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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.
wordfey's review against another edition
5.0
For context, I wrote a thesis on transvestism in the British navy, both the actual practice and the stories and songs of it. I could see that Levine did his research well in that arena, both in reality and in story, as some of the events fall very much within this old genre, with necessary changes in favor of more agency on the part of the heroine. The strongest part of the novel is, oddly enough, the middle, where the passage to Mars takes on the detail and fun of a naval adventure. There were a number of characters who became real with just a few well-placed lines, and there were places where I could visualize the Diana clearly, no small feat of description for such a complex flying machine. The colonialist issues of Arabella's society, including Arabella's own inevitable prejudices, I hope will be explored in more depth in Arabella and the Battle of Venus. In any case, enjoy! This book is decidedly fun.
bookash's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very good tale and I am looking forward to the next in the series. Arabella Ashby has to make it from Earth to Mars in order to save her brother from an unscrupulous cousin. To get there, she dresses as a boy and manages to become a Captain's Boy on a ship bound for Mars. I love the entire premise of a ship sailing in the air. Levine manages to make his descriptions well enough to understand what he is saying, but vague enough to be able to let your imagination fill in the blanks. I also love that this is not a love story. There is a love aspect, but it is so subtle that it doesn't interfere in the quest at all. Arabella is a great character and I can't wait for more from her world.
messytessie's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0