A Natural History of Dragons

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.