Arabella of Mars - Q6
Did the plot work for you? Were there enough twists and turn in it to occupy you? Or was it too straightforward? Those of you who enjoy Napoleonic Naval literature, did the book resonate with you better because of this? Or was it in that uncanny valley of to close and not close enough?
Comments
Yes it did, with my earlier caveat about YA books and lack of depth. I'd like to see the same solar-system mechanics and ideas dressed up in an adult novel and reckon there's plenty of potential for this. The link with Napoleonic stuff was (I think) a kind of shorthand so we'd know how to respond to things, and I'd have liked some more background on the world... for example how when and why did people first think of taking a sailing ship to the top of the terrestrial atmosphere and then sailing on through the interplanetary one? I wasn't looking for something as detailed as The Expanse but I would have liked more internal history and the like.
Did Temeraire do a better job of delivering the Napoleonic trope? In both books there are the analogues of the major battles, especially Trafalgar (Arabella book 2) and other similar actions - from memory Temeraire referred to the Battle of the Nile, though of course in this case with dragons as well as ships.