Customer Reviews

Larklight

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Space. It's so done, isn't it? Nine times out of ten the stories that take place in outer space are just metaphors for cowboys anyway. Star Wars. Star Trek. Firefly. Some work better than others, but the idea of a sci-fi space-based children's book would, under normal circumstances, do nothing to lift the rate of my pulse. Obviously this must have occurred to author Philip Reeve as well. Best known until now for his The Hungry City Chronicles, Reeve turns his sights on his nation's dirty past. But what if that dirty past were transposed into the outer regions of space? A space where breathing in zero gravity isn't really a problem, there are aliens galore, and the British figured out how to conquer the universe when Isaac Newton figured out space travel? Suddenly things are looking a lot more interesting.

Living on a lonely little home floating not too far from their beloved Earth, young Art Mumby and his older sister Myrtle have only known Larklight as their home. After their mother disappeared a couple years ago, however, their father has become increasingly lost in his own private world. That all changes when suddenly when, without warning, Larklight and its denizens (robot servants and otherwise) are attacked by giant, vicious spiders. Art and Myrtle barely escape with their lives and in doing so come in direct contact with the infamous space pirate Jack Havock (approximate age: 14). It appears that there was always more to Larklight than met the eye, and when the siblings are split apart they must individually find a way to defeat a nefarious villain, save the British empire, and recover the ones they love. Pluck, in large quantities, is going to be necessary.

Really, colonialism in space isn't necessarily a new idea either. Even Douglas Adams knew that. But to the best of my supremely limited knowledge, no one has ever created a sci-fi children's novel where the essential premise is that space travel came to Earth early. Just extrapolate that a little further and you end up with Britain at the height of its let's-grab-all-the-countries-in-the-world ideology, only transplanted into the universe at large and onto innocent planets (and their inhabitants). It's seamless. With peculiar aliens brought to London for "research", space colonists yearning to see the motherland, and a smattering of history alongside (the American colonies are still feisty but not, as of yet, beating England in the 19th century space race) the author turns the screw just a bit more when he makes the villain the biggest colonist of them all.

Reeve employs a skill that has stood him in good stead all these years; He can make any situation believable. I mean, have you ever read his "Hungry City" titles? Few authors could pull off the whole in-the-future-wheeled-cities-will-eat-other-cities idea. He can. Now, having conquered the future, he's determined to bend the past to his will as well. And if along the way he's able to package it all in a kind of boy's adventure style, so be it. At times you can tell that the author is showing off too. To place this book thoroughly in its time period there are plenty of references to famous characters of the day. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Andrew Marvell. Even a quick poem by Lord Tennyson that comes close to being almost too clever. And the boy's adventure style actually works perfectly as the kind of tale Reeves wants to tell. Art is an upstanding fellow who, when his home has been attacked by gigantic spiders and his father undoubtedly killed, leads his sister to safety with a stiff, "I am afraid that something rather disagreeable has happened." Do not assume that Myrtle is your typical faint and gasp heroine, however. That is the advantage of writing this kind of book today. First of all, she sports a natty little pair of glasses making her the best glasses-wearing sci-fi space traveler since Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time. Be that as it may, she's an unapologetic loyalist. Myrtle only sees the world (at first, anyway) as society would have her see it. Art too, for that matter. For example, he mentions that the denizens of the moon were "discovered" by the British they, "were so primitive that they showed no interest whatsoever in the new arrivals." And thusly does the p-word raise its ugly head. Myrtle, for her part, is particularly discomfited to hear of a British secret agent taking a Martian "native" as a wife.

Part of the reason I enjoy Reeve as an author is his sense of humor. He pulls off sentences and scenes that simply should not work, and all because he knows how to utilize a kind of inspired sense of style. For example, when it looks like all is lost for Art he says, "It seemed so unfair to have one's father eaten by a spider and one's sister devoured by a caterpillar on the same day (though I suppose flies must put up with that sort of thing all the time and you do not hear them moaning about it)." Or, in another instance, the alien shipmates are, "bellowing out a lusty shanty called, `Farewell and Adieu to You Ladies of Ph'Arhpuu'xxtpllsprngg'." Or (and this is a single instance so don't judge the book harshly for it) there is even a moment when the captain of a ship turns to one of his crew to ask for the impossible. The response? "I cannae do it, Captain. I'm an alchemist, not an engineer."

