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Adventures of Arabella Ashby #1
Arabella of Mars
Ever since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, they proved that space travel was both possible and profitable.
Now, one century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby. A tomboy who shares her father's deft hand with complex automatons. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, Arabella is more a wild child than a proper young lady. Something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.
Arabella soon finds herself trying to navigate an alien world until a dramatic change in her family's circumstances forces her to defy all conventions in order to return to Mars in order to save both her brother and the plantation. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company with a mysterious Indian captain who is intrigued by her knack with automatons. Arabella must weather the naval war between Britain and France, learning how to sail, and a mutinous crew if she hopes to save her brother from certain death.
Now, one century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby. A tomboy who shares her father's deft hand with complex automatons. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, Arabella is more a wild child than a proper young lady. Something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.
Arabella soon finds herself trying to navigate an alien world until a dramatic change in her family's circumstances forces her to defy all conventions in order to return to Mars in order to save both her brother and the plantation. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company with a mysterious Indian captain who is intrigued by her knack with automatons. Arabella must weather the naval war between Britain and France, learning how to sail, and a mutinous crew if she hopes to save her brother from certain death.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 12, 2016
100 people are currently reading
5247 people want to read
About the author
David D. Levine
116 books181 followersDavid D. Levine is the author of novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016) and over fifty SF and fantasy stories. His story "Tk'Tk'Tk" won the Hugo Award, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, and five Year's Best anthologies as well as award-winning collection Space Magic from Wheatland Press.
David is a contributor to George R. R. Martin's bestselling shared-world series Wild Cards. He is also a member of publishing cooperative Book View Cafe and of nonprofit organization Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Inc. He has narrated podcasts for Escape Pod, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa, and his video "Dr. Talon's Letter to the Editor" was a finalist for the Parsec Award. In 2010 he spent two weeks at a simulated Mars base in the Utah desert.
David lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Kate Yule. His web site is www.daviddlevine.com.
David is a contributor to George R. R. Martin's bestselling shared-world series Wild Cards. He is also a member of publishing cooperative Book View Cafe and of nonprofit organization Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Inc. He has narrated podcasts for Escape Pod, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa, and his video "Dr. Talon's Letter to the Editor" was a finalist for the Parsec Award. In 2010 he spent two weeks at a simulated Mars base in the Utah desert.
David lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Kate Yule. His web site is www.daviddlevine.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 568 reviews
December 16, 2017
3.5ish stars.
This is a very fun YA steampunk that intelligently circumvents some of the most annoying tropes of YA in a way that makes it feel appropriate for both younger young adults as well as non-young-adult adults. :)
In a clever alternate 1800s history when space travel takes place in airships that sail between planets there lives a respectable, intrepid heroine named Arabella, born to English parents on Mars. We get to follow the story across several settings including the Red Planet, England and an airship journeying from one to the other.
The story itself is pretty streamlined and basic and even though the page count isn't particularly high, I feel like it still could have been trimmed a bit, especially in the middle third on the airship. There's a convenient, not-quite-believable romance as well as a somewhat romanticized representation of the time period and some of its historical unpleasantness. But overall Arabella herself is a great character and the world in which she lives is interesting enough to make me want to keep reading.
This is a very fun YA steampunk that intelligently circumvents some of the most annoying tropes of YA in a way that makes it feel appropriate for both younger young adults as well as non-young-adult adults. :)
In a clever alternate 1800s history when space travel takes place in airships that sail between planets there lives a respectable, intrepid heroine named Arabella, born to English parents on Mars. We get to follow the story across several settings including the Red Planet, England and an airship journeying from one to the other.
The story itself is pretty streamlined and basic and even though the page count isn't particularly high, I feel like it still could have been trimmed a bit, especially in the middle third on the airship. There's a convenient, not-quite-believable romance as well as a somewhat romanticized representation of the time period and some of its historical unpleasantness. But overall Arabella herself is a great character and the world in which she lives is interesting enough to make me want to keep reading.
June 19, 2017
Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
What if Isaac Newton, instead of watching an apple fall from a tree and being inspired to develop a new theory of gravity, had observed a bubble rising from his bathtub and begun to meditate on space travel? Well, in the world of Arabella of Mars, a delightful and unique blend of a Regency-era nautical adventure and the pioneering science fiction of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs, it resulted in Captain Kidd commanding the first voyage to Mars in the late 1600s. A little over a hundred years later, in the year 1812, there are plantations on Mars that grow valuable khoresh wood, watched over by their British masters, with the assistance of Martian servants, who have a vaguely crablike appearance, as well as multiple languages and a culture that most humans fail to appreciate.
Arabella is a sixteen year old tomboy, raised on Mars with the help of a Martian nanny, Khema. Her pleasant life there is brought to an abrupt end when she gets a head injury in a rowdy game of Hound and Hare with her older brother Michael. Worse yet, her parents catch her wearing pants while she’s getting her head stitched up afterwards. Arabella’s appalled mother, who is set on her daughter becoming a genteel young lady, drags Arabella and her two younger sisters back to Earth. Over the next several months, Arabella unhappily deals with the physical burden of Earth’s heavier gravity as well as with the stifling Regency expectations of proper ladylike behavior. Secretly exploring and fixing the internal workings of her father’s automaton, a mechanical harpsichord player run by intricate clockwork, is her only outlet, a way to feel closer to her far-distant father.
When Arabella’s father suddenly dies back on Mars, Arabella finds out that her brother Michael, who stayed on Mars with their father, is in grave danger from a source he won’t expect. Arabella unearths the intrepid and adventurous side of her character, which has been buried for so many months: she disguises herself as a boy in order to get a job on a ship heading to Mars, so she can warn her brother and help protect him. Arabella’s talent with automata unexpectedly helps her to land a job on a Mars Company ship, captained by the intelligent, handsome Captain Prakash Singh. Arabella has a difficult time adjusting to the rigorous physical demands of being the most junior member of the ship’s crew, but that’s only the beginning of her adventures in space, where all the classic perils of sea travel reappear with an interplanetary twist.
In a whimsical throwback to the Jules Verne era of scientific romances, not only do spaceships in this universe look like old-time sailing ships, but space is essentially like one big ocean, with asteroids as islands. What’s more, the air in space is breathable, if a little cold, and asteroids have trees growing on them. It takes some getting used to. As the ship Diana took off from Earth and rose higher and higher, I kept expecting that moment when Arabella and the other sailors would encase the ship in a bubble of air, or put on space suits. It never happened. It’s surreal, but rather a breath of fresh air ― as is Arabella herself.
Spirited and resourceful, Arabella is nevertheless grounded in her time. Raised by a Martian nanny, and impressed by the intrepid Captain Singh, she is admirably colorblind, in contrast to the racist and xenophobic attitudes of many of the other characters, but she needs to work to overcome a tendency to exhibit a superior attitude toward others who aren’t aware of things that Arabella takes for granted. Life among the crew of the Diana, painfully learning new skills that the other sailors do easily, helps Arabella to become a more mature and thoughtful person.
Arabella of Mars makes many sly references to colonial Great Britain, including the Mars Company of space ships, the British navy’s treatment of its sailors, French piracy in the skies, and native uprisings. It’s amusing that the book’s title calls to mind both Georgette Heyer’s classic Regency novel Arabella as well as the titles of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels, like Thuvia, Maid of Mars. In fact, Mars is here the literary equivalent of colonial India, with the Martians in the role of the native people who are treated, at best, rather dismissively by most of the British colonists on their planet. David D. Levine weaves in some serious issues like the historical role of women, colonialism, racism and entailment of estates, but it never becomes too heavy for this adventure tale. The detailed descriptions of life aboard ship and the duties of sailors, based to a large extent on nautical practices during the Napoleonic Wars, do occasionally bog down the story slightly, but the overall pace is brisk and imbued with a fresh sense of adventure and discovery.
Arabella of Mars is a debut novel by Levine, a Hugo award-winning author of speculative short fiction. Two sequels have been promised by Levine, but Arabella is also very satisfactory as a stand-alone read. It’s an enchanting novel for young and young-at-heart readers who will enjoy a retro-flavored science fiction read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review. Thank you!
What if Isaac Newton, instead of watching an apple fall from a tree and being inspired to develop a new theory of gravity, had observed a bubble rising from his bathtub and begun to meditate on space travel? Well, in the world of Arabella of Mars, a delightful and unique blend of a Regency-era nautical adventure and the pioneering science fiction of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs, it resulted in Captain Kidd commanding the first voyage to Mars in the late 1600s. A little over a hundred years later, in the year 1812, there are plantations on Mars that grow valuable khoresh wood, watched over by their British masters, with the assistance of Martian servants, who have a vaguely crablike appearance, as well as multiple languages and a culture that most humans fail to appreciate.
Arabella is a sixteen year old tomboy, raised on Mars with the help of a Martian nanny, Khema. Her pleasant life there is brought to an abrupt end when she gets a head injury in a rowdy game of Hound and Hare with her older brother Michael. Worse yet, her parents catch her wearing pants while she’s getting her head stitched up afterwards. Arabella’s appalled mother, who is set on her daughter becoming a genteel young lady, drags Arabella and her two younger sisters back to Earth. Over the next several months, Arabella unhappily deals with the physical burden of Earth’s heavier gravity as well as with the stifling Regency expectations of proper ladylike behavior. Secretly exploring and fixing the internal workings of her father’s automaton, a mechanical harpsichord player run by intricate clockwork, is her only outlet, a way to feel closer to her far-distant father.
