BooksOfTheMoon

Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #3)

By Marie Brennan

Rating: 5 stars

The third volume of Lady Trent’s memoir sees her documenting her time on the Royal Survey Ship Basilisk on an expedition searching for sea serpents. She finds these in abundance, and much more besides.

The third of Brennan’s Lady Trent books is the most assured yet. It’s lovely to see the character of Isabella Camhurst develop over the books and something that I think is quite clever in the writing is that the younger Isabella is, as she ages, starting to sound more like the elder Lady Trent. She’s maturing, gaining experience and wisdom and it’s lovely to see how Brennan conveys that in the writing.

I think this is also the first in the series that really features dragons to any great degree in the forefront. That’s not a complaint about previous volumes (it’s been great fun just following Isabella’s life as she struggles to be recognised as a serious scholar while having the terrible handicap of being a woman) but it makes this one even more fun. The ongoing background plot concerning the now-dead Draconian civilisation also picks up a little in this volume and I look forward to see where that goes in future.

I was slightly concerned at the start when Isabella brings her young son with her on the voyage. I feared it might descend into one of many annoying child-related tropes, but in the event, I ended up really liking Jake and hoping that we see more of him in future, not to mention the mysterious Suhail. Isabella’s constant companion on these trips, Tom Wilker, is with her through this volume as well, and I admired his dry tone and his humour as he has come to accept that he can’t stop Isabella doing, er, un-ladylike things but he’s always there to help, and often as enthusiastic as she is.

So all in all, I highly recommend this book to fans of the series to date. If you’re new to Lady Trent, you’ll certainly be able to read and enjoy this book without having read any of the others, but you’ll appreciate it more if you have. As for me, I’ve already pre-ordered the next volume.

Book details

ISBN: 9781783295067
Publisher: Titan Books
Year of publication: 2015

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