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A review by jayecard
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
EDIT: Upon reading further into the series, I have to revise this just a little bit. What I said here still stands, but I have to add that this little mystery adventure story leads into much bigger plots involving much more dragons. The subtle build up that happens in this book really pays off, and you don't even know it's happening until the later books bring in the big reveals. The start isn't the strongest book in the series, but I would rate the series as a whole 5/5, and so I recommend this book to a much greater degree than the regular review gives away.
A delightful fantasy mystery in the style of Victorian-ish memoirs. As a biologist who loves fantasy, the concept of this series is perfect for me, and this was a promising start.
I should however clarify what this is NOT: It is not a mature How To Train Your Dragon, it is not exclusively focusing on dragons or filled to the brim with dragon lore, in fact, dragons are used fairly sparsely in this first volume. But quite effectively, so it still felt like a dragon book - just keeping them mysterious, and personally I think that's the right way to go. However, don't go into this expecting a 99% dragon story. It really feels more like a historical feminist mystery story in a reality that's mostly like ours, just with dragons.
It turns into more of a mystery with time than a classic fantasy, but I enjoyed how everything came together bit by bit. Isabella is a wonderful protagonist, I especially enjoyed how she sometimes notes things that she's grown to learn with age (since she is retelling her youth as an old woman), or says things she can now afford to say after becoming a renowned dragon naturalist. This plays especially well into the feminist aspect of the story, which it quite obviously has, and very well done so: There's no vain attempts to girlboss Isabella or make her particularly masculine or feminine, she's just her dragon crazy self, trying to carve her way in a male dominated field, and she finds enemies and allies alike. I'm super excited to read more of this series, explore more of the world building, and find out more about dragons!
Bonus points for cool illustrations
A delightful fantasy mystery in the style of Victorian-ish memoirs. As a biologist who loves fantasy, the concept of this series is perfect for me, and this was a promising start.
I should however clarify what this is NOT: It is not a mature How To Train Your Dragon, it is not exclusively focusing on dragons or filled to the brim with dragon lore, in fact, dragons are used fairly sparsely in this first volume. But quite effectively, so it still felt like a dragon book - just keeping them mysterious, and personally I think that's the right way to go. However, don't go into this expecting a 99% dragon story. It really feels more like a historical feminist mystery story in a reality that's mostly like ours, just with dragons.
It turns into more of a mystery with time than a classic fantasy, but I enjoyed how everything came together bit by bit. Isabella is a wonderful protagonist, I especially enjoyed how she sometimes notes things that she's grown to learn with age (since she is retelling her youth as an old woman), or says things she can now afford to say after becoming a renowned dragon naturalist. This plays especially well into the feminist aspect of the story, which it quite obviously has, and very well done so: There's no vain attempts to girlboss Isabella or make her particularly masculine or feminine, she's just her dragon crazy self, trying to carve her way in a male dominated field, and she finds enemies and allies alike. I'm super excited to read more of this series, explore more of the world building, and find out more about dragons!
Bonus points for cool illustrations
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism