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I have read quite a few memoirs by British Victorian travelers, including some by women. They make good reading, if you like that sort of thing: evocative, intriguing, infuriating, sometimes ahead of their time, sometimes very much a part of it. The glimpse into a different mindset is a large part of what makes them interesting, in the sense of "the past was a different country."
And, of course, they would be even better reading with DRAGONS.
A Natural History of Dragons is the first volume of the memoirs of Isabella, Lady Trent, famous explorer and dragon naturalist. They include lovely pencil illustrations of her obsession: dragons.
Possibly inspired by Isabella Bird (A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Sketches In The Malay Peninsula), Isabella is not exactly an unreliable narrator, but she is a product of her fictional culture— a woman with some liberal views (though still within her context) and some distinctly not. The attitudes of the characters are not necessarily critiqued within the book; that is left to the reader. Similarly, Isabella can be self-centered, obsessive, privileged, and reckless. She’s not always likable, but her flaws are what make her interesting.
Personally, I was fine with being allowed to come to my own conclusions without being presented with an obligatory “voice of the correct point of view” opinion within the text itself. I found Isabella’s flaws and blinkered point of view refreshing. It made the book read much more like its premise— the memoir of a Victorian lady explorer WITH DRAGONS— than it would have if she had been given all the attitudes of the modern reader.
On that note, be aware that the book contains animal harm in the form of the hunting and dissection of dragons. Also a hilariously indignant defense of such by the now-elderly Isabella, ostensibly to her younger readers of more delicate dispositions, but also, on a meta level, to outraged readers of the novel by Marie Brennan, pointing out that many naturalists of earlier eras did indeed hunt as well as observe.
The dragons are meticulously detailed, yet pleasingly mysterious. Isabella is obsessed with dragons largely because they’re poorly understood, so we learn with her. By the end, we have a handful of answers and a whole lot of new questions.
Among the more subtle worldbuilding touches is that Judaism takes the place of Christianity in terms of being the religion that caught on. Because the names are different, I wasn’t sure of this until something religious finally got mentioned without a terminology shift, when some characters sit shiva for the dead. I leave it to the alternate history buffs to debate whether the British Victorian age would have stayed otherwise similar to the actual one in that event. (Not to mention in the event of DRAGONS.)
Leisurely but engrossing, the novel immerses you in a familiar-but-alien world and a familiar-but-alien narrator. I am a sucker for the scientific exploration of a fantasy phenomenon, and this book very much satisfies on that basis. And while one mysterious dragon-related issue (the burned-in footprints) turns out to have the obvious explanation, the motivation of the villain was unexpected, creepy, convincing, and probably fodder for more story to come. I enjoyed the hell out of this book, and will be getting the sequel shortly. I could read an unlimited number of volumes of Isabella wandering around, studying dragons.
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
And, of course, they would be even better reading with DRAGONS.
A Natural History of Dragons is the first volume of the memoirs of Isabella, Lady Trent, famous explorer and dragon naturalist. They include lovely pencil illustrations of her obsession: dragons.
Possibly inspired by Isabella Bird (A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Sketches In The Malay Peninsula), Isabella is not exactly an unreliable narrator, but she is a product of her fictional culture— a woman with some liberal views (though still within her context) and some distinctly not. The attitudes of the characters are not necessarily critiqued within the book; that is left to the reader. Similarly, Isabella can be self-centered, obsessive, privileged, and reckless. She’s not always likable, but her flaws are what make her interesting.
Personally, I was fine with being allowed to come to my own conclusions without being presented with an obligatory “voice of the correct point of view” opinion within the text itself. I found Isabella’s flaws and blinkered point of view refreshing. It made the book read much more like its premise— the memoir of a Victorian lady explorer WITH DRAGONS— than it would have if she had been given all the attitudes of the modern reader.
On that note, be aware that the book contains animal harm in the form of the hunting and dissection of dragons. Also a hilariously indignant defense of such by the now-elderly Isabella, ostensibly to her younger readers of more delicate dispositions, but also, on a meta level, to outraged readers of the novel by Marie Brennan, pointing out that many naturalists of earlier eras did indeed hunt as well as observe.
The dragons are meticulously detailed, yet pleasingly mysterious. Isabella is obsessed with dragons largely because they’re poorly understood, so we learn with her. By the end, we have a handful of answers and a whole lot of new questions.
Among the more subtle worldbuilding touches is that Judaism takes the place of Christianity in terms of being the religion that caught on. Because the names are different, I wasn’t sure of this until something religious finally got mentioned without a terminology shift, when some characters sit shiva for the dead. I leave it to the alternate history buffs to debate whether the British Victorian age would have stayed otherwise similar to the actual one in that event. (Not to mention in the event of DRAGONS.)
Leisurely but engrossing, the novel immerses you in a familiar-but-alien world and a familiar-but-alien narrator. I am a sucker for the scientific exploration of a fantasy phenomenon, and this book very much satisfies on that basis. And while one mysterious dragon-related issue (the burned-in footprints) turns out to have the obvious explanation, the motivation of the villain was unexpected, creepy, convincing, and probably fodder for more story to come. I enjoyed the hell out of this book, and will be getting the sequel shortly. I could read an unlimited number of volumes of Isabella wandering around, studying dragons.
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent