Turning Darkness into Light

By: Marie Brennan

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Raphael Corkhill

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Marie Brennan's Turning Darkness into Light is a delightful fantasy of manners, the heir to the award-winning Natural History of Dragons series, a perfect stepping stone into an alternate Victorian-esque fantasy landscape.

As the renowned granddaughter of Isabella Camherst (Lady Trent, of the riveting and daring Draconic adventure memoirs), Audrey Camherst has always known she, too, would want to make her scholarly mark upon a chosen field of study. 

When Lord Gleinheigh recruits Audrey to decipher a series of ancient tablets holding the secrets of the ancient Draconean civilization, she has no idea that her research will plunge her into an intricate conspiracy, one meant to incite rebellion and invoke war. Alongside dearest childhood friend and fellow archeologist Kudshayn, must find proof of the conspiracy before it’s too late.

©2019 Bryn Neuenschwander (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Marie Brennan does it again!

Despite starting with two strikes against it (not only being written largely in first person, but also in the epistolary form, both of which I typically abhor), this is a wonderful story that makes an excellent successor to the absolutely fantastic Lady Trent series.

Although I was disappointed to find Kate Reading didn't return for this book, both narrators were fantastic. Each has a wide array of voices that were excellently crafted. Both have near perfect control of vocal inflection and their tempo changes throughout were ideal for each particular scene.

I'll admit that I was hoping Isabella would play a larger part in this book, but I quickly found myself falling in love with Audrey as well. She's a wonderfully rounded character.

Here I'd like to express that this is the single best example of epistolary storytelling that I've ever read. In most books of this form, I really struggle to connect with characters or feel any tension whatsoever. This is, of course, a natural limitation of the form. Yet it is almost entirely overcome by the way Marie Brennan writes it.

There is plenty of intrigue and more than a couple twists throughout the book that never fail to keep things interesting.

I love the further developments to the world, that only deepen my appreciation for not just this story but also the whole Lady Trent series.

I'll admit that the ending was quite unexpected and caught me almost entirely off my guard. This is a wonderful experience for me, as I frequently see twists coming.

This is not an action packed fantasy as fans of Brandon Sanderson or Glen Cook might expect, but there is more than enough going on to keep almost any reader entertained.

Soooo boring!

I've read all of the other lady Trent books with pleasure, but I had to return this one without finishing. Listening to Victorian letters is so irritating. The dates. The addresses. The throwaway characters you don't care about. most of the content of the letters is about how one person finds another person annoying, or how one person speculated that another person wouldn't want to read about her clothing but it turned out that person actually did want to read about her clothing! You must have white knuckles just reading my summary!

I'm hours into the book and there is no plot yet at all. One person had just started translating some stone tablets. That's it.

Very well done addition to this series!

Series Info/Source: This is the 6th book in A Natural History of Dragons series (aka The Memoirs of Lady Trent). I got this as an audiobook through Audible.

Audiobook Quality (5/5): The audiobook was a joy to listen to and very well done. I would strongly recommend listening to this on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks.

Story (4/5): This was a well done story set in the same world as the Memoirs of Lady Trent. The story follows Audrey (Lady Trent's granddaughter) as she works with one of the dragonkin (Kudshayn) to decipher an ancient draconic text that reveals many life changing facts about the past relationship between dragons and humans. Of course, things aren't completely straight-forward and it seems there is a conspiracy afoot as well. The story alternates between Audrey and Kudshayn and their lives and the reading of the ancient text itself. This was very well done and I enjoyed it. Some of the parts where the ancient draconic text is being read is a bit long.

Characters (4/5): I absolutely loved both Audrey and Kudshayn, they were fun characters to get to know and I loved learning their background. Both are intelligent and hardworking. The “evil” characters were just as well done, everyone was well filled out and had a lot of depth.

Setting (5/5): The setting in this series is amazing. It’s a very Victorian London type of world but where dragons exist and have recently become a part of daily life. The world-building is very well done and incredibly well filled out. We don’t get to adventure around like we did in the Lady Trent books but I still really enjoy the world. Brennan is an amazing world-builder.

Writing Style (4/5): The writing was well done and easy to follow. The sections of the ancient text are written in a much more formal style and I didn’t enjoy these parts as much because they were so dry...however, the different styles the book was written in were masterfully done. It was very well written.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really liked this and would recommend if you are a fan of the Lady Trent series. I am not sure this would work well as a stand alone book because there's a lot of background that's needed from the Lady Trent series to fully appreciate the story. There is some amazing world-building in here and I really enjoyed the characters. I did miss all the adventure from the first books but was still very happy to have read this and would recommend it.

I'm so glad this book happened

I love this whole world and Audrey is a fitting heir for Lady Trent. The balance between the scholarship of the translation and those implications against the political and personal events within their real world kept me engrossed. I'm sad it's over. The narrators were excellent and added a richness to the story.

More Please!

I have devoured the Lady Trent memoirs and now Turning Darkness Into Light, and it has been such a delight. Marie Brennan has quickly shot to the top of the list of my favorite authors.

A story told in stories

This was an excellent addition to Marie Brennan's world of dragons and society. I am not the biggest fan of this type of storie telling but I honestly forgot that it was told mostly in letters and journal entries.

Wonderful!

Marie Brennan is quickly moving into the ranks of my favorite authors. I enjoyed this addition to the tales of Lady Trent and her progeny and look forward to more!