I love Marie Brennan's Lady Trent series and this book was a great continuation. Of course, without more exploring of faraway places, this book had to be a bit more about relationships and some mystery solving. It didn't' Quite hold up to her previous books, but I think this new granddaughter of Lady Trent has a lot of potential for future books.

I haven't read the author's other series, so this was my introduction and appears to have occurred out of order. Interesting, but I recommend reading her other works first.

I tried to get into this book but I found it very difficult. I thought it'd be okay as a standalone thing separate from the previous series which I haven't read, but no. I guess I'll have to read The Memoirs of Lady Trent first.

Marie Brennan’s delightfully bizarre breed of palace intrigue never fails to impress me.

Part fantasy, part comedy of manners, part spy novel, Turning Darkness into Light was an airy but stimulating followup to Brennan’s beloved Lady Trent series, this time featuring our previous heroine’s plucky granddaughter Audrey and her dragon friend Kudshayn.

Audrey (and Kudshayn too, for that matter) are scholars, not naturalists, so this is a slightly different type of story, though set in the same universe and populated with recurring or related characters and unifying themes with Brennan’s earlier series. And for those who are big fans, yes, Lady Trent does make many appearances in the text.

The focus is on Audrey though, which I enjoyed because it’s a fresh spin on a universe I like very much. Human-dragon relations (and all their accompanying problems) are at the forefront here, but the tone is kept light and the book is packed with clever humor, clamorous highjinks, and a charming mystery.

But it’s really Brennan’s (and thus Audrey’s) tone and humor that make this book (like the Lady Trent series) a standout. The plot is a good one too, but it’s Brennan’s witty dialogue and wry observations via her heroines that gets me every time.

I wanted to get this reviewed before it came out, but I also didn’t want to do it a disservice and rush it. To be quite honest with you, I basked in having this world to dive into anew, after some time has passed in that world; I adore what Brennan does in the Lady Trent books with showing scientific progress and academic endeavour, and I had the same feeling here. Being both a biology graduate and a literature postgraduate (and one who focused on languages and translation fairly heavily for a while), this world has now reflected so much of my experience it makes me quite squeeful. I know Audrey is much better at translating Draconaean than I ever was at Anglo-Saxon or Old Icelandic, but some of the struggles in reading are similar — and the process of academic review and piecing things together across texts is even more familiar.

(I mean, nor am I as experienced and high level a biologist as Lady Trent is a naturalist; still, there are commonalities, and Isabella and Audrey’s struggle for status is still relevant for female-bodied folks in STEM today, soooo…)

The thing is, in conclusion, that Brennan is just so clever in the way she puts together the work. The way she invents these ancient texts: the structures of them, the lacunae, the difficulty in understanding things that rely on context. The way she understands the process is so clear — which makes sense, given her background in anthropology, but that doesn’t always mean one will be good at writing it. Brennan is.

And that only touches on half the book! There’s also an exploration of what it might be like to be the granddaughter of someone like Isabella, explorations of the developments in Draconaean civilisation since she found the Sanctuary… and delightful bits like Audrey causing a riot (of course) and Isabella dismissing someone as a potential partner for Audrey because he’s not a sound scholar, and all the politics which Audrey manages to entangle herself in… It all comes together very satisfyingly.

Perhaps my only criticism is that Audrey is very like Isabella; their voices are similar, and you can be pretty sure that whatever Isabella would have done in a situation, Audrey will do as well. Obviously, there’s reasons for that, and good ones, but it makes the book feel less its own thing and more like it’s more of the same. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I hope if we see more of Audrey, she does more forging of her own way. (I absolutely want to see more of Audrey.)

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Wow! Am I glad I got an ARC of this book. I hadn't read Marie Brennan before and now I need to go to her backlist. While I'm generally a fan of epistolary novels, Brennan does this really well. Her character development is unrolled slowly but believably through the documents and letters presented in the book. A great blend of dragons, science, and fantasy.

Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan
Writing Reviews on New Year's Eve eh. You animal...

