In the Labyrinth of Drakes: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
350 pages
Published 2016
Read from April 30 to May 2
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
When last we saw our intrepid Lady Trent, I had begun to grow bored of the "Pseudo-Victorian naturalist goes on a globetrotting adventures, gets mixed up in local politics, and saves the day with dragon-related heroism" formula. Voyage of the Basilisk was perfectly serviceable, aside from how vaguely sketched in all the new characters were, but by the third variation on the formula, the charm had started wearing thin. Labyrinth of Drakes revitalizes the franchise to an extent, first and foremost by ditching the last portion of the formula. There is no dragon-back derring-do, no climactic battle; the climax of the book is a careful archaeological excavation, and Labyrinth is all the better for it. Plus, given that the central draw of the series is presenting an alternate history of the natural sciences in a world where dragons make up much of the food chain, the draconic scholarship of Labyrinth might be the most interesting of the books to date.
Some of the concerns I had begun to feel during Basilisk persist here; with the exception of Suhail, the Akhian characters tend to be Arabian Muslim archetypes from Western fiction -- the citified sheik, the noble nomadic family, and so on. Relatively positive cliches for the most part, but only Suhail, returning now for his second appearance as a major character, exhibits any individuality. Worse, sinister agents of the totally-not-Ming-Dynasty-standins, the Yelang, remain furtive and faceless, notable only for their treachery. The storyline is building toward a seemingly inevitable world war between our pseudo-English Scirlanders (who, it must be noted, aren't portrayed so handsomely themselves) and the Yelangese, so perhaps it would feel contrived if our plucky heroine were to fall in with one of the enemy and put a face on him, but then again, this is a series in which the same scholar has uncovered three or more lost ruin complexes totally by accident while also discovering basically everything about dragons, so maybe humanizing the series' Yellow Peril is not too much to ask? Please?
No comments:
Post a Comment