A Natural History of Dragons

Let me preface this by saying this book is 3 stars because of the things it lacks, not the things it has being not quite good enough. Some elements I actually quite liked, but one key feature was barely even there. Isabella was interested in dragons since childhood, something their Victorian-like world has an abundance of without the humans knowing much about them. Isabella is also wild and headstrong, always up to something, which is not exactly desirable according to her peers, she still manages to find a lovely, sweet husband called Jacob who is also into dragons. When she befriends a nobleman famous for going on expeditions, Isabella of course makes things happen so not only is Jacob allowed to go, but herself too. Writing Victorian female characters today is not something I am super into, to be honest. It feels like people can't imagine human beings like us living in a different type of society without doing cartoonish things, like a Victorian lady talking in 2017 gender studies language, being an absolutely loathsome bitch to everyone around her because she is fighting society or being a total boring ragdoll suffering everywhere she goes to make us feel pity for the poor, brainwashed slaves. I can tell you, young Isabella is neither of those; she is a person. A person who is imperfect and human, who is very much part of her surroundings and still has her own character. As she is telling her own story, now as an old lady, she even points things out about how she was at fault when some of her interactions turned mean. Sometimes she fucked up. She is not the moral centre of everything, as some authors like to do female characters now. Ms. Brennan even surprised me with some of these things. At one point the characters find some ancient inscription on the walls of a temple ruin where one of them talks about how a country offered money for any man who could solve and translate it, but he is sure she could convince them to give the reward to her. I was like “oh, right, here is the moment when she just magically has amazing skills that not even even professors and geniuses around her had”. But she didn't. She just said she doesn't know shit about stuff like this, thanks. So in my book she is fine. Not quite like Lizanne Lethridge from [b:The Waking Fire 25972177 The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456221270s/25972177.jpg 45880091], but she is fiiiiine. The whole memoir format is risky, though. You need to have a great protagonist (check), an interesting life story (check) and it really needs to have the pacing that makes the books interesting. Here is the issue with this. The dragons are barely there. Writing about dragons like it's the story of a naturalist, like this is science meeting myth and fantasy is AWESOME. It's the kind of stuff I eat up. But I feel here much of the otherwise short little book was spent on Isabella doing random stuff. Even while the main conflict involved dragons, they were just a vehicle for some fuckery. I really hope the rest of the series will bring more of the actual things on the book covers. Oh, those covers. They are so lovely. The book even had little illustrations, which were all A+, I really loved them. Again, a great feature of the thing, so I just hope that the story itself will be better and that the lack of dragons happened mostly because we needed to see the context of Isabella's life, her childhood, how she started her journey. Crossing my fingers for that. All in all, it was very readable. The style fit the contents, I found it very easy to read, which is not a bad thing at all. Some people constantly want big challenges on every page, but I personally can appreciate some smooth prose that makes your eyes glide through the pages. This was exactly that; a fun read you could easily fit in even between harder reads or stressful times without being overwhelmed.Also, a bit of a spoiler that anyone paying attention figures out just by reading the title and then the story. Her name is Lady TRENT. She married a guy called Camherst. We all know what that meant. It's sad, Jacob is such a lovely, lovely man. I will be interested in knowing how things develop after this to Lady Trent's old lady self. While I wasn't 100% sold on this, I would say it's a worthy read. I'm not going to push it on everyone I see at this point, but when the specific requirements are met I won't regret mentioning this. I'm definitely going on with the series as well, because I genuinely believe there is potential for the series becoming something extremely cool. Have a nice day and don't be such a lady, pick this up and start the adventure!

Very enjoyable read. Feels like a more grown-up version of [a:Dugald A. Steer 4777916 Dugald A. Steer https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]'s [b:Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons 28873 Dragonology The Complete Book of Dragons (Ologies, #1) Dugald A. Steer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390435346s/28873.jpg 29356]. There are far too few fantasy books which focus on the “study” of dragons instead of action!

I'm a fan of Epistolary novels and fantasy. This had the feel of both combined. As some others said in their reviews: this certainly isn't the type of fantasy that most would expect, but that doesn't make it bad. It's an easy, quick and interesting read that draws me in just as a natural history of some other creature I am interested in would.

2.5 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf

A Natural History of Dragons begins the memoirs of Isabella Camherst, a preeminent authority on dragon biology. This volume is her origin story, chronicling her first expedition to observe dragons in the wild.

