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Sunday, May 18, 2014

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan


A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan is framed as the memoirs of the early days of famed dragon naturalist, Lady Isabelle Trent.

Lady Isabelle decides to write her own story her own way, and delves into her own early life with refreshing honesty.

I was, I have to say, expecting more dragons, but ultimately A Natural History of Dragons isn't really about dragons at all, but about Lady Isabelle forging her own path in a world that has very definite ideas about what is and is not suitable for a young lady.

Needless to say, Isabelle has her own ideas on what's appropriate, and before she knows it she's on an expedition with her new husband to a remote location to study dragons.

I enjoyed A Natural History of Dragons, but I felt like I was waiting for something to happen the whole time. There's a lot of sort of .. running about with not getting much done, and a sub-plot that reminded me of an Enid Blyton novel I read as a youngster (I can't remember the name of it - it had Mountain in the title), and then at the end there's a bit of a rush of  A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENING VERY QUICKLY and it felt a bit unbalanced.

Still.

Dragons.


6 comments:

Kate @Midnight Book Girl said...

I love the cover! I wish it had more dragons in it too, but it still sounds like a good read. ;)

Aarti said...

Haha, the last two words say it all :-)

Maree said...

Kate: The cover is great! And there's sketches throughout, too.

Aarti: Exactly :D

Anonymous said...

BUT MAINLY DRAGONS THOUGH.

Ahem. I just got this from the library a few days ago and I am VERY VERY excited to read it. Even if it does have pacing issues.

Anonymous said...

Yes! and DRAGONS!!

Maree said...

Jenny: ALWAYS DRAGONS :D Let me know what you think!

Care!!! :D :D DRAGONS! :D