In the Labyrinth of Drakes (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #4)

by Marie Brennan

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This series is just one fantastic ride after another, I have one book left in the series, which I’m currently reading because I need more of this in my life, but I’m honestly so sad to see it so close to the end.

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I like taking my time with this series to really appreciate it, the way Marie Brennan writes it by combining both real world elements and twisting it in her own world in this series is just awesome for me. On one hand it makes envisioning the world and how the culture she’s describing works in it a much easier job and on the other hand it shows how much you can actually diversify a series without making it feel forceful and annoying like so many YA authors these days who want to keep the masses happy with diversity that usually isn’t needed. Here, however, everything makes sense.

Isabella‘s adventures are usually outside of her home country, Scirling, which is inspired by Britain and when she travels we’re exposed to certain cultures that can be easily seen as inspired from some cultures that exist in our world. In the Labyrinth of Drakes, we visit Akhia which shares a lot of similarities with Arabia in the way people dress, speak, act, live or interact with each other. Like every other adventure, Isabella‘s interactions with those around her gives us the inside view we need on the culture around her and in turn gives us a chance to learn about them. That’s not all of course, there is a certain amount of lore in this series and throughout her travels, Isabella is exposed to different things related to these legends and in turn so was I.

The thing that made the book even better for me and in turn every book before it, is because of the illustrations inside of it. Whenever there is a scene concerning the dragons or a ruin for the legends I mentioned above, we might get a treat in that chapter and see an illustration of them. This book in particular for me, had some very beautiful drawings and I greedily wanted so much more. That aside this book also shows the continued change happenings to Isabella throughout her years, she’s still passionate about her science and research and is willing to go through hell to be taken seriously, but she’s also learning to be more tolerant of other people around her and isn’t ashamed to admit when she made a mistake by pre-judging someone. This coupled with her usual sass made her a delight to follow once again, and she wasn’t the only one.

Her companions get less focus than her for sure given how the format of these books go, but if you compare the previous books with this one then you’ll easily see changes to other characters as well, she will be highlighting it in the book by the way, but it’s interesting to personally see it as well. The dragon research is not to be forgotten either, one of the amazing things in this series is how Marie Brennan took the dragons and made them subjects of study rather than targets to kill. I absolutely enjoyed seeing Isabella and Tom carry about their task and try to figure out how to achieve it without issues. The trips they had to take, the observations, the testing, the defiance and the amusing extremes Isabella would go to, to get what she wants.

Last Trent always made me laugh when she interacts with those around her, especially those who think she’s just a woman and therefore knows nothing, but in this book in particular, I think I enjoyed the sass a little too much. This is yet another thing to like in this series, gender and what is expected of said gender is a major theme throughout the books and this one was no different. Isabella is forced time and time again to deal with the misogynist societies around her and try to strive through all the difficulties, not by being defiant because she’s a special snowflake but because she’s passionate and she knows her craft better than most and to her, it’s more than enough to try. There is something very empowering in reading about a woman like her, who knows where society puts her, who achieved what she achieved by working hard for it and who is trying to change the norm around her with facts and not just empty words or convenient gifts.

The icing on the cake? The romance in this book and honestly in this series is done so well, it’s to the side and it’s only tackled when there are no better things to do or when absolutely necessary and even then, it’s not cringeworthy or makes me wants to roll my eyes. With the things revealed in this book, I absolutely can’t wait to see how we wrap it up next time. This would have been absolute torture if I read it while it’s still publishing lol.

Final rating: 5/5