While the story feels delightfully British, is easy to follow, and features a likable protagonist, I never quite connected with it. I think the whimsical nature of Isabella's retelling saps the tale of any emotional heft, but that is not to say that the book would have benefited from a more dour tone. On the contrary, I think the tone it sets is necessary for the celebrity-biologist-memoir that it aims to be. Many people will (and have) enjoyed this novel and its subsequent sequels, but I will bow out after this tale.

This is obviously not the kind of story where someone locks eyes with a dragon and ends up telepathically linked or some such. No, this is about science and study, but not in a boring way. This is still an adventure. Smugglers and murder and intrigue. Oh my!

Now in her older years, Isabella has decided to write a series of memoirs. I usually quite like memoirs. The people writing them tend to be interesting or they wouldn't have a story. Isabella has a story, and it's a good one. I just wish she wasn't so damn arrogant.

At times in the first half of the book she'd take us out of the story and talk to us, the readers, as if we're beneath her.

“You may think you see plenty of stars, friend reader, but you are wrong.”

This book is very difficult for me to rate, because everything that didn't work for me is what this book is supposed to be.

Let's start with Isabella, Lady Trent herself. I started off liking her. A young lady brought up into a society that feels science isn't a suitable pastime for ‘the fairer sex' but bucks traditions and stubbornly pursues her dream. What's not to like?

A surprising amount, actually, as I discovered before I even made it halfway through. (Barely even a quarter.) Isabella doesn't stubbornly pursue her dream, she meekly pursues it. At the first sign of hardship, she drops it - and is subsequently miserable. Which, is something she'll tell you at great length. She is, unfortunately, miserable often. (If she's not having fun, why would I have fun reading a book about her?)

She also exhibits signs of entitlement and a ‘better than the natives' mentality. While this would probably be disturbingly accurate for Victorian ‘adventure' novels, I didn't expect to find it in this fantasy world. Ultimately, I didn't get attached to her, which is a shame, because it's impossible to get attached to anyone else.

There's a reason I prefer third person perspective over first. I've always said that first person tells you more than you could ever want to know about the narrator and nothing about anyone else. This is even more true for memoirs.

I've read memoirs and biographies before and they read exactly like this book - which is good if you like that style of writing. But if you're like me...

To me, this book feels like it glosses over things and keeps me at arms length at the same time. For example, within the space of two chapters, Isabella met, got engaged and married to her husband. We're told they interact, but we only get to see them meet and when he proposes to her.

I don't need to see the whole courtship - because that's not what this book is about - but supposedly she is in love with him. I never felt that. She goes through a very traumatic time and I never feel anything about it - and, in truth, kind of wonder why it was even in the book in the first place.

There's also way too much narration versus dialogue for me. I've always had problems getting through page after page of descriptions and introspection (which this book is heavy on both) with nary a conversation to break it up. For me, this serves to distance me even more because it feels like the character is not interacting with their world.

For me, the story wasn't slow and boring. (A common complaint I hear.) My problem was that it was too much. It fits in too perfectly with Victorian memoirs. That's what it's supposed to be, but I guess I expected a fantasy world memoir to fit a little less perfectly into out world.

Because, really, you take out the dragons, and this could be about a pioneering lady scientist in Victorian London. If you like that type of read - and you like dragons - this might be a great read for you. (Although, there was way too little dragons in this book, it being mostly about smugglers and demons.)

The ending ‘resolution was notably awful for me. I hated it. I didn't hate the book though, and can definitely admire the unique mishmash of genres. Also, there were some wonderful moments in the story.

I love the obvious attention that went into creating these dragons. It was amazing and I loved the parts of the book that were a scientific study of them. (Which, uncoincidentally, I'm sure, were also the most fleshed out parts of the story.)

There was also a side trip into ‘Draconic' ruins that I loved and wanted to know more about. (And that also reminded me very strongly of Egyptian deities and religion.)

(Originally posted on my blog: http://pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com/)

This wasn't an exciting book, but then again I didn't expect it to be. The story is written as a travel log, where Lady Trent travels with her husband to study dragons. At the time, in her world, little is known about dragons and she makes it her life's work to discover whatever she can. Not only does she sketch them inside and out, but also tracks their behaviors and such. If you don't like dragons then this is most definitely not a book for you as there is little action and no real hero type in the story. I will not be continuing the series though because the writing style just isn't for me. I prefer my books with much more action and mystery.