Look sarky alter-ego, this review is very overdue. I got this one from Netgalley and read it months ago, and what better time to complete tasks I should have done a long time ago? I probably should have done this before Christmas so you could know how awesome it is so you could have all asked for it for as a gift. But hey, at least I got my mum it, so that's one person who gets to know.

Besides, what better title than 'Turning Darkness Into Light' for the end of a year like this?

Explain the Awesome.

Turning Darkness Into Light is the story of a young scholar asked to translate recently discovered and politically sensitive texts belonging to an ancient Draconian accent. And it's told in the form of diaries, letters and translations.

And it is written incredibly well.

Sometimes when reading a book, I feel like I can almost see the author smiling in satisfaction at just how much they're nailing the story. Like they're an athlete showboating. That's almost certainly not what's happening but it's what my mind's eye sees anyway. And Turning Darkness Into Light reads like Marie Brennan's completely utterly confident about her brilliance. I mean, she'll write the same passage of translated text twice, but once as poorly translated and once as expertly translated. How utterly boss is that? This is a difficult format for a story and Brennan makes it look easy.

Is this more than just awesomely written and smart?

Yes. I don't buy my mum less than excellent books. The characterisation is sharp and while perhaps a tad reliant on stereotype, it's well done enough that not many people who like the stereotypes will complain. The plot in particular is really good though. It is slow moving - as if Brennan is perfectly confident the quality of her writing will keep people invested enough for it to get going - but compelling and a little twisty. The last minute reveal in particular got me.

The ending did feel a tad on the nose for me, and the subplot maybe a little too rooted in romance, but these are minor gripes. And the subplot's more about a failed one than a beginning one, which makes it more interesting.

That said, I am mainly just here for the writing and the idea.

Any other weaknesses?

There's a long list of things Turning Darkness Into Light isn't but those are authorial choices, not weaknesses. And it looks like everything Marie Brennan did set out to do, she did. She did it really well. I feel confident that 9 out of 10 readers who are up for the diary written account of a not-Victorian Fantasy academic will really enjoy this book.

And that sums up everything I have to say. Turning Darkness Into Light is one of the most astonishingly well executed books I read all of last year.

If you, like me, fell in love with Lady Trent and her dragons (A Natural History of Dragons and its sequels) you will find this latest adventure a delight. Decades later, Lady Trent’s granddaughter, Audrey Camherst, is struggling to further her scholarly career after an unscrupulous suitor stole her original observations and published them himself. Now she and her Draconean colleague, Kudshayn, venture to Lord Gleinheigh’s remote estate to examine newly excavated tablets that promise to shed new light on the history of the Draconean people and their relationship with humans. It’s a tense time politically, for the Draconeans have been restricted to a single regional Sanctuary and a vote is coming up that may allow them freedom to settle where they wish. Audrey discovers an unexpected ally in Lord Gleinheigh’s niece, and perhaps a second chance with her former suitor.

Told as a sequence of letters, news stories, and diary entries, the story swept me up with wonderfully rich, sometimes unpredictable characters, the joys of archaeology (and of linguistics!), and the slow, exorable rise in danger until the thrilling climax.

The concept of this book is really fun and I was excited to dig in and enjoy it. Ultimately I had a hard time connecting with the story and the characters. I may have not been in the right frame of mind when I chose to read this book. I put it down numerous times and tried picking up it up later. Still couldn’t get into it. Thank you for the ARC.

I absolutely love Marie Brennans world! This novel (which I hope is the beginning of a new series) takes place in the same world as her Lady Trent memoirs, following Isabella's granddaughter, who is searching for her scholarly breakthrough! I loved it!

As someone who rather enjoyed The Memoirs of Lady Trent series (what I’ve read anyway) I was quite excited to see that wouldn’t be the last of the books set in this lovely world of dragons. The main character of this series is Lady Trent’s granddaughter, Audrey Camherst who is a brilliant young lady who’s already made an impact on the scholarly world. She is offered the chance to translate a set of tablets supposedly discovered in the Akhian desert and it’s quite possible this will be the opportunity of her life. Things are somewhat more complicated than that (obviously, otherwise it’d be a dull story) and Audrey proves to be just as brash as her grandmother at times.