It would be easy to miss the author's clever little dance is done around questions of religion and spirituality, I think. In part because it simply doesn't fit in with the essential premise (i.e. gigantic "makers" who merrily go about creating the universe) but also because a man can only write a children's book that's so long. I was a little shocked to see that even with all the illustrations, "Larklight" only comes to a slip of 400 pages. By rights, it should be longer.

Speaking of the illustrations, pity me. I read this book initially without the final art. Even worse? I didn't even know the sheer vast amounts of art that would appear in the final copy. I didn't know that a David Wyatt would essentially bend over backwards to bring to life the perfect convergence of space and Victorian tales of heroism and derring-do. When I finally did get my hands on a final copy of the book I was stunned. I spent the better part of an hour pouring over the book again to see whether or not the images I'd conjured up in my head were anything like Wyatt's. Sometimes they were. Myrtle, for example, was spot on. Ditto Art, his parents, and maybe even the villain (lips sealed on that one) near the end. Oh! And when a certain architectural structure becomes a nightmarish horror, THAT looked bloody brilliant! Sadly I wasn't particularly taken with the views of Jack and the alien Ssilissa. They didn't gel with how I'd pictured them, but that isn't to say they weren't accurate to the story itself. And Jack does kind of resemble a 14-year-old Humphrey Bogart. Whether you agree with the artist's visions or not, the book may well be worth the price of admission alone based solely on the endpapers. A mishmash of Victorian newspaper ads mixed with space aliens and technology, I half wondered if Reeve had secretly written these as well. Watson's Dirigible Domestic Aid. Hogwash (for cleaning one's hoverhogs). Taylor's Pure Icthyomoroph Liver Oil. And, most cleverly of all, "Rossetti's Goblin Fair `Come Buy, Come Buy!' 42 Stalls. Fruit, Berries, Treen, Owl, Wheedling, Country Crafts, Exotic Conserves, Bog Fettling, Scalding and Rummagin." Someone give one of these men an award for this tiny ad alone, please.

All in all, it's a romp. A show. A true example of sci-fi done to the maximum amusement of its readers. That this book isn't well known to all children everywhere is a crime. But science fiction hasn't hit the renaissance that fantasy has. As a result, we must push and push to bring books of this caliber to the attention of the world. I've done my part. I suggest you, on the other hand, just go through the motions of reading it. Once you have, sheer exuberance for how good it is should take care of the rest.

When eleven-year-old Art Mumby finds out that a visitor is arriving at his run-down home, Larklight, which floats in space beyond the moon, he hardly expects to be thrust into a frightening adventure of pirates, plates, and a millenium-long conflict upon which the fate of the solar system rests. He tells the story of this adventure in LARKLIGHT (occasionally giving his older sister, Myrtle, a chance to narrate via her diary), and the story is nothing if not fantastic.

Philip Reeve (author of the Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles)) has created another fascinating world in LARKLIGHT. Art lives in the Victorian society of the 1800's--or rather, what Victorian society would have looked like if they'd developed space travel, and astronomy worked according to early speculations about aether (an air-like substance in space that people can move and breathe in), and interplanetary beings (Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter are all home to a variety of life forms). Reeve cuts no corners, painting the cities and citizens of the solar system in dazzling detail. The setting is a gorgeous mix of fantasy and science fiction, and fans of both genres will find much to enjoy.

If the world wasn't exciting enough on its own, the adventure is of the edge-of-your-seat variety. Art and Myrtle tumble from one tense situation to another with alarming frequency. Most chapters end on cliffhangers, so be prepared to have trouble finding a place to pause. Reeve throws in enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing right until the end, and both Art and Myrtle get the chance to play hero.

