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majkia's review against another edition
4.0
Fun, light steampunk. Think of how Jules Verne pictured Mars and the passage between. Arabella runs away from home after having been forced to leave Mars for Earth. She pretends to be a boy and gets a birth on a sailing ship headed to Mars.
itabar's review against another edition
3.0
The first 2/3 worked for me, that last third didn't. Surprisingly, I found the romance one of the weakest parts of the book.
greenldydragon's review against another edition
3.0
I finished this book a while ago and don’t remember much about what happened. Whooops.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
It was fine. And a bit goofy. But the Victorian novel thing is not something that adds anything for me, though here it wasn't actually painful. And I'm so tired of the disguised as a boy thing, though again it wasn't horrible here. Suspending belief to allow sailing from Earth to Mars and Martians is difficult enough. So clever, simple, readable but definitely not amazing. Nice cover though. 3.5 of 5.
On a re-read I found it more pleasant than I remembered. And I was going to raise it's rating from 3 to 3.5. But it was already 3.5.
On a re-read I found it more pleasant than I remembered. And I was going to raise it's rating from 3 to 3.5. But it was already 3.5.
sheilajenn's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
At least one of the stars here is there for being extremely my jam. I love sailing books. I love space. I love when weird fake science gets fully explored.
Still, of all the books like this I've read (which you can see in my list on here, "Sailpunk") this is one of the most exciting ones. Though plenty of time is spent explaining the ship (and I wouldn't have it any other way), stuff happens every chapter and there are lots of life or death struggles.
It has two main flaws. The first is the bad Regency dialogue. Some people seem to believe the Regency was a time when everyone spoke in long, formal paragraphs; and thus the actual spice of language gets filtered out. But that's almost standard. Hardly anyone pulls off dialogue that is both historically accurate and vivid.
The second is that the universe contains colonialism, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that it's somehow being done in a way that isn't problematic at all. Do you really think the Brits of 1812, confronted with real aliens, would be less racist than they were against every real life country they colonized? Yet the Martians carefully follow English laws, and even when [mild spoiler] the English do something heinous against them, they're happy to avenge that one thing and then go back to letting the English build plantations to extract their natural resources. I understand why it's done that way: the author doesn't want to deal with a whole political struggle, at least not in book one. But it feels unrealistic to me that it isn't there.
Still, of all the books like this I've read (which you can see in my list on here, "Sailpunk") this is one of the most exciting ones. Though plenty of time is spent explaining the ship (and I wouldn't have it any other way), stuff happens every chapter and there are lots of life or death struggles.
It has two main flaws. The first is the bad Regency dialogue. Some people seem to believe the Regency was a time when everyone spoke in long, formal paragraphs; and thus the actual spice of language gets filtered out. But that's almost standard. Hardly anyone pulls off dialogue that is both historically accurate and vivid.
The second is that the universe contains colonialism, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that it's somehow being done in a way that isn't problematic at all. Do you really think the Brits of 1812, confronted with real aliens, would be less racist than they were against every real life country they colonized? Yet the Martians carefully follow English laws, and even when [mild spoiler] the English do something heinous against them, they're happy to avenge that one thing and then go back to letting the English build plantations to extract their natural resources. I understand why it's done that way: the author doesn't want to deal with a whole political struggle, at least not in book one. But it feels unrealistic to me that it isn't there.
bookwormerica's review against another edition
3.0
Cute and straight to formula story. I wasn't aware it was more tween/ya before I started it. I would recommend it for that age group. Arabella is feisty young lady that got put in a rough situation and dig deep and found her way out
fancypython's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this up for my daughter and read it myself - we both enjoyed it! A rollicking adventure with a delightful plucky heroine. If you enjoyed The Daedalus Incident, I think you'd enjoy this book (and vice versa).
powder_and_page's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 -
Ever since seeing a synopsis of Arabella of Mars several months ago, I’ve been interested in reading it and I was lucky enough to receive a finished copy from Tor. The title and cover art alone would have been enough to spark my curiosity, but knowing that it was a science fiction novel set in the early 1800’s where they had SPACE TRAVEL was like icing on the cake. I have a fondness for 1800’s era sci-fi and fantasy because I find it to be ridiculously romantic, despite the fact that I actually don’t like most books written in that time period.
