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A review by timinbc
Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
4.0
Just different enough to keep me going, and in the end a good bit of fun.
We quickly see that the world of this book isn't the one we're in. The peaceful settlement of Mars is a given, and the whole setting seemed familiar. Plot develops, and oh no, really? Not the girl pretending to be a boy and getting a job as a cabin boy who becomes Ever So Useful? Lookit, when are the captains of fiction going to catch on? EVERY cabin boy is a girl in disguise, and is going to be Really Important.
Arabella is totally Mary Sue, but somehow it doesn't matter; perhaps because she does have doubts.
Captain Singh is, of course, impossibly noble, but I liked him anyway.
Pages and pages of the usual sailing stuff, saved only by the descriptions of how it all works.
It's ludicrous, like using Cavorite, but it was so fantastic that it worked.
The plot is nothing spectacular after that, but it rolls along smoothly, comes to a decent crisis, and is resolved in a quite predictable but somewhat charming way.
This book could never stand serious scrutiny, but it was never meant to. It's an enjoyable change of pace.
We quickly see that the world of this book isn't the one we're in. The peaceful settlement of Mars is a given, and the whole setting seemed familiar. Plot develops, and oh no, really? Not the girl pretending to be a boy and getting a job as a cabin boy who becomes Ever So Useful? Lookit, when are the captains of fiction going to catch on? EVERY cabin boy is a girl in disguise, and is going to be Really Important.
Arabella is totally Mary Sue, but somehow it doesn't matter; perhaps because she does have doubts.
Captain Singh is, of course, impossibly noble, but I liked him anyway.
Pages and pages of the usual sailing stuff, saved only by the descriptions of how it all works.
It's ludicrous, like using Cavorite, but it was so fantastic that it worked.
The plot is nothing spectacular after that, but it rolls along smoothly, comes to a decent crisis, and is resolved in a quite predictable but somewhat charming way.
This book could never stand serious scrutiny, but it was never meant to. It's an enjoyable change of pace.