Miss Bennet's Dragon
Series: Jane Austen Fantasy, Book 1
By: M Verant / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
This ain’t my first Pride and Prejudice retelling involving dragons, but it miiiiiiight just be my favorite—
—I dunno; I have to go further into Maria Grace’s series, and I’ll have to go further into this series as it’s written (Currently Amazon shows this as “Book 1 of 1: Jane Austen Fantasy”). All that noted, however, I’ve gotta say that I truly loved it!
It starts with a kinda sorta doozy of a twist on P&P’s opening line, this time involving Longbourn’s peeved and recalcitrant firedrake NOT liking that Elizabeth is the one who is dangling the raw steak in front of it. Better it should come from the agreeable and patient Jane. So right away we know that Miss Bennet’s Dragon is going to be a twisting and twining of P&P canon with a whooooole new world, where draca are enigmatic status symbols of English gentry, or those who can maintain and command allegiance through binding (With women, no less, so huzzah for Woman Power!).
From the opening, we’re treated to a socially-conscientious Mary speaking her mind, and we’re given the ominous vision of Mr. Bennet (Here, first name James) as a rather frail, and sickly gentleman, indeed so careworn and fatigued it’s up to Elizabeth and Mary to visit the tenants of Longbourn’s estate. And yessss, the new tenant of Netherfield, Bingley, is very much smitten with Jane upon making the young beauty’s acquaintance.
Certainly Jane’s visit with Bingley’s sisters takes place, but here Jane’s illness is relayed to the Bennets as a response to a bee sting. After seeing for herself, Elizabeth finds ‘twas no bee sting at all, but rather from a vicious creature, a Foul Crawler. Things become dire, and a Scottish washerwoman cues Elizabeth on just what will save Jane’s life: A bit of draca essence, a few drops of raw draca blood if none is to be had. Just as Lizzie comes to discover her powers, so do we, the listeners, which makes for easy and palatable world building, for peeling back, layer by layer, all that is inscrutable about this world’s draca. In this instance, it would seem that Lizzie can make requests of draca, rather softly command them. Later, as this story is told in first person, we come to see that Lizzie can rather inhabit draca, see from their eyes, hear/sense their thoughts and feelings.
And things continue from there with such canon as George Wickham’s arrival and early friendship with Lizzie taking place, followed by Mr. Darcy’s direct cut of Wickham, indicating that things are sooooo not right between the two. There’s Mr. Collins with Lizzie’s refusal to wed him being a catalyst for Charlotte’s assent to become Collins’s wife; and there’s Lizzie’s visit to Charlotte and then getting dragged to interminable time spent at Rosings, frank speaking with Lady Catherine and the introduction of Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam to the group. And of COURSE there’s Darcy’s oh soooo offensive first proposal to Lizzie!
All that goes along basic P&P storylines as does quite a bit of this book. -BUT- there are modern day sensibilities added that go side-by-side with the fantastical world of draca and evil, along with the dangers of Napoleon and his war against England (Napoleon and the French would like to bind draca to French women so that they might be utilized in the fight against the British army).
Modern sensibilities are the horrors of so much of British wealth coming from plantations which used slaves as labor (True); there are Mary’s social conscience and her blooming feminism to go with all that reading she does; there’s even a tiiiiiiny hint of LGBTQ that sent one reviewer into spasms of disgust (Good golly gosh! Get over it already!). Add tyrannical evangelism that condemns and seeks to steal or destroy, and yup, you’re in for a musing on current society.
But here we have draca, and Darcy with secrets, and Georgiana, wounded by Wickham, yes, but also a powerful draca whisperer/crooner in her own right. There are French spies who will kill to find/steal draca lore, and there’s Darcy now willing to kill to save friends, family, all that he holds dear. There’s Lydia and her elopement with Wickham, but who holds power over whom in THAT deplorable relationship?! And goodness, those Foul Crawlers are wicked! And there’s Jane’s decline, which could prove deadly, cuz nobody knew what all would happen when raw draca blood was used to save her life (Uhmmm, except for that Scottish washerwoman!).
And there’s the methodical pacing of our Hero and heroine, Darcy and Elizabeth, as they develop along their character arcs (Well done, M Verant!) and as their relationship, their trust in each other, their feelings of mutual attraction grow.
Plusssss, DRACA!
The real joy is Helen Taylor’s narration from even the earliest parts of the audiobook whereby I had to slow my usual 1.3x listening speed to x1 as boy, did that Scottish washerwoman have a thick brogue, or what?! Even Lizzie had to kinda lean in to catch the words! Add a smooth and manly man sorta Darcy (My favorite kinda Darcy!), a clever Elizabeth who is also asTOUNded by her burgeoning skills with draca, an impassioned Mary who also spouts Latin in retaliation to a rabid evangelical, and Ms. Taylor made it all flow, nary a slip up as the action picked up pace and as she switched from character to character. Tho’ Taylor’s done many a Regency, this is the first P&P retelling I’ve ever seen from her (And TRUST me that I’m soooo into what’s out there…!). I do hope she does more, CERtainly all the rest in what Amazon states is supposed to be a trilogy.
Plus? There’s a single word, a, “WHAT?!” as Lizzie’s response to the offensive first proposal that Ms. Taylor delivers that made me guffaw. NEVER have I heard Lizzie respond to Darcy’s Ardent Admiration with SUCH a (Rather, kinda sorta) WTH(eck)!
You up for some Woman Power, action, clever twining of the old and true WITH the wondrous and astonishing? Maybe a slow developing romance between Hero and heroine, or a spectacularly practical and tough Mary, and a hesitant Georgiana ready to blossom into a levelheaded and talented young woman… plus that draca whisperer bit? Or does it all sound like too much?
But trust me, lemme tell ya: In 14 hours? Things can be very well done indeed!
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