etiquette & espionage

There’s something about steampunk that hooks me time after time.  It’s fantasy set in an alternate Victorian Era, so you have the feeling and trappings of historical fiction.  It’s also speculative (sci-fi or fantasy or a mix of the two), with a sense of hope about what technology would/could do to make society different.  In the hands of young adult authors, steampunk is also often fun and adventurous.  I was certain that I’d like Gail Carriger’s first YA steampunk novel (she wrote the adult Parasol Protectorate series, which started with Soulless), and I wasn’t disappointed.

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea—and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right—but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

Sophronia is a tomboy-ish younger sister who throws her mother into fits.  She simply doesn’t care that she’s not supposed to be interested in running and jumping and listening at doors.  After all, it’s natural to her, and she can’t see a good reason to start being boring like her elder sister.  However, her mother doesn’t agree, and sends her off to a finishing school to reform her temperament and behavior.  And that’s when things start to get very interesting.

Sophronia has a personality, if you know what I mean, and she’s the life of the book.  Sophronia makes Etiquette & Espionage worth reading because her inquisitiveness, cunning and dismissal of scruples lead to one scrape after another.  Sophronia isn’t attending an ordinary school (although there are the requisite moments of school chum bonding and teaming up to outwit teachers), after all – she’s also learning the fine arts of espionage and murder.  At first she’s bemused and mystified, and later she embraces her lessons with verve.  Her energy and penchant for disregarding the social niceties (while everyone around her is obsessed with them) makes for entertaining reading and hijinks galore.

While this book won’t best please those YA readers who have come to expect romance as a major element of their reading, it will satisfy those with an eye for a unique setting, a soft spot for clever characters, and anyone who has secretly wanted to become a spy at some point in their lives.  The girls at Madmoiselle Geraldine’s learn about poison, machinery, making enemies and friends, and learn to curtsy at the same time.  It’s a bit of a comedy of manners, but a dashing one, and seeds are planted for continuing story arcs.  The formula = mystery + adventure.

Recommended for: fans of YA steampunk (think Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan or Kady Cross’ The Girl in the Steel Corset), and anyone waiting for their entrance letter to a school of magic or espionage.

waiting on wednesday (33)

I’m participating today in "Waiting On" Wednesday. It is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, and its purpose is to spotlight eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

It’s been years now, and I’m not anywhere close to being ‘over’ steampunk.  The aesthetic lends itself to adventure, to invention, and apparently to the hands of some of the best writers around.  One of the most popular steampunk authors is Gail Carriger, whose novel Soulless I lovedLOVEDloved.  Well, now she’s doing all of her fans the enormous favor of writing a YA series.  I don’t know when I’ve heard such wonderful news – this is great for the genre, great for books, and I can tell, just from the cover and description (despite a lack of obvious steampunk), that it’ll be rollicking good fun.  Plus, the name Sophronia?  It can only bode well.  Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger will be published by Little Brown (Hachette), and releases on February 5th, 2013.

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea—and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right—but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

What books are you waiting on?

steam & sorcery

When I started blogging about books, my general goal was simply to write about the ones I was reading. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the recommendations of other bloggers would inform my reading choices and introduce me to new genres altogether. With very few exceptions, I don’t read a book these days unless I’ve seen it mentioned by a book blogger I trust. Steampunk is one of those new discoveries (haven’t heard of steampunk? check this out).

I’ve found a lot of stellar reads in this ‘genre’ over the past two years. I have also found a few that I couldn’t like. That’s the way a reading life goes. On the whole, though, steampunk has been good to me, and that’s why I’ve kept searching it out. Thus I was inordinately pleased to find a lovely new novel Steam & Sorcery through NetGalley (also, in case you didn’t know, NetGalley is THE BEST).

Sir Merrick Hadrian hunts monsters, both human and supernatural. A Knight of the Order of the Round Table, he uses both magick and the technologies of steam power. But his considerable skills are useless in the face of his greatest challenge, guardianship of five unusual children. At a loss, Merrick enlists the aid of a governess.

Miss Caroline Bristol is reluctant to work for a bachelor but she needs a position, and these former street children touch her heart. Merrick is the most dangerously attractive man she's ever met – and out of reach for a mere governess.

When conspiracy threatens to blur the distinction between humans and monsters, Caroline and Merrick must join forces, for the fate of London hinges upon their combined skills of steam and sorcery.

There are three main things I want to say about this novel (novella? it’s short-ish for a novel). Please don’t be put off by them. Or by that cover art. *shiver* I truly enjoyed this read, and I found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it. Not in the ‘it’s so haunting!’ sort of way, but in the ‘I’m really enjoying that book and I’d rather be reading it right now than whatever else I’m doing’ sense. Understood? Awesome.

Numero uno: the steampunk elements are fairly light. Cindy Spencer Pape’s universe is very much along the lines of Gail Carriger’s steampunk creation from Soulless, and that puts it squarely in fantasy territory rather than science fiction. Also: I thought a couple bits of the plot didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I was really having too much fun with the characters to mind.

Secondly: this is (adult) romance. I know I just turned a bunch of you off with that, but WAIT, please. I said this book was enjoyable, and I meant that. It was quite entertaining aside from the romance, though I thought that bit was well done. Also: if you’re not into ess-eee-exx, you can skip or skim those parts. Really. It’s a part of the novel, but it doesn’t overpower it, and there’s plenty of warning before any such scene. Also? Did I mention that the love story was sweet? I. LOVED. IT.

Part C: fighting street orphans (!), Victorian-era London, mayhem, clockwork pets, paranormal creatures and mystery. If that doesn’t sound like a good time, this might not be the book for you. I found it endearing and just the sort of thing that I like. It wasn’t perfect, clichés abounded and there were some bits I glossed over, but I’m actually planning to go re-read it after I post this review. Commendation, hey?

Recommended for: fans of the lighter side of steampunk, Regency romance readers willing to try out a new genre, and anyone looking to while away a couple of hours with a comfortable and lovable story.

[I received an e-galley of this novel courtesy of Carina Press and NetGalley]

wednesday love

The lovely Jo of fantasy book review blog Ink and Paper is featuring a book blogger interview with ME today! SO, you should probably go over there and read it. Like, soon.

Also, I’m sipping some delicious, home-brewed Starbucks Casi Cielo right now. Just so you know.

And to round out the link love, if you didn’t catch my guest post on Steph Bowe’s Hey! Teenager of the Year last month, go over and check it out. I talk about The Good Earth, a book that changed my life. And that post itself was a pretty big deal, as well – my high school English teacher found me on Facebook afterwards! Good + crazy. Hope you’re all having a marvelous Wednesday!

VERY.

IMPORTANT.

UPDATE!

If you'd like to win Gail Carriger's Soulless, head over to vvb32reads - she's giving away a copy!

steampunk awesome. no, really!

I’m going to gush for a second. Gail Carriger’s Soulless is a pretty freaking sweet read. It was absolutely perfect for a quiet, rainy Friday night. Hilarious, sweet, feisty, interesting (or am I just talking about main character Alexia Tarabotti?), and what I’d have to call my ideal mix of paranormal, sci-fi and ROMANCE.

I’ll admit it. I’m a closet trashy romance reader. Recently I’ve been cutting down on reading said books and looking for fantasy and sci-fi with a relational focus. Soulless totally did the trick for me. LOVED it. Why? Witty dialogue. Unique setting (I’m not a heavy steampunk reader, and if you aren’t either, this would be a great entry-level book). An amazing cast of characters, all of whom give you something to love, or wonder about, or just shake your head a little bit with a smile. Did I mention witty dialogue? Need I point out the fabulous cover art? The fact that this one is the first in at least a trilogy? That it has vampires (which I’m kind of over, but yeah), werewolves (SO hot) and parasols?! In other words, Soulless was for me. Also, I want Alexia’s wardrobe.

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced!

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible.

Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? And who is the real enemy . . . and do they have treacle tart?

Soulless is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking…

Recommended for anyone who might like light steampunk, werewolves, paranormal happenings, romance, London in the Gaslight Era, and funny (amusing funny, not ‘something might be a little off’ funny), comical amazing-ness. Enjoy!

steampunk defined + leviathan giveaway

I posed a question a week or so ago about steampunk, and polled for interest in a steampunk reading challenge. I will be hosting a small one, but it may take a little while to come together. In the meantime…

Definition: steampunk: There are two main kinds of steampunk. The first, traditional steampunk, envisions a future as the Victorians imagined it. The writings of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are good examples. The second, industrial steampunk, sees a far future world that harkens back to Victorian culture, for example a bustle dress made of kevlar. There are also other temporal options like clockpunk (c. 1500s) and dieselpunk (WWII). Definition borrowed shamelessly from Gail Carriger’s website. I bought her new novel Soulless today!

Steampunk may also refer to any anachronistic or technology-centric story set in the Gaslight Era, or more formally as “science fiction which has a historical setting (esp. based on industrialized, nineteenth-century society) and characteristically features steam-powered, mechanized machinery rather than electronic technology.” As per the Steampunk Scholar’s website.

And a giveaway! Scott Westerfeld (of Uglies trilogy fame) is releasing a new steampunk-esque novel entitled Leviathan on October 6th. THE PLAN: attend his Seattle bookstore event on the 12th and maybe get a copy signed.

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With the Great War brewing, Alek's and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way...taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure. One that will change both their lives forever.

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So I’ll offer one (1) copy of Leviathan up for grabs. It might be signed. But no guarantees. Well, the book I can guarantee, but nothing else. Okay? Sweet.

To enter:

Leave a comment on this post answering the question, “What do you think of when you read the word ‘steampunk?’”

Please include your email address. Giveaway is open internationally. Comments will close on October 13 at 11:59pm EST, and I will notify the randomly selected winner via email.

Good luck!