This series is a nerdy good time. And this book in particular really leaned into the scholarly nature of Lady Trent’s calling. The last book, a lot of page-time was taken up by Lady Trent and her companions navigating local and global politics while trying to learn about dragons, and while that is a factor here, too, Voyage of the Basilisk feels more balanced, with a focus more clearly on her science and what she got up to while doing it, and also on her personal relationships with her son and with her colleagues and those she meets along the way, unrelated to politics.
I said in my review of the last book that one of the things I appreciated about this series was that each book takes place in a very distinct location and so it’s easier to keep the events straight in your head. That’s both true and not true of this book. The distinct location here is on a ship traveling the oceans of the world, but ships move, and so we also get to visit various places across Lady’s Trent’s world as she embarks up on a two year voyage to study sea serpents and other more tropical dragons (dragon turtles!!!).
This is my favorite of these books so far. I loved the ocean atmosphere, I loved seeing multiple locations and cultures. I liked the way that the consequences of Lady Trent’s actions carried through here from both the first book and the discovery of what the preservation of dragon bone has done to dragon populations in certain areas, and her banishment from certain regions of the world affecting her studies. She’s also learning as she goes from her mistakes, and her growth as a scholar goes hand in hand with her growth as a mother and friend. I just liked everything about it.
I’m not sure how other people feel about the scientific discussions of made-up beings in this series, but I love it and want more of it, and I’m glad there was much more of it here than in the previous two books. I’m also VERY much here for the developing romance between Lady Trent and a certain cliff-diver.
Side note: I had no idea until last week that Marie Brennan is also M.A. Carrick, and now I need to check out The Mask of Mirrors ASAP.