When I was growing up, I was addicted to a particular kind of book: the kind where people died in violent, occasionally gruesome, circumstances; where characters??? lives were threatened at every turn; where the action was fast-paced and kept me turning pages well into the night. I mostly blame this on my mother???s preference for thrillers and mysteries: when I first asked if I could read ???adult??? books (meaning, books without pictures), the first book she gave me was Jurassic Park, which featured the aforementioned qualities, with the deaths edging towards gruesome. My mother did not censor my reading, trusting in my own abilities to judge whether or not I was ready for a book, and since I handled Jurassic Park just fine, she fed me a steady stream of action-packed books from her own personal library, even as I did my own hunting in the school library, favouring material like The Three Musketeers and the Sherlock Holmes stories.

It was this early moulding of my reading preferences that pretty much guaranteed my near-instant dislike for novels like Pride and Prejudice, which I had to read when I was in my senior year of high school. By then, other kinds of reading had tempered my tastes somewhat, so I was also reading slower-paced material, but there was just something about Pride and Prejudice that just did not sit well with me. It wasn???t just the pace, strictly speaking: it was the emphasis on the way people acted, and on how those actions affected those around them and how those reactions impacted a whole lot of other things???like marriage prospects. At sixteen, I was hot-headed and impatient and not in any way thinking of marriage, so I took an instant set against anything like Pride and Prejudice???anything, therefore, that might be considered a ???novel of manners???.

I???ve since revised my stand, however. While at university I learned to find pleasure in slower works of fiction, and came to enjoy not just Pride and Prejudice, but other novels of manners as well. This led to a deeper appreciation for the way character interactions and cultural differences can play a role in the shaping of not just characters, but the plot and the world of the novel itself, which is a cornerstone in the appreciation and understanding of fantasy and science fiction. In fact, it might be said that Jane Austen eventually led me to appreciate novels like Katherine Addison???s The Goblin Emperor, which I consider to be one of the finest books I???ve read in recent memory. It???s hard, after all, to really appreciate stories of court intrigue unless one can also appreciate the nuances of culture and manners, and I have Jane Austen and Edith Wharton to thank for that.

This explains, then, why my friend Sian recommended that I read Marie Brennan???s A Natural History of Dragons back in 2013, when it first came out. At the time, I was more involved in other kinds of reading (I think this was more or less the time that I was agonising over the wait for Scott Lynch???s Republic of Thieves, the third book in his Gentlemen Bastards series), and as a rule my interest in all things draconic tends to wax and wane in terms of strength. But after two years (sorry Sian!), I???ve decided to give it a shot.

A Natural History of Dragons is a memoir of one Lady Trent, one of the premier scientists of a place called Scirland. In the Preface, she claims she is these memoirs at the insistence of various letter-writers, who want to know more about her adventures while she was a young woman, travelling all around the world, pursuing dragons in the name of science. In this book, she explains the beginnings of her dragon obsession, as well as the first adventure she undertook: to the land of Vystrana, on an expedition to learn more about rock-wyrms, a species of dragon native to the area. However, that adventure proved to be about more than just scientific discovery, and Isabella learned quite a few things about gaining things???and losing things, as well.

At first glance, I can see why this book ought to be right up my alley. Todd Lockwood???s gorgeous artwork for the cover, echoing the anatomical artwork from the 19th and early 20th centuries, is not only lovely to look at, but intriguing as well. It promised a ???scientific??? look at a mythological creature???my favourite mythological creature, no less???in a way reminiscent of the travel and natural history treatises a la Charles Darwin.

What I got wasn???t quite that. To be sure, some of it lived up to expectation: the scientific side of it (where it did focus on science) was interesting, and seemed more or less plausible. As for the artwork, it was also quite lovely???where it existed in the first place. Most of the novel, though, had to do with Isabella herself, and her journey towards becoming a scientist: a woman in a man???s world. And this is where, I think, the novel really falls apart for me.

