A Natural History of Dragons

My full review, including some of the beautiful illustrations, can be found here: http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/review-marie-brennan-a-natural-history-of-dragons/

A Natural History of Dragons is a fictional memoir penned by the notorious Lady Trent - but before she was quite as notorious. As a young girl, Isabella was already interested in finding out how things work. She dissects a dead pigeon to find out why birds have wishbones, she sneaks out to see a real dragon, and eventually wants to study them properly.

We follow her on her first journey to the mountains where she wishes to systematically study her favorite subject. Dragons. While Lady Trent constantly alludes to all the wonderful adventures she has been through, we only get to see one of them - which may disappoint some readers.

But the narrative voice was so utterly charming and felt so very English that I couldn't help but be swept away. I liked the book more for its whimsy and its voice than for the actual plot but just the cover and illustrations make it worth buying. Let's be honest, this is total cover porn!