When Arabella’s father suddenly dies back on Mars, Arabella finds out that her brother Michael, who stayed on Mars with their father, is in grave danger from a source he won’t expect. Arabella unearths the intrepid and adventurous side of her character, which has been buried for so many months: she disguises herself as a boy in order to get a job on a ship heading to Mars, so she can warn her brother and help protect him. Arabella’s talent with automata unexpectedly helps her to land a job on a Mars Company ship, captained by the intelligent, handsome Captain Prakash Singh. Arabella has a difficult time adjusting to the rigorous physical demands of being the most junior member of the ship’s crew, but that’s only the beginning of her adventures in space, where all the classic perils of sea travel reappear with an interplanetary twist.
In a whimsical throwback to the Jules Verne era of scientific romances, not only do spaceships in this universe look like old-time sailing ships, but space is essentially like one big ocean, with asteroids as islands. What’s more, the air in space is breathable, if a little cold, and asteroids have trees growing on them. It takes some getting used to. As the ship Diana took off from Earth and rose higher and higher, I kept expecting that moment when Arabella and the other sailors would encase the ship in a bubble of air, or put on space suits. It never happened. It’s surreal, but rather a breath of fresh air ― as is Arabella herself.
Spirited and resourceful, Arabella is nevertheless grounded in her time. Raised by a Martian nanny, and impressed by the intrepid Captain Singh, she is admirably colorblind, in contrast to the racist and xenophobic attitudes of many of the other characters, but she needs to work to overcome a tendency to exhibit a superior attitude toward others who aren’t aware of things that Arabella takes for granted. Life among the crew of the Diana, painfully learning new skills that the other sailors do easily, helps Arabella to become a more mature and thoughtful person.
Arabella of Mars makes many sly references to colonial Great Britain, including the Mars Company of space ships, the British navy’s treatment of its sailors, French piracy in the skies, and native uprisings. It’s amusing that the book’s title calls to mind both Georgette Heyer’s classic Regency novel Arabella as well as the titles of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels, like Thuvia, Maid of Mars. In fact, Mars is here the literary equivalent of colonial India, with the Martians in the role of the native people who are treated, at best, rather dismissively by most of the British colonists on their planet. David D. Levine weaves in some serious issues like the historical role of women, colonialism, racism and entailment of estates, but it never becomes too heavy for this adventure tale. The detailed descriptions of life aboard ship and the duties of sailors, based to a large extent on nautical practices during the Napoleonic Wars, do occasionally bog down the story slightly, but the overall pace is brisk and imbued with a fresh sense of adventure and discovery.
Arabella of Mars is a debut novel by Levine, a Hugo award-winning author of speculative short fiction. Two sequels have been promised by Levine, but Arabella is also very satisfactory as a stand-alone read. It’s an enchanting novel for young and young-at-heart readers who will enjoy a retro-flavored science fiction read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review. Thank you!
September 16, 2016
4.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2016/09/16/...
Meet Arabella Ashby of Mars. The year is 1812 and already humans have been capable of space travel for centuries, thanks to the advances in automata and airship technology made in the 1600s. Our titular heroine is Martian-born and Martian-bred, having been raised on her family’s frontier colonial plantation until the year she turned sixteen, when her mother deemed the red planet too unsuitable for the enrichment of proper young ladies. After saying goodbye to her father, her older brother Michael, and her childhood home where so many fond memories of her wild adventures have been forged, Arabella is whisked away along with her two younger sisters back to London, England on Earth, a planet as alien to our protagonist as Mars is to most English folk.
Growing up on Mars, Arabella’s Martian nanny Khema taught her how to be strong and independent—important traits to have if one hopes to thrive on the world’s harsh surface. But back in England, she is expected to be meek and gentile, following the myriad incomprehensible rules of etiquette expected from a young woman of high birth. Before she’s had much time to settle though, her family receives terrible news from Mars: Arabella’s father has passed on, leaving the ownership of the plantation to Michael, his only son and heir. However, members of the extended Ashby family have other ideas. Arabella’s cousin, Simon Ashby, has long felt slighted over his side of the family’s lack of inheritance, and sees this as an opportunity to seize what he wants. When Arabella finds out about Simon’s dastardly plans to kill her brother, it is a race to Mars in order to try and stop him.
But while she’s still on Earth, Arabella is just a girl with no resources or power, and her murderous cousin has a pretty big head start. In a desperate gambit, she steals a set of men’s clothing and poses as a boy looking for work on a ship bound for Mars, and that’s how she ends up on the Diana, a merchant airship for the Mars Trading Company captained by the handsome and mysterious Prakash Singh.
Ahem, if someone had told me this was predominantly a girl-disguised-as-a-boy story, I would have read this one much, much sooner! I can’t help it; as common and well-used as it is, I’m always a sucker for this trope. As an added bonus, I happen to love nautical fantasy. While the “sailing” here takes place in space instead of upon the high seas, and the airships might not look exactly like the traditional tall ships of history, one look at that gorgeous cover with the sails and rigging and you can probably tell that the general idea is the same. We may be trading ocean currents for solar winds, but you still have the ship crew, sailing lingo, the everyday activities that take place on a trade ship, and even a heart-stopping encounter with French privateers.
I’ve never read anything by the author before this, but I can see the reason for all his accolades and why his short fiction is so widely praised. David D. Levine is an excellent world-builder, imagining an alternate history where, instead of observing an apple fall to the ground, the great Sir Isaac Newton receives his epiphany after watching a soap bubble in his bath rise to the surface, leading him to form the principle of aerial buoyancy. Thus, humankind was able to develop space travel so quickly. Despite the themes of planetary colonialism and traversing the stars though, there’s also a strong fantastical nature to this novel. In truth, the elements of sci-fi are pretty light, making a lot of the “technology” feel practically indistinguishable from magic. This includes the society’s use of automata and other clockwork machinery, giving Arabella of Mars a strong Regency Era-inspired steampunk flavor.
As for the character of Arabella, it was impossible not to be drawn to her immediately. She’s a free spirit trapped by the strict conventions of the early 1800s, especially those placed upon upper class young women. But her Martian upbringing and her time with Khema had shown her see how things could be different (the Martians are a heavily carapaced race of aliens with eye stalks, and it is their larger, more powerful females who are the warriors and leaders) and so she has a much different outlook than her mother and her peers. Although this gives Arabella a “special snowflake” vibe at times (not to mention her knack with fixing automata which surpasses the abilities of even the most experienced adults) it was very easy to feel a connection to her character, and to cheer for her every step of the way on her quest to save her brother.
There are a few other nitpicks, but they are mostly minor. The plot was fast-paced but felt a little “forced” and too convenient, considering everything that could go wrong does go wrong, and at times it got very predictable. The romance between Arabella and Captain Singh also came on a bit too suddenly for me at the end there, especially since the latter spent more than half the book believing the former to be nothing more than his cabin boy. But since this novel appears to be designed for crossover YA and adult appeal, I didn’t mind these stylistic choices too much.
All in all, I loved Arabella of Mars and I couldn’t have asked for a more fun and exciting genre-bending tale. With its intriguing mix of steampunk, fantasy, science fiction and alternate history, readers of every persuasion will likely find something for them in this wonderful, action-packed coming-of-age adventure.
Meet Arabella Ashby of Mars. The year is 1812 and already humans have been capable of space travel for centuries, thanks to the advances in automata and airship technology made in the 1600s. Our titular heroine is Martian-born and Martian-bred, having been raised on her family’s frontier colonial plantation until the year she turned sixteen, when her mother deemed the red planet too unsuitable for the enrichment of proper young ladies. After saying goodbye to her father, her older brother Michael, and her childhood home where so many fond memories of her wild adventures have been forged, Arabella is whisked away along with her two younger sisters back to London, England on Earth, a planet as alien to our protagonist as Mars is to most English folk.
Growing up on Mars, Arabella’s Martian nanny Khema taught her how to be strong and independent—important traits to have if one hopes to thrive on the world’s harsh surface. But back in England, she is expected to be meek and gentile, following the myriad incomprehensible rules of etiquette expected from a young woman of high birth. Before she’s had much time to settle though, her family receives terrible news from Mars: Arabella’s father has passed on, leaving the ownership of the plantation to Michael, his only son and heir. However, members of the extended Ashby family have other ideas. Arabella’s cousin, Simon Ashby, has long felt slighted over his side of the family’s lack of inheritance, and sees this as an opportunity to seize what he wants. When Arabella finds out about Simon’s dastardly plans to kill her brother, it is a race to Mars in order to try and stop him.
But while she’s still on Earth, Arabella is just a girl with no resources or power, and her murderous cousin has a pretty big head start. In a desperate gambit, she steals a set of men’s clothing and poses as a boy looking for work on a ship bound for Mars, and that’s how she ends up on the Diana, a merchant airship for the Mars Trading Company captained by the handsome and mysterious Prakash Singh.
Ahem, if someone had told me this was predominantly a girl-disguised-as-a-boy story, I would have read this one much, much sooner! I can’t help it; as common and well-used as it is, I’m always a sucker for this trope. As an added bonus, I happen to love nautical fantasy. While the “sailing” here takes place in space instead of upon the high seas, and the airships might not look exactly like the traditional tall ships of history, one look at that gorgeous cover with the sails and rigging and you can probably tell that the general idea is the same. We may be trading ocean currents for solar winds, but you still have the ship crew, sailing lingo, the everyday activities that take place on a trade ship, and even a heart-stopping encounter with French privateers.