Much of the plot is centered around Audrey and her Draconian friend Kudshayn’s translation of the tablets, which appear to be an as of yet unheard creation story. The political climate is hot – there is a debate over the sovereignty of the Draconians, plus a good deal of racism towards what some perceive as a race that deals in human sacrifice. The tablets could easily provide leverage for either side of the debate depending on what they say. It’s really quite interesting in theory, though the intense parts of the book are scattered about and there aren’t many.

While the subject matter was interesting and not quite as adventurous as that of the Lady Trent series, I did like the characters quite a bit. Audrey is an intelligent, independent young lady who’s decided to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and make her own path. As I mentioned, she’s already quite the scholar at her young age and has already encountered some bad eggs in the scholarly world that continue to haunt her. Audrey is honestly at her best when she’s doing something a bit mad, like confronting angry mobs and running into burning buildings. Kudshayn is a more steady presence and is primarily a talking point in society because he’s a Draconean. He has wings for goodness sake! He’s sort of a representative of the Sanctuary of Wings and takes his job quite seriously. We get to see his doubts and struggles as he writes missives home much as we get to see Audrey’s inner thoughts in her diary excerpts.

Turning Darkness Into Light was a good book, however it didn’t have the same adventurous charm as The Memoirs of Lady Trent. This is far more scholarly in nature, with a good portion of the book being the translations of the tablets and there were so many little footnotes! They were at times helpful, though I began to ignore them because they were more distracting. I’ll more than likely read any other forthcoming books, though at this point it appears to be a standalone at this time.

I really wanted to like this book but the writing was tiresome and the story just didn't seem to go anywhere.
This book wasn't for me but maybe others will like it more.

And there was much rejoicing: Brennan has written a new title set in the world introduced in "The Memoirs of Lady Trent". If you haven't read those books, stop. Go and read them. This book will be confusing without the background provided by the Memoirs. This time the focus is on Lady Trent's granddaughter, Audrey Camherst. The style is different, compiling entries from Audrey's journals, as well as the letters and journals of various other characters, including her Draconean friend and fellow linguist, Kudshayn. As always, the world-building is amazing. I did find the story dragged a bit in the middle, before an action-packed ending. But the joy of returning to Brennan's world outweighs any small quibbles. Perfect for teen readers as well as adults.

I was quite excited about this book, just because I thought it would eb about dragons. It is, kinda, but not in the way I expected.
Unfortunately I was not a big fan of this one. My main problem came from the format, this book is written in letters and journal entries. Normally I really like that format, but I don’t think fantasy is the right genre for this format. I definitely was not for this book! It really threw me off from the story, I kept being confused who the letters were written to.
Another thing I didn’t like were the time jumps. There would be a page saying ‘5 years earlier’, so we would go 5 years in the past, which makes total sense. But then a couple of pages later we would go back to the ‘current time’ without any announcement. And since both the current and the past were about the same characters, this was very confusing.
For the story, I really missed background information. They kept talking about people from different parts of the world, but I would have liked to know the relations between these countries. Because sometimes they sounded quite negative when they said ‘oh she is half-something’, and I wanted to know why that is ‘bad’.
They also had to translate a text, and I just didn’t get why that was important. I guess this kinda goes back to the lack of background. It only made sense at the end of the book.
Where the dragons come into the story is from these translated text, and one of the races in this book are ‘half-dragon’!
This next thing was probably just a problem in the E-Arc, but they made footnotes in the translated text. But the written out footnotes came very late, and by then I didn’t know were they pointed back to!
I gave two stars because I did like the writing style!