Art, as the main character, is not yet a teen himself, so teens may find his narration a little immature for their liking. If they're willing to give him a chance, though, they will discover that LARKLIGHT is a fast-paced, imaginative journey well worth taking.

Reviewed by: Lynn Crow

I really wanted to like this book. It seemed like exactly the kind of thing I've been waiting for without realizing it. But it fell short for me. For some reason I just couldn't get into it. I can't put my finger on it, but I never really got very involved, and I didn't really find myself looking forward to continuing it each day. The only parts that were compelling to me were Myrtle's diary chapters. Perhaps that's the thing, that the rest of the writing felt too detached, like I was watching it from afar instead of feeling involved.

The two biggest problems I had were as follows:

1) The character of Myrtle was too annoying for too long. I knew that the idea was that she'd redeem herself, but there was nothing endearing about her that made me want anything other than for her to just disappear from the story all together. Later in the book her diary pages were good, but that was because they mostly dropped the annoying aspects of her character.

2) I didn't find the spiders to be even remotely plausible. That's a problem since they're what the whole story is about. Yes, I know this is a wild fantasy, but even within the reality of the book they didn't feel right to me.

I'm giving the book 4 stars though because I do believe that its target audience will enjoy it more than I did (I'm not a kid). It's not a bad book, it's just that, well, as my review title says, it could have been better. The retro-future Victorian sci-fi world was a lot of fun and hopefully future installments will keep all of the good elements from this book and improve on the less stellar ones (no pun intended). At least in the next book Myrtle (theoretically) won't be so annoying.

Almost forgot: some of the little inside jokes were fun, such as the interpolation of a bit of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

This book (this entire series really) is just pure fun. The plot, writing, setting, and characters are crisp, imaginative, and pretty much everything I never knew I always wanted. Not to mention the illustrations, which are amazing. In the paper version.

Unfortunately, the difference in quality between the paper illustrations and the Kindle ones is enough to make me dock a star. I know the Kindle can handle complex art. I jailbroke mine and have quite the collection as screensavers. However, Mr Wyatt's illustrations have so far appeared heavily pixelated. It's disappointing given how detailed and wonderful I know they are and could be.

I originally borrowed this book from the library to read aloud to my, now six year old, daughter and I have to tell you the truth, I took it back with out reading it. It was too much for me, I couldn't do the accents right and the lingo and speech patterns were just too much for my brain that day.

So, I borrowed the audio book and let Greg Steinbruner read it to her instead. Which was wonderful for all of us; he did the lingo the accents and the speech patterns of all the different characters flawlessly.

And while she followed along looking at the fabulous illustrations in the book, we all fell in love with Larklight. It's a wonderfully imaginative and fantastic story of the giant spiders who attack Art and Myrtle Mumby and their home, Larklight, which is located in outer space, of course.

If your child likes Peter Pan and pirates she might like this story, though it has a little bit of a scary factor, I could see it scaring some children, there are gigantic spiders attacking after all.

But our kid loved this so much we bought her the sequel, Starcross, and read it to her ourselves. We got the hang of the accents and the lingo and all after repeatedly listening to Greg Steinbruner.

Last year our girl insisted on being Jack Havock, the hero from Larklight for Halloween. And her birthday party last month was planned around Larklight. So, it's really made quite the impression with her.

I highly recommend it and hope you love it as much as we do.

Larklight is a giant Victorian style home orbiting around the moon. It is inhabited by the Mumby's, including 15 year old Myrtle, 12 year old Art, and Edward, their Father. Their mother, Amelia, died a few years back on a trip to the Earth's surface. Edward is studying the habits of Aetheric Icthyomorphs, a breed of fish and sea like creatures that live in space. One day a man named Mr. Webster from the Royal Xenological Society pays a call on Edward to see his work, but Mr. Webster turns out to be a giant white spider that has come to unleash an army of similar creatures onto Larklight. When Art awakens the house is encased in spider webbing and he and his sister have to make an escape, leaving their father behind in the flight.