I’ve never read anything by the author before this, but I can see the reason for all his accolades and why his short fiction is so widely praised. David D. Levine is an excellent world-builder, imagining an alternate history where, instead of observing an apple fall to the ground, the great Sir Isaac Newton receives his epiphany after watching a soap bubble in his bath rise to the surface, leading him to form the principle of aerial buoyancy. Thus, humankind was able to develop space travel so quickly. Despite the themes of planetary colonialism and traversing the stars though, there’s also a strong fantastical nature to this novel. In truth, the elements of sci-fi are pretty light, making a lot of the “technology” feel practically indistinguishable from magic. This includes the society’s use of automata and other clockwork machinery, giving Arabella of Mars a strong Regency Era-inspired steampunk flavor.
As for the character of Arabella, it was impossible not to be drawn to her immediately. She’s a free spirit trapped by the strict conventions of the early 1800s, especially those placed upon upper class young women. But her Martian upbringing and her time with Khema had shown her see how things could be different (the Martians are a heavily carapaced race of aliens with eye stalks, and it is their larger, more powerful females who are the warriors and leaders) and so she has a much different outlook than her mother and her peers. Although this gives Arabella a “special snowflake” vibe at times (not to mention her knack with fixing automata which surpasses the abilities of even the most experienced adults) it was very easy to feel a connection to her character, and to cheer for her every step of the way on her quest to save her brother.
There are a few other nitpicks, but they are mostly minor. The plot was fast-paced but felt a little “forced” and too convenient, considering everything that could go wrong does go wrong, and at times it got very predictable. The romance between Arabella and Captain Singh also came on a bit too suddenly for me at the end there, especially since the latter spent more than half the book believing the former to be nothing more than his cabin boy. But since this novel appears to be designed for crossover YA and adult appeal, I didn’t mind these stylistic choices too much.
All in all, I loved Arabella of Mars and I couldn’t have asked for a more fun and exciting genre-bending tale. With its intriguing mix of steampunk, fantasy, science fiction and alternate history, readers of every persuasion will likely find something for them in this wonderful, action-packed coming-of-age adventure.
July 19, 2016
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.
Set on an alternate earth where Isaac Newton discovered the means for man to reach the stars in the late 1600s, Arabella of Mars captures the romantic, optimistic feel of classic science fiction. The environment of 1800s English society adding an elegant veneer to a thoroughly spacefaring journey of self-discovery by our heroine, Arabella Ashby of Mars!
When human’s venture forth into space, Mars is naturally the first planet explored. Mankind discovering that not only is its atmosphere breathable, but it has a native tree vital to future interplanetary travel as well as crab-like denizens who are able to be communicated with and dealt with in the same manner as other indigenous races in the British Empire. This revelation leading to the settlement of the Red Planet: colonies, plantations, and businesses springing up around its surface. Assuredly, the brave colonists who settle this new world are still English men and women, but they are also frontiers people, of a sort, who find themselves slowly changing and adapting to their new environment: physiologically and socially; their years upon the fourth planet from the Sun, living side-by-side with the natives, turning them into a new class of Brits.
Arabella is a perfect example of this new citizen of Mars; she is audacious, curious, adventurous, and far more attached to Mars than her true home back on Earth, which means she is thoroughly unlady-like by her mother’s good English standards. The fact that Arabella has also inherited her father’s fondness for science and automatons as well as a desire to adopt the customs of the Martian “natives” results in her mother moving Arabella back to London, England to straighten her out before she is too “wild” for any man to marry.
Fitting into London society in the early 1800s is not easy for our Martian transplant however. Her independent nature, improper manners, and quick wits more problematic than helpful in this new environment. And it is only when tragedy strikes and danger comes to one she loves that Arabella discovers a use for her “undesirable” qualities, as she disguises herself as a man and proves herself on a lengthy journey back to Mars’ familiar climes.
Sometimes I pick up a novel with a lot of expectations. My mind already imagining all the amazing characters, places, and mysteries I’m about to experience. And, generally speaking, few of these highly anticipated, must reads ever live up to my personal hype for them. Thankfully, the reverse is also true. I’ve found that books which I have no preconceived notions about are usually more enjoyable and fun. Arabella of Mars fitting snugly into the latter category.
Now, don’t take that admission to mean that I was expecting bad things from this novel. Rather, I had zero expectations. My opinion a blank book to be filled in. So when David D. Levine delivered an entertaining coming-of-age tale with an intelligent, strong woman as the lead, set in a masterful world with Newtonian Bubble Ships (Or Marsmen, if you prefer), interstellar weather, steampunk-like automatons, and cool Martians, I was happily surprised. All these familiar elements deftly juggled by the author to maximize the entertainment, even if none of them were particularly new. That last statement not a thinly veiled criticism of the narrative, but a statement that sometimes the familiar is refreshing and comforting, allowing one to sit back and just enjoy the time away from the troubles of reality and have fun. Arabella of Mars being that sort of “escapist” vehicle for me.
It all comes down to whether you, my faithful (or casual) reader, might enjoy this novel though. (I mean, that is why you are reading the review, right?) This question always a tough one to answer. One that I nor any other reviewer can truly prophesize with perfect accuracy, because of everyone’s different tastes and differing needs. But since I do not wish to disappoint, I will hazard a guess that anyone who enjoys heroine coming-of-age stories or fans of Victorian-esque science fiction or even YA sci-fi would find a lot to like here. I did, which isn’t always a guarantee of your enjoyment, but it is the only measure I have to base my prediction upon.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.
Set on an alternate earth where Isaac Newton discovered the means for man to reach the stars in the late 1600s, Arabella of Mars captures the romantic, optimistic feel of classic science fiction. The environment of 1800s English society adding an elegant veneer to a thoroughly spacefaring journey of self-discovery by our heroine, Arabella Ashby of Mars!
When human’s venture forth into space, Mars is naturally the first planet explored. Mankind discovering that not only is its atmosphere breathable, but it has a native tree vital to future interplanetary travel as well as crab-like denizens who are able to be communicated with and dealt with in the same manner as other indigenous races in the British Empire. This revelation leading to the settlement of the Red Planet: colonies, plantations, and businesses springing up around its surface. Assuredly, the brave colonists who settle this new world are still English men and women, but they are also frontiers people, of a sort, who find themselves slowly changing and adapting to their new environment: physiologically and socially; their years upon the fourth planet from the Sun, living side-by-side with the natives, turning them into a new class of Brits.
Arabella is a perfect example of this new citizen of Mars; she is audacious, curious, adventurous, and far more attached to Mars than her true home back on Earth, which means she is thoroughly unlady-like by her mother’s good English standards. The fact that Arabella has also inherited her father’s fondness for science and automatons as well as a desire to adopt the customs of the Martian “natives” results in her mother moving Arabella back to London, England to straighten her out before she is too “wild” for any man to marry.
Fitting into London society in the early 1800s is not easy for our Martian transplant however. Her independent nature, improper manners, and quick wits more problematic than helpful in this new environment. And it is only when tragedy strikes and danger comes to one she loves that Arabella discovers a use for her “undesirable” qualities, as she disguises herself as a man and proves herself on a lengthy journey back to Mars’ familiar climes.
Sometimes I pick up a novel with a lot of expectations. My mind already imagining all the amazing characters, places, and mysteries I’m about to experience. And, generally speaking, few of these highly anticipated, must reads ever live up to my personal hype for them. Thankfully, the reverse is also true. I’ve found that books which I have no preconceived notions about are usually more enjoyable and fun. Arabella of Mars fitting snugly into the latter category.
Now, don’t take that admission to mean that I was expecting bad things from this novel. Rather, I had zero expectations. My opinion a blank book to be filled in. So when David D. Levine delivered an entertaining coming-of-age tale with an intelligent, strong woman as the lead, set in a masterful world with Newtonian Bubble Ships (Or Marsmen, if you prefer), interstellar weather, steampunk-like automatons, and cool Martians, I was happily surprised. All these familiar elements deftly juggled by the author to maximize the entertainment, even if none of them were particularly new. That last statement not a thinly veiled criticism of the narrative, but a statement that sometimes the familiar is refreshing and comforting, allowing one to sit back and just enjoy the time away from the troubles of reality and have fun. Arabella of Mars being that sort of “escapist” vehicle for me.
It all comes down to whether you, my faithful (or casual) reader, might enjoy this novel though. (I mean, that is why you are reading the review, right?) This question always a tough one to answer. One that I nor any other reviewer can truly prophesize with perfect accuracy, because of everyone’s different tastes and differing needs. But since I do not wish to disappoint, I will hazard a guess that anyone who enjoys heroine coming-of-age stories or fans of Victorian-esque science fiction or even YA sci-fi would find a lot to like here. I did, which isn’t always a guarantee of your enjoyment, but it is the only measure I have to base my prediction upon.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.
July 2, 2016
Here is my non-spoiler video review:
https://youtu.be/5CSG2vDpWcs
https://youtu.be/5CSG2vDpWcs
Read
July 12, 2016I read this book in draft, and loved it before the professional editors got to it and gave it its extra polish.
Intrepid Arabella spent enough time running about with her Martian friends on Great Britain's Martian colony to feel the constraint of female social expectations when she is shipped off to England to be prepared for the marriage hunt. While staying with her obnoxious aunt and cousins, she overhears something from a one of those cousins to make her believe that her brother--heir to the estate on Mars--is in danger.