This is a companion series to that of The Memoirs of Lady Trent as we now follow her granddaughter, Audrey Camherst, who is in much the same line of work as the famous Lady Trent once was. That said, I don't feel you would have to have read A Natural History of Dragons and those that follow in order to pick up this series. (Though you should, of course, as that series is really quite excellent.)

Audrey has been hired by the insufferable Lord Gleinleigh to translate some tablets he's literally unearthed (or at least paid people to do so for him), which is tricky as they've been inscribed in an even older form of Draconean language than she's used to - the novel delves significantly into the differences of a language over time, which is quite interesting.

Each chapter begins with a translation or an excerpt from either Audrey, or Lord Gleinleigh's niece, Cora, whom he has set to be Audrey's 'assistant' (spy). Cora is, early on, the most interesting character to me as so little is known about her. Though some comments lead me to think that she's possibly on the autism spectrum, which, as an aspie, is a nice nod that we exist.

Although initially Lord Gleinleigh bans Audrey from talking over the translations to literally anyone else, and insists she stay in his estate because he refuses to let the tablets leave the premises, he then surprises her by saying she should bring someone else in on the project. When she suggests her childhood friend, Kudshayn, a Draconean himself, he says he'll fly him over promptly (via private caeliger no less), at great expense, rather than having to wait months for him to arrive by sea. Which is unusual but most appreciated.

Why is this unusual? Well, the easiest way to describe Lord Gleinleigh is what Audrey writes of him in her journal early on in the novel; 'This is the thing that frustrates me the most about him. He is all in a rush to make certain these tablets are translated, but I swear he doesn't care a toss what they're about. He only wants to be famous as the man who found them.'

So why would he be helpful? And if it seems so many people are so easily racist towards the Draconean (you should see the insert notice warning all HUMAN BEINGS of the reptilian threat who have come to restore THEIR CRUEL DOMINION. (What rubbish...) It's surprising that Lord Gleinleigh isn't the same, but even goes out of his way to show Kudshayn proper respect.

And so it seems that Audrey has more mysteries to solve other than just what history the tablets hold. As if that isn't enough for her to deal with, an old flame who betrayed her in the worst possible way comes back into her life and messes things up in ways only he could.

This is quite a good novel and start to a series; like the previous series it's, well, not slow in the start because what do you expect when the novel is about a woman translating historical dialects? Basically, in the start things seem trustworthy (otherwise she wouldn't go near it, obviously) and then ramp up as Audrey gets herself into more knots.

Hell, any book where people who deserved to get slapped do, actually, get slapped, is an excellent book in my view.

The “Lady Trent” series has been on my TBR pile for quite a while. But as I’ve heard good things about the audiobook, I’ve been stubbornly waiting to catch it when its available at the library in this format. So far, no success. But not to be put off by little things like reading the first series first, I still decided to go ahead and request an early copy of the new standalone novel set a generation after the first series. And, while there were probably a lot of references and aspects to the story that would have meant more had I read things in order, I still ended up loving this book!

Audrey has quite a distinguished family name to uphold. And she believes that she may finally found her opportunity to stake her own place in history when a collector comes across a rare set of tablets that could possess the secret history and great fabled story of the Draconian people. Translating a tale like this would not only put quite the feather in the cap of the historian who completed it, but the story itself could have greater ramifications on the future of the Draconian people. What this future may be is of great interest to several parties, all who have their own designs on the tablets and what they may say. Soon enough, Audrey finds herself at the heart of several conspiracies and must work to find the way out of this maze of history, language, and story.

Like I said, I really enjoyed this story. Obviously, I feel like I probably missed a lot of the backstory and world building that preceded this standalone in the main series, but even without that prior knowledge, I felt like the world and history were approachable. And what a clever, unique world it is! The Draconian people were incredibly intriguing and I’m sure what I got here was only a small taste of what you see of them in the first book. It’s not often that you come across what feels like an entirely new fantasy being, and the Draconians definitely are that, being a strange mixture of humanoid and dragon.

