The Constellation of Sylvie

The Sylvie Cycle #3

by Roderick Townley

In an attempt to save the astronauts from certain death after they missed their reentry to Earth while on a return mission from Jupiter, Princess Sylvie and her friends must collect a solution from one of Jupiter's moons, melt it, and give the crew the oxygen so they can stay alive long enough to find their way back home.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Roderick Townley is an American author of juvenile, young adult, and adult books, including books of poetry, nonfiction, and literary criticism. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and was for many years a poet and fiction writer, and for a time lived in New York City and wrote for TV Guide, The Village Voice and other publications. In 2001, he began the Sylvie Cycle, a metafictional series about the spunky, fictional Princess Sylvie who lives her life in a book.

Reviews

[Aneesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about a book that is out of print. I have purchased the entire trilogy for posterity.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a weird (in a good way) little trilogy. The concept from the start of characters in the book being aware of themselves as book characters and having to act out the story every time a Reader opens the physical book, and later the ebook file (volume 2), is somewhat unwieldy - when the book is popular, they're running around with no rest, as though there is only one copy for the whole world - but it's clever, and gives us the lovely metaphor of living "beyond" one's own story.

It worked well in the first book, not so much in the second, but in this third volume we are back to talking about one specific physical copy of the book with one specific set of Readers in the world outside to deal with. The story happening outside the book is one with rather surprisingly adult themes (attempted rape, for one, which is somewhat echoed in the storybook world with Pingree's coercion of Sylvie), but somehow it all works as the book characters manage to use the things they've learned in their previous adventures to save the humans as well as themselves. I'd be very interested to read the whole story-outside-the-story, from the opposite viewpoint.

I'm grateful to my librarian-friend for lending me the series, which I don't think I would have discovered on my own.

Borrowed from MM during isolation.

[Chloe Hey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had confusing-wrinkle-in-time vibes. It made no sense that in the last book the characters perform for all readers at once all over the world, and now they're a single book again? Or just extremely unpopular?

It had adult themes too (sexual harrasment) it also really had a weak plot.

That said I do love Sylvie and Laurel and I enjoyed this book. It just didn't make my brain do push-ups. I prefer a brain-workout when reading

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saved only by the grace of being readable. Otherwise, meh.

[Arwen~Undomiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sad to see this trilogy come to an end. This was a sweet book, and I love the concept of the plot. Roderick also has a great sense of humor that sometimes leaked into his writing.

[Faith Marshall · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Ugh. I have enjoyed the trilogy from the start, so similar to my experience with reading The Count of Monte Cristo, I was moved to tears on the last few pages not for the story, the characters, or the messages but the fact that it was ending. I'd attached myself to the characters, their adventures, and the author's cleverness, and I wasn't ready to let them go.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this story gets more clever as i read it. I love how the book travels and there are different readers.I really enjoyed this book.The series is one of my favorites. I love to dive into these kind of stories.

[Megan Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this one didn't live up to the first two, but still worth reading if you found the first two as delightful as I did. You'll want to know what the characters are up to.

[Time to start reading again · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best of all the books. It was light-hearted yet sad. It was great. The best spaceship-set book I've read.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea! Enlarges the kids brain with scifi fantasy. Not the best quality writing, but fun.

[Claire Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a charming story! Originally started reading it to review the book for one of my guided reading groups, but then realized I actually enjoyed it as something I would read on my own!