The Tropic of Serpents

January 27, 2014
Brennan’s sequel to A Natural History of Dragons is more of the same–a literate account of a woman’s fieldwork on dragons, which in this imagined 19th-century world are natural creatures. Isabella, Lady Trent, has even determined the six criteria for classifying an animal as a dragon, which include “wings capable of flight,” “a ruff or fan behind the skull,” and “extraordinary breath.” Lady Trent makes for an intrepid and pleasingly independent protagonist, mastering challenges both emotional and physical. Apart from the existence of the incredible beasts (there are multiple species, such as swamp-wyrms and savannah snakes), the differences from our own world are almost too subtle. Brennan suggests that Judaism is the dominant religion, but there’s not much reason to believe that the narrative would have unfolded much differently in our own Victorian England, rather than Lady Trent’s homeland of Scirland. Agent: Eddie Schneider, J.A. Bberwocky Literary Agency.

February 15, 2014
The second adventure (A Natural History of Dragons, 2013) for the doughty Isabella Camherst, a dragon-obsessed young lady of Scirland determined to pursue her research in an age when educating girls in science and philosophy is frowned upon. Previously, Isabella accompanied naturalist and explorer Lord Hilford to chilly, mountainous Vystrana in search of rock-wyrms, during which time she lost her husband and subsequently gave birth to a son. Now, Hilford is organizing an expedition to the tropical continent of Eriga, where several new species of dragon await study. Rejecting stay-at-home motherhood, Isabella eagerly agrees to join the expedition. Too old and frail to travel himself, Hilford will be represented by his assistant, Thomas Wilker, who, as a commoner, faces obstacles similar to those Isabella confronts as a woman. Natalie, Hilford's granddaughter, causes additional complications; refusing to be married off by her father, Natalie takes refuge with Isabella, who arranges to smuggle the girl along on the expedition. But Eriga, so they find, presents a whole new set of problems. Bayembe, their destination, is threatened by its warlike neighbor, Ikwunde, with only the jungle swamps of Mouleen, known as the Green Hell, between. So before her dragon research can proceed, scholarly yet iron-willed Isabella must negotiate male hostility and prejudice, political infighting, the commercial and imperial ambitions of the Scirlings, heat, disease, arrogant big-game hunters and the cultural imperatives of the Erigan people. And during her adventures in the Green Hell--the book's finest section--Isabella will find sociology as important as natural history and the key to preventing a brutal war. This, the second of Isabella's retrospective memoirs, is as uncompromisingly honest and forthright as the first, narrated in Brennan's usual crisp, vivid style, with a heroine at once admirable, formidable and captivating. Reader, lose no time in making Isabella's acquaintance.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014
In this sequel to A Natural History of Dragons (2013), Lady Trent, the book's narrator, is preparing to embark on another scientific expedition, this one to the continent of Eriga (a fictional stand-in, it appears, for Africa), in search of an edgier life. The author, who has studied folklore, anthropology, and archaeology, sets the story in an alternate Victorian era, which gives her the freedom to keep the historical elements she wants, but also to jettison others (or, more important, to add in some nonhistorical elements, like dinosaurs, which in this world are even rarer than iron). Structuring the story like a Victorian memoir is a nice touch, too, allowing Brennan to give us a good, long look at our narrator (a thoroughly likable and spunky woman), while also allowing her to filter the events through the perceptions of the heroine. Gaslamp fantasy is a relatively new subgenrethe term was coined to separate certain fantasy stories from the more familiar and techno-oriented steampunkand this is a shining example of it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)