History Literature / AMemoirByLadyTrent

** Mews in faux tibet also fall into this catogory but unless you're a [[spoiler:draconian]] they're just pests to be trapped and killed.

* DragonsPreferPrincesses: Oddly enough for an otherwise [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hard fantasy]] tale, the wolf-drake is explicitly mentioned as preferring female prey.

A (so far) standalone sequel [[SpinOffspring from the viewpoint of Isabella's granddaughter Audrey]], ''Turning Darkness into Light'', followed in 2019. Brennen also released a [[https://www.swantower.com/writing/the-long-fall/ short "fanfic"]] set after the novel.

* ArtisticLicense: Isabella repeatedly mentions how certain things that people have romanticized about her life were in fact a lot less dramatic, neat, or impressive when they happened. For one example, Isabella mentions that there's numerous paintings of the moment she [[spoiler:took down a caeliger]] while riding a sea serpent, most of which depict her as standing atop the beast, wearing a dress, her hair blowing majestically in the wind. The reality was a lot less romantic: she was dressed in practical trousers, had short hair that was plastered all over her face, and she was hanging on for dear life off the sea serpent's nose.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Jake has his equivalent of a bar mitzvah in the short story "On The Impurity of Dragonkind".

* FantasticScience: Dragon naturalism, or scientific study of dragons.

A (so far) standalone sequel from the viewpoint of Isabella's granddaughter Audrey, ''Turning Darkness into Light'', followed in 2019. Brennen also released a [[https://www.swantower.com/writing/the-long-fall/ short "fanfic"]] set after the novel.

** Dragon bone synthesis is a running plot though out the novels which eventually moves from a private to public endeavor. Multiple teams including those who Isabella sponsors are working on the problem. [[spoiler: Eventually it proves for naught when the secret is leaked to everyone and country to prevent dragons from being hunted to estinction.]]
** Downplayed ''In the Labyrinth of Drakes'' given that the teams are doing the same thing in the same place at different times. [[spoiler:But Isabella's team is able to succeed where her rival failed

* WordOfGay: In this case asexual as the author [[https://mylifemybooksmyescape.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/author-interview-marie-brennan-2/ confirmed in an interview,]] while confirming that such language didn't exist in that time period.

** Mews in faux tibet also fall into this catogory but unless you're a [[spoiler:draconian]] they're just pets to be trapped and killed.

* GaslampFantasy: nestled firmly in this genre; essentially a faux-Victorian era with different geography and roughly the same cultures at that time though in BroadStrokes with geography and names rejiggered. Oh and the dragons with the specific cultural attitudes towards them mixed with the chemistry and international politics involved with these heretofore unexploited natural resource.

* UnderwaterRuins: Searching for those is what brought Suhail to the Broken Sea.

* {{Asexuality}}: Natalie is heavily implied to be asexual, as she mentions that she doesn't desire a husband and didn't derive any pleasure from "female company". WordOfGod confirmed this in passing in a blog post.

* EmbarrassingDampSheets: Isabella gets her period in Eriga at the local capital, she is confined to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstruation_hut Menstruation hut]] until it runs its course. She meets a friend and has quite a few important conversations and finds the whole experience restful.

* HiddenElfVillage: The eponymous Sanctuary of Wings of the final book is a hidden valley inhabited by [[spoiler:Draconeans.]]

* LadyOfAdventure: Isabella herself, an intrepid adventurer-scientist in a similar vein to real-life examples such as Gertrude Bell.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Did the dragon ''really'' save Isabella, or was it just a happy accident?

* Dragon bone synthesis is a running plot though out the novels which eventually moves from a private to public endeavor. Multiple teams including those who Isabella sponsors are working on the problem. Eventually it proves for naught when the secret is leaked to everyone to prevent a genocide of dragons.]]
* Downplayed ''In the Labyrinth of Drakes'' given that the teams are doing the same thing in the same place at different times. [[spoiler:But Isabella's team is able to succeed where her rival failed

* WhiteMansBurden: Thoroughly and scathingly defied by Lady Trent, who has been painted as such by popular Scirling culture after her adventure in Mouleen. She finds it insulting to herself and the Moulish as she simply wanted to do her research with minimal fuss and for the most part cooperated with them only for that (and looking back on it is even embarrassed by her selfishness and apathy to their problems), while the Moulish were completely responsible for [[spoiler:negotiating the preservation of their culture and sovereignty]] with Isabella only acting as a messenger, but of course Scirling culture won't have that and frames her as a heroic champion single-handedly saving the oppressed Moulish.

* OrphanedEtymology: The expedition falls afoul of some Komodo dragons - specifically named as such in the narration - at one point during ''Voyage of the Basilisk'', despite the series taking place in a world where the Indonesian island of Komodo does not exist.

