The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent | |||||||
Marie Brennan | |||||||
Titan Books, 352 pages | |||||||
|
A review by Sandra Scholes
The author of nine novels, Marie Brennan has also won the Kirkus Review Best Fiction of the Year, the
Isaac Asimov Awards for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Grand Prizes in 2003 as well as honourable
mention for Year's Best Science Fiction and Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. We follow the adventures of
Lady Trent with Todd Lockwood's amazing illustration of dragons, places, wildlife and tribal people. In A Natural History of Dragons,
readers of fantasy and history were treated to a journey of immense proportions to discover dragons among dinosaurs. Although it's
not the sort of thing a woman of that day did, Lady Trent set the standard for being one of the first lady explorers and naturalists
who dared to resist the conformity put on her by her so-called betters.
As Indiana Jones was to men, Lady Trent's character is to women with an urge to explore, though Lady Trent's reasons for
exploring aren't about finding sacred objects. Her love of dragons has led her to the jungle of the Green Hell, one of the most
notorious and dangerous of them all. The Tropic of Serpents reads like a regency romance with the added elements of fantasy
and adventure.
After her husband died in Vystrana, her son thinks there is the possibility that she could die in Eriga. He can't
be blamed for thinking that since his mother is away enjoying herself in dangerous surroundings most of the time. She could come
across the impossible and dangerous, but her enterprising spirit makes her accept that she has to take the rough with the smooth
while out in the wild. She had already done the womanly things that made her a lady of genteel origin, marry, raise a child and
later she discovered she wanted more out of life.
The fact that not many understand her needs is typical of the times she is living
in. There is also a humanitarian question in this book where Lady Trent worries over how the dragon bones she finds will be
looked after, and whether they will be collected and sold like elephant tusks and rhino horn are today. Her devotion to her
work can be seen by her impressive resolve while out exploring. She doesn't let her parents or other members of the family take
control of her life. She isn't like other women and she's made that clear to them even if they don't like it. Eriga is famous
for its sea snakes and the reason it's called the Tropic of Serpents, but it does have other inhabitants; elephants, wild pigs,
and half naked tribal men. In the book, Todd Lockwood takes us through the places of natural beauty while Marie Brennan brings
Lady Trent and her other characters to life in this intense and enigmatic adventure.
So far Sandra has been doing some exploring of her own with writing poetry… for those with Twitter they can have a look at some of her haiku @sandrareviewer. Her reviews can be read from Fantasy Book Review, The British Fantasy Society, Diverse Japan and Love Romance Passion. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide