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selfwinding's review against another edition
4.0
Arabella is my kind of Regency heroine. As soon as I saw the cover and title, I knew I had to read this book. Something that mixes my love of the nineteenth century with space travel? Sign me up!
Overall the story did not disappoint, though it only gets 4 stars from me and not 5 because there were a few notes that I felt were a little weaker than I would have liked. (Believe it or not, not the laughable science! Obviously the space travel described in this is cockamamie but it describes physics and phenomena that exist in this specific world and they are so delightful and inventive that I had no trouble ignoring my usual inclination to cry about how science works.) My main complaint is that in the middle third of the book while Arabella is making her passage on the Diana, we lose focus of her motivation for getting to Mars. I got so wrapped up in life on the ship (which is amazing, don't get me wrong), that it was jarring to finally remember that she had a driving and time-sensitive reason for getting to Mars.
Speaking of Mars, I really enjoyed the way Levine constructed the Martian world and juxtaposed British colonialism against this sci-fi setting. Because the Martians are filling in for actual abused people, I would have liked to see a few more people of color in the novel, but Captain Singh is wonderful and I really appreciated the mutiny subplot. Even though this is very much a space opera, it is also a novel that is aware of its historical context and uses that context to heighten the conflict and tension.
Arabella is a fantastic character—and actually all of the characters are fully developed and three-dimensional, including some of the villains who could have easily been one-note caricatures. The complexity, depth, and detail in this novel are three of the things that make it so wonderful. I can't wait to pick up the second book in the series.
Overall the story did not disappoint, though it only gets 4 stars from me and not 5 because there were a few notes that I felt were a little weaker than I would have liked. (Believe it or not, not the laughable science! Obviously the space travel described in this is cockamamie but it describes physics and phenomena that exist in this specific world and they are so delightful and inventive that I had no trouble ignoring my usual inclination to cry about how science works.) My main complaint is that in the middle third of the book while Arabella is making her passage on the Diana, we lose focus of her motivation for getting to Mars. I got so wrapped up in life on the ship (which is amazing, don't get me wrong), that it was jarring to finally remember that she had a driving and time-sensitive reason for getting to Mars.
Speaking of Mars, I really enjoyed the way Levine constructed the Martian world and juxtaposed British colonialism against this sci-fi setting. Because the Martians are filling in for actual abused people, I would have liked to see a few more people of color in the novel, but Captain Singh is wonderful and I really appreciated the mutiny subplot. Even though this is very much a space opera, it is also a novel that is aware of its historical context and uses that context to heighten the conflict and tension.
Arabella is a fantastic character—and actually all of the characters are fully developed and three-dimensional, including some of the villains who could have easily been one-note caricatures. The complexity, depth, and detail in this novel are three of the things that make it so wonderful. I can't wait to pick up the second book in the series.
paladinboy's review against another edition
3.0
The blurb for this book made me giddy with promise of Ether-pirates, Gear-based AI and an intelligent, competent female protagonist I was psyched. Unfortunately, in order to maintain its trope-y goodness it dodged the "women are the weaker sex" trope with the traditional "girl as boy" trope. Unfortunately I found her reveal as girl very traumatic. Combine that with some very sketchy and occasionally non-sensical ether space physics and I can only give this book a 3 out of 5
gmrickel's review against another edition
2.0
2 stars feels generous. Plenty of racist slangs throughout the book, "due to colonial setting." I had hope at the beginning that the main character would address them (she even started to), but eventually she cowers to "British sensibilities" (white fragility). When her gender is revealed she loses the respect of those around her. Why not have the other characters realize that gender isn't tied to ability? Ugh! Also, there are only heterosexual people in this book. Not just as a default, but it is specifically brought to our attention when the main character chides herself on mooning over the captain when "no man would." The idea for the book was cool, but that is about it. I contemplated not finishing the book several times, but as I had originally thought it would make a good Vaginal Fantasy club pick I felt obligated to finish it and record my thoughts. Almost forgot- the romance. What romance?! Terribly done! Would have been better had the book just been about a sister saving her brother. No need to force a romance! Maybe I need to change my rating to 1 star.
melbsreads's review against another edition
4.0
Trigger warnings: death of a parent, explosions, war, violence. I think that's all?
