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kellswitch 's review for:
Arabella of Mars
by David D. Levine
Take what you know of the science of outer space and forget it while you read this book. This is an alternate history set during the Regency era where space travel is possible and Mars has been colonized. Once you find yourself accepting this premise you are in for a rollicking fun ride.
This book is a fun, fun throwback to the adventure stories of old where teenage girls have to pretend to be boys to have adventures and save their families from ruin.
Considering this is a throwback to the old adventure stories, the plot does feel a bit contrived at times, the ending especially and yet it works quite well and I feel trying to tell a more “realistic” story under these circumstances would have unraveled the whole thing.
The characters are on a whole engaging, Arabella herself is a classic plucky heroine who I found easy to identify with and care about, and the ships crew felt...mostly fleshed out, at least the ones we were meant like and care about and the villains were properly villainous and despicable.
I did have a few concerns with the native Mars culture that was introduced but this also felt somewhat appropriate with the style of old school adventure stories, and we didn't get that much time to really explore them so it's possible future stories will balance out my concerns.
This was a fun book to read and I am looking forward to more in this series and more by this author.
This book is a fun, fun throwback to the adventure stories of old where teenage girls have to pretend to be boys to have adventures and save their families from ruin.
Considering this is a throwback to the old adventure stories, the plot does feel a bit contrived at times, the ending especially and yet it works quite well and I feel trying to tell a more “realistic” story under these circumstances would have unraveled the whole thing.
The characters are on a whole engaging, Arabella herself is a classic plucky heroine who I found easy to identify with and care about, and the ships crew felt...mostly fleshed out, at least the ones we were meant like and care about and the villains were properly villainous and despicable.
I did have a few concerns with the native Mars culture that was introduced but this also felt somewhat appropriate with the style of old school adventure stories, and we didn't get that much time to really explore them so it's possible future stories will balance out my concerns.
This was a fun book to read and I am looking forward to more in this series and more by this author.