Arabella of Mars is the story of Arabella Ashby, a girl who if forced to move from her beloved Mars back to England with her younger sisters at the behest of her mother, who wants her to be a proper English lady. A series of terrible events leads her on a journey back to Mars to save her brother from a relative’s intent to malevolently obtain the family’s fortune. Arabella disguises herself as Arthur Ashby and joins the crew of the airship Diana, captained by Prakash Singh. During the exciting and somewhat lengthy course of the journey, Arabella proves herself to be exceedingly clever, resourceful, and utterly unsuited to being a proper English lady.
This is one of those stories that seem to defy all expectations, though to be honest, I didn’t have any specific expectations. I just wanted a fun, fresh story and that’s exactly what I got. What I wasn’t expecting was to love it so much! I read this book in a single sitting, though I had expected it to take me several days. David D. Levine has proved to be an excellent an engaging writer and I look forward to the next installment in The Adventures of Arabella Ashby. The conclusion of this first book was certainly a surprise to me and I think these next adventures will be grand indeed.
Three paragraphs and I’ve not even discussed how cool the worldbuilding has been! Levine has written a society where space travel is possible and commonly practiced 150 years before humankind ever set foot on the moon. This coupled with the novel idea that there is interplanetary weather as well as atmosphere makes things very interesting. The planet Mars is also inhabited by Martians – intelligent life forms that vaguely resemble crab-like humans and have a warrior caste that is predominately female. Mars is also perfectly inhabitable for humans, who’ve set up plantations and businesses there. All of these features make Arabella of Mars totally unique and delightful!
In conclusion, I think this is a great book and I strongly recommend it, especially for those who’ve enjoyed Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons and fans of YA science fiction. Arabella of Mars is a lovely book and I can’t wait to find a spot for it on my shelves!
Ever since seeing a synopsis of Arabella of Mars several months ago, I’ve been interested in reading it and I was lucky enough to receive a finished copy from Tor. The title and cover art alone would have been enough to spark my curiosity, but knowing that it was a science fiction novel set in the early 1800’s where they had SPACE TRAVEL was like icing on the cake. I have a fondness for 1800’s era sci-fi and fantasy because I find it to be ridiculously romantic, despite the fact that I actually don’t like most books written in that time period.
Arabella of Mars is the story of Arabella Ashby, a girl who if forced to move from her beloved Mars back to England with her younger sisters at the behest of her mother, who wants her to be a proper English lady. A series of terrible events leads her on a journey back to Mars to save her brother from a relative’s intent to malevolently obtain the family’s fortune. Arabella disguises herself as Arthur Ashby and joins the crew of the airship Diana, captained by Prakash Singh. During the exciting and somewhat lengthy course of the journey, Arabella proves herself to be exceedingly clever, resourceful, and utterly unsuited to being a proper English lady.
This is one of those stories that seem to defy all expectations, though to be honest, I didn’t have any specific expectations. I just wanted a fun, fresh story and that’s exactly what I got. What I wasn’t expecting was to love it so much! I read this book in a single sitting, though I had expected it to take me several days. David D. Levine has proved to be an excellent an engaging writer and I look forward to the next installment in The Adventures of Arabella Ashby. The conclusion of this first book was certainly a surprise to me and I think these next adventures will be grand indeed.
Three paragraphs and I’ve not even discussed how cool the worldbuilding has been! Levine has written a society where space travel is possible and commonly practiced 150 years before humankind ever set foot on the moon. This coupled with the novel idea that there is interplanetary weather as well as atmosphere makes things very interesting. The planet Mars is also inhabited by Martians – intelligent life forms that vaguely resemble crab-like humans and have a warrior caste that is predominately female. Mars is also perfectly inhabitable for humans, who’ve set up plantations and businesses there. All of these features make Arabella of Mars totally unique and delightful!
In conclusion, I think this is a great book and I strongly recommend it, especially for those who’ve enjoyed Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons and fans of YA science fiction. Arabella of Mars is a lovely book and I can’t wait to find a spot for it on my shelves!