3.5 stars.
So here's the thing: everything about this book is up my alley. It's steampunk. With space travel. About a badass teenage girl who disguises herself as a boy and gets a job on a ship bound for Mars to try and save her brother from her douchey cousin. With kind of Hornblower-y feelings about it. Uh, Y.E.S.
And for the most part, I really enjoyed it. Certainly, the beginning and the end were action packed and exciting. However, the middle chunk of the book - everything that happens on the ship - was...slow. I mean, it was still interesting. But it was slow.
My main problem with this, however, was the worldbuilding. Basically, we're told in the blurb that ever since Isaac Newton witnessed bubbles floating up from his bath, mankind has been travelling in space. But that's literally the only place the origins of space travel are mentioned. So we're just thrown into this world where there are ships flying off to Mars and Venus and the Moon all the time, and apparently people can breathe in space and there are asteroids with trees and animals on them. But there's no real explanation about how all of this came to be.
I'm also not QUITE sure who the intended audience is for this book. Levine has said in the questions section about this book that he wrote it as YA but that Tor chose to publish it as an adult book. And in a lot of ways, it kind of feels like both? There's nothing in it that would STOP it from being YA (with the exception of a romantic relationship that pops up right at the very end between a teenager and a grown ass adult, and even then, it's fine by Regency standards, so...?).
But I think this would also be a pretty hard sell with a lot of teenagers. I can think of...maybe 3 kids out of the 300 I take who would be happy to pick this up, and two of them are exclusively SFF readers and will read pretty much anything you throw at them from within SFF.
So yeah. I enjoyed it enough to read the second book. And I'm actually tempted to get a copy of it for work, because kids are way more willing to read historical fiction if there are SFF elements in it. But for me, I wanted way more worldbuilding than I got.
3.5 stars.
So here's the thing: everything about this book is up my alley. It's steampunk. With space travel. About a badass teenage girl who disguises herself as a boy and gets a job on a ship bound for Mars to try and save her brother from her douchey cousin. With kind of Hornblower-y feelings about it. Uh, Y.E.S.
And for the most part, I really enjoyed it. Certainly, the beginning and the end were action packed and exciting. However, the middle chunk of the book - everything that happens on the ship - was...slow. I mean, it was still interesting. But it was slow.
My main problem with this, however, was the worldbuilding. Basically, we're told in the blurb that ever since Isaac Newton witnessed bubbles floating up from his bath, mankind has been travelling in space. But that's literally the only place the origins of space travel are mentioned. So we're just thrown into this world where there are ships flying off to Mars and Venus and the Moon all the time, and apparently people can breathe in space and there are asteroids with trees and animals on them. But there's no real explanation about how all of this came to be.
I'm also not QUITE sure who the intended audience is for this book. Levine has said in the questions section about this book that he wrote it as YA but that Tor chose to publish it as an adult book. And in a lot of ways, it kind of feels like both? There's nothing in it that would STOP it from being YA (with the exception of a romantic relationship that pops up right at the very end between a teenager and a grown ass adult, and even then, it's fine by Regency standards, so...?).
But I think this would also be a pretty hard sell with a lot of teenagers. I can think of...maybe 3 kids out of the 300 I take who would be happy to pick this up, and two of them are exclusively SFF readers and will read pretty much anything you throw at them from within SFF.
So yeah. I enjoyed it enough to read the second book. And I'm actually tempted to get a copy of it for work, because kids are way more willing to read historical fiction if there are SFF elements in it. But for me, I wanted way more worldbuilding than I got.
melanin_eclectic's review against another edition
3.0
It missed the mark of being 5 stars because there was a LOT of drawn on scenes with too much imagery to where i found myself getting bored with the entire book.
sallyepp's review against another edition
4.0
It's space pirates plus Jane Austen. Of course I liked it.
crownoflaurel's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this, but I do feel that there were a few scenes or conversations that were missing? Like, . The book overall moved a little too fast, and then ended a bit abruptly. But definitely looking forward to the second in the series.
Spoiler
I missed how the captain knew of her family's plantation, when they basically weren't speakinglourdes_chapters_we_love's review against another edition
4.0
Why didn't I pick this sooner.
Review to follow
Review to follow
shays's review against another edition
3.0
Mary Jo Putney’s blurb on the back of the book describes this novel as the “delicious love child of Jane Austen, Patrick O’Brian, and Jules Verne.” The first comparison is perhaps the biggest stretch. The book is set during the Regency period, and an entailed estate does feature prominently in the plot, but in tone and action, there is really no similarity. But the action is reminiscent of Verne, and Levine credits the inspiration for the airship aspects of the novel to O’Brian’s books, and a great deal of attention is lavished on the sailing and navigation parts of the tale. read more
colossal's review against another edition
4.0
A clever mash-up of a Regency England period piece with the sort of solar system imagined by early writers in SF. We get sailing ships in space plying the trade routes between Earth and Mars during the Napoleonic Wars along with a Mars with Martian natives and canals. (Also a Venus with swamps and jungles and lizardmen, but unseen here). And all of this with our viewpoint character, the wonderfully capable Arabella, raised on Mars where the native women are warriors and chafing under the restrictions on women in Regency society.
Arabella is a 17-year old girl raised on her family's wood plantation. She and her brother Michael have been undergoing training under their Martian nanny which goes far beyond the sort of activity expected of a young Englishwoman. This raises the ire of her mother who packs Arabella and her sisters back to Earth and away from Arabella's beloved father and his passion for automata that Arabella shares.
When a plot to steal her family's wealth comes to light Arabella needs to get to Mars in a hurry and so she takes employment in male disguise on a merchantman traveling there. What follows could be lifted from any set of sea adventure novels set during the Napoleonic Wars but with the added twists of her hidden gender and the ships-in-space thing.
I enjoyed this mashup with each part of the book being enjoyable separately. Arabella's Martian life, her banishment to England and flight away from her cousins, to the time on the Diana and her return to Mars. There are elements of how the English treat the Martians that gloss over aspects of colonialism however. This is deftly sidestepped by having Arabella being familiar with the Martian culture and apparently free from prejudice, but prejudice is everywhere in Regency society, so it's difficult to avoid and this book doesn't really criticize the status quo at all. There's also a low-key romance going on here, and I'm intrigued how that will play out in the ongoing story. It's hard to see how Arabella can function as she wishes when even her relatively enlightened love interest acts quite patriarchal at times.
Arabella is a 17-year old girl raised on her family's wood plantation. She and her brother Michael have been undergoing training under their Martian nanny which goes far beyond the sort of activity expected of a young Englishwoman. This raises the ire of her mother who packs Arabella and her sisters back to Earth and away from Arabella's beloved father and his passion for automata that Arabella shares.
When a plot to steal her family's wealth comes to light Arabella needs to get to Mars in a hurry and so she takes employment in male disguise on a merchantman traveling there. What follows could be lifted from any set of sea adventure novels set during the Napoleonic Wars but with the added twists of her hidden gender and the ships-in-space thing.
I enjoyed this mashup with each part of the book being enjoyable separately. Arabella's Martian life, her banishment to England and flight away from her cousins, to the time on the Diana and her return to Mars. There are elements of how the English treat the Martians that gloss over aspects of colonialism however. This is deftly sidestepped by having Arabella being familiar with the Martian culture and apparently free from prejudice, but prejudice is everywhere in Regency society, so it's difficult to avoid and this book doesn't really criticize the status quo at all. There's also a low-key romance going on here, and I'm intrigued how that will play out in the ongoing story. It's hard to see how Arabella can function as she wishes when even her relatively enlightened love interest acts quite patriarchal at times.