
And so the memoirs of Lady Trent finally reach their conclusion, taking in scaling her world’s version of the Himalayas, massive revelations about the ancient Draconean civilisation and lots more tales of derring-do. From the first chapter, I was drawn in, having forgotten just how much I adore Lady Trent’s narrative voice, as a possibly unknown species of dragon draws her to a terribly remote mountain range half way around the world. With her go her indefatigable comrade in arms, Tom Wilker, and her husband Suhail. All great characters, but neither they, nor the mountaineers who come with them, get as much to do this book as companions have in previous volumes, which is a shame, because I really like Suhail and especially Tom. But these are, of course, the memoirs of Lady Trent, and it’s her adventures that drive the book forward.
The big revelation half way through this book changes the entire series and I’m now itching to go back and re-read the others in light of this (of course, I’ll have to get them back from whoever I’ve been foisting them upon this week; I’ve become an enthusiastic pusher of dragon memoirs!). The volume is as charming and bewitching as the others. Any fan will enjoy this (although if you’re not [yet] a fan, this is most definitely not the place to start) and Isabella’s drive is as strong here as it was when she was just a novice, trying to establish herself as an independent scientist outwith the shadow of her male colleagues and relatives.
Although the politics drive the story to some degree, as they have done in all the books, it’s Isabella’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge that drives the story forward. I can’t wait until my niece is old enough to read these, because if there’s a better (fictional, at least) role model than Isabella, Lady Trent, for any young woman, especially one with an interesting in the natural world, I can’t think of them.