Arabella of Mars

The Adventures of Arabella Ashby, Book 1

Born on Mars, sixteen-year-old Arabella Ashby enjoys many more freedoms than most girls her age, tramping around the desert with her older brother. But that liberty is not to last. Finding Mars much too unladylike for her daughters, Arabella’s mother takes the girls back to London, where they’re sure to find suitable husbands among the ton.

Weighed down by Earth’s gravity—and her own unhappiness—Arabella dearly misses her father and their shared passion for automata. When she learns of his death, she also uncovers her cousin’s devious plot to travel to Mars, murder her brother, and claim the family inheritance for himself.

To foil his dastardly plans, Arabella disguises herself as a boy to gain employment on an airship to Mars. Though she is valued by the captain for her talent with the automaton navigator he invented, she must survive French privateers, mutiny, and her own unmasking, only to reach a Mars embroiled in rebellion …

“A fanciful romp through a cosmic 1812, Hugo Award-winning Levine’s first novel is a treat for steampunk fantasy fans.”—Library Journal, starred review

©2016 David D. Levine (P)2024 Recorded Books

Interesting premise, but...

Sometimes a book just ends up getting on your nerves. At first I was neutral, giving it time to gain speed, but I finally had to admit to myself that this book is just not for me. It's overly wrought, and just barely gets close to developing some really great side characters.

Arabella is a protagonist I wanted to like, but holy cow, that girl shifts like the winds of the boat she's on. Shes wicked smart, and adaptable, and all the things we want in a novel like this, but she just ... is too internally simpering for me.

... and description can be a bit much.

...perhaps this is written as an homage of sorts to the Victorian romance? If so, Arabella deserves a higher rating. It would have made listening a different experience had I thought about that before just right now!

It's worth a listen, and the airship is pretty cool. Arabella isn't a wimp. I want to hang out with some of those sailors. Not bad folk.

Read this book a couple years ago.

I dont read much, never have. But this book, i read all the way through, then listened to the audio version. Its a good story, and was a great break. I love that its original.