A Natural History of Dragons

Interesting premise, good narrative, slow pacing. It is exactly what you think it is, and if after reading a few minutes you expect it to get “faster”, it won't. It is a fantasy biography, it reads as “dull” as a real biography of someone fascinated with biology.

The story of a woman interested in dragons, written by her older self as a memoir of her life. Since a very young age, she was always fascinated by the anatomy of animals, first dissecting them and then reading about them.

As she grew older, she had the opportunity to study dragons.

Read 1:51 / 10:17 18%

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

I loved the way this was written, the story and the scientific explanations of the dragons. The research really was a big focus and that was really great. Isabella was a great character and I liked how it described what role she has in society. I usually dislike books where they really focus on the fact that women are not valued as much but here I didn't mind it so much. I will definitely be reading the next one. 

An interesting setting for a fantasy such as this with its upper-class, old school faux-British background. The book is full of fun British-esque location names which I enjoyed for some reason such as Scirland & Gostershire.

Isabella herself is clearly the standout of the book. Her constant state of enthusiasm about all things dragon is really endearing to follow. The way she will explain how she feels in terms of dragons just creates a contagious level of passion to learn alongside her.

There is quite a slow start and the book does take a rather long time to get going but once they start the expedition in Vystrani, I was definitely invested in the journey and just as excited to learn more about these creatures and solve the mysteries they came across.

The final act of the book surprisingly turns into somewhat of a whodunnit as all of the pieces start coming together that while I still enjoyed it a lot, was not what I was expecting and would have maybe liked more focus on the dragons themself rather than humans.

Maybe the strongest thing I can say is that the world had me so invested that each time Isabella would bring up a research paper or book she had read, I just wished it actually existed and could read it myself which I think marks a very strong connection to the book.

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!

3.75* rounded up to 4*. Overall a fun read with a great premise that I'm interested in exploring in future instalments of the series, although the book starts a little slow and I can see the writing style and pacing not being to everyone's tastes.

As the series title suggests, we are reading the memoirs of a Lady Trent, an elderly lady who has made her name in natural history, specifically studying dragons, in her storied life. The first book in this instalment starts from her childhood and through to an expedition she undertakes as a married 19 year old accompanying her husband who is similarly passionate about natural history as herself.

The starting of the book meanders a little and it is not until about the halfway mark of the book that the action begins picking up and where the central hook of the story is established (with the introduction of Zhagrit Mat). Before this, however, you're pretty much slowly getting to know Isabella and how she managed to (sort of) reconcile her unladylike love for natural history and dragons with what society expects from her. The first half is where I would expect most people might stumble and DNF, but I do think the second half packs enough to redeem the book.

The world and premise is where this book really shines, in my opinion, with its interesting combination of historical fiction and fantasy. This was marketed as “Jane Austen meets dragons” and honestly, that checks out. The world is in a sort-of 19th century AU; Isabella as a teenager is expected to put herself out on the marriage market, attend balls, be a lady, etc. The social norms she needs to conform to are not unlike what you might read in a Jane Austen novel, or any novel of manners. The difference is, of course, the introduction of dragons being a very real and very wild animal found only in certain countries. Isabella's country of residence in this novel, Scirland, is a thinly-veiled adjacent for England. Similarly, Vystrani, the country that she later travels to in search of dragons is easily recognisable as an adjacent for Russia, with its icy climates, the names of its people (Dagmira, Ritelkin, Iosif). Much more interesting are the religions mentioned in this book. Isabella tells us that Scirland (England) are Magisterial, while those in Vystrani (Russia) are temple-worshippers, perhaps a parallel to Orthodoxy. We only get a glimpse of both religions in this book, but the elderly Isabella writing this book gives us scintillating hints that she would eventually have cause to re-evaluate her opinions and beliefs on these religions in her later adventures.

One of the bright points of this book is in the perspective. As mentioned earlier, this is written as the memoirs of an elderly Isabella looking back on her life and telling it in chronological order. Although most of the book is told in a fairly straightforward and linear timeline, where we follow Isabella from childhood up to adolescence, there are moments where our actual narrator, the elderly Isabella, breaks in to talk about how things have changed since then. Sometimes, she does so to talk about how natural history has evolved and expanded since, and how much more the present world now knew about dragons than they had back when she was a teenager. What was far more intriguing is when she breaks in to deprecate herself, her thoughts and worldview as a young person who is only just on her first adventure away from home, and how much more she has expanded her thoughts and opinions since then. I loved how this signified a larger and more complete story - how did 19 year old Isabella change, and what has she gone through between where we are reading to the person writing these memoirs?

Overall, I'd recommend this for those who are comfortable reading with classic literature and who also love a dash of fantasy and dragons in their story. If you enjoyed this, I'd also recommend reading Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series, which also has a spunky female lead from the Victorian era going against the norms of her society to gain expertise in a field traditionally not open to ladies - Egyptology in the abovementioned series. I might also mention that Amelia Peabody is told with a lot more humour and dry wit than this one, which is personally more up my alley. Nevertheless, A Natural History of Dragons has definitely captured my interest and I'm looking forward to reading more.

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 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.

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'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.

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.

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.

In essence, this is a memoir written by a 19th century English lady about her scientific expedition to Alpes. Places, ethnicities and some of the animals are replaced by fantastical ones, but everything else is pretty much the same.

If we swapped dragons for eagles this would be historical fiction about a woman struggling to get her footing in a world dominated by men. Which also shows that this isn't a children's book, or at least that most of the social commentary and thus most of the book, would go right over their head.

As for dragons themselves, there are numerous encounters with beats and people do get hurt, but the book tries to stay grounded in reality. No one is swinging swords and magic amulets against their blazing breath or anything like that.

If you like books set in 1800s you will probably enjoy this mild fantasy. But if not, I doubt dragons would do much to make this interesting enough for you.

This book entirely surprised me. It sounded really boring and, at first, it felt like a slow read. But it truly picked up and had me crying by the end. A wonderful story and series about a woman pursuing her dreams against all odds and obstacles, and showing others that brilliance and determination are more important than gender, status, and propriety. I was so hooked after this book ended and you will be too! I think I read the whole series in three weeks!

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.

What do you do when you have a strong curiosity, a scientific kind, and undeterred determination, but are born as a person the world doesn't consider capable of such things? You make the right friends, convince them to let you travel with them and write a scientific journal disguised as a travelogue. 

This is a slow burner, as those with rich world building are. The presentation of the story is first person with a voice that draws one into the story. The narrator was fantastic, sounding as though the character was telling right here in the room. 

Every since she was a young girl, Lady Trent was fascinated by dragons. She liked to study them, read books about them, and was very curious about everything pertaining to them. This was all very inappropriate for a lady. Ladies couldn't study dragons or science, they should stick to sewing, gossip, and fashion. Fortunately, Lady Trent doesn't really care what people think. I loved this book! The end was sad, but it is still a great book. I loved the narrator as well.

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.