Reviews

Prosperity by Alexis Hall

8cht's review against another edition

4.0

Man muss erst reinkommen in den Schreibstil aber dann ist's super. Spannende Story

blandrea_reads's review against another edition

4.0

Steampunk cloudmining, sky pirates and interdimentional Kraken! What's not to love!?!?

It also has a pattern of observational narration that I love. Picadilly is telling the story, but in many ways he's not the main character. Ruben and Milord's interaction is central to the story arc. It feels a bit like the vibe in Moby's Dick where Capt Ahab's quest is the core, and Ishmael is the narrator along for the ride. And I don't think that's accidental. But it is a style of story telling that I do enjoy.

kappareads's review

4.0

It only hit me later that the entire main cast is queer, which makes me smile.

Yes, this book is written in slang, and decoding the Cockney was hard some times, but really it was worth it.

Only reason why I didn't give it more stars was some parts seemed choppy or rushed, but overall it was a fantastic book with a great cast of characters and I need the short story collection now.

lizzy_22's review

3.0

A little difficult to read because of the vernacular but once I got going I didn't notice it as much. Very entertaining steampunk adventure with airships and floating cities and krakens oh my! Enjoyed it.

dja777's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this audiobook!! It’s written in a sort of proto-Cockney dialect, and the narrator does an amazing job with it. Steampunkish adventure with a really funny protagonist.

daisy_c_bel's review against another edition

5.0

Loved the story even tho Piccadilly's language and slang was really hard to read for me. Sometimes I really had to guess what he meant from the context of the scenes. This has everything though. A gay version of Pirates of the caribbean. For reals.

taliejane's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay so I had a really bizarre experience of listening to this audiobook. I've had a really tenacious cold the last few days and I've been falling asleep randomly in the middle of chapters. Which means I've actually re-listened to multiple passages of this book in order to find my place again 🙈 

This story follows the end days of a town built in the sky, called Prosperity (named ironically as far as I can tell). The narrator is Picadilly, an 18-something rogue gambler with a sweet disposition and a tendency to get wrapped up in sky-pirate misadventures. 

In terms of content warnings...idk death? Destruction? Think anything along the lines of a Pirate Adventure Film. 

<Spoiler> Spoilers ahead!! 

Okay so obviously Alexis Hall is an insanely good writer and there was never a chance this would be a bad story. Also, the audiobook is narrated by Nicholas Boulton, who also spoke Glitterland (my all-time favourite Alexis Hall book). 

Glitterland and Prosperity were published around the same time but also share having a character with a strong dialect. As an Irish person, I got on alright with this, but I think it could trip up some readers. The dialect is also from 1863 North England rather than present day, which adds a layer of difficulty. In Prosperity it is the narrator Picadilly who speaks in heavy dialect which means it might make it confusing to understand what's going on at times. 

I think Alexis Hall really does characters the best. I mean all his books have an engaging plot obviously... But the characters are always complicated and surprising. In this case, I loved 'Milord'. A terse, verging on amoral chracter at the start who makes an attempt on the protagonists life within the first chapter, Milord somehow became the chracter I was most rooting for by the end??? There are some beautiful, queer, sort of kinky scenes between Milord and his raison d'etre Ruben (a moral righteous hero type character whom the protagonist spends the book hopelessly pining for). 

There is also a sort of etheral magical man called Byron and a hilarious, seer/kraken summoner/brothel frequenting lady called Miss Grey. They all make up the crew of an aethership (not to be mistaken for a simple sky ship) which travels through the air in a somehow magical way. 

NOW LISTEN. This story doesn't really need to have the world building perfectly explained, because the relationships are the real story. And reader - the relationship had be S U F F E R I N G and I loved it. 

However... WHAT IS A SKY HOOK ALEXIS HALL. The ricketty, cobbled together, den of iniquity which is Prosperity is hanging in the air, attached to sky hooks. Hooked into the sky. Do you see my problem? Hooked into WHERE? I'm definitely reading the rest of this series and it will be 80% for the characters and 20% to find out WHAT IS A SKY HOOK. </Spoiler>

4/5 highly recommend. 

kikkibird's review

5.0

Well, this was amazing.

pannamarchewka's review

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

thegrimhobbyist's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0