What is an intrepid heroine to do?
Why, disguise herself as a boy, join a naval ship and work her way to Mars to warn him!
Clockwork automatons, tall ships, and science fictional trips to Mars blend here in a delightful tale of adventure, heroism, and imagination. Levine does a convincing job here with his ships that sail between planets, creates colorful characters, and never lets the adventure flag, ramping up to a nail-biting conclusion when they get to Mars.
Here, Arabella's childhood experiences prove to be just what a young heroine needs, in this romantic adventure whose tone gives a nod to the old-fashioned tales of Jules Verne. It should also appeal to readers who enjoy Naomi Novik's Temeraire stories and Patrick O'Brian.
Intrepid Arabella spent enough time running about with her Martian friends on Great Britain's Martian colony to feel the constraint of female social expectations when she is shipped off to England to be prepared for the marriage hunt. While staying with her obnoxious aunt and cousins, she overhears something from a one of those cousins to make her believe that her brother--heir to the estate on Mars--is in danger.
What is an intrepid heroine to do?
Why, disguise herself as a boy, join a naval ship and work her way to Mars to warn him!
Clockwork automatons, tall ships, and science fictional trips to Mars blend here in a delightful tale of adventure, heroism, and imagination. Levine does a convincing job here with his ships that sail between planets, creates colorful characters, and never lets the adventure flag, ramping up to a nail-biting conclusion when they get to Mars.
Here, Arabella's childhood experiences prove to be just what a young heroine needs, in this romantic adventure whose tone gives a nod to the old-fashioned tales of Jules Verne. It should also appeal to readers who enjoy Naomi Novik's Temeraire stories and Patrick O'Brian.
June 29, 2016
Read an advance copy and loved it enough to provide the following blurb:
Levine has created a wonderful alternate 19th century, with interplanetary airships, space pirates, automatons, Martians, and a young woman determined to save her family. This book reminded me how much fun reading can be, and makes me want to take an airship to Mars.
Right now.
Levine has created a wonderful alternate 19th century, with interplanetary airships, space pirates, automatons, Martians, and a young woman determined to save her family. This book reminded me how much fun reading can be, and makes me want to take an airship to Mars.
Right now.
March 13, 2017
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.
December 11, 2019
12/11/19 $2.99 for Kindle. If you enjoy Steampunk-y-ish Adventures with plucky heroines and a dash of romance SNAG IT.
Enjoyed every minute of it.
For some reason I'd thought this was a Middle Grade book, but it's not, it's YA. Although it's perfectly appropriate for younger readers who read above their grade level.
And if you enjoy this (like I did), I think you'd also enjoy Airborn.
Enjoyed every minute of it.
For some reason I'd thought this was a Middle Grade book, but it's not, it's YA. Although it's perfectly appropriate for younger readers who read above their grade level.
And if you enjoy this (like I did), I think you'd also enjoy Airborn.
May 4, 2017
cross posted from fox and fiction
I knew two things going into this book: one, that the laws of the universe had been drastically altered to allow for sailing ships to float into space and the atmosphere outside of Earth to be breathable, in the year 1813, and two, that the main character disguises herself to board one of those ships bound for Mars. Despite how fun both of those things sound, this book was a colossal disappointment. While I love the trope of women in history passing as men, among men, unnoticed, there’s always a big chance for disappointment. The reason why this trope has such potential to be wonderful is that there is a precedent for women in the year 1813 who wore men’s clothes: they were lesbians. There’s a history of lesbians who wear men’s clothes that continues to this day. Arabella doesn’t don these clothes with disdain; from the beginning of the novel she prefers clothes to be practical over the frilly dresses her mother and London society expects her to wear. Now of course wearing men’s clothes to sneak amongst the crew of an airship so she can get to Mars does not automatically make Arabella a lesbian. However, Arabella of Mars seems to operate in a universe where no one is anything other than cis-gendered and heterosexual. Arabella spends a lot of time worrying about her crush on the ship’s captain, and how unnatural it is for the boy she is pretending to be to have. It’s hurtful when people decide that your value, your history in a story are unimportant. It’s even more hurtful when people insist your history doesn’t exist. I have difficulty believing that not only are there no couples upon this all male sailing crew (there’s a precedent for this as well, among pirates, mostly, but all sorts of crews of men have been known to host lovers), but that Arabella has no idea that homosexuality even exists. Or even worse, that David Levine believes that in 1813, we didn’t exist. In a universe where one can board a ship and sail for Mars, ignoring the existence of LGBT people is frankly absurd and quite painful.
While that is the most upsetting flaw in this book, there are a number of other things that bothered me. The romance itself was bland and seemed shoehorned in, as if it was developed after the fact to tie the plot up neatly. Captain Singh doesn’t seem to have any character besides that he is a good captain and a polite man, and if I didn’t know Arabella’s feelings, I would have never guessed that there was anything romantic between the two of them. There are too many subplots that detract from the main plot, and too many threads left dangling. The racial tension between some of the crew and their Indian captain, and the plantation life that Arabella lives on Mars, even though they employ Martians, is very uncomfortable, especially when the fact that the author is a white man is taken into consideration.
In the original interview with the author I read before reading this book, Levine stated that he made the protagonist of his story a woman because women face more challenges to overcome, making them more interesting characters. I agreed and was interested in reading Arabella of Mars based on that. But Levine seems to still misunderstand women. The point of a woman disguising herself as a man among men is not to make the women in question powerful; it’s to show that upon the reveal of her true gender that she has always been powerful— that women are inherently just as powerful and capable as men. But Arabella, upon her own reveal, releases all power she had held as a man, and doesn’t fight to get any of it back. She is frustrated at this and spends the rest of the voyage feeling useless and angry at the men who treat her differently now, and wearing an uncomfortable frilly dress found for her in the cargo of the ship— she even dons a pair of ladylike slippers, even though she boarded the shop wearing women’s boots, hoping they passed unnoticed among the men (which I assume they must have, because she passed unnoticed among men). What happened to her boots and why are they suddenly unacceptable? Presumably the same thing that happened to Arabella’s mantle of masculinity. It got in the way of the romance and had to be given up. Is it realistic that Arabella would defer to men once her gender is revealed, that she would let herself be viewed as weak in order to win the heart of the man she desires? Sure. But fiction isn’t restrained by the requirements of reality. Arabella should be allowed to wear pants and work aboard the ship and get the guy— or even more preferably, the girl. What starts out as a promising and fun novel, Arabella of Mars is ultimately frustrating and a disappointment. If you’re looking for fun novels where women defy gender norms, try Vermilion by Molly Tanzer, or even better, my favorite lesbian novel, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear.
I knew two things going into this book: one, that the laws of the universe had been drastically altered to allow for sailing ships to float into space and the atmosphere outside of Earth to be breathable, in the year 1813, and two, that the main character disguises herself to board one of those ships bound for Mars. Despite how fun both of those things sound, this book was a colossal disappointment. While I love the trope of women in history passing as men, among men, unnoticed, there’s always a big chance for disappointment. The reason why this trope has such potential to be wonderful is that there is a precedent for women in the year 1813 who wore men’s clothes: they were lesbians. There’s a history of lesbians who wear men’s clothes that continues to this day. Arabella doesn’t don these clothes with disdain; from the beginning of the novel she prefers clothes to be practical over the frilly dresses her mother and London society expects her to wear. Now of course wearing men’s clothes to sneak amongst the crew of an airship so she can get to Mars does not automatically make Arabella a lesbian. However, Arabella of Mars seems to operate in a universe where no one is anything other than cis-gendered and heterosexual. Arabella spends a lot of time worrying about her crush on the ship’s captain, and how unnatural it is for the boy she is pretending to be to have. It’s hurtful when people decide that your value, your history in a story are unimportant. It’s even more hurtful when people insist your history doesn’t exist. I have difficulty believing that not only are there no couples upon this all male sailing crew (there’s a precedent for this as well, among pirates, mostly, but all sorts of crews of men have been known to host lovers), but that Arabella has no idea that homosexuality even exists. Or even worse, that David Levine believes that in 1813, we didn’t exist. In a universe where one can board a ship and sail for Mars, ignoring the existence of LGBT people is frankly absurd and quite painful.
While that is the most upsetting flaw in this book, there are a number of other things that bothered me. The romance itself was bland and seemed shoehorned in, as if it was developed after the fact to tie the plot up neatly. Captain Singh doesn’t seem to have any character besides that he is a good captain and a polite man, and if I didn’t know Arabella’s feelings, I would have never guessed that there was anything romantic between the two of them. There are too many subplots that detract from the main plot, and too many threads left dangling. The racial tension between some of the crew and their Indian captain, and the plantation life that Arabella lives on Mars, even though they employ Martians, is very uncomfortable, especially when the fact that the author is a white man is taken into consideration.
