Short Story Review – From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (A Lady Trent Story) by Marie Brennan (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 17 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: May 18, 2016
ASIN: B01DJ0NAT0
Stand Alone or Series: Short Story in the Lady Trent series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars

“After risking the neck of her loved ones and herself during her perilous sea voyage aboard The Basilisk, and the discoveries made at Keonga, Isabella, Lady Trent, returns to Scirland with the aim of publishing her research. And yet, given the level of secret knowledge she now posseses, she is reduced to waiting to reveal her new academic discovery until royal decrees can be lifted and a fraught political situation avoided.

In her idle frustration, Isabella vents her spleen upon the shoddy research published by lesser men with swollen heads in local journals. Enjoy the following collection of letters, found in a trunk of mislaid scholarly documents left behind when she removed to Linshire for the season.”

Series Info/Source: Part of the Lady Trent series, bought for Kindle.

Story (4/5): This is a really short read, takes 5 minutes to read. It’s less of a story than a series of letters published in a newspaper between Lady Trent and one of her scientific colleagues. The final letter is published by the newspaper itself and has a funny twist to it.

Characters (4/5): Lady Trent is the main character in this series, I love her sardonic wit and her willingness to act when a situation demands it.

Setting (3/5): There really isn’t a setting here, but the idea to set the whole thing in a series of newspaper letters was clever.

Writing Style (4/5): In general I enjoy Brennan’s writing style, it’s easy to read and flows well. I do think the Lady Trent series is her best series by far.

Summary (4/5): Overall this was a fun little read. I am not sure it’s worth 99 cents, it would make more sense to have it as a free Kindle offering because it’s incredibly short. I did enjoy visiting Lady Trent and her world again however briefly and got a fun little chuckle out of this. You will definitely want to read at least the first book of the Lady Trent series before reading this short story, you’ll be completely confused about what’s going on otherwise.