The Aether Chronicles-Book 1
Suzanne Lazear
Flux
August 1, 2012 / ASIN: B008MBHPM0
Teen / Fantasy & Magic, Alternate Universe, 1901 California
Amazon
Reviewed
by Beth E. McKenzie
Magnolia Montgomery
Braddock (Noli to her friends) is a typical tomboy in a single-parent
home. She likes to read, climb trees and fix things. She misses
her father, an engineer who was taken by the aether in the aftershocks
of the San Francisco earthquake. She lives in Los Angeles with her
mother who can’t face their diminished circumstances or ask
for help from her Boston Brahmin family. The biggest problem that
Noli has is that she was born into high-society during the waning
light of Victoria; and being a tomboy, even in “that barbaric
new country that doesn’t need monarchs”, is neither
typical nor acceptable.
I enjoyed most of this story. The plot has enough surprises and
twists to keep me interested and the faerie are interesting folk
with a beautiful land. The High Queen is deceitful and cold, but
the scenes at the reform school made me shiver worse because of
the blatant meanness of it all. I loved the contrast between the
cold, grimy place where they were trying to help Noli by starving
and torturing her and the bright happy land where she could have
her every wish until she is sacrificed.
I was disappointed overall though. I wanted to read a steampunk
book and this author comes highly recommended for the subject. But
with the exception of the opening scenes about a flying car and
sporadic references to “aether”, this is a book about
a Victorian-Age girl who won’t conform to societal norms and
the extreme measures the culture was willing to accept to mold girls
with ideas into ladies. When Noli makes a wish in a fairy tree on
the night of the summer solstice under a full moon she is whisked
away from the frying pan into the fire to the Otherworld of fairies.
In some ways this is very much a kid’s book as all of her
best friends charge into the Otherworld to the rescue and the handsome
prince risks everything for her. Is she any better off? We’ll
just have to wait and see.
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