In the original interview with the author I read before reading this book, Levine stated that he made the protagonist of his story a woman because women face more challenges to overcome, making them more interesting characters. I agreed and was interested in reading Arabella of Mars based on that. But Levine seems to still misunderstand women. The point of a woman disguising herself as a man among men is not to make the women in question powerful; it’s to show that upon the reveal of her true gender that she has always been powerful— that women are inherently just as powerful and capable as men. But Arabella, upon her own reveal, releases all power she had held as a man, and doesn’t fight to get any of it back. She is frustrated at this and spends the rest of the voyage feeling useless and angry at the men who treat her differently now, and wearing an uncomfortable frilly dress found for her in the cargo of the ship— she even dons a pair of ladylike slippers, even though she boarded the shop wearing women’s boots, hoping they passed unnoticed among the men (which I assume they must have, because she passed unnoticed among men). What happened to her boots and why are they suddenly unacceptable? Presumably the same thing that happened to Arabella’s mantle of masculinity. It got in the way of the romance and had to be given up. Is it realistic that Arabella would defer to men once her gender is revealed, that she would let herself be viewed as weak in order to win the heart of the man she desires? Sure. But fiction isn’t restrained by the requirements of reality. Arabella should be allowed to wear pants and work aboard the ship and get the guy— or even more preferably, the girl. What starts out as a promising and fun novel, Arabella of Mars is ultimately frustrating and a disappointment. If you’re looking for fun novels where women defy gender norms, try Vermilion by Molly Tanzer, or even better, my favorite lesbian novel, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear.
April 3, 2017
3 - 3.5 stars. A light, fun adventure story that had me thinking of Jules Verne and Horatio Hornblower, but with a resourceful, determined female main character, Arabella Ashby. There is a lot of action, and the story moves quickly from the Ashby plantation on Mars, to England, then back to Mars. There are a number of elements to the story that I enjoyed: girl masquerading as a boy, airship battle, on board politics, automata, scheming relatives. One other interesting aspect of the book I was actually a little amused by was the consistent bleeping, so to speak, of profanity in the text, which is common in 19th century literature.
I'm not comfortable with the colonial attitudes of the characters however, but I'm not surprised that they exist thanks to the story taking place in the 19th century during the Regency period. The views expressed by the British characters both in England and on Mars are representative story's time period, though they're pretty toned down for the audience. Even Arabella, with her unusual upbringing and Martian influences, has some unconscious racism/specism, which, considering the unenlightened, conventional attitudes of the time, are not surprising. The author doesn't dwell on them, no doubt because this is primarily a fast-paced adventure story.
I'm not comfortable with the colonial attitudes of the characters however, but I'm not surprised that they exist thanks to the story taking place in the 19th century during the Regency period. The views expressed by the British characters both in England and on Mars are representative story's time period, though they're pretty toned down for the audience. Even Arabella, with her unusual upbringing and Martian influences, has some unconscious racism/specism, which, considering the unenlightened, conventional attitudes of the time, are not surprising. The author doesn't dwell on them, no doubt because this is primarily a fast-paced adventure story.
August 20, 2016
This book should really be titled: Arabella, The Hero of Everything.
****Spoilerish****
Maneuver through zero gravity on the ship better than the seasoned airmen? Yep.
Take down the big bully almost unscathed? No biggee.
Talk down a mutiny? On my afternoon break.
Save the ship from crash landing? Please. Amateur hour over here.
END A WAR ON MARS??? Well, what do you think? I am basically THE best.
It was pretty ridiculous how Arabella single-handedly overcame all obstacles and was the best at all the things (and incidentally, she was a little bit of a snob.) I just ended up laughing at the absurdity of it all.
With that being said, I didn't hate it. I think a good balance was achieved between the science fiction, steampunk, and regency era components of the story. The author took a lot of liberties with space travel, seeing as how you can breathe in space, asteroids are like little planets complete with wildlife and trees, and apparently it can rain. Who knew? The whole idea is like Mars is an island that you can sail to, which, once you wrap your head around it, is kind of cool.
Anyway, this is actually a fun little book. I liked the martians, with their female warriors and sense of honor. I liked Aadim, the automaton navigator, who almost seems aware. And I always enjoy the girl disguised as a boy trope. I don't know why, it just works for me.
So as long as you go in to this with the expectation of Arabella to be the most intelligent, creative, inventive 17 year old on 2 planets, it should all be good.
****Spoilerish****
Maneuver through zero gravity on the ship better than the seasoned airmen? Yep.
Take down the big bully almost unscathed? No biggee.
Talk down a mutiny? On my afternoon break.
Save the ship from crash landing? Please. Amateur hour over here.
END A WAR ON MARS??? Well, what do you think? I am basically THE best.
It was pretty ridiculous how Arabella single-handedly overcame all obstacles and was the best at all the things (and incidentally, she was a little bit of a snob.) I just ended up laughing at the absurdity of it all.
With that being said, I didn't hate it. I think a good balance was achieved between the science fiction, steampunk, and regency era components of the story. The author took a lot of liberties with space travel, seeing as how you can breathe in space, asteroids are like little planets complete with wildlife and trees, and apparently it can rain. Who knew? The whole idea is like Mars is an island that you can sail to, which, once you wrap your head around it, is kind of cool.
Anyway, this is actually a fun little book. I liked the martians, with their female warriors and sense of honor. I liked Aadim, the automaton navigator, who almost seems aware. And I always enjoy the girl disguised as a boy trope. I don't know why, it just works for me.
So as long as you go in to this with the expectation of Arabella to be the most intelligent, creative, inventive 17 year old on 2 planets, it should all be good.
September 14, 2016
FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG, TOTAL INABILITY TO CONNECT
I want to preface by saying that I know David a bit, as he's a prominent figure in the local book scene, however I doubt he could pick me out of a lineup. I'm a huge fan of his short fiction - I really have legitimately enjoyed pretty much all works from him I've ever read. Knowing that, I was more than excited to get my hands on his full novel, especially once the details on the plot and setting came out.
Arabella Ashby is a Martian. Actually, let me rephrase that: Arabella Ashby is a lady of English descent, who is part of a generation of colonists who were born and raised on Mars.
In the 1600s, leaps in technology allowed Captain Kidd to take an airship to Mars, and begin the process of colonizing the planet. Obviously, there's some suspension of disbelief here, but this is a fantasy/steampunk novel afterall, so that's expected. The sooner you get over those improbabilities, the sooner you can enjoy novels like this. Arabella's family runs a wood plantation on the colonized Mars, however her mother is concerned with the danger Arabella faces on the planet, as well as her increasing levels of tomboyish endeavors that take her away from being a proper English lady. Mother packs up Arabella to head back to Earth, leaving Arabella's father and her brother, Michael, behind to run the plantation. However, word comes back later of her father's passing, and soon after Arabella is surprised by deceit within her family, necessitating her getting to Mars to protect her brother - as soon as possible.
Arabella then escapes her family (whose mother I don't remember her ever actually getting a hold of, despite thinking about it at one point) and looks for passage to Mars, however without any money on hand. She steals some men's clothing, poses as a boy, and joins the military. However, before she can leave, she's approached by a private sailing cargo ship, who employ her as a captain's boy. The book follows Arabella's adventures on the trade ship Diana, a dirigible capable of space travel on coal/steam power, wherein she learns valuable skills and proves her worth, fights the French, and has to deal with a ship mutiny, while hiding her true sex, before negotiating with the native Martians to get her brother back.
There are a lot of pieces moving in this story, despite it's overall straightforward feel. Levine's writing is, as always, an easy and pleasing read, technically sound but not stuffy at all. The dialogue is intelligent, believable, and consistent, and the story flows at an excellent pace, without major stalling at any point, or unnecessary info dumps. The shorter format of the novel means it's a quick read overall, which is superb as it's a hell of a page-turner. All of the characters are diverse, with unique voices and traits, and I had no issues keeping people separated based on their actions and speech alone.
I really enjoyed the way the space travel was handled - hints at some of the various things that went into it occurring, but not going overboard in technical explanations, or using magic of some sort. The fact it was just "it is what it is" was a great touch for me, and helped keep me from thinking of unnecessary details, and just enjoying the story within the framework of the world developed. The ship scenes were well done, giving the intrigue and excitement of a long voyage, but without some of the boat-porn we get in other novels, such as Red Seas Under Red Skies. There were ample anxiety-inducing scenes, where I found myself actually concerned for what might happen or the consequences thereof. The ending of the book, while a bit expected, was a satisfying conclusion to this novel, leaving it open-ended enough to continue if desired, but closed tight if not.
However, what I missed in this entire process was that this is a YA novel, through and through - I'm sure this has been mentioned, but I missed the memo. While it does not appear to be directly marketed that way, it contained all the elements: teenage protagonist (bonus points for female), mild romance storyline, the proper-but-intelligent-and-full-of-ingenuity protagonist who goes outside their comfort zone to save the day, etc. The ending, while containing some fantastic writing and plot twists, also had a very feel-good-everything-went-ok feel to it that I associate with YA novels. While this is not a problem, it did catch me off-guard, as I was used to the much more adult feel and tone of much of Levine's short fiction. He does a terrific job at this style, however, keeping the book interesting and complicated enough to keep anyone invested, while making it accessible and enjoyable to most reading age brackets.
Arabella of Mars isn't perfect, but it's a really great read, and a tantalizing taste of what David Levine can do when writing at novel length. If you're the type who enjoys steampunk settings, even with a bit of Regency-era behaviors and dress, as well as space tales, this book is a home run for you, and a must-read.
Rating: 4 / 5
I want to preface by saying that I know David a bit, as he's a prominent figure in the local book scene, however I doubt he could pick me out of a lineup. I'm a huge fan of his short fiction - I really have legitimately enjoyed pretty much all works from him I've ever read. Knowing that, I was more than excited to get my hands on his full novel, especially once the details on the plot and setting came out.
