Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

11 reviews

hebifry's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

 Where to start... this book had all the promise in the world. Historical fiction with a fantasy twist. Feminist female lead defying expectations. Dragons, for Christ's sake. And yet it's a 2.5 for me (rounded down because it made me so irritated).

At first I was rooting for Lady Trent. She's tried to study dragons her whole life, it's clearly a passion that she can't ignore. But once she actually gets the opportunity, she is so insufferable that it's painful to read about. The majority of the book is not even about dragons, it's her issues with the villagers, an unfamiliar land, not being included as a woman, etc. And that would be all well and good if there was actually any growth there at all. But she doesn't grow even slightly! In fact, her arrogance continues to put people in danger until the very last page.

I went into this expecting something like Phyrne Fisher and got colonialist, priveleged, whiny British woman instead. The way she talks about the land she is a guest in and the villagers is guillotine worthy. She is constantly disrespecting them, insulting their culture, even ridiculing their religious leader in some instances. And this is where I felt that the realism was the most egregious. I understand the tone of the book, but it's for a modern audience. Do we as readers really want to root for someone as awful as Lady Isabella Camherst? If she had tried even slightly to show respect to them, it wouldn't have been such a dealbreaker, but from her first day, she just hates everything about it. She can't find a single thing or person that she likes in the entire village. Her older voice writing the story insists that she is simply naive but I can't imagine it improves much and even if it does, it should improve IN the first book. Long series are not an excuse for having zero character growth in your first book.

And if her aristocratic arrogance wasn't enough she also has so much internal misogyny, it was hard to read. A serious case of Not Like Other Girls syndrome. There is not a single female character (besides herself of course) that is shown to have a brain. Her mother is strict and catty, her maid is unfeeling and rude, her friend is frivolous and stupid, etc. She just hates every woman she meets for truly no reason.

If there's one positive, I would say that naturalist lens in viewing dragons was very inventive and well-written. Those were my favorite aspects of the book. I would not recommend this book but would love to see this idea explored elswhere.

 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Xenophobia and Colonisation

euphemiajo's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcohol

mothmania's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Animal death

Moderate: Violence, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Colonisation, Gore, and Death

Minor: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Classism, Drug use, and Pregnancy

judassilver's review against another edition

This book did a couple things I didn't enjoy: the retrospective interjection of the narrator recalling past events (the "I may be old now..." or "though I didn't know it then" type) and the fantasy names for what is very clearly our modern world. Call an England an England, please, not "Scirland". Also please note that the memoir part of the title weighs much more heavily than the dragon part, this is very much the story of an upper class woman struggling to foster science minded interests in a world of Victorian sensibilities. Set your expectations accordingly. (Most of the dragons featured are dead, suffering captivity, or being hunted. The MC also has some very classist and colonialist beliefs). This book (and series) is well written and definitely has an audience, I just bounced hard off it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Sexism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Miscarriage

lunep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Violence, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Animal death, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Rape, Colonisation, Cursing, and Alcohol

kalira's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Violence, Colonisation, Classism, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism and Religious bigotry

squinnittowinit's review

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I love any world that has dragons in it, but I didn't enjoy how Victorian all the main characters were. I know, that's how it was meant to be, but I found all the misogyny and xenophobia left a bad taste in my mouth. 

It's written as a memoir, so the fictional author as the narrator is writing about a time in the far past, and she does say that she finds some of the sexism to be ridiculous now, but she still makes weird "men vs women" statements that just reinforce harmful gender stereotypes. 

She also read as very Victorian British, in that she was a noble from a colonizing nation

on a journey to a colonized nation, full of privilege and perceived superiority. She freely insults the local people and culture and looks down on them for having less than her, and in the end, has barely any more appreciation for them when she leaves.

This book felt written from the perspective of a colonizer with the assumption that colonizer cultures are better than others and everyone should aspire to be like them.

She's also very callous about killing dragons for science, which I didn't appreciate, as someone who respects nature and living things.

Still, I enjoyed the dragons and I enjoyed the mystery plot. I just wish it had more modern values.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Violence, Mental illness, Blood, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Death

Minor: Colonisation, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Medical content, Grief, and Murder

luna_staci's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Animal death, Death, and Miscarriage

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I should have been obsessed with this book—I am totally the target audience! However, the main character’s xenophobic stance toward the village she’s intruding upon as a researcher does not change enough to give me confidence in joining her on an expedition to the version of colonial Africa in the sequel. I wanted more dragons, more science, and a more intersectional feminism. I would highly recommend Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina series instead!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Classism, and Sexism

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

The main character is xenophobic, sheltered, self important, and whiny. I thought this book would be about dragons but they were barely included. I enjoyed the first 1/3 of the book but it went downhill very quickly after that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Blood, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Child abuse