Review: Emilie and the Sky World

Info:
Title: Emilie and the Hollow World
Author: Martha Wells
Series: Emilie #2
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Source: I received an ecopy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A Girl’s Own Adventure in the spirit of Jules Verne

When Emilie and Daniel arrive in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of the Marlendes, warns them that she’s observed something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. But as the Marlendes investigate further, they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane. It may be just a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister, but they will have to take an airship into the dangerous air currents to find out. 

Emilie joins the expedition and finds herself deep in personal entanglements, with an angry uncle, an interfering brother, and an estranged mother to worry about as well as a lost family of explorers, the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the sky world.

Review:
Emilie and the Sky World was a fun follow-up to Emilie and the Hollow World. I love the fun-filled. action-adventure feel of this series.

Emilie is a plucky, likeable young heroine. Her family troubles rear up in this book, with the re-emergence of dreadful Uncle Yeric and the introduction of her younger brother Efrain. However, Emilie doesn't let family issues get her down and brings her courage and quick thinking to another aether adventure.

In this adventure, we go up instead of down and the crew heads to the sky to investigate a disturbance in the aether. While the world is fairly different, the adventure follows a similar slant to the last. There are bad guys to defeat and foreign creatures to befriend. I enjoy the message in this series that even though people may be different (it this case very different!), we can still all get along and be friends.

I'm not sure if this book is officially classified as Young Adult or Middle Grade (I think Emilie is around 14), but it definitely has a Middle Grade feel to it that I really enjoy. There's no romance present, which I find really refreshing! The adventure is always at the forefront of the story, which I really enjoy.

The only slight negative I have is that the action was occasionally a bit hard to follow. With strange aether physics and multiple flying ships, it can get a touch hard to follow, but this was by no means a big problem.

Overall, I have really enjoyed Emilie's adventures so far and am excited for the next book to come out.

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Review: Emilie and the Hollow World

Info:

Title: Emilie and the Hollow World
Author: Martha Wells
Series: Emilie #1
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Source: ARC received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Blurb:

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

Review:

Emilie and the Hollow World is a fun-filled adventure book full of (very) exotic locations and a loveable heroine. I was pretty excited to read this one after reading the blurb and it certainly didn't disappoint! Definitely recommended to young steampunk fans!

I honestly fell in love with Emilie right from the start. I loved how fearless, yet clueless she was. She ended up being extremely resourceful, which is something I always admire in my characters. The other characters were awesome as well, especially the ladies: Rani and Lady Marlende, who were both seriously kick-ass!

Emilie and the Hollow World is primarily an adventure book, there is nothing in the way of romance (although an opening is left for one to develop in future books). In fact, it could probably be considered as a middle grade read based on the writing style and lack of romance/questionable content. However, lovers of adventures and steampunk and great young heroines will definitely enjoy this one, regardless of their age!

The main negative for me is that once in a while the writing style would annoy me. Perhaps because it of the more middle-grade slant of the story, but some sentences were too short and actually distracted me from the story. For example, a sentence consisting of only: Uh oh. I think this may be more of a personal gripe, but none-the-less, there it is. The other negative for me was how readily everyone accepted Emilie, which felt a little unrealistic to me. However, it set the stage for a great story, so I won't complain too much!

Overall, Emilie and the Hollow World was a fun read full of adventure, with a very likeable heroine. I am definitely excited for the series to continue!

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