Arabella Ashby is a Martian. Actually, let me rephrase that: Arabella Ashby is a lady of English descent, who is part of a generation of colonists who were born and raised on Mars.
In the 1600s, leaps in technology allowed Captain Kidd to take an airship to Mars, and begin the process of colonizing the planet. Obviously, there's some suspension of disbelief here, but this is a fantasy/steampunk novel afterall, so that's expected. The sooner you get over those improbabilities, the sooner you can enjoy novels like this. Arabella's family runs a wood plantation on the colonized Mars, however her mother is concerned with the danger Arabella faces on the planet, as well as her increasing levels of tomboyish endeavors that take her away from being a proper English lady. Mother packs up Arabella to head back to Earth, leaving Arabella's father and her brother, Michael, behind to run the plantation. However, word comes back later of her father's passing, and soon after Arabella is surprised by deceit within her family, necessitating her getting to Mars to protect her brother - as soon as possible.
Arabella then escapes her family (whose mother I don't remember her ever actually getting a hold of, despite thinking about it at one point) and looks for passage to Mars, however without any money on hand. She steals some men's clothing, poses as a boy, and joins the military. However, before she can leave, she's approached by a private sailing cargo ship, who employ her as a captain's boy. The book follows Arabella's adventures on the trade ship Diana, a dirigible capable of space travel on coal/steam power, wherein she learns valuable skills and proves her worth, fights the French, and has to deal with a ship mutiny, while hiding her true sex, before negotiating with the native Martians to get her brother back.
There are a lot of pieces moving in this story, despite it's overall straightforward feel. Levine's writing is, as always, an easy and pleasing read, technically sound but not stuffy at all. The dialogue is intelligent, believable, and consistent, and the story flows at an excellent pace, without major stalling at any point, or unnecessary info dumps. The shorter format of the novel means it's a quick read overall, which is superb as it's a hell of a page-turner. All of the characters are diverse, with unique voices and traits, and I had no issues keeping people separated based on their actions and speech alone.
I really enjoyed the way the space travel was handled - hints at some of the various things that went into it occurring, but not going overboard in technical explanations, or using magic of some sort. The fact it was just "it is what it is" was a great touch for me, and helped keep me from thinking of unnecessary details, and just enjoying the story within the framework of the world developed. The ship scenes were well done, giving the intrigue and excitement of a long voyage, but without some of the boat-porn we get in other novels, such as Red Seas Under Red Skies. There were ample anxiety-inducing scenes, where I found myself actually concerned for what might happen or the consequences thereof. The ending of the book, while a bit expected, was a satisfying conclusion to this novel, leaving it open-ended enough to continue if desired, but closed tight if not.
However, what I missed in this entire process was that this is a YA novel, through and through - I'm sure this has been mentioned, but I missed the memo. While it does not appear to be directly marketed that way, it contained all the elements: teenage protagonist (bonus points for female), mild romance storyline, the proper-but-intelligent-and-full-of-ingenuity protagonist who goes outside their comfort zone to save the day, etc. The ending, while containing some fantastic writing and plot twists, also had a very feel-good-everything-went-ok feel to it that I associate with YA novels. While this is not a problem, it did catch me off-guard, as I was used to the much more adult feel and tone of much of Levine's short fiction. He does a terrific job at this style, however, keeping the book interesting and complicated enough to keep anyone invested, while making it accessible and enjoyable to most reading age brackets.
Arabella of Mars isn't perfect, but it's a really great read, and a tantalizing taste of what David Levine can do when writing at novel length. If you're the type who enjoys steampunk settings, even with a bit of Regency-era behaviors and dress, as well as space tales, this book is a home run for you, and a must-read.
Rating: 4 / 5
July 17, 2016
Arabella of Mars is a steampunk adventure set in Regency England. It is a well written and largely enjoyable tale that finds the titular heroine racing from London to her family plantation on Mars to save her beloved brother from a murderous fate.
The novel unfortunately falls into the nostalgia trap, wherein the author attempts to idealize the imagined past while acknowledging its social and cultural evils - in this case colonialism, slavery and oppression. This kind of balancing act is always unsustainable (and the results generally uneven), as the most unpleasant aspects of such a world are sidestepped so as not to contaminate the reader's enjoyment of the tale. That is sadly the case here, as the third act of the novel withers under the heat of its best misguided intentions.
The novel unfortunately falls into the nostalgia trap, wherein the author attempts to idealize the imagined past while acknowledging its social and cultural evils - in this case colonialism, slavery and oppression. This kind of balancing act is always unsustainable (and the results generally uneven), as the most unpleasant aspects of such a world are sidestepped so as not to contaminate the reader's enjoyment of the tale. That is sadly the case here, as the third act of the novel withers under the heat of its best misguided intentions.
April 18, 2017
This was such a wonderful, pleasing alt-history/steampunk-ish action adventure story!
Why do I do this to myself? Why do I read a book that looks like it's going to be awesome before the next book in the series is out? Because guess what? IT WAS AWESOME! And now I have to wait until July for the next one to be out! Grrrrrarrrrgh!!
So, the breakdown: Way back when, instead of a falling apple inspiring Newton to law-ify gravity, a floating soap bubble inspired the science of air travel instead. Fast forward, and Mars has been colonized (sorta) by the English via awesome airships.
I won't get into more details, because that right there should be enough to get you started, and then the writing will hook you immediately.
COME ON, JULY! BE HERE ALREADY! GRRRAAAARRRGH!!
Why do I do this to myself? Why do I read a book that looks like it's going to be awesome before the next book in the series is out? Because guess what? IT WAS AWESOME! And now I have to wait until July for the next one to be out! Grrrrrarrrrgh!!
So, the breakdown: Way back when, instead of a falling apple inspiring Newton to law-ify gravity, a floating soap bubble inspired the science of air travel instead. Fast forward, and Mars has been colonized (sorta) by the English via awesome airships.
I won't get into more details, because that right there should be enough to get you started, and then the writing will hook you immediately.
COME ON, JULY! BE HERE ALREADY! GRRRAAAARRRGH!!
July 31, 2018
This was a fun, light read!
I enjoyed this. I wasn't over the moon about it, but I definitely had a fun time!
The writing felt like accessible regency-era writing. Levine definitely gets the flavor and flair of it right, but I was able to read this much quicker than I would an actual Regency-era book.
At times I had some issues with the plot. I just was't particularly gripped by it. But at the end of the day, I still had fun.
I appreciated that Arabella's successes are attributed to both masculine and feminine traits. As a girl who chafes against the rules and restrictions of society, this could have easily devolved into the trap of a "strong female character" being strong despite her femininity, rather than because of it.
I enjoyed this. I wasn't over the moon about it, but I definitely had a fun time!
The writing felt like accessible regency-era writing. Levine definitely gets the flavor and flair of it right, but I was able to read this much quicker than I would an actual Regency-era book.
At times I had some issues with the plot. I just was't particularly gripped by it. But at the end of the day, I still had fun.
I appreciated that Arabella's successes are attributed to both masculine and feminine traits. As a girl who chafes against the rules and restrictions of society, this could have easily devolved into the trap of a "strong female character" being strong despite her femininity, rather than because of it.
December 23, 2017
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.
June 3, 2016
This is a joyous throwback to SF adventure tales of old, with an exciting plot and a dashing heroine whose resourcefulness, courage, and intelligence drive the narrative as much as the extremely novel alternate-world science (sure, why wouldn't traveling the solar winds between planets be like sailing a vast space sea?). So much love. It's like the SF equivalent to Uprooted for me, right now.
Read-alikes: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik; Etiquette & Espionage, by Gail Carriger; Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel...and oh, probably a whole lot more!
Read-alikes: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik; Etiquette & Espionage, by Gail Carriger; Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel...and oh, probably a whole lot more!
March 19, 2017
I read this as part of the Norton finalist packet.
What a fantastic read! Levine's book combines Victorian sensibilities with space-faring airships, all seen through the viewpoint of the courageous and smart Arabella who masquerades as a cabin boy to get a freighter ride back home to Mars before her cousin can commit dastardly acts. Levine utilizes many tropes of steampunk and 19th century literature, such as a mutiny aboard ship and the inevitable exposure of Arabella's true gender, but twists everything in surprising, satisfying ways. I'd love to read onward in this series.
What a fantastic read! Levine's book combines Victorian sensibilities with space-faring airships, all seen through the viewpoint of the courageous and smart Arabella who masquerades as a cabin boy to get a freighter ride back home to Mars before her cousin can commit dastardly acts. Levine utilizes many tropes of steampunk and 19th century literature, such as a mutiny aboard ship and the inevitable exposure of Arabella's true gender, but twists everything in surprising, satisfying ways. I'd love to read onward in this series.
February 27, 2018
Arabella of Mars has that classic adventure romp feel — something a little bit Jules Verne-y, I guess, though what I thought of was Martha Wells’ Emilie & The Hollow World. I was told it’d be a fun read, and it didn’t disappoint: I finished it in one hour and forty minutes, when I should’ve been sleeping. The action ticks along at speed; Arabella is a fun character, if not perhaps unique in as a character in her unique independence for her world, and I especially appreciated the fact that although she’s a female character who dresses up as a guy and then found out, she isn’t sexually assaulted at any point. It’s such a staple of the genre, I was half-expecting it to ruin my fun any minute.
