ubalstecha's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
An ok steampunk adventure. I find the thing the most troubling in this book is
Spoiler
the romance between the captain and Arabella. He is significantly older than her and it, quite frankly, came off as creepy.katmystery's review against another edition
3.0
It was cute but lacking suspense, character development, and a believable, interesting story.
The writing style would have made 1000% more sense in a MG novel. It was ALL tell and not one tiny bit of show. The twists were extremely predictable. Arabella did not think with the depth associated with YA characters. The book had lovely description but too much- it weighed the story down. It was as if the story had not been long enough originally, so the author wished to stretch out every scene... through description!
The pacing was too slow for most of it and too fast in some parts. The whole middle part of the book was drenched with incredible detail about the voyage, which was interesting but not interesting enough for an extra 50 pages of description. The pacing suddenly increased after the voyage, the story navigating through predictable plot-twists every few pages. It just felt very 2D. Like it needed another round of editing.
I think the book could have benefited from some cutting down, flashbacks about Arabella's life on Mars (so that, once we arrived, we could understand all she was talking about instead of having to rely on convenient info dumps), and a rewritten romance. The way the romance was done was unlikely and annoying...
So, in all, enjoyable enough to finish but not without its flaws.
The writing style would have made 1000% more sense in a MG novel. It was ALL tell and not one tiny bit of show. The twists were extremely predictable. Arabella did not think with the depth associated with YA characters. The book had lovely description but too much- it weighed the story down. It was as if the story had not been long enough originally, so the author wished to stretch out every scene... through description!
The pacing was too slow for most of it and too fast in some parts. The whole middle part of the book was drenched with incredible detail about the voyage, which was interesting but not interesting enough for an extra 50 pages of description. The pacing suddenly increased after the voyage, the story navigating through predictable plot-twists every few pages. It just felt very 2D. Like it needed another round of editing.
I think the book could have benefited from some cutting down, flashbacks about Arabella's life on Mars (so that, once we arrived, we could understand all she was talking about instead of having to rely on convenient info dumps), and a rewritten romance. The way the romance was done was unlikely and annoying...
Spoiler
Also, what's the age gap there? Is it as bad as I gathered? I hope hope hope notSo, in all, enjoyable enough to finish but not without its flaws.
majkia's review
4.0
Fun, light steampunk. Think of how Jules Verne pictured Mars and the passage between. Arabella runs away from home after having been forced to leave Mars for Earth. She pretends to be a boy and gets a birth on a sailing ship headed to Mars.
itabar's review
3.0
The first 2/3 worked for me, that last third didn't. Surprisingly, I found the romance one of the weakest parts of the book.
ladyofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book. Arabella is awesome, but I want to strangle the men in this book. Women are not weak fragile creatures to be protected, surely Arabella has MORE than proven that but no, at the end she still has to be "a proper lady". Grrrr. Just once, I want a book where the woman is accepted after revealing her true self, not ignored belitted, threatened and punished for daring to act as a man. Happy ending, I guess, with no cliffhanger. Four out of five stars.
greenldydragon's review against another edition
3.0
I finished this book a while ago and don’t remember much about what happened. Whooops.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
It was fine. And a bit goofy. But the Victorian novel thing is not something that adds anything for me, though here it wasn't actually painful. And I'm so tired of the disguised as a boy thing, though again it wasn't horrible here. Suspending belief to allow sailing from Earth to Mars and Martians is difficult enough. So clever, simple, readable but definitely not amazing. Nice cover though. 3.5 of 5.
On a re-read I found it more pleasant than I remembered. And I was going to raise it's rating from 3 to 3.5. But it was already 3.5.
On a re-read I found it more pleasant than I remembered. And I was going to raise it's rating from 3 to 3.5. But it was already 3.5.
sheilajenn's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
At least one of the stars here is there for being extremely my jam. I love sailing books. I love space. I love when weird fake science gets fully explored.
Still, of all the books like this I've read (which you can see in my list on here, "Sailpunk") this is one of the most exciting ones. Though plenty of time is spent explaining the ship (and I wouldn't have it any other way), stuff happens every chapter and there are lots of life or death struggles.
It has two main flaws. The first is the bad Regency dialogue. Some people seem to believe the Regency was a time when everyone spoke in long, formal paragraphs; and thus the actual spice of language gets filtered out. But that's almost standard. Hardly anyone pulls off dialogue that is both historically accurate and vivid.
The second is that the universe contains colonialism, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that it's somehow being done in a way that isn't problematic at all. Do you really think the Brits of 1812, confronted with real aliens, would be less racist than they were against every real life country they colonized? Yet the Martians carefully follow English laws, and even when [mild spoiler] the English do something heinous against them, they're happy to avenge that one thing and then go back to letting the English build plantations to extract their natural resources. I understand why it's done that way: the author doesn't want to deal with a whole political struggle, at least not in book one. But it feels unrealistic to me that it isn't there.
Still, of all the books like this I've read (which you can see in my list on here, "Sailpunk") this is one of the most exciting ones. Though plenty of time is spent explaining the ship (and I wouldn't have it any other way), stuff happens every chapter and there are lots of life or death struggles.
It has two main flaws. The first is the bad Regency dialogue. Some people seem to believe the Regency was a time when everyone spoke in long, formal paragraphs; and thus the actual spice of language gets filtered out. But that's almost standard. Hardly anyone pulls off dialogue that is both historically accurate and vivid.
The second is that the universe contains colonialism, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that it's somehow being done in a way that isn't problematic at all. Do you really think the Brits of 1812, confronted with real aliens, would be less racist than they were against every real life country they colonized? Yet the Martians carefully follow English laws, and even when [mild spoiler] the English do something heinous against them, they're happy to avenge that one thing and then go back to letting the English build plantations to extract their natural resources. I understand why it's done that way: the author doesn't want to deal with a whole political struggle, at least not in book one. But it feels unrealistic to me that it isn't there.