I really liked the exploration of the concept of history and story that is at the heart of this book. They are both one and the same and very different, each only partially understandable by a “modern” reader or historian approaching something that is thousands of years old. But not only do we the challenges of understanding histories and stories that are far removed from the times and people they describe, but we see how powerful they can still be to a modern people The Draconians are still looking for a place in this world, having just come out of hiding after being away undiscovered for centuries. There is a lot of discussion over how having a defining story is at the heart of being recognized as an individual and respected people. And what values are shown at the heart of that story are paramount for a how a people define themselves and how others regard them as well. It can aid or hurt, depending on interpretation and how it connects with established (or only theorized) history.

I also really liked Audrey as a character. You can see her struggling under the weight of expectation, coming from such a famous family. But she’s brave, independent, and willing to take on the challenges before her to make her own way. She’s also young, impulsive, and sometimes lets her bravery carry her into situations she had better have avoided. I also really enjoyed how the traces of a romance are weaved into this. It’s not at all what I’m used to finding, and, technically, it’s probably better to approach this story with no expectation of romance, given what it is, in the end.

The story is also presented in a unique, multi-media fashion. It plays out through a series of diary entries, letters, and news reports. It’s a tough medium to work with in the most ordinary of stories, but it’s even more impressive in a fantasy world where there is a lot of world building that would be common to the writers of these letters and thus would read as strange for them to be spelling out in these types of media formats. But while there are one or two weird, info-dumpy passages, for the most part, I think it was really successful.

I really have very few complaints about this book. Any confusion of world building is probably on me for reading it in the wrong order. And while the multi-media format had a few sticky bits, overall I think it worked really well. I was definitely left wishing there were more books telling Audrey’s story going for. But at the very least, I now know that I should get a move on with reading the original series! Fans of that original are sure to like this. And for the brave (or those who are lazy with their TBR pile like me), this is still a fun read, even with out that background knowledge.

Rating 9: A creative, new book that highlights just how intertwined and important history and storytelling are.

Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan is a fun historical fantasy featuring dragons. It's part of the Lady Trent universe, but you don't need to be familiar with that series to understand this novel. I haven't read that series yet and I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure I would have gotten much more enjoyment out of this if I was already familiar with that series. I have to admit that I did feel out of the loop from time to time. Otherwise I particularly enjoyed the mixed media / epistolary format of the novel. Unfortunately I wasn't very interested one way or another in the cast of characters. Perhaps if I were more familiar with the author's style and the previous novels set in this world. I'm definitely going to have to try more from Brennan in the future.

4.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2019/08/22/turning-darkness-into-light-by-marie-brennan/
Turning Darkness Into Light gave me exactly what I expected, it met my expectations and in fact surpassed them in some ways. It’s a lovely fantasy of manners style story that brings to us the granddaughter of Lady Trent as she becomes involved in something of a mystery. Told in an epistolary format we read of events through a series of different formats including letters, diary entry and notebook entries. I was thoroughly entertained, The writing style is just lovely and I can’t help thinking that if Jane Austen wrote fantasy she might very well have come up with something similar to this.

This style of storytelling is something I really enjoy. Of course, it does require some reading between the lines or purely joining up the dots but that just helps to make it even more tantalising. I would say that I think this stands very well on it’s own two feet. I don’t think it is necessary to have read the Lady Trent series of books in order to understand this at all but, for readers already familiar with this world there are some blasts from the past that are lovely to read from.

Audrey Camherst is the granddaughter of Lady Trent and has turned her attentions to scholarly pursuits. As such Audrey is gaining respect and renown in the field of philology – the translation of ancient languages – so when a set of ancient Draconian tablets are discovered – and Audrey is asked to work on their translation, she is only too keen to jump on board hoping that the work will lead to something new and exciting. As it happens the work is the start of Audrey’s own adventures. The tablets could possibly reveal the early ways and beliefs of the Draconian people and with an important case coming up, with huge decisions that will have an impact on how the Draconian people live, well, everyone is waiting anxiously for the work to be complete.

