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The Memoirs of Lady Trent
Feb. 17th, 2019 10:13 pmI just finished reading the series collectively titled The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan. For some of you, the briefest review I can give it is that it is not as good as The Steerswoman series, but it IS worthy of comparison with. And it has one signal advantage, in that it is actually complete, and a satisfying conclusion at that.
Those who like a hard line between their fantasy and their science-fiction will be annoyed by this one also. While this series is deeply invested in the concept of dragons, it’s from the point of view of a scientist investigating, as the title of the first book puts it, Natural History of Dragons.
The setting is a world which is in many ways similar to our own, but which absolutely isn’t, what with the dragons and all. It does, however, bear a striking resemblance, politically and culturally, to our world in the late 1800s. Indeed, the DNA of the book contains noticeable amounts of Regency romance (though romance takes a decided backseat to scientific investigation). The names and the specific details of the countries are all different, but it’s pretty easy to recognize not-England, not-Russia, not-China, etc.
Our protagonist is, at the beginning of the series, a young woman struggling hard against a culture in which feminism is just barely beginning to be a thing. The pain of her struggles is lessened (at least for this reader) by the fact that they are narrated from the position of being an old and powerful peer of the realm. It does take her a lot of decades to get from point A to point B of course, with many entertaining adventures on the way.
Each book is a discrete narrative unit with a satisfying conclusion, though elements of arc are visible pretty early on. Do read them in order if you can, though, especially the last few, as each builds upon the discoveries of the previous volumes. There are five books in all, plus a short story that appeared on Tor.com that can be read without significant spoilers.
Highly recommended.
Those who like a hard line between their fantasy and their science-fiction will be annoyed by this one also. While this series is deeply invested in the concept of dragons, it’s from the point of view of a scientist investigating, as the title of the first book puts it, Natural History of Dragons.
The setting is a world which is in many ways similar to our own, but which absolutely isn’t, what with the dragons and all. It does, however, bear a striking resemblance, politically and culturally, to our world in the late 1800s. Indeed, the DNA of the book contains noticeable amounts of Regency romance (though romance takes a decided backseat to scientific investigation). The names and the specific details of the countries are all different, but it’s pretty easy to recognize not-England, not-Russia, not-China, etc.
Our protagonist is, at the beginning of the series, a young woman struggling hard against a culture in which feminism is just barely beginning to be a thing. The pain of her struggles is lessened (at least for this reader) by the fact that they are narrated from the position of being an old and powerful peer of the realm. It does take her a lot of decades to get from point A to point B of course, with many entertaining adventures on the way.
Each book is a discrete narrative unit with a satisfying conclusion, though elements of arc are visible pretty early on. Do read them in order if you can, though, especially the last few, as each builds upon the discoveries of the previous volumes. There are five books in all, plus a short story that appeared on Tor.com that can be read without significant spoilers.
Highly recommended.