First: the world itself. Brennan doesn???t use real names, but it???s extremely obvious that her world is meant to mimic the real world as it stood in the Regency and Victorian periods, just with the names of the countries changed. While I can certainly tolerate this sort of thing happening in fantasy, I don???t understand why Brennan chose to go that route when she didn???t change anything significant about the world besides the names of the countries themselves. For example, it was so clear to me that Scirland is meant to be the British Empire, that I kept getting thrown off whenever I saw the name ???Scirland??? where I expected ???England??? or ???Great Britain???. The same applies for Chiavora, which is Italy; and Bulskevo, which is obviously Russia, right down to the fact that it???s ruled by a tsar and its territories controlled by boyars. Even the calendar was changed, as if it would help further distance this (supposedly) made-up world from our own, but it didn???t help much at all: simply added to the confusion as I tried to align this ???made-up??? world with the real history I was already familiar with.

This made me wonder: why did Brennan not just choose to go the alternate history route? It seemed the clearest way to go, given how her world-building essentially amounted to borrowing a whole chunk of history and then putting dragons in it in a scientific, logical manner. It would have made more sense, too, and would have been far more fun, if that were the case. However, I then remembered that Naomi Novik had done something similar with her Temeraire series (albeit sans science, since her series was more an homage to books like the Aubreyad and the Horatio Hornblower series), so perhaps Brennan???s choices were meant to distance her work from Novik???s. I can???t say for certain that that???s the reason why, but it???s a reason that makes sense to me, not least because Novik went there first.

Still, I think Brennan should have just gone the alternate history route, despite any potential comparisons to Novik???s work. After all, A Natural History of Dragons is so very different, in terms of direction and content, from the Temeraire books, that it would be capable of standing on its own. In fact, it would have been rather fun to read them in tandem with each other, despite the differences in content, as a way of comparing how two different writers approach similar world-building ideas from very different angles. Sadly, that???s not what happens with A Natural History of Dragons, and it???s rather unfortunate that that???s the case.

As for the narrator and protagonist, Isabella, I am rather conflicted when it comes to her. While the other characters feel mildly colourless and bland, she stands out, and not just because she???s the narrator. On one hand, I like the idea of her: a woman in a man???s world, with very strong echoes of Mary Anning, who discovered the first complete Ichthyosaur skeleton and who was one of the most important palaeontologists of her time???all this, despite the fact that she was a woman, and therefore not welcome in the very male, very closed circles of natural historians and palaeontologists at the time. I also like Isabella???s narrative voice, for the most part: as a confident older woman, one who???s seen things and done things that most other women (and quite a few men) would never have dared, she firmly believes it is her privilege to speak as she chooses to speak, on whatever she wants, in order to tell her story as she sees fit.

What I didn???t like, however, was her worldview. Apart from her views on women and their place in society, Isabella???s worldview is otherwise that of the average British citizen: one that looked down on other people who were not otherwise white and British. It???s these views that also make me wish Brennan had just chosen to write her novels as alternate history: had Isabella expressed her objectionable viewpoints as a British citizen of the appropriate time period, her views and opinions would be a direct, if regrettable, consequence of her time. This would not make them any more bearable, but there would at least be a somewhat-logical excuse to accept her viewpoint and hope that it changes as time goes on.

But that???s not the case. By explicitly changing the names of countries, as well as changing the calendar, Brennan is explicitly stating that, though there are many (too many, in my opinion) cultural similarities between the real world and the world of the novel, they are still not the same thing. This means, therefore, that there would be???should be???plenty of room to change objectionable cultural viewpoints that plagued the original, real-world perceptions of British citizens, if not immediately, then at least gradually, over the course of the novel.

Unfortunately, that doesn???t happen. Some attempt is made at addressing class differences, but that???s only within the scope of Scirland (British) society. Isabella still looks down on the villagers of Drustanev: her scorn for their traditions, as well as her treatment of Dagmira, whom she considers her maid, make it very clear that if the other person is not at least from Scirland, like herself, they are beneath her notice at best, and an object of scorn at most. And this is when she???s dealing with very poor, but still white, people; I dread to imagine the things she???d say in the later books, where it???s clear the people she???ll be encountering are most certainly not white.

I don???t expect novels to be overtly political. Lots of novels are meant to be just for fun, with no overt agenda to them. In fact, it can be mildly irritating to read a novel with an overt and obvious agenda that it???s trying too hard to push (Simon R. Green???s Shadows Fall is my personal example for that). However, I do think that writers have a certain responsibility to ensure that their writing does not, at the very least, perpetuate the flaws of the genre they play in, and of fiction as a whole. What they can do varies depending on the genre, but in fantasy and sci-fi, there are nearly no such limits???and therefore, little to no excuse for perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

That is where Isabella, and therefore this book as a whole, in my opinion, fails. Without the excuse of the book being an alternate history, Isabella???s politics and viewpoints feel abrasive and out-of-place. One cannot even fall back on the excuse that she???s only nineteen when this story happens; there???s plenty of moments throughout the book that the older, more experienced Isabella speaks up about how wrong she was during that point in her life, but never once does she speak up against her own personal prejudices. One can, therefore, assume that those biases never really changed. The only concession she makes is to say that she is ???grateful for all their aid, and their forbearance in permitting us to come among them???, but she says nothing about the way she heaped scorn on most everything else about them. This is not even a matter of ???right versus wrong???, of ???science versus faith???: it is a matter of respect, respect Isabella, and therefore Isabella???s culture, doesn???t have. Such a thing does not need further perpetuation in fiction, least of all fantasy fiction.

One might think that the plot will prove some refuge from the above, but that???s also not the case. I don???t mind the slow beginning, with Isabella detailing her childhood and her struggle with a hobby that???s very much at odds with ???proper??? ladylike behaviour, but I do mind the rest of the plot as it unfolded in Vystrana. I suppose that, had the characters been stronger, more interesting, the plot would have been more interesting too, but that was not the case, what with most of the characters being, as I said earlier, rather bland. Isabella???s an interesting character, true, but the plot was such that she couldn???t support it all by herself, so there were a lot of times when I found myself flipping through the novel just to get things over with, pausing only long enough to read the scientific bits and to look at the artwork.

Overall, A Natural History of Dragons is a tolerable read, but only just. The artwork is pretty enough to capture attention, and while I wish there could have been more of it, that???s mostly personal taste. Isabella is also interesting, mostly because she reminds me of Mary Anning, and other women like her, who struggled to be recognised as scientists in their own right in a world that did not want to recognise them for their achievements.

However, beyond that, the whole thing pretty much falls apart. Despite strange new names for countries, and a new calendar, the ???made-up??? world in the novel is essentially the same as the real world during the Regency and the Victorian period, and the made-up names just tend to break any sense of immersion the reader might be able to achieve. It also doesn???t help that, though the characters hold all the objectionable stereotypes of British citizens during the equivalent historical periods, there is nothing done to mitigate those viewpoints, despite the fact that the excuse of ???historical accuracy??? certainly doesn???t apply. Combined with a plot that could only be interesting if the other characters besides Isabella were also interesting, this is a book that???s appealing to those who don???t quite know what they???re getting into, or don???t really mind what they eventually get.

A Natural History of Dragons is Isabella Camherst's story of trying to fulfill her dream of studying dragons in a Victorian-type era where women are expected to do socially acceptable woman things like host parties, gossip, wear frilly dresses, etc.. you get the picture. Studying anything scholarly is completely unacceptable for a woman, and from a young age Isabella steals books from her father's library as her guilty pleasure. She finds ways to secretly study dragons, creates excuses to visit museums, etc. so that no one ever knows her true passion.. or so she thinks... but her father knew the whole time.

This book really had a lot going for it:

1.FANTASY is always a winner for me.. and this one has a unique take on the genre.
2.It's about a stubborn woman trying to make her place in a man's profession. Always interesting.
3.Dragons. Duh.
4.It's on NPR's book list... and NPR supports Chris Thile of Nickel Creek pretty hard, so how can they not be right about every other thing ever?!! I basically trust all of their decisions.

The first half of this story had a few intriguing tales of how Isabella got herself in trouble growing up, how she met and married her husband, and then how she manipulated a situation to be included on an excursion to actually publicly study dragons. She's charming and gutsy, and I mostly liked her. I was entertained but still couldn't tell where everything was really going.

And then it just fell flat. For someone who is trying not to be defined by the social boundaries for women, Isabella was way too concerned with not getting dirty and being “proper” during their excursion to Vystrana. It was really quite annoying. She also turned really prudish all of the sudden. Her attitude toward the servants that were housing them during their visit was uppity. And she started thinking that she was right about everything having to do with dragons – every comment that a man made contradicting her, she had some smart ass remark and got mad. I mean... I know she wants to be treated like a man.. but she's still new to what they've been doing for much longer than she has. I just did not like her anymore by the end of the book.

It seemed that the author was overly concerned with being on a feminism soap box by the end of the book. Don't get me wrong... I'm not against feminist books but subtlety is more my thing. Soap boxes should be handled delicately. You can't forget to still tell a good story, ya know?