Basically the Draconian people are a different race and reactions to their existence has not always been positive to say the least. Their lives are restricted in terms of movement and the upcoming debate could see massive changes to their lifestyle if things go well, allowing them greater freedom of movement. I’m not going to go too much further into the plot or the Draconians because to do so could be a spoiler not only for this book but also for the Lady Trent series. Suffice to say there are machinations afoot and not everyone has the best interest of the Draconians at heart.

So, what I really liked about this. Firstly, the characters. Audrey is a lovely character to read about. She has a feisty/stubborn streak and clearly takes after her grandmother in that respect as well as her blatant disregard for social conventions that don’t fit the way she wants to live or behave. She isn’t perfect to be fair and almost reaches a point in this story where things feel like they’re getting out of control a little. Her own ambitions and secret desire for fame of the sort her family already enjoy leads her sometimes to rush at things with little regard for the bigger picture. But, I liked this about her and let’s be honest, it can’t be easy living in the shadow of Lady Trent. I also really liked the supporting cast, Kudshayn, who is roped in to the work of translating the tablets is a great character and proves himself to be quite handy in a tight spot! Cora is the niece of Lord Gleinheigh – the archaeologist (although I use that term reluctantly because with his careless attitude to ancient antiquities he’s little more than a grave robbing-glory hunting hoarder. Cora is an interesting character indeed. She takes things very literally and has a very strict code when it comes to undertaking things that are asked of her. I think she made an excellent addition to the team.

The setting and world building are also brilliant. I felt like I could just sink into this alternate Victorian steampunk world with perfect ease. The politics and characters brought the place to life and the attention to detail was spot on at the same time as not being overbearing.

In terms of criticisms. Nothing too serious. I wasn’t in love with the footnotes that were attached to the translations – but I think that’s a comment more about formatting than anything else, I don’t find that footnotes work as well when reading on Kindle for some reason. It’s just so easy to flip back and forth between the pages of a book when you’re reading a physical copy and so footnotes, glossaries and maps become a little more cumbersome or awkward when reading an e-book.

Overall, little niggles aside, I thought this was a lovely read. The writing is perfect and the story is very cleverly laid out. I would read more from this world without any hesitation whatsoever and I sincerely hope that the author plans for more adventures and mysteries to draw Audrey into.

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, for which my thanks the above is my own opinion.

I've been a fan of Marie Brennan's ever since I stumbled across a Natural History of Dragons on Audible a few years ago. I think her Memoirs of Lady Trent series offers a really interesting and refreshing take on dragons in fantasy. So I was really excited to see that the series was getting a follow-up book and couldn't wait for it to release. I thought Turning Darkness Into Light was a fun read and a great addition to this fantastic world that Marie Brennan has created for us.

While I was excited to read another of Marie Brennan's amazing books, I was a little bit hesitant to start reading Turning Darkness Into Light after I realized it wasn't a direct continuation of the Memoirs of Lady Trent. Though it didn't really take me long to decide that jumping forward in time and following a new protagonist was probably the best thing Marie Brennan could have done with this book. I found Audrey Camherst to be a fantastic character and I really enjoyed following the adventure of an archeologist who specialized in Draconian artifacts instead of a dragon scholar this time around. Audrey's love and passion for her career made her a really fun character to read about.

I think one of the best things about this book is that while it is clearly tied to the Memoirs of Lady Trent, you don't need to read that series to really enjoy it. Turning Darkness Into Light stands very well on its own and is a great introduction to the series for new readers. I do have to be honest and say though that I thought the beginning of the book was a bit too slow and I struggled to get through the first few chapters. Happily, it quickly picked up after that and became one of those stories that I was just unable to put down once I had started it.

Turning Darkness Into Light was a fun book to read and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for something new to read. You don't even need to read the Memoirs of Lady Trent first to understand any of the events that go down in this book. Though I would still recommend that everyone who hasn't should still read it as Marie Brennan is just that good of an author. I do hope this becomes its own series and that we get to see more of Audrey Camhersts adventures.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.