Thus begins a tremendously adventurous feat of story telling. Reeve has outdone himself with this fine addition to the steam punk, space traveling genre. If Terry Gilliam, L. Frank Baum, George Lucas, and Jules Verne got together and had a lovechild I believe it would resemble this book. Oh, and throw in a bit of Herbert's "Dune" just for flavor. The thing is this, even with all of these influences "Larklight" is a story completely unique in it's own right. A rollicking tale of swashbuckling space pirates, intrigue, and mayhem makes this book a great read and the start of a thrilling new series. I can't wait to read the next one.

Things I loved about this book - the original setting (space travel by Victorians!), the fantastic creatures who populate our very own solar system, the wonderful illustrations, the fast-paced action, and the witty writing. I'm not sure my son got as good a chuckle as I did when I read, "Ssilissa set about her work in the wedding chamber." He did, however, enjoy the line about how awful it would be if someone was sucked into space, unless it was Art's older sister, "in which case there would be great rejoicing and a half-holiday declared, et cetera, but ho hum."

Things I didn't like about this book - Myrtle, said older sister. She is insufferable and I couldn't understand how Art could end up missing her when they were apart, or how the pirate Jack could fall in love with her. We weren't really shown any redeemable qualities hidden beneath her strict Victorian snobbery. She faints at the sight of naked Martians, but has the spine to overcome evil spiders.

If you enjoy The Edge Chronicles, you'll love Larklight.

Ever since the Harry Potter series (of which I'm a great fan) exploded in popularity, it has spawned a few of what seem to be knockoffs, none of which come close to being such good quality as ol' HP. So I was a bit suspicious when I picked up this book, especially because many of the characters are British, but was pleasantly surprised to find, as I kept reading, that this book strives to be unique and not mimic JKR's style, story or anything else.

At first, too, it seemed like a flimsy plot - nothing but "Oh, good heavens! Another adventure has befallen us! Pip-pip, cheerio, etc." I thought it was just going to be "rinse and repeat"...one pointless adventure after another, but after a bit I got interested in the characters and ended up enjoying this book. It's good adventure for younger readers and with no harmful topics to speak of. Check it out!

This was a wonderful romp through space and Victorian times in this young adult fantasy - my only negative comment at this time would be the use of the Queen's English is very thick and made some moments seem overly proper in an Adventure story, however, this did not make this any less enjoyable - the characters are developed well, and even though I would like more out of the development, it is told from the first person view of 2 of the book's characters, and not third person, so we can only see and hear what is given to us, and grow that way - all in all this is enjoyable and I will most likely read the follow stories.

Philip Reeve, who started out as an illustrator, jumped into the world of actual writing only about six years ago, yet he is already clearly among the best out there and getting better as he goes. "Larklight" is a wonder that does just about everything right. The premise is brilliant, that goes without saying. Two teenagers from the Victorian era live in the titular house, which orbits the earth at a discreet distance. This is the mid-nineteenth century, but fortunately Isaac Newton has already discovered the secrets of space travel, allowing the British to sail their ships around the solar system. This solar system is, you see, filled with aether and thus breathable, with schools of fish swimming in the spaces between the planets.

The main characters, Art and Myrtle Mumby, are delighted to learn that they'll soon be visited by a prestigious scientist from the Royal Xenealogical Institute in London. Things don't go quite as expected when he arrives, however, and soon they're off on an adventure that will take them throughout the Solar System. The moon and the planets are all inhabited by various aliens in this universe, and there's no end of wild discoveries.

All of this alone would have the makings of a fine adventure novel, but Philip Reeve is never one to rest on his laurels. He throws in lots of novel touches. I won't share them with you because I don't want to ruin the surprises, but I assure you that anyone with an imagination will be taken by them. He also manages the Victorian-era backgrounds in fine fashion. Things like references to stiff morals, bad poetry, and so forth are included but not at all overdone. The story flows nicely. Every fantasy novel brags about never slowing down. This is one of the very few for which that claim is true.