Honestly, I'm not mad I read this book. I did like the beginning, but the last half just really turned me off. I'm a little torn if I'm going to continue the series once the next book is released or not.

This review is also posted on Great Minds Read Alike.

First off, I have to say: I love the cover art for this novel! And the artist behind this beautiful image depicting the anatomy of a Vystrani rock-wyrm is Todd Lockwood. He's worked on a variety of book covers and on art for games like MTG and D&D. You can view some of his other work here: http://www.toddlockwood.com/

Okay, now onto the actual book. I am kind of on the fence about this one. On the one hand, I really loved the main protagonist, Isabella. She was resourceful, logical, and passionate about her work in the natural science field–all traits that I can relate to in one way or another. I especially loved her relationship with Jacob. Jacob was actually one of my favorite characters, and I was extremely sad when he died. I mean, I saw it coming of course, but he was such a great guy!! And a prefect husband for Isabella--rational, caring, and dependable. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried a little during his death scene. On the other hand, I wasn't really engaged in the overall plot and story of this book... I am not sure if it was because I was expecting to see more information about dragons, or because the environment and world just didn't seem interesting to me. Whatever the reason, reading this book was not something I felt compelled to do each night. So even though this was a fairly easy read, I took quite a long time to finish it.

The book began very well for me. The introduction letter and the first few chapters really capture my imagination and drew me into the story. Still, the whole Zhagrit Mat plot felt really out of place and, although I appreciated the mystery surrounding the dragon demon, it all fell sort of short for me during the resolution. I think my expectations for this book were a bit too high and so the closer I got to the end, the less I wanted to read because the book was not meeting those expectations.

I am honestly not sure if I am going to pick up the next book in this series. I am a little curious to see how the next volume plays out, and I would love to get to see how Isabella became Lady Trent. However, I wasn't impressed with this installment so...again, mixed feelings about all of this.

Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Good narrated memoir style.

This was excellent. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I was hooked immediately by the memoir aspect of the story. I am not usually a fan of the fantasy genre so was very pleasantly surprised by this book. If you get it on audio it is even better. The narrator is so good and really made Lady Trent come alive. I hope the author will continue Lady Trent's adventures.

Executive Summary: The book has surprisingly few dragons in it for being in the title of the book. It's still a decent book, but I found myself underwhelmed by the end of it.

Full Review
I was hesitant to read this book when it was announced as the December pick for Sword & Laser. I like dragons, but the concept of this book made me apprehensive.

I ended up really enjoying the start of this book though. It really appealed to my inner scientist that wants to categorize things and understand how they work.

The main character of Lady Trent is well written. You can tell the difference of her as a girl/young woman and the elderly “I don't give a damn” renowned scholar. The humor while not abundant was pretty good.

I'm not sure if I was expecting a series of stories about her time as a dragon naturalist exactly, but I wasn't expecting so much of her time courting her husband and her early life struggling with her interests in Natural History and science in a society where it's not proper for woman to do so.

I expected a lot more dragons stuff. Even if it was time spent analzing and discovering things about dragons. There was certainly some of that, but it was more of a backdrop to the story of Lady Trent's early life.

This feels like the first book in a series, and maybe later stories will include a lot more about her life as a Dragon Naturalist. This just felt like too much setup for me.

It ends in a decent enough place and is well written, but it just wasn't really for me. At this point I don't plan on continuing the series (if it does indeed turn into one), but I imagine people who really enjoy Lady Trent, might thoroughly enjoy this book.

SPOILERS

A Natural History of Dragons is the story of Isabella (or Lady Trent, who functions as the story's narrator in her later years). A curious and tomboyish girl who grows up to be fascinated by the Dragon species. This book is different from most traditional takes on the dragon theme, since it's really more like an alternate history story that just happens to feature dragons in it, as opposed to something more high fantasy.

I read a few complaints in the S&L forums that since the narrator exists, there are no high stakes (she must have lived through the trials and tribulations of the story, since she's alive to tell it), but this is not the case. People close to her die, and she shares that grief with the reader in a very forthright way.

This is a mystery tied up in a tale of discovery. It's a book more about Isabella than about dragons. Let's call them the scaly icing on the cake!

I went back and forth on this book. Half of it I dearly loved. Half of it made me want to punch characters in frustration. I'm settling on three stars has the happy medium of ratings system.

