The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan is a fun-filled Fantasy sequel to Brennan’s excellent novel about dragons which began her “Memoirs of Lady Trent” series, A Natural History of Dragons. Isabella Trent, a proper Victorian (style) lady who lives in an alternate fantasy world where dragons exist alongside humans, continues relating to her readers about the extremely interesting narrative of her life and experiences researching dragons.
Oh, yeah — what’s cooler than a book, and a series, about DRAGONS? And you can get 1 of 3 hardback copies of The Tropic of Serpents, which can be read as a stand-alone novel, FREE, if you’re one of the lucky people who leave a Comment below telling why you’d like to win the book, and also mention the state or province where you live. This Giveaway is open to Canadian and U.S. readers, and winners will be chosen at random — though, interesting answers might just give you Bonus Points! 
Back to the review — Isabella Trent is at home in Scirland, which is the equivalent of England in the world where she lives. She’s not really the domestic type, though her mother and the society she lives in frown upon young ladies pursuing activities that have been traditionally thought of as being ones solely for males. In that respect, Scirland is much like (unfortunately) our own world.
However, Lady Trent is a woman of great intellect, and numerous resources, including money, and despite now having a child — who a kind relative of hers is taking care of, while she’s busy with her search for dragons — she has fallen in love with dragons and wants to help ensure that they don’t become any further endangered than they already are.
In The Tropic of Serpents, the talented author Marie Brennan has our intrepid heroine, Isabella, embark to Eriga to continue her search and research on dragons, which she began in the mountains of Vystrana in A Natural History of Dragons.
Before she does this, though, she encounters various difficulties, including her mother, who is adamant that she doesn’t go, saying it’s way too dangerous; and, a mysterious person who breaks into the house of her friend and associate, the astute chemist Frederick Kemble.
The thief steals all of the research notes he can find at Kemble’s house on his process of preserving dragon bones, and he also destroys much of Kemble’s lab equipment in an attempt to further delay him. Kemble, fortunately, has his more recent research and notes with him upstairs, and he is able to also recreate quite a bit of the older notes from memory.
Still, it is a slight setback, though it’s one that spurs Lady Trent and another wealthy friend and dragon researcher, Lord Hilford, into leaving for Eriga within a couple of weeks. They find themselves in a perilous race against others, who are hell-bent on being the ones who exploit the method of preserving dragons and becoming filthy rich in the process.
Eriga is a war-torn country, plagued by strife, and it has soldiers from Scirland stationed on its borders to try to prevent any further conflicts from occurring there.
Many of the countries Marie Brennan mentions in The Tropic of Serpents seem to have equivalents in some of our own world’s African nations, and the Lady Trent’s efforts to preserve dragons is similar to the efforts of many conservationists to preserve the endangered species of Africa.
The dragons, or “wyrms,” that Lady Trent desires to study in The Tropic of Serpents are mysterious swamp-wyrms that live in the dense jungle ominously known also as the Green Hell.
Lady Trent has to contend not only with theses treacherous dragons, but also with loads of political and scientific intrigue. She lets nothing daunt her spirits or get in her way, though, in her pursuit of knowledge.
Lady Trent is a pioneering force of nature, and the memoirs of her journeys and adventures in the search of knowledge — and dragons — are Must Reads for anyone who loves reading Fantasy novels which feature dragons. Check out The Tropic of Serpents today, and please leave contact info below, so I can notify you if you are one of the three lucky winners of a hardback copy of this wonderful sequel to A Natural History of Dragons. This Giveaway will run from NOW through April 2 at midnight CT.
Written by: Douglas Cobb
The Tropic of Serpents at Amazon
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10 Responses
The first book in the series was very enjoyable as my goodreads review states. Winning this book would push me into collecting the whole series.
The beautiful cover art for A Natural History of Dragons drew me in, but I stayed for the empowered female characters (whooop whoop for lady scientist, Isabella Trent!). Marie Brennan’s dry humor was also incredibly charming, and I look forward to reading more from her. I currently live in Ontario, Canada!
I really enjoyed the first book and would love to read this one.
A Natural History of Dragons has been a great read so far. It mixes great use of language and world building with the dream of dragons. Who wouldn’t want to chase after dragons?
Sounds like a wonderful series. I will look for A Natural History of Dragons and look forward to this great sequel too! Thank you.
Loved A Natural History of Dragons and have looked forward to this sequel. I love that it is fantasy from an anthropogic point of view.
I’m always looking for new books to read. I’m personally invested in books, as I want to eventually break into the field of publishing. I especially love fantasy novels, and this seems right up my alley! I’m currently living in Ohio, but going to NY this summer for a graduate program at NYU in publishing!
I would love to get this book. Isabella Trent is one of the best characters I have read in the past few years, and I would love to continue her story.
Because all books should have a dragon or two. 😀 Hence a book dedicated to dragons sounds like Nirvana. Thank you for the opportunity to win it.
I am constantly on the prowl for new literature, including fantasy, and have many web acquaintances involved in all the arts. Great storytelling is rare, unlike dragons, so one constantly has to be on the prowl for good great literature. I find people to try to be techically excellent writers, who simply stir no emotion or artistic appreciation. Dragons, on the other paw, are so mundane as to be practically invisible, buried in plain sight, as many things are. Depending on when I read a fantasy story, Joseph Campbell’s and Carl Jung’s archetypes could well be the lens I see through when reading. Louisiana, my current location, is a lovely state, and particularly has mostly water dragons. Although their are of course fire dragons, but they don’t really show up in numbers until the time of Ophiuchus each year.