{"id":9379,"date":"2017-10-30T11:15:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T15:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9379"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:59:14","slug":"a-natural-history-of-dragons-a-memoir-by-lady-trent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9379","title":{"rendered":"A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent<\/a><\/em> (2013) Marie Brennan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After publishing many scientific papers upon the natural history of dragons, Lady Trent has finally decided to write her memoirs. <\/p>\n

This is a fantasy set in a world somewhat like ours, only with dragons, and at a time and place comparable to Regency England. <\/p>\n

This has been on my to-read pile for, approximately, forever. As I’ve noted before, I’ve become reticent to read a lot of straight up fantasy, mostly because the books tend to be long and full of cliff hangers. But after finishing a lovely urban fantasy, I couldn’t settle on what I wanted to read next (as sometimes happens) so I decided to at least start something completely different.<\/p>\n

The story goes briefly through her youth and how she developed her fascination for dragons and natural history, but most of the story takes place when Isabella is nineteen and goes on her first expedition. I quite like Isabella.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the condition,\u201d he continued when I released him enough to breathe, \u201cthat you promise me, no mad antics. No putting yourself in the path of a hungry wolf-drake. Nothing that will make me regret saying this today.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI promise to try and keep myself safe.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat isn\u2019t quite the same thing, you know,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this bit because it is very much how a very young woman would think. Lots of teenagers too.<\/p>\n

I vowed on the spot to show no behaviour that might possibly be construed as birdbrained, from then until the end of time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also love the little bits that remind us how past societies placed limitations upon women, both overertly and in subtle ways.<\/p>\n

Crawling in a dress, for those gentlemen who have never had occasion to try it, is an exercise in frustration, all but guaranteed to produce feelings of homicidal annoyance in the crawler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love historical, but I have no illusions about the past. It’s a nice place to visit but I woudln’t want to live there for certain. So it’s nice when authors remind us of the more difficult things that go with the past.<\/p>\n

I also enjoyed the natural history parts of the story, from the dissections to the considerations of ecology and geography.<\/p>\n

I often wonder what it is about dragons that makes them prefer extreme climates\u2014 or is it just that we\u2019ve pushed them back as we\u2019ve spread out?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a fun story, and looks to be a series that will go on for quite awhile, but there were no cliffhangers, so I look forward to the next book (which is on my wish list, waiting for a price drop or a holiday).
\nRating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher: Tor Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent (2013) Marie Brennan After publishing many scientific papers upon the natural history of dragons, Lady Trent has finally decided to write her memoirs. This is a fantasy set in a world somewhat like ours, only with dragons, and at a time and place comparable to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,27,30,292,2,48,204],"tags":[157,304,305],"class_list":["post-9379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-alternate-history","category-british","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-female","category-good","tag-lady-trent","tag-marie-brennan","tag-natural-history-of-dragons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2rh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18879,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18879","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":0},"title":"The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"December 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book (2014) Marie Brennan Narrated by Kate Reading (A Natural History of Dragons) This is such a delightful book, and the audio is just as good. if you are likely to be deterred by descriptions of violence, disease, foods alien\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tropic of Serpents","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/TropicSerpents.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18374,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18374","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":1},"title":"A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"October 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book (2013) Marie Brennan narrated by Kate Reading After Michael admitted that he hadn't read A Natural History of Dragons, I decided that would be our next listen. Isabella loves dragons. As a child she got into trouble trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Natural History of Dragon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Natural-History-Dragon-e1510882697384.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19821,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19821","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":2},"title":"The Voyage of the Basilisk: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"February 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Voyage of the Basilisk: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Edition (2015) Marie Brennan narrated by Kate Reading Six years after her return for Eriga, Lady Trent and her companions set out for a two year journey around the world, to study dragons. For my own part, I found\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Voyage of the Basilisk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Voyage-Basilisk.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10979,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10979","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":3},"title":"Within the Sanctuary of Wings","author":"Michelle","date":"August 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Within the Sanctuary of Wings (2017) Marie Brennan Lady Trent has become a force in her own right--she has made amazing discoveries and published scientific papers, yet she still has not be accepted by the Fellow of the Philosophers\u2019 Colloquium. She has also become political, no matter how unwittingly. (W)e\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Within-the-Sanctuary-of-Wings.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10952,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10952","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":4},"title":"In the Labyrinth of Drakes: A Memoir by Lady Trent","author":"Michelle","date":"July 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Labyrinth of Drakes: A Memoir by Lady Trent (2016) Marie Brennan The 4th book in Lady Trent's memoirs finds her traveling with Will to Akhia to attempt to start a dragon breeding program. (I suppose I should offer fair warning. Because this volume of my memoirs concerns itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/In-the-Labyrinth-of-Drakes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19913,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19913","url_meta":{"origin":9379,"position":5},"title":"In the Labyrinth of Drakes: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"March 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Labyrinth of Drakes: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book (2016) Marie Brennan narrated by Kate Reading Lady Trent continues her memoirs. Because this volume of my memoirs concerns itself with my research in Akhia, it will of necessity say more than a little about the mating habits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"In the Labyrinth of Drakes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/In-the-Labyrinth-of-Drakes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}