* BreathWeapon: One of the defining traits used to classify an animal as a true dragon rather than simply being dragonlike is the possession of a breath weapon of some sort, referred to in-universe as "extraordinary breath". Among the species depicted in the books, Vystrani rock-wyrms breathe a shower of icy particles, Bayembe savannah snakes exhale a cloud of caustic droplets, and Moulish swamp-wyrms breathe out poisonous gas. These exhalations are rarely strong enough to kill a victim outright, and chiefly serve to injure or disorient prey in order to make it easier to take down.

* PitifulWorms: One of the tablets Audrey and Kudshayn translate is called the "Worms Tablet" because it refers to humans as worms compared to the [[spoiler:[[DraconicHumanoid Draconeans]]]] who wrote the tablet. [[spoiler:The Worms Tablet and two others turn out to be a forgery to stir up anti-Draconean sentiment.]]

There was an interquel short story [[https://www.tor.com/2016/04/05/from-the-editorial-page-of-the-falchester-weekly-review-a-lady-trent-story/ From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review]] set between third and fourth novels. While [[https://uncannymagazine.com/article/on-the-impurity-of-dragon-kind/On the Impurity of Dragon-kind]] has a character go through an important life event [[SimultaneousArcs during the fourth book]].

* ADayInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:Jake has his equivalent of a bar mitzvah in the short story On The Impurity of Dragonkind.]]

* FantasticRacism: In ''Turning Darkness Into Light'', fifty years of the world knowing that [[spoiler:[[DraconicHumanoid Draconeans]]]] exist hasn't exactly resulted in them being welcomed with open arms. The [[TheFundamentalist Calderite]] sect interprets Scripture's description of the downfall of their civilization to mean that God has turned his back on them and they have no right to live anywhere but the Sanctuary of Wings (basically a reservation so remote that nobody else lives there). The Hadamists take an even more extreme position, advocating genocide of the "[[spoiler:demonic lizard-men]]". Notably, only two countries, Scirland and Yelang, classify an attack on one as equivalent to an attack on a human being.

* SacredScripture: Segulism's holy text is simply called "Scripture", and seems to be broadly similar to TheTorah, though the characters' names are different, there are twelve commandments instead of ten, and Scripture recounts the overthrow of the Draconean civilization, which has no equivalent in the Torah.

* BreathWeapon: One of the defining traits used to classify an animal as a true dragon rather than simply being dragonlike is the possession of a breath weapon of some sort, referred to in-universe as "extraordinary breath", such as fire, ice or acid.

* ScienceHerosBabeAssistant: [[spoiler:Suhail is arguably a science hero himself , [[HardOnSoftScience depending on what you think of archeology]], and becomes more active in later books but in Voyage of the Basilisk he is more of a facilitator of the plot then the driver himself. Also he's first introduced half naked after doing the extremely vigorous cliff diving event so you can imahgine the impression he made.]]

There was an interquel short story [https://www.tor.com/2016/04/05/from-the-editorial-page-of-the-falchester-weekly-review-a-lady-trent-story/ From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review] set between third and fourth novels. While [https://uncannymagazine.com/article/on-the-impurity-of-dragon-kind/On the Impurity of Dragon-kind] has a character go through an important life event [[SimultaneousArcs during the fourth book]].

A (so far) standalone sequel from the viewpoint of Isabella's granddaughter Audrey, ''Turning Darkness into Light'', followed in 2019. Brennen also released a [https://www.swantower.com/writing/the-long-fall/ short fanfic] set after the novel.

A (so far) standalone sequel from the viewpoint of Isabella's granddaughter Audrey, ''Turning Darkness into Light'', followed in 2019.

** Dragonbone synthesis, completely unmentioned in ''In The Labyrinth of Drakes'' in favour of dragon breeding, [[spoiler:is the reason why the House of Dragons programme is shut down -- it's finally succeeded]].

** Isabella mentions the saying "teach a dragon to hatch eggs".

* WackyMarriageProposal: Courtesy of some inconvenient travel accommodations and Isabella's complete lack of a brain-to-mouth filter, she [[spoiler: tells Suhail she'll marry him so he can accompany her into the Labyrinth of Drakes without it being seen as improper, and then continues with the plans only realizing halfway through that she just proposed to him. He finds it hilarious and accepts.]]

* AlternativeCalendar: Isabella's world, though less advanced than ours, is in its sixth millennium (the calendar system being based off the Jewish calendar system). The names of the months are also different from ours.

* AllThereInTheManual: Isabella often refers to other works, pictures and photographs that exist in her world, as the in-universe readers are expected to have access to them. Edgeworth's ''Natural History of Dragons'' is the most common of those.

** Isabella makes many references to in-world books on both her travels and dragon biology.