Instead, Levine goes a less easy route where the crew don’t really accept Arabella, by and large, after she’s discovered — but nobody tries to assault her either. It feels a little unsatisfying, because heck, you know she’s proved herself… but it also feels more real, and gives us that tiny bit of bitterness to help the sweet wish fulfilment go down. (And it is sweet wish fulfilment — Victorianesque society, girl becomes the hero and travels by airship to Mars, finds love along the way.)
It was very much a fun and light read, and I appreciate it a lot for that. If you’re looking for the utterly grim, relentless grind of a fantasy/sci-fi world where everything goes wrong at every turn, this isn’t it — and if that’s all that feels real to you, you might find this unsatisfying.
Me? Well, it felt more like a snack than a full meal, but a little bit of choux pastry makes a nice change.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
Instead, Levine goes a less easy route where the crew don’t really accept Arabella, by and large, after she’s discovered — but nobody tries to assault her either. It feels a little unsatisfying, because heck, you know she’s proved herself… but it also feels more real, and gives us that tiny bit of bitterness to help the sweet wish fulfilment go down. (And it is sweet wish fulfilment — Victorianesque society, girl becomes the hero and travels by airship to Mars, finds love along the way.)
It was very much a fun and light read, and I appreciate it a lot for that. If you’re looking for the utterly grim, relentless grind of a fantasy/sci-fi world where everything goes wrong at every turn, this isn’t it — and if that’s all that feels real to you, you might find this unsatisfying.
Me? Well, it felt more like a snack than a full meal, but a little bit of choux pastry makes a nice change.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
July 13, 2016
Written review coming. Video review here. Also, my interview with David D. Levine.
November 20, 2018
3.5 STARS
The concept here is wonderful. British colonization of Mars!? As blurbs the back cover, it's Jane Austen meets Jules Verne! Yes, please!
In reality, the book fell a little short of expectations for me. It is divided primarily into three sections. In the beginning, we have Arabella on Mars only briefly before she is forced to return to England with her mother and sisters so that she can finally become a proper young lady. We have a few chapters in England, primarily to set up the main conflict in the story. The bulk of the book (at least, it felt the longest to me!) was the mid section in which Arabella poses as captain's boy to gain passage to Mars on one of the Honourable Mars Company's best ships. This is basically a sailing story set in space and it didn't do much for me. Combat with a privateer, mutiny, and other issues common to seafaring tales take place here, along with lots of talk about navigation and climbing ropes and such. The last section, when Arabella returns to Mars, was my favorite. This is where we see the worlds collide, Martian and Human (English), and I found the interplay of cultures quite interesting. History sets us up very well for the idea of the British domineering other cultures, and the shaky relations that develop because of it.
Arabella, also, fell a little short for me. I sometimes felt she was more of a plot device than a living, breathing character. She portrays a strong woman and I certainly admire what she accomplishes in the story. But, she just never felt like that real sort of character that you think about even when the book is closed. The various sailors in her company were more or less interchangeable to me, with few exceptions. Captain Singh seemed perhaps the most captivating to me. Also Khema, Arabella's Martian itkhalya (nanny) from whom she learned much about Martian culture and combat. And the automaton, Aadim. If I continue to read the series, I look forward to more about that!
I am not quite sure whether this is a YA novel or an adult novel. Arabella is seventeen and, while there are a few combat moments that made squeamish me wince a little, there is nothing beyond a PG/PG-13 here. The romance is chaste. The swear words are bleeped-out as was customary in Arabella's day. Yet, with the Captain as a much older love interest (granted, probably only ten or fifteen years older--nothing in 1813 but not exactly the stuff of YA romance) and getting so bogged down in the little details of air travel, I'm not sure it would appeal to as many teens.
The concept here is wonderful. British colonization of Mars!? As blurbs the back cover, it's Jane Austen meets Jules Verne! Yes, please!
In reality, the book fell a little short of expectations for me. It is divided primarily into three sections. In the beginning, we have Arabella on Mars only briefly before she is forced to return to England with her mother and sisters so that she can finally become a proper young lady. We have a few chapters in England, primarily to set up the main conflict in the story. The bulk of the book (at least, it felt the longest to me!) was the mid section in which Arabella poses as captain's boy to gain passage to Mars on one of the Honourable Mars Company's best ships. This is basically a sailing story set in space and it didn't do much for me. Combat with a privateer, mutiny, and other issues common to seafaring tales take place here, along with lots of talk about navigation and climbing ropes and such. The last section, when Arabella returns to Mars, was my favorite. This is where we see the worlds collide, Martian and Human (English), and I found the interplay of cultures quite interesting. History sets us up very well for the idea of the British domineering other cultures, and the shaky relations that develop because of it.
Arabella, also, fell a little short for me. I sometimes felt she was more of a plot device than a living, breathing character. She portrays a strong woman and I certainly admire what she accomplishes in the story. But, she just never felt like that real sort of character that you think about even when the book is closed. The various sailors in her company were more or less interchangeable to me, with few exceptions. Captain Singh seemed perhaps the most captivating to me. Also Khema, Arabella's Martian itkhalya (nanny) from whom she learned much about Martian culture and combat. And the automaton, Aadim. If I continue to read the series, I look forward to more about that!
I am not quite sure whether this is a YA novel or an adult novel. Arabella is seventeen and, while there are a few combat moments that made squeamish me wince a little, there is nothing beyond a PG/PG-13 here. The romance is chaste. The swear words are bleeped-out as was customary in Arabella's day. Yet, with the Captain as a much older love interest (granted, probably only ten or fifteen years older--nothing in 1813 but not exactly the stuff of YA romance) and getting so bogged down in the little details of air travel, I'm not sure it would appeal to as many teens.
October 28, 2018
I re-read this in preparation for finally reading the second book and I still enjoyed it at least as much as the first time. The book is fun, well written and super readable. Arabella is a really great main character, super well developed and believable. I enjoyed the story, the setting, the characters, the everything. Excited to see what the rest of the series has to offer!
March 23, 2017
*4.5 Stars*
I read this for book club and I forgot to post an update for it! I enjoyed this book. I like the world building and the story. It has steampunk elements to it, which I loved. I'm anxious to continue on with this series.
I read this for book club and I forgot to post an update for it! I enjoyed this book. I like the world building and the story. It has steampunk elements to it, which I loved. I'm anxious to continue on with this series.
February 26, 2017
4.5 stars. I thought this was a great first sci-fi novel! It did get a little slow in the middle, but not much at all! So many aspects of this story I adore! Definitely check it out!
April 24, 2016
A fun Regency England-meets-space exploration romp. Arabella is a charming and tomboyish heroine who isn't afraid to take on dastardly cousins, space pirates, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
A perfect novel for anyone who loves Naomi Novik!
A perfect novel for anyone who loves Naomi Novik!
November 17, 2024
This is a delightful book that fully fits steampunk but is also a fun adventure story--no fairies, no magic, no paranormal stuff, just steampunk. One thing that is especially fun is that not only is it set in 1812 and 1813, but Levine sets the space travel up to suit how books might have written it at that time; the cover shows a clipper that travels to and from Mars.
Arabella is, as you might expect, an intelligent, feisty teen. There are many clever things put into this that might not meet the eye as Arabella endures being forced to go to earth with her mother and sisters, then has to find a way back to Mars to save her brother (the blurb tells you more about this, so why repeat it all here.) The story is basic, but there are enough good things about it that I've opted to round my rating up.
Arabella is, as you might expect, an intelligent, feisty teen. There are many clever things put into this that might not meet the eye as Arabella endures being forced to go to earth with her mother and sisters, then has to find a way back to Mars to save her brother (the blurb tells you more about this, so why repeat it all here.) The story is basic, but there are enough good things about it that I've opted to round my rating up.
January 4, 2021
If I could give this book a star for everything it has in it that's My Favorite, it would have, like...thirty stars.
At least.
It has interplanetary travel, (air)ships with sails, cannon-firing drills, a naval battle with full guns but in space. It has a plucky lady protagonist who ignores the accepted mores of her Regency/Victorian times and is intelligent and rebellious, but does all the socially unacceptable things to save her family. It has a distant but warm captain who is poised and collected in any and every situation except when he's trying to protect his beloved in which case he's poised and collected but with a strain in his jaw muscles. It has a girl cutting off her hair with a pocket knife and dressing up as a boy to join the crew of a ship, a long-held desperate dream of mine. It has mutiny! Aliens! Zero-gravity shenanigans! Mars! Rough sailors calculating and tying knots! A clockwork robot! who navigates with charts! Mars! A castle under siege! Catapults! Diplomacy! Fancy awkward dinners where the men are reprimanded for trying to spare a lady's pure and delicate sensibilities from their Gruff and Important sailing chatter! Attempted murder! A beautifully crafted and delightfully understated mutually pining romance! Mars! French privateers! People nursing people they care very much about back to health! Important sibling relationships! Illogical space travel described so matter-of-factly you forget to question the illogic of it! Mars! Fantastic syntax that makes it read like it really is from the 1800s! Long buff jackets! Crewmates bonding through fistfights! Midshipmen! Casual references to Sir Isaac Newton! Asteroids with names! Clever and dangerous navigational maneuvers! Did I mention Mars?
Seriously, the second I saw the cover of this book on the shelf, I was shocked I had somehow missed it when it first came out. I knew I would love every page of it as soon as I read the flap summary, and I was not wrong. I was not let down. Everything about Arabella and her dear Captain Singh made my heart sing from page one and I could not get enough of it.
