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A review by kitsuneheart
Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
5.0
I was nervous when I first saw that the Girl Genius comic was being adapted to book. While the Foglios are amazing comic writers and artists, there was the risk that their skills wouldn't work well as pure text. I was so, so wrong in my fears, because this book has been amazing and this is the third time I've listened to the audiobook. And each time is just a riot.
This is a master work of the steampunk genre. The world is so vibrant, and there's not only so much detail and well-thought-through explanation (never a "as you know" type of moment) and so many briefly mentioned but never explained things about the world at large. There's references made to different power structures in France and England, which become important later in the series, but here are just asides in the conversation. Even if you don't read the comics, you'll do fine in reading this book. The Foglios explain everything quite well, and, in fact, since it's pure prose, sometimes better than in the comics.
I think the thing I like most is that there's never a "not like other girls" moment. The Spark doesn't discriminate by sex, so no one is surprised when female Sparks like Agatha begin building a death ray. They're often referred to as "Mad Boys" in the book, but that's more the grammatical thing of multi-gender groups defaulting to male. There is a little casual sexism to the world, but it never becomes necessary to bad-mouth other women's abilities in order to make Agatha seem more interesting.
So, if you get a chance, I recommend the audiobook most of all, but the book itself is still great. Do it.
This is a master work of the steampunk genre. The world is so vibrant, and there's not only so much detail and well-thought-through explanation (never a "as you know" type of moment) and so many briefly mentioned but never explained things about the world at large. There's references made to different power structures in France and England, which become important later in the series, but here are just asides in the conversation. Even if you don't read the comics, you'll do fine in reading this book. The Foglios explain everything quite well, and, in fact, since it's pure prose, sometimes better than in the comics.
I think the thing I like most is that there's never a "not like other girls" moment. The Spark doesn't discriminate by sex, so no one is surprised when female Sparks like Agatha begin building a death ray. They're often referred to as "Mad Boys" in the book, but that's more the grammatical thing of multi-gender groups defaulting to male. There is a little casual sexism to the world, but it never becomes necessary to bad-mouth other women's abilities in order to make Agatha seem more interesting.
So, if you get a chance, I recommend the audiobook most of all, but the book itself is still great. Do it.