Tiny Navajo Reads: The Tropic of Serpents

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

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The second memoir by Lady Isabella Trent, we see Isabella Camherst learn more about dragons and travel to a new country to study a whole new set of dragons. And I’m so excited! Let’s go!

In this second volume of her memoirs, it has been three years since Isabella, Tom, and Lord Hilford made it back from Vystrani expedition where Isabella lost her husband and gained a son. And in those three years, Isabella has had little do in the raising of her son, a little boy named Jacob after her late husband and who looks a bit like her husband. Leaving her son behind, Isabella and Tom make their way to Eriga where they are to study the savannah snakes and hope for the chance in order to study the highly elusive Moulish swamp wyrms.

This expedition is no less dangerous or back-breaking as the last one, though Isabella is on this expedition for her own worth as a dragon naturalist, rather than as a secretary as with the previous expedition. But as she starts her studies, she has to overcome all of the occupational hazards of studying dragons, along with the politics that unfortunately comes along with it.

Throughout all of this, Isabella learns more about herself and her companions than she ever thought she would learn. She grows as a dragon naturalist, a person, a friend, and in some ways, as a mother. She learns that there is more than one way to be someone, not the way that is taught to her by society. Now, she just has to make it back home in order to put what she learned to use.

I love Marie Brennan’s books, and I love the character of Lady Isabella Trent. If you love dragons, Victorian-era fiction, and learning about different peoples in general, I highly recommend you read these books. I’ll be reviewing the rest of the series, so you can see what I like about the books. But I still believe you need to read them for yourselves.

What series draws you in because of the characters? Comment below and let me know!