The parts I loved are basically any parts featuring dragons. Brennan takes a scientific approach to mythological beasts and I love everything thing about it. She takes the tropes associated with dragons and tweaks them just enough to create a new and interesting topic. I particularly love that dragons expel various substances from their mouths depending on breed and what would be sensible from an evolutionary perspective. The concept of Victorian Jane Goodall of the Dragons is intensely enjoyable for me, and for that alone the book deserves to be read.

The parts I don't like all pretty much deal with the humans. A lot of time in the book is devoted to a mystery that involves dragons only peripherally, and the humans in that drama are pretty obviously cast. The good guys are super-good and the bad guys are super-bad without much time to prove themselves otherwise. Also our heroine, while a neat concept, pretty much drove me crazy with her actions. The metaphor of “the dragon inside” this young, oppressed noblewoman is a bit too overdone for my taste. She's reckless and stupid and people die because of her recklessness. It's frustrating to a degree that knocks my love of the concept down. I'm hoping that as Isabella grows into the woman narrating, she grows out of her recklessness as well and I can stop wanting to punch her. I'm still interested enough to continue the series, but won't last long if the whole thing is going to be stupid people doing reckless things.

I'm honestly most worried that at the end she has a child. I'll bet Isabella becomes super-cautious and her reckless kid goes wandering into danger at every turn. It's going to be Carl, Stay in the Tent with dragons instead of zombies, isn't it? Please say it isn't. I so want it to be about the dragons...

So I'd still recommend it if you like your fantasy with a heavy dose of science. Also if you're a Jane Austen type fan. I think that's the audience to which Isabella is meant to appeal.

Pros: realistic world, fascinating protagonist, good pacing

Cons: protagonist is remarkably lucky

Isabella, Lady Trent, looks back on her life in this memoir. It begins with her as a child obsessed with dragons and some of the crazier things she did in order to learn more about them. Her hijinks don't end as she becomes a young lady looking for a suitable match with a library he'll let her read. The book concludes with the first of what would be many excursions researching dragons.

Peppered with illustrations by Todd Lockwood, this is a gorgeous book. The print is a faded brown, rather than black, making it feel old and venerable.

Brennan obviously cribbed from history for this, as Scirland feels much like Victorian England in its social conventions and expansionist ideals. Similarly, Vystrana made me think of Eastern European villages, perhaps along the Russian border (as they're ruled by a Tsar). Regardless of what she cribbed from however, the world feels REAL. There are numerous languages, religions, customs, economic concerns, social concerns (different for men and women), class concerns, etc. In many ways, reading this memoir felt like reading an actual memoir, with just enough details about the daily life and times of the protagonist (which she mentions were different from the life and times of the present from which she's writing).

The pacing is great, with new challenges appearing for Isabella just as the previous ones are dealt with.

The only problem I could see with the book was that Isabella is amazingly lucky. She manages to get herself in and out of some difficult situations with fewer negative consequences than one would expect.

The ending is properly shocking, with the acknowledgement that there's more to the story. Given what she goes through in this volume I look forward to reading about her further adventures.

As usual, a full review can be found at SFF Book Review.

You will easily understand that it was the cover that first got me interested in this book. I mean, look at it. The gorgeous cover art by Todd Lockwood doesn't stop there, though. We are treated to illustrations by him throughout the book that made the reading experience even better.

But let's be good book reviewers here and talk about the actual writing. I loved Marie Brennan's style. Lady Trent, now old, writes down her memoirs and relates how she became the famous dragon scientist she is today. We first get to know here when, in an attempt to find out why all birds have a wishbone, she takes apart a dead pigeon she found with a pocket knife. Who could not like a seven-year-old girl like that instantly?

As she grows up, we follow her through society and its implications (finding a husband, mostly) and then on a journey to the Vystrani mountains to research dragons. What she disocvers there has more to do with the humans populating the region and less with dragons. This was also the one little point that bothered me. I adore reading about scientists, their method to learn how the world works, the crazy expeditions to dangerous places and all of that. In this charming and whimsical tale, we get very little of that. It didn't ruin the book for me but if we spend so much time talking about people and their relationships as well as politics between certain countries, I could have used more world building to illustrate these relations.

I recommend this book to people who like reading about (pseudo-)Victorian times and dragons, of course.

Rating: 7/10