A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)

by Marie Brennan

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I finally found one!!!!!!! A book filled with a monologue narrative that didn’t bore me to tears!!!!! Omg, I thought I was a lost cause!

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I apologize for my overblown reaction up there, but I was frustrated with this part of myself. I enjoy character driven stories, because if I don’t care about your characters then why in the world would I care about everything they’re put into? It doesn’t make sense. When I finally got back to reading in 2017, I tried to pick up books I haven’t gotten the chance to read previously and that led me to pick up Ursula La Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea which regardless of praise, made me went to do everything, but actually continue reading. I finished it, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. In 2018 I picked up Binti by Nnedi Okorafor and had a very similar disappointing experience, one final chance came through Saihate no Paladin Volume 1, but I was so saddened by my inability to enjoy the Light Novel, that I just dropped/DNF’d it.

I didn’t actually know that Marie Brennan’s book one was amongst that type of books, which is really stupid of me considering how long I had it in my TBR, and because of my earlier experiences, I subconsciously couldn’t get into the first couple of chapters of the book and left it hanging for a couple of days as well. However, I was surprised afterwards by how much I was enjoying going through Lady Trent’s memoirs that I had to fight myself to stop reading. I think one of the reasons why I really enjoyed this book is the focus it gave on dragons, it’s not from a warrior’s point of view or an adventurer, but a scholar’s. And not just any scholar, one who was governed by so many societal rules that it’s one absolutely wonderful battle against the rules of said society.

I identified a lot with Lady Trent, it’s really the first time in all of my reading where I really saw myself in a character and although dragons are one of my absolute favourite things, ever. I believe that this point in particular was why I enjoyed this book instead of all of the others I previously listed. Isabella’s stance or rather her fight against gender norms in their world wasn’t some rebelling against the rules where you just scream at the special snow flake character for trying to do something in a very stupid way, no, she is smart and she knows exactly where she stands in the world, but in her own way she will leave a mark and although the journey will be a long and hard one, Isabella ends up becoming Lady Trent, her world’s #1 Dragon Naturalist.

The sense of adventure and love for discovery in this character was a pleasure to see, I may be biased given that I identified with a lot of aspects of her character but she was such a pleasure to read about. Even more so when you read her retelling of the adventure she had in this book, she’s an upper class woman so I’m really glad that Marie Brennan didn’t try to change how a woman who was raised all her life to act a certain way would deny it and act completely different for the sake of being “different”, but instead managed to work around that and still showcase an upper class woman who smartly didn’t let the world dictate her life for long.

The dragon aspect of the book was not lacking in the slightest either, Marie Brennan gives a different kind of dragons than the usual ones we see in fantasy series who are basically just targets in the end. No, she made them feel genuinely real to me. The way she made Isabella and co discover their mannerisms, see the different species in a way and solve the mysteries presented in their trip made the dragons in this world feel like every other new animal in our world. Dangerous, but immensely beautiful and a very interesting existence to study. I honestly can’t wait to read more about her journeys and what else she could discover about these dragons.

I talk about her a lot and that’s because she’s our narrator, everything is seen through her eyes and most of the story revolves around what she did or when. We meet many other characters and while some leave their ever lasting impressions, Lady Trent is without a doubt the star of the show. Usually in very interesting series like this, the romance would be the worse part of it for me, but not here. Marie Brennan does a magnificent job of showing the importance of Isabella’s relationship, but she definitely doesn’t change a single thing in Isabella herself to make her less of a character when things turn sour, like how I usually feel when I read other stories. Even better when there is something so healthy about the relationship Isabella is in and I can only hope it never changes as we go along.

The only downside I can think of in this book would be some terminologies (countries and seasons...) that weren’t as effectively explained as a I would have usually liked, but honestly they were so minor that I couldn’t care less about them at the moment. I only gave Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire a 5/5 this year, and I think I found my second deserving one right here.

Final rating: 5/5