The pacing is perfect, the characters strong and their motivations clear, the plot is tight and simple, but the journey to get through the plot is complex and full of obstacles for Arabella to overcome. And overcome them she does. She is one of the most active heroines I've had the pleasure of reading, with more agency than the ladies in the last four or five books I've read put together. She's deliciously rebellious of her early-1800s setting, but manages to toe the line and maintain her place in society with poise and grace. The men around her learn to respect her, not just as a woman but as a competent, strong, intelligent woman who knows what she's doing, has brilliant ideas, and helps implement them herself.
The ship, the beautiful Diana, was a marvelous cross between all the Age of Sail ships I adore for their strength and grace and wood-and-canvas beauty and the wonderfully ridiculous airships of fantasy sci-fi that you know could never work but somehow do anyway. Like S. Thomas Russell's Themis or Patrick O'Brien's Surprise crossed with the Legacy from Treasure Planet, Diana is a perfect example of what exactly makes this book so brilliant: old, classic things fused with sci-fi to make something not-quite steampunk, but just as much fun. It's a perfect melding of the early 1800s with the far future. And it's delightful.
I keep using that word, but to be honest, it's the most applicable word I can think of. Everything about this book is delightful. I'm strongly considering buying the sequel in hardcover even though I bought this one in paperback, just so I can get more of this story, this world, this brilliant, marvelous fusion of all my favorite things, of everything I love rolled into one. That's how you can really tell that I'm completely smitten by this book. Mismatching the series is the ultimate compliment I can give. I really don't know how better to express how very much I love this book. Thanks, Mr. Levine, for writing, quite possible, my new absolute favorite book ever.
At least.
It has interplanetary travel, (air)ships with sails, cannon-firing drills, a naval battle with full guns but in space. It has a plucky lady protagonist who ignores the accepted mores of her Regency/Victorian times and is intelligent and rebellious, but does all the socially unacceptable things to save her family. It has a distant but warm captain who is poised and collected in any and every situation except when he's trying to protect his beloved in which case he's poised and collected but with a strain in his jaw muscles. It has a girl cutting off her hair with a pocket knife and dressing up as a boy to join the crew of a ship, a long-held desperate dream of mine. It has mutiny! Aliens! Zero-gravity shenanigans! Mars! Rough sailors calculating and tying knots! A clockwork robot! who navigates with charts! Mars! A castle under siege! Catapults! Diplomacy! Fancy awkward dinners where the men are reprimanded for trying to spare a lady's pure and delicate sensibilities from their Gruff and Important sailing chatter! Attempted murder! A beautifully crafted and delightfully understated mutually pining romance! Mars! French privateers! People nursing people they care very much about back to health! Important sibling relationships! Illogical space travel described so matter-of-factly you forget to question the illogic of it! Mars! Fantastic syntax that makes it read like it really is from the 1800s! Long buff jackets! Crewmates bonding through fistfights! Midshipmen! Casual references to Sir Isaac Newton! Asteroids with names! Clever and dangerous navigational maneuvers! Did I mention Mars?
Seriously, the second I saw the cover of this book on the shelf, I was shocked I had somehow missed it when it first came out. I knew I would love every page of it as soon as I read the flap summary, and I was not wrong. I was not let down. Everything about Arabella and her dear Captain Singh made my heart sing from page one and I could not get enough of it.
The pacing is perfect, the characters strong and their motivations clear, the plot is tight and simple, but the journey to get through the plot is complex and full of obstacles for Arabella to overcome. And overcome them she does. She is one of the most active heroines I've had the pleasure of reading, with more agency than the ladies in the last four or five books I've read put together. She's deliciously rebellious of her early-1800s setting, but manages to toe the line and maintain her place in society with poise and grace. The men around her learn to respect her, not just as a woman but as a competent, strong, intelligent woman who knows what she's doing, has brilliant ideas, and helps implement them herself.
The ship, the beautiful Diana, was a marvelous cross between all the Age of Sail ships I adore for their strength and grace and wood-and-canvas beauty and the wonderfully ridiculous airships of fantasy sci-fi that you know could never work but somehow do anyway. Like S. Thomas Russell's Themis or Patrick O'Brien's Surprise crossed with the Legacy from Treasure Planet, Diana is a perfect example of what exactly makes this book so brilliant: old, classic things fused with sci-fi to make something not-quite steampunk, but just as much fun. It's a perfect melding of the early 1800s with the far future. And it's delightful.
I keep using that word, but to be honest, it's the most applicable word I can think of. Everything about this book is delightful. I'm strongly considering buying the sequel in hardcover even though I bought this one in paperback, just so I can get more of this story, this world, this brilliant, marvelous fusion of all my favorite things, of everything I love rolled into one. That's how you can really tell that I'm completely smitten by this book. Mismatching the series is the ultimate compliment I can give. I really don't know how better to express how very much I love this book. Thanks, Mr. Levine, for writing, quite possible, my new absolute favorite book ever.
September 7, 2018
Arabella of Mars is an exciting, fun, steampunk sci-fi with a great heroine. What it lacks in realism it makes up for in entertainment value. It’s one of those novels where you have to ignore the implausibility of the mechanics of the universe (in this case, Victorian technology able to traverse in space, as well as some other stuff), and if you can do so, you’ll enjoy it. I liked the idea behind the space travel (as implausible as it was) because it was so much fun. This novel is basically just a sea-faring tale in space!
I liked the characters. Arabella was a kick-ass girl whom I rooted for the entire time. Everything she did made perfect sense given her character and all the things she accomplished were due to her own merit (though there were a few lucky coincidence moments). You really got frustrated about the difference in treatment she experienced due to her gender, which was also why you rooted so hard for her.
The other characters were a little flat. There are two villains, kind of, and they aren’t given a lot of screen time, so I didn’t find them much of a threat. The male lead was hardly a lead, in that other than an exposition dump near the end we don’t really learn a lot about him. Where he was mysterious and regal to Arabella, to me he was a little bland.
I liked the story – space traveling takes up a big chunk, but that didn’t bother me. In fact, I liked that part the best; I didn’t really care that much about Michael’s fate so the final few chapters I wasn’t that into.
One thing I do wish was that this book hadn’t hopped on the YA train, though it’s not like I was looking for blood and guts or some bodice-ripping. Due to the Victorian setting, I wasn’t aware it was YA until about halfway through, when I realized that certain things (aka sexual attraction) were glossed over.
Yet it was a very very fun read and I had a hell of a good time reading it. If I can find a copy for cheap I would read it to/with my daughter when she’s old enough (along with the 90 other books on my “read to Marceline” list haha).
I liked the characters. Arabella was a kick-ass girl whom I rooted for the entire time. Everything she did made perfect sense given her character and all the things she accomplished were due to her own merit (though there were a few lucky coincidence moments). You really got frustrated about the difference in treatment she experienced due to her gender, which was also why you rooted so hard for her.
The other characters were a little flat. There are two villains, kind of, and they aren’t given a lot of screen time, so I didn’t find them much of a threat. The male lead was hardly a lead, in that other than an exposition dump near the end we don’t really learn a lot about him. Where he was mysterious and regal to Arabella, to me he was a little bland.
I liked the story – space traveling takes up a big chunk, but that didn’t bother me. In fact, I liked that part the best; I didn’t really care that much about Michael’s fate so the final few chapters I wasn’t that into.
One thing I do wish was that this book hadn’t hopped on the YA train, though it’s not like I was looking for blood and guts or some bodice-ripping. Due to the Victorian setting, I wasn’t aware it was YA until about halfway through, when I realized that certain things (aka sexual attraction) were glossed over.
Yet it was a very very fun read and I had a hell of a good time reading it. If I can find a copy for cheap I would read it to/with my daughter when she’s old enough (along with the 90 other books on my “read to Marceline” list haha).
February 5, 2017
3 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
Forced to leave her home on Mars for a proper upbringing in Regency England, teenaged Arabella struggles against the role society has chosen for her, and rapidly finds herself destitute and masquerading as a boy on an interplanetary freighter, headed back to Mars on a mission of life and death.
Forced to leave her home on Mars for a proper upbringing in Regency England, teenaged Arabella struggles against the role society has chosen for her, and rapidly finds herself destitute and masquerading as a boy on an interplanetary freighter, headed back to Mars on a mission of life and death.
Arabella of Mars is very much a nod in the direction of Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars - plucky teen girl crossing between Mars and Earth. It's been a while since I read Podkayne, and I don't know that the similarities in plot go much further. Sadly, some of those in attitude do.
Arabella is nicely written. It's immediately engaging, and has a warm energy perfectly suited to a YA novel. Arabella herself has all the courage, determination, and intelligence you could hope for in a young heroine. The world is interestingly anachronistic - a throwback to a time when the space between the planets might have been filled with air, and when sailing ships might cross it.
The problem for me was that the gender roles were anachronistic as well - firmly stuck in that same old outlook. While the book has a steampunky, Regency feel, I think that when you're inventing a world with such drastically different natural laws, you're not required to keep all the same societal rules either. While Arabella fights against the strictly limited role assigned to her gender, the book ultimately falls into the same tired trap as novel of 50 years ago might have. Brave, clever Arabella falls for a much older male authority figure, and in the end relies on a man for salvation. In other word, an ending that almost completely undermines the counterculture narrative of the story. And I’m not even mentioning the colonized-but-okay-about-it native Martians.
It's a shame, because so much of the book is so well done. But the resolution of the story is one Heinlein might have written last century. I have to put it down to a very good effort, with a substantial failure in outlook.
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