A Memoir by Lady Trent (The Lady Trent Memoirs) - The Tropic of Serpents

This was a fair introduction into the alternate reality of Lady Trent, where dragons are as commonplace as birds. At times the story dragged, but that was due (in my opinion) to the often anachronistic story style. It also lost a little momentum because I was constantly being reminded that these were the recollections of the protagonist's older self. Usually it's a tidy trick for first person narratives, but on this occasion it pulled me out of the story. Lastly, the "alternate history" was vaguely reminiscent of places the reader should know, but the vagueness felt too clever and at times confusing. I don't know if I will read the next book and I recommend this one only with reservations.

For any fan of the now-popular Downton Abbey, this book would be perfect. If the reader also held a love of dragons and of fantasy, then to not read this would be a crime. Truly a masterful book. I cannot wait for the sequel!

Completely satisfied with the product and transaction.

The subject of dragons is whimsical and the history told by Lady Trent in the form of memoir is highly appropriate and entertaining for fantasy readers who like a good first-hand account of adventure.

A fun combination of steampunk and dinosaurs. This is a lightweight easy read read and doesn't pretend to be anything else. I enjoyed the idea that this world had dinosaurs as just another layer of the animal kingdom. They were not well understood and that leads to our heroine fighting her way into the man's world of adventure travel and research.

A Victorian style tale. The female protagonist struggles against the cultural expectations and limitations on women. In this she is more or less successful. The narrative deals more with the experiences and tribulations of the expedition to Vystrana. There they uncover a conspiracy to kill the dragons in order to harvest their bones. The actual encounters with dragons are brief.

The premise of this book had so much promise. Unfortunately, it was a big miss due to a lack of character development. I was expecting a rich tapestry and got a throw rug. At best this book is a grade b adventure. Disappointing.

I expected much more about dragons, rather than a mystery/biography. While the book was well-written, the title and cover are misleading. I expected a book dealing with the behavior of dragons and a great deal more concerning anatomical detail. Instead I got a mystery story in the style of Scooby-Doo. I'm very disappointed in that aspect of the book.

In short, there were not enough dragons.

The basic premise of this book is that it is the memoir of an early adventure of a naturalist famed for her study of dragons, Lady Isabella Trent. Thus it includes asides by Isabella and references to future events. However, the span of the novel covers only her first nineteen years of life, centering around one expedition to study dragons in a foreign land.

One of my problems with the book is that it is a second world fantasy and yet completely copies the social structures and culture of Victorian England. What’s the point? It didn’t feel at all like a second world fantasy, despite the made up place names. It would have made far more sense to make this an alternate history story, like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or His Majesty’s Dragon, especially since A Natural History of Dragons was sort of playing into “The Good Old Age of British Imperialism” with Isabella going off to study dragons in foreign lands among superstitious peasants. There were also tinges of “white savior” there with saving the village peasants from marauding dragons being the undisputed duty of the faux-British science expedition.

In the case of a memoir book, there is the question of how many of the judgement are intentional character flaws of the narrator. Damira, one of the locals and the only other significant female character, did get a far amount of lines. I thought she was quite sensible, but Isabella did repeatedly characterize her as a “ham-fisted peasant woman.” We also learned very little about Damira besides her serving Isabella. At one point Isabella realized that she had never asked Damira about her family and personal life, which would probably be a good thing to find out. Isabella then proceeds never to think of this again.

As I already said, Damira was the only significant female character besides Isabella, and her role was limited. There were shades of Isabella being the “exceptional woman” who is “not like (read – superior too) other women.” Hopefully this is challenged at some point in the series with Isabella meeting another intelligent female character who is interested in scholarly pursuits. Unfortunately, I am unlikely to read farther into the series to find out.

I was not fond of Isabella herself. While I didn’t particularly hate her, she was on the whole forgettable. She also seemed to constantly stumble into situations due to a mixture of exuberance and stupidity.

The plot just wasn’t that interesting. The beginning of the novel is set up for the expedition, which itself wasn’t any more thrilling. The question of the expedition becomes: why have the dragons started attacking humans? After asking this question, the book meanders sedately among various minor occurrences until finally gaining some urgency briefly near the end.

While the title and cover of this book both seem to promise a significant amount of dragons, this does not materialize. Dragon involvement is limited to: watching them fly in the distance, dissecting them, and (most excitingly!) the exceptionally brief feeling of them swooping down on you from above.

As a positive, A Natural History of Dragons was a fairly quick and easy read. It’s one of those books where you don’t find so many problems with it until you finish and actually start thinking about it.

The best thing about it was some rather beautiful illustrations, which I highly appreciated. However, I don’t think they are wonderful enough for you to buy the book for.

I’m not sure who I would recommend this to, if anybody. The style of a faux-memoir of was interesting, even if it wasn’t pushed as far as it could have been. There aren’t enough dragons to recommend this to dragon fans. Maybe people who like historical fiction? Although if that’s what you’re looking for in a book, you might as well pick up historical fiction. Still, if you try A Natural History of Dragons, I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

I was very disappointed with this book, but perhaps it was my own fault for expecting too much. I had imagined there would be great deals of illustrations and vivid descriptions of the dragons and their behaviors. But sadly, the bulk of the book was the anticlimactic story of a spoiled Victorian-ish woman.
If this book is supposed to be a tale of female empowerment, I don't think it serves that purpose well as the only almost positive trait the "heroine" possesses is her adventurous nature. Otherwise the author paints a picture of a stubborn, foolish woman who is oddly demure at random moments. The story itself is almost well written but there is not much plot or character development. At best, this book serves as a prequel to the following books in the series (which I will not be purchasing or even borrowing from the library).

The few illustrations in the book are beautiful; I would have been better off having purchased a book written by illustrator.

While the writing style is just fine, this book bothered me in its portrayal of the main character as relatively weak (really only because she's a woman) for most of the story. The constant asking of permission from men got really annoying. I understand the author is trying to be accurate to her world, but it was a bit extreme. Additionally, the author treats the killing of dragons for study very callously, which did not impress me at all.

Amazing writing that skillfully combines the naivety of victorian british women with the scientific, fact based observation of dragon life and a story line that has enough twists to not let you put this book down.