, and she learns who to trust and how to move forward. In some ways this reminds me of R.F. Kuang's Babel, but with far less intricacy and detail, and far more constant action that helps fill in any plot holes. It's a fun and exciting read. Recommended.

I enjoyed this book, it was a slow start but, I got through it. I was intrigued with the fact that Viv could speak to the dragons in their own languages, it made it more interesting to see that she could stop the war between humans and dragons because of her talent. I did have some confusion to why the imprisonment happened in the beginning because it just wasn’t making sense at first. But everything progressed slowly and midway to the end, the discoveries started coming really fast. So, it was enjoyable just slow.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the opportunity to review A Language of Dragons.

I very much enjoyed this historical YA fantasy. The story is set in 1930s Bletchley Park (England) during a period of tentative peace between humans and dragons, when the Prime Minister of Britannia rules the country with an iron fist. Our main character is Violet Featherswallow who is recruited for her expertise in dragon languages. She is assigned to work with a group of teenage recruits who have been charged with deciphering a secret 'code' to uncover the secrets of dragon communication.

I really enjoyed the way languages and translation played a big part in the narrative as well as the dark academia vibe. The world building is vibrant and unique - I loved the Bletchley Park connection. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed the relationships between them - rivals, friends, comrades and young love. There was plenty of action, political intrigue, romance and of course, dragons. This story ends on a cliffhanger and I am looking forward to the sequel of this duology.

One of my strongest memories from childhood is watching Reign of Fire. A family friend worked at a video store (not Blockbuster, one of the other ones; I don't remember the name but I do remember frequently going there to see him, and looking at all the movies in awe), and he used to bring over movies for us to watch on Fridays or Saturdays; he would come with his girlfriend and so it'd be me, my siblings, my parents, and them. There are multiple movies from that time in my life that became favorites - and continue to be favorites - but Reign of Fire is probably THE favorite, and it's become kind of the benchmark of dragon media for me, even though for years I couldn't even remember the title of it (it was only by happenstance that I rediscovered it as an adult by randomly looking at Christian Bale's filmography; my child brain hadn't registered the actors, so I was never able to look them up), just snippets of scenes, but those snippets left such an impact on me that I can't help but compare every piece of dragon media to Reign of Fire, even when they don't have much in common besides dragons.

Which leads me to A Language of Dragons. They aren't similar at all, really, beyond the presence dragons and being set in England, but both have interesting plots that I find unique amid dragon fantasies.

Languages and translation is something that fascinates me, despite my personal struggles to learn foreign languages - but reading about the process is always interesting, and it really is where A Language of Dragons shines, but there's little else that's engaging, with underdeveloped characters and a plot that finds itself tripping over cliches of YA dystopia, juggling too many themes and not quite realizing any of them. Even after reading (and rereading some passages to hopefully find out answers to some lingering questions), I feel like I don't fully grasp the state of the world. The plot hinges on dragons having existed as long as humanity, but the thing that bugged me the entire time is, So why hasn't this affected humans? Humanity seems to have evolved regardless of such a predator existing, largely unimpeded, and in some aspects, it's actually seemed to have thrived: there's glimpses of advanced technology, allusions to devices that seem to have touch screens (unless the descriptions were just poorly done), and helicopters being present in the 1920s, and I just want to know - why? Why so little deviation from history? And why bother setting it in the decade it is if the language is going to be modern and the technology is going to feel out of place? Because that's another issue: not only does the narrative voice sound like a modern teenager, but the actual dialogue hardly seems to be period-appropriate, and it was jarring.

Setting this in modern times wouldn't have made it too much better, but it would've maybe made a lot of the characterizations and worldbuilding a little easier to understand - because the class system is also bizarrely implemented and underexplained. Society is separated into a three-class system, with First Class obviously being the top, but the differences between the three feel so minute and the stakes of going from first to second or second to third hardly ever feel dire. I just don't know how they decide who belongs where; there's clearly money involved, but there's also an odd scene where skin color is alluded to - but that just makes the choice to have the First Class girl be Black and a stereotypically mean girl just even odder, if race IS still a construct and affects anyone - but I really don't understand why it does. I also don't understand the approach to the gay characters and how it seems they have to hide their relationship because I suppose that's "period appropriate" but they're also incredibly open about it... so is homophobia an issue, or not?? And if so, if racism and homophobia and every other bigoted attitude still exists - why?

It also escapes my understanding as to how dragons are oppressed when they could just easily kill the humans oppressing them, which we do see: the Bulgarian dragons massacred their entire country - and somehow Bulgarian humans are discriminated against because of this? It was really difficult to follow the reasoning of hating dragons AND having the class system alongside other forms of discrimination; the class system was a product of a human-dragon war (the replacement of WWI, making the human-dragon war that this book serves as a leadup to a replacement of WWII), but why is there discrimination against dragons? I just don't feel like the question was ever adequately answered.

But at least the dragons we meet have personality; though they're actually on briefly on page, they're always the most lively. The human cast are mainly walking stereotypes, and the narrator is described as 'selfish' not only by herself but in a foreword from the author - and while it's true that she thinks of herself often, it feels almost forced; as if the writer just really wanted a protagonist that doesn't really 'fit the mold' of dystopian hero. We see her do terrible things and grapple with them then decide it's fine because it's for her own gain but it never really feels emotional at all. It would have helped to actually explore her relationships with her family and best friend more but it really seems to be sacrificed in favor of a half-baked romance that read more like a last-second addition just because it's a trope of the genre; the love interest was bland, only really there to further the main character's development, and his death as a catalyst for her move to fully becoming a rebel just feels very awkward at best and a little racist at worst (since he's ambiguously Not White, as pointed out in the one sentence we get about racial discrimination existing in this universe).

At least the parts about language were investing. Really, really well done worldbuilding there, that thankfully IS a major focus but also deserved so much more time dedicated to it. I haven't read any of the dragon books in the recent craze (brought on by Fourth Wing, I guess), so I don't know if any others have a language-focus, but this one does feel unique and I hope if this turns into a series (the end seems to be open to a sequel at least), the author can hold on to that and really let this live up to the potential it could have had. I hate how disappointed I was by this, because I really did want it to be good. But I think Williamson could maybe put out a better book in the future; there's definitely glimpses of it in certain parts.

First I want to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m still processing the onslaught of emotions I experienced in the last 50 or so pages of this book. As a character driven reader it was hard for me to connect with Viv at first. She’s a very flawed character who often makes extremely frustrating decisions. However, I thought the character development and growth was handled so well in this book. By the end I was feeling what Viv was feeling; experiencing her fear, her grief, her shock right along with her. It takes a talented author to make me feel for, and ultimately root for, such a flawed character.

I found the story itself to be immensely fascinating. I loved the idea of post WWI Bletchley Park codebreaking, but with dragons! The use of linguistics and dragon languages was so interesting and so well realized. The dragons themselves were very cool. The political intrigue and dark academia elements were fantastic. Everything about this book kept me turning the pages. I thought this was an incredible debut, and I can’t wait to see what this author has in store for book two. 4.5/5 Stars ⭐️

5 stars. I have such a soft spot for books with dragons, and dare I say, A Language of Dragons may be one of my favorite books with dragons that I've ever read. I think this was such a unique read, and I loved everything about it. Basically, the book takes place in England in the 1920s. Dragons and humans have a tenuous agreement of peace, but there are rebel factions that are on the brink of bringing the peace treaty down. Viv gets sent to Bletchley to work as a code breaker. If you're familiar with England's history, Bletchley Park is where code breakers were sent during WWII, so I love that Williamson has blended history with fantasy. Viv isn't a code breaker, she's a linguist, who happens to speak several dragon languages. And it turns out, that interpreting dragon languages is exactly why they've sent her to Bletchley. But Viv ends up learning more than she bargains for. The political dynamics play a strong role in this book, and seeing Viv's evolution as a character was intriguing, both in terms of her own character development but also with respect to the development of all of her relationships. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of Elloren from the Black Witch Chronicles, which is another fantastic YA fantasy series. And if the title didn't make things apparent, there are dragons. Lots of dragons. All in all, I absolutely loved this book. I was gifted an eARC from Williamson, netgalley, and Harper Collins in exchange for my honest review (thank you so much!), but I've already purchased 2 physical copies for my shelves (the US version and a special edition). This will go down as one of my favorite reads of 2024 and given the way the book ended, I will be CLAMORING for book 2.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
A Language of Dragons drew my attention due to the premise, especially with the blurb name-dropping Bletchley Park. And while I feel the comps to Babel and Fourth Wing are inaccurate (or at least rather misleading, especially the latter). While, yes, there’s dragons and there’s a war, the romance is much different and subtle for this to be comparable to FW. As for Babel, I can see the comparisons a little more, from the alternate historical England, the prominence of linguistics, and the government corruption and class warfare.
All that said, the world is compelling in and of itself, and I enjoyed learning about the power structure of this version of England with the coexistence of people and dragons (with some of the interstitials being particularly insightful in conveying this information), not to mention the academic study of dragon language being incorporated into scholarship.
Viv as a character is hard to like at times, but given what she’s been through at the losses she’s faced, she’s incredibly sympathetic. While I don’t approve of every decision, I can understand what she makes for the sake of herself and reuniting with her family. While sometimes she can come off as cowardly or complicit, the text gives her room to grow beyond her state of privilege in a realistic way.
However, with Viv being so pronounced as a character, I did feel like the other characters were largely robbed of feeling dynamic as a result, with them mostly being there to help contribute to her journey and growth instead of having fully realized personalities of their own. The romance itself is decent, but not only is it not a major plot driver, but the chemistry wasn’t really there for me to really care about how things would turn out for them, even with the “class difference” element.
But as it appears there will be a sequel, I am hopeful that the romance might develop further in the next book, and the other elements will continue to be fleshed out. Overall, this is a promising debut, and I would recommend it to readers interested in a historical fantasy with dragons and dark academia vibes.

I’m to the point now that if I see a book with dragons I’m just all in. Even tho this was classified as YA it didn’t matter. Entertaining! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review