Within the Sanctuary of Wings: A Memoir by Lady Trent

By Marie Brennan

After her adventure in the mountains of Vystrana, and her exploits in the depths of Eriga, to the high seas aboard The Basilisk, and then to the deserts of Akhia, the Lady Trent has captivated hearts along with fierce minds. This concluding volume will finally reveal the truths behind her most notorious adventure - scaling the tallest peak in the world, behind the territory of Scirland's enemies - and what she discovered there, within the Sanctuary of Wings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Titan Books
• Release date: Apr 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781783297795

Marie Brennan

MARIE BRENNAN is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for inspiration. She recently misapplied her professors' hard work to The Night Parade of 100 Demons and the short novel Driftwood. She is the author of the Hugo Award-nominated Victorian adventure series The Memoirs of Lady Trent along with several other series, over seventy short stories, and the New Worlds series of worldbuilding guides; as half of M.A. Carrick, she has written the epic Rook and Rose trilogy, beginning with The Mask of Mirrors. 

Reviews for Within the Sanctuary of Wings

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic -- I love how committed Brennan is to her worlds and to her character's voice -- it makes the whole proposition that much more satisfying and believable. Boy, did I not see the events of this memoir coming, and what a pleasure to experience them. Great finale.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A satisfactory closing to the Memoirs of Lady Trent. I won't give anything away, but Brennan has been listening to our complaints about not enough dragons or dragon lore, and these do not disappoint. Isabella is a fine narrator, and I will be said not to read more memoirs.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chance and oddity take Isabella out on another adventure - which turns into rather more than that. Yet another upending of what everyone knows, on multiple levels. And a purely triumphant ending, again on multiple levels. I like the bit with her son - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. This is clearly set in the Himalayas, though as usual the map doesn't tell me much. Lovely series - worth reading and rereading.

[foggidawn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lady Trent takes her most difficult journey yet, deep into the world's most forbidding mountain range, hoping to discover a new dragon species. What she finds there is even more astonishing than any discovery she has made so far.After reading the fourth book in this series (which was excellent), I wondered how a fifth book could top that, in terms of exciting discoveries and so forth. This one did! I won't give anything away, but I enjoyed this book tremendously. I think the fourth is my favorite of the series, but this book is a satisfying conclusion to an amazing story arc. I'm sad that it's over, but I know I will read and enjoy this series again in the future. Highly recommended, particularly on audio.

[krau0098 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fifth and final book in the Memoirs of Lady Trent series. I really loved this whole series and this book was an amazing close to it.I listened to this whole series on audiobook which I would definitely recommend. Reading does an amazing job narrating this book and it’s an absolute joy to listen to.In this volume Lady Trent and crew end up in the isolated mountains searching for what could be a new type of dragon. However, what Lady Trent stumbles upon is so much more than that.Brennan does an amazing job of tying everything from the previous books together in this book. She also does an amazing job tying up the memoirs in general. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book and am actual sad this series is over.My only complaint about this series is that I wish Lady Trent’s son, Jake, had been in it more. He seems like such a fun and amazing character and we only see him a little in the third book. I would love to see a series that chronicles Jake’s adventures!Overall I adored this whole series. I would highly recommend this to fantasy loves who enjoy scientific theory or cryptozoology. I loved everything about this series; the story, the characters, the adventure, the world-building, and of course the dragons. I can’t wait to see what Brennan comes up with next and am sad to see this series end.

[renbedell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic conclusion to the Lady Trent's Memoirs series. The growth of the worldbuilding and the focus of this book makes the series of zoology and anthropology even more memorable. This books creates a satisfying ending to a plot hinted at in all the previous books while also gaining a wonderful attachment to the characters. I enjoyed all the books in the series, but the 4th and 5th book really stood out to me.

[griffin22 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this series. I did find the final book a bit hard to get in to, for some reason, and laid it aside for weeks while I read other things, but once I plunged it I read the rest quickly. A fitting end to Lady Trent’s adventures.

[jdifelice-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great conclusion to this series. I loved being back with Lady Trent and her adventures. This instalment didn't disappoint, and I really liked the adventure plot and the politics that were involved. We get to see more character growth for Lady Trent and see more into her fascinating life. Because this is told as a "memoir" though, I feel like there were some things that got glossed over because "you could read about it elsewhere." But really we cant...and this became slightly annoying - just like in the other books.Overall, this was a fun series, and I quite enjoyed the conclusion!

[beserene · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, but you wish it was less about war and more about dragons, then Brennan's Lady Trent novels are probably the series for you. In Brennan's alternate world, the sensibilities may be slightly Victorian, but everything else is absolutely about the dragons. Lady Trent, our POV character, is an independent scientist and, in this last book, now once again a wife. You might be surprised, however, that much of this book features her separated from her husband by circumstance. Will they be reunited? Will her accidental discovery change the world? You probably already know the answer to that -- but the adventure in getting to all that is the real point. Brennan plays it fast and loose with her writing craftsmanship, but I never mind because I just thoroughly enjoy our narrator's patriarchy-smashing and science-rattling voice. Filled with all of the delightful detail, world-building, and general sass that one might expect -- not to mention more of Todd Lockwood's remarkable illustrations -- this book brings Lady Trent's memoirs to a smashing close. Delightful!

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Less a scientific exploration than an alien contact story, I find it amusing that it is the (very well prepared) luck of accidentally failing on the the west side of the col that results in the recognition that should have been awarded based on more scholarly achievements. Very much in the vein of earlier books in the series, though less rigorous.

[kgodey_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’m a huge fan of the Memoirs of Lady Trent series, and I’ve been waiting for this concluding volume, Within the Sanctuary of Wings, for a long time. This series stars Isabella (Lady Trent), pioneering female dragon naturalist, in a secondary world reminiscent of the Victorian era. Isabella has trekked all over the world in pursuit of dragons, and this installment is no exception – she’s chasing a rumor of a new dragon species to the inhospitable Mrtyahaima mountains, home to the tallest peaks in the world. And of course she’s also getting mixed up in international politics along the way.One of the reasons I like these books so much is that the climax is always about discovery – sure, there’s adventure, action, and near disaster, and maybe the story wouldn’t be so compelling without them, but lots of books have those. Isabella’s drive to learn more about her world is what makes her story stand out. The previous four books have been slowly building up to a great draconic revelation and I was eager to find out what it was. In retrospect, it ended up being obvious (a fact that Isabella alludes to in her narrative), but the author has been doing such a good job of building up the world and the rules that it operates on that I was as amazed as the characters.Other than that, I don’t have much to say about this book. If you haven’t read this series, start at A Natural History of Dragons and keep going. If you have read the series, this is a great conclusion, it’s satisfying and there are no loose ends, so stop reading my review and acquire the book!

[ronincats · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The great strength of all five volumes of Lady Trent's memoirs is the fantastic verisimilitude of the world-building of this alternative world. It's not the characters, although Lady Trent's ascerbic voice and her passion for the study of dragons certainly contribute. It's not the plots or the action, although there is plenty of both; these could be found in any action-adventure story involving Victorian exploration and nation-building. It is the extent to which you identify and believe in this world and Lady Trent that sucks you in and refuses to let you go. I'm sad that my journeys with her are over, but this book is the same high quality as the earlier books, does not disappoint, and is a fitting finale.