139. (November 2024) Arabella of Mars, by David D. Levine — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

Arabella of Mars - Q6

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:31:57 +0000

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?

Arabella of Mars - Q7

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:33:32 +0000

Did this inspire any of you in regards to roleplaying? What bits did you think would work for you? Why? Was the setting of interest? The Automatons?

Arabella of Mars - Q3

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:16:22 +0000

What did you think of the characters in the story? Were they interesting? Well drawn? Cartoonish? Ephemeral? Did you enjoy the love story of Araballa and Captain Singh? Did it work for you? How about the villain who went to Mars to kill Arabella's brother? Did you find the Martians intrinsically interesting? Were they developed reasonably? Would you be interested in following Arabella's further adventures?

Arabella of Mars - Q2

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:11:42 +0000

The ships of the book were sailing ships, not too dissimilar to the Napoleonic era sailing ships plowing the seas of earth, and quite a lot of attention was spent detailing how they worked. Did they interest you? Or were you bored by the exposition? The fact of the vacuum of space being entirely replaced by air would require some wonky physics, as the drag of bodies moving in air would eventually slow and stop therm from movement. Did that bother you at all, or were you able to accept it. at face value?

Arabella of Mars - Q5

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:28:56 +0000

There was quite a bit of action interspersed with the exposition during the flight of the Diana to Mars - the privateers, the French naval ship, and then the uprising on Mars itself when they landed. Did you enjoy these parts? Was there enough action to keep your interest? Did it seem 'realistic' given the fantastic and exotic setting? In many ways, the book treated the Martians as if they were natives of the British Empire on Earth, though they were very different from Humans. Did this work for you? Or was this mere outer dressing? Did they evoke your interest?

Arabella of Mars - Q4

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:22:28 +0000

The automaton Aadim seemed possibly sapient, yet the evidence for it was very subjective. Did you enjoy reading about Aadim? Was Aadim an interesting character, or just a plot device? Did you empathize with Aadim? Did you think Aadim was sapient? Or was that a misperception by Arabella? Captain Singh designed Aadim, but Arabella seemed to have a very personal relationship with the device. Was this relationship of interest to you?

Arabella of Mars - Q1

clash_bowley — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:05:17 +0000

Arabella is obviously not destined to fit within the societal norms of the Georgian age she was born into. Is she a proto-sufferagette? A feminist? Or is she just an oddball who made a separate place for herself? Do you think the treatment afforded her after the revelation that she was a woman made sense within the mores of the age?

About David D. Levine

RichardAbbott — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 09:08:20 +0000

David D. Levine is the author of Andre Norton Award winning novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016), sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus (Tor 2017) and Arabella the Traitor of Mars (Tor 2018), and over fifty SF and fantasy stories. His story "Tk'Tk'Tk" won the Hugo Award, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell. Stories have appeared in Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, Tor.com, five Year's Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic from Wheatland Press.

David is a contributor to George R. R. Martin's bestselling shared-world series Wild Cards. He is also a member of publishing cooperative Book View Cafe and nonprofit Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Inc. He has narrated podcasts for Escape Pod, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa, and his video "Dr. Talon's Letter to the Editor" was a finalist for the Parsec Award. In 2010 he spent two weeks at a simulated Mars base in the Utah desert.

David lives in a hundred-year-old bungalow in Portland, Oregon. His web site is www.daviddlevine.com.

Cover blurb for Arabella of Mars

RichardAbbott — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 09:06:48 +0000

“A fanciful romp through a cosmic 1812, Hugo Award–winning Levine’s first novel is a treat for steampunk fantasy fans.” —Library Journal (starred review)

Born on Mars, sixteen-year-old Arabella Ashby enjoys many more freedoms than most girls her age, tramping around the desert with her older brother. But that liberty is not to last. Finding Mars much too unladylike for her daughters, Arabella’s mother takes the girls back to London, where they’re sure to find suitable husbands among the ton.

Weighed down by Earth’s gravity—and her own unhappiness—Arabella dearly misses her father and their shared passion for automata. When she learns of his death, she also uncovers her cousin’s devious plot to travel to Mars, murder her brother, and claim the family inheritance for himself.

To foil his dastardly plans, Arabella disguises herself as a boy to gain employment on an airship to Mars. Though she is valued by the captain for her talent with the automaton navigator he invented, she must survive French privateers, mutiny, and her own unmasking, only to reach a Mars embroiled in rebellion . . .

“If Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and Patrick O’Brien had sat down together to compose a tale to amuse Jane Austen, the result might be Arabella of Mars. So. Much. Fun!” —Madeleine Robins, author of the Sarah Tolerance Regency mystery series

“A very clever and entertaining start to a memorable saga.” —Kim Stanley Robinson, New York Times–bestselling author

“Arabella, a human teenager born on Mars, is catapulted into adventure in a tale that cleverly combines some of the most intriguing elements of steampunk and classic science fiction.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)