My dear Bitches, I’ve been remiss in my duties. Somehow I managed to read three books in the wonderful Memoirs of Lady Trent series without writing a single review for you. Allow me to rectify that with the fourth book: In the Labyrinth of Drakes. While I recommend reading the whole series from the beginning (‘cause it’s awesome) you can jump in with Labyrinth. It works as a standalone.
The Memoirs of Lady Trent series follows the adventures of Lady Isabella Trent, a naturalist in a world that closely resembles the Victorian Age in geography (all the countries have different names, but seem to be parallels of our own countries), politics, and social mores. In Isabella’s world, dragons are real. There are many different species across the world, and Isabella is devoted to studying and protecting them. Dragons are non-sentient creatures (apparently) that resist being tamed.
In the first book, A Natural History of Dragons, Isabella describes her youth and her first adventure. In this book, she grows from a tentative young woman into a more confident scientist, but she also experiences heartbreak. In the next books, The Tropic of Serpents, Voyage of the Basilisk, and In the Labyrinth of Drakes, she recovers from the losses of the first book, travels the globe, and battles class and gender lines to become an esteemed naturalist.
Labyrinth of Drakes finds Isabella attempting to get captive dragons to breed. In order to do this work, she travels from her home in Scriland (a country analogous to England) to Akhia, a desert land with complex politics. With the aid of her scientific partner Tom, she studies dragons and finds unexpected romance in the process with an old friend.
One thing I love about this series is that it keeps the adventurous tone of good old-fashioned adventure stories (think King Solomon’s Mines, Tintin, or more recently Indiana Jones) while challenging the colonialist views that those adventure stories so often embody. Isabella’s story is one of challenging gender roles, and her partner (academic, not romantic) is Tom Wilker, who faces similar challenges in the scientific community because of his lower class status. As Isabella travels the world, she shows respect for the various cultures she encounters (and respect for their knowledge of local flora and fauna), and each culture is portrayed as having strengths and weaknesses.
Although each book has an exciting adventure component, there are also long periods that are devoted to study, travel, and character development. Just as in real science, most of what Lady Trent does is meticulous and repetitive in nature. The pace gives the books a sense of emotional weight and realism.
The only things you would miss by jumping into Labyrinth of Drakes first are some character nuances. Most of the romance was built up in Voyage of the Basilisk, so if you dive into Labyrinth Isabella’s whirlwind courtship will seem even more whirlwind, and you’ll be missing some of the emotional impact of Isabella and Tom’s relationship as well.
The plot should be perfectly easy to follow. However, I do recommend starting at book one, A Natural History of Dragons, with the caveat that that particular book does not have an HEA. As the books progress the adventures remain exiting and varied and the character development is both subtle and powerful. I am especially fond of the fact that all of the second book, The Tropic of Serpents, is devoted to giving the characters space to recover emotionally form the events of the first book (with a lot of adventure thrown in). It makes the happier events of Labyrinth more realistic and more satisfying.
I adore this series for its world building, fascinating characters, strong narrative voice and sense of adventure, and for the dragons of course. Special mention goes to the cover and interior art, which is by Todd Lockwood. The books would be worth purchasing for the covers alone. They fully cement Isabella’s role as a skilled artist and meticulous naturalist in the Victorian style.
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
These sound wonderful! They are perfect for someone I know, but she only reads ‘clean’ fiction; are these, er, chaste?
Skipping to the comments to say, THIS IS A SERIES?! I just read the first one from the library and heaved a deep sigh upon finishing it, thinking Lady Trent’s story was complete. I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS LIKE BATMAN BEGINS!
Now to scroll back up and read the actual review 😀
Quite chaste. Some (married) sex does occur in book 1, but it is merely acknowledged, not described in any way.
Kate Reading is the narrator for the audios….she’s amazing. This is a great series, thanks for the great review.
Honestly, you had me at DRAGONS.
Well, this is certainly intriguing. Adding 1st story to my wishlist for when am allowed to order books again …
@Anne that is my thought exactly! I read (er, listened) to a natural history of dragons recently and am so excited to see there is more to the story!
The author is also a wonderful person and gifted storyteller at book readings. She dresses in costume and brings props, giving a mini-lecture on dragons as if she were her main character.
She’s also really great about signing books, and once she discovered that I go by my middle name (which is the same as her real first name; she goes by her middle name, too) she wrote a special inscription about how we needed to write many books and take over the world. She was an absolute delight.
Incidentally, the reading I went to also had Mary Robinette Kowal (who wrote the Glamourist Histories series, which is like Jane Austen but with magic and Fae). She also dressed in costume and put on a short play with shadow puppets. Together, they were a force of nature and an absolute pleasure to hear.
TL;DR, everything is good forever because authors like her and Mary Robinette Kowal are in the world.
The cover art is beautiful, especially on Natural History & Basilisk.