Synopsis
Two novel-length YA steampunk adventures from the author of the wildly successful Murderbot Diaries
Together in one volume for the first time:
Emilie and the Hollow World
Running away from home, and stowing away on the wrong ship, Emilie embarks on a fantastic adventure.
Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use an experimental engine to journey to the interior of the planet, but when the ship becomes damaged on arrival, and evidence points to sabotage they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with a strange new race.
Can Emilie and her new-found friends possibly reach the surface world again?
Emilie and the Sky World
When Emilie arrives in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of her friend Lady Marlende, warns them of something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. On further investigation they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane.
How to determine if it’s a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister… Nothing less than a journey into the dangerous air currents will do.
Join Emilie and she navigates the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the Sky World.
Review
Martha Wells has been consistently writing fantasy and science fiction since the mid-90’s with many series under her belt and even novels written for both Star Wars and Stargate: Atlantis. But, for many, Wells only recently became a household name thanks to The Murderbot Diaries, a cult classic turned mainstream hit with five novellas, two novels and an Apple TV show on the horizon.
And with the success of Murderbot, some of Wells’ previously published backlist is being repackaged for a new crowd — namely The Emilie Adventures. This new edition is actually two previous short young adult fantasy novels, Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World, originally released in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
These are very much written in a young adult style, so if you’re looking for Murderbot, this ain’t it. Some of what makes Murderbot great — good character work with understandable motivations — is definitely present, so don’t immediately shy away just because it has the initials YA next to the genre. The writing style isn’t just YA, however. There is almost a timeless quality to it in some ways. If there was a copyright date of 1965 or even 1925 on the inside cover, I’d almost believe it. Spunky steampunk tales via Jules Verne’s sensibilities — these books would find a home almost no matter what decade they were released in.
I will say, if I was going to rank the two books against each other, the first book was a little easier to get into for me. I’ve always been fascinated by a Hollow Earth concept, and Wells really had fun with getting our characters “inside” the Earth for their first adventure. The second is a little more nebulous, but thanks to some of the infrastructure work in the first book, this one gets going a lot quicker. Both, however, had good, fun action with relatable characters.
Last year I devoured the Murderbot series within just a couple of weeks. After months away from Wells’ scifi stories I was ready to get into her writing again, so when the opportunity to read and review The Emilie Adventures, I jumped at the chance. I had a great time with the Jules Verne-inspired steampunk tales and kinda hope Wells delves back into Emilie’s world at some point down the road.
The Emilie Adventures releases on May 13.
Thank you Tordotcom for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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