Thursday, August 15, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 20, 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Marie Brennan's "The Memoirs of Lady Trent" is one of my favorite SF/F series I've read over the past few years, and was a deserving nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Series last year.   The story was a wonderful tale of science, fantasy, romance, and more (not to mention Dragons!) throughout its five books, and I was sad when the whole thing had to end.  Fortunately for us all, Brennan is providing just that with this book, Turning Darkness Into Light, a stand-alone spinoff featuring the tale of the granddaughter of Isabella (Lady Trent), Audrey Camherst, as she attempts to translate a piece of ancient draconic history.

And the result is as usual for Brennan's work in this world: delightful.  Whereas Audrey's grandmother focused upon the natural science of dragons, Audrey is focused upon translation of ancient texts - specifically Draconean texts.  Still Brennan manages to turn Audrey and her companion's translation of a newly unearthed Draconean text into a fascinating aspect of the story, with the political implications of the work, and Audrey's attempts to deal with those implications, forming the core conflict.  It's why I loved the original series and what made it so different from typical works - even in this fantasy land, this is a book about the principles and usage of science amidst everything.  And so while Audrey may not be quite as fantastic a lead character as her grandmother, Turning Darkness Into Light is definitely another winner I can recommend.

Quick Note: As I note above, Turning Darkness Into Light probably functions perfectly fine as a stand-alone, and while the book does spoil some elemeents of the original series, it does a remarkably good job at glossing over other spoilers for those books so that someone who starts here probably won't realize those other spoilers were even present if they go on to the original 5 books next - so you certainly can start with this book.  Still, while the book will undoubtedly be enjoyable for newcomers to this world, readers of the original series will get some extra pleasure from references to Isabella's adventures in her memoirs, which is how I enjoyed this book.  


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
When rich Scirland lord and blowhard collector, Lord Gleinheigh, makes an astounding discovery, a set of tablets containing what appears to be an ancient epic in the ancient Draconean language,  it makes waves across the academic and general worlds.  For interest in the Draconeans is at an all time high, with a vote soon to take place in the Scirland that could open the world up to the modern survivors of the Draconeans to take a bigger role in the world.  It will take an expert scholar to translate the tablets in time for the vote, to open their knowledge to the world.

Enter Audrey Camherst, the famous granddaughter of Isabella, Lady Trent famed Dragon Naturalist, and whose grandfather was the first to decipher the Draconean script.  Eager to make a name for herself, Audrey accepts Lord Gleinheigh's conditions of secrecy, and starts work, at first aided by Lord Gleinheigh's sheltered daughter Cora and then by a Dracoenan scholar Kudshayn.  But translating the tablets results in difficult questions for the trio, as they reveal a past mythology that differs from anything currently practiced by the few remaining Draconeans.  A mythology that can possibly be used by those seeking to harm the Draconeans, and swing the vote, out of sheer prejudice and hate.

Will Audrey's attempts to decipher the truth bring about pain to those she cares about?  Or is there some way, like her famous grandmother, that she can cut through it all and advance both the cause of scholarly knowledge and the innocent people who deserve a place in the world?
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Turning Darkness into Light is not told as a straight out story - instead the story is an epistolary novel, told entirely through letters and diary entries from Audrey, Kudshayn, and Cora (with a few other characters interrupting on occasion).  The only divergences are when the story flashes back on three occasions to events of the past, which enlighten us to events in the present.  I'm going to be honest, while this form of storytelling was fine and didn't really interfere with the storytelling at all, it didn't really add anything either.

Still, this form is what Brennan uses to tell the story from the perspectives of our characters and to really get out what each character is thinking - unlike the Lady Trent books, while Audrey is our main character, we're dealing with the perspectives and feelings of a few other characters as well.  And these characters, while individually never quite matching Isabella from the other books, are all really well done.  Audrey* is an excellent young heroine, whose intellectual curiosity and drive to learn while living up to the family name drives her to do some pretty fun and reckless things - her motto of "What would Grandmama do?" leads to a lot more adventurous actions than it would be for any other person and it makes her really fun to read and root for.  She's a great lead for the story, as she struggles to find a path forwards for herself in a world where the search for scholarly knowledge will put her into contact with those who want to use that knowledge for less savory purposes, causing her great strain.


 And I was particularly intrigued by her eventual assistant, the Draconean priest/scholar Kudshayn, who arrives to help Audrey translate the tablets, and has to deal with a crisis of faith over what is revealed within them.  Brennan does a fantastic job describing through his letters how the discoveries of the tablet cause his internal crises, adding an interesting different side to the scientific work he and Audrey are doing that has obvious parallels to our world.  If there are any sequels to this book, I'd be happy to see more of him and how his people react to him taking back this knowledge to them.

The overall setting is the same as in the Memoirs of Lady Trent, and it works generally pretty well, especially as compared to our current times - the world is still Victorian to a certain extent, though a bit more modernized, and an undercurrent is the hatred and prejudice against foreigners - or in this case, the Draconeans recently discovered.  And the characters and ideas from the prior series occasionally come back into play to form a political conflict for the characters to deal with, in addition to their scientific ones, that gives the plot excellent momentum and leads to a rather satisfying ending after all.

The one weakness of this book lies in the book's secondary main character of Cora, whose plot is probably the most generic of the trio, as her horizons as a sheltered rule following ward of her uncle are broadened by interactions with Audrey and Kudshayn.  When the expected conflict between them finally comes about, it's resolved only by necessity, and then Cora sort of disappears for the final act, making it all seem underwhelming after all.  Again, if there is a sequel, there's enough ground here that I'd love to see more of Cora as she tries to see things outside of Scirland, but there just isn't enough done with Cora here at the end, which is a minor disappointment.

Still, Turning Darkness Into Light is another example of Brennan using a fantasy world to set up a plot borne out by scientific drive and adventure that is just delightful overall, and I can wholly recommend it, even to newcomers to this world.  It doesn't seem like there are any plans for a sequel just yet, but if there ever are, I would totally read it in a heartbeat.  Here's hoping.
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