Book Review: Larklight

Phillip Reeve has done it again, folks! Another steampunk series has begun! I read the first books of his other series, The Mortal Engines and Fever Crumb, enjoyed the clever world building and general steampunkness, but never really felt invested enough to finish with a desperate desire for more. When I saw his name on the cover of Larklight, I wondered if this would be the one to get me hooked on his writing...

The Plot: In the 1850's Art Mumby and his sister Myrtle live drifting through the solar system in a house called Larklight--until a giant man-eating spider in a bowler hat crashes into their house and captures and/or eats their father. Shenanigans ensue. 

The Good Stuff: The overall mood of this book is delightfully whimsical in a way that's hard to put one's finger on. In a way, it really seems to remind me of a lot of classic kid's books like The Borrowers or Dr. Dolittle. One can easily tell that Mr. Reeve is not only well-acquainted with the Victorian mindset, but he's also quite capable of putting it seamlessly into the setting of outer space, giving this book a rather unique and fun feel. Likewise, David Wyatt's illustrations are very Victorian-looking, not to mention just lovely in general. As with Reeve's other works, Larklight is filled with clever little details about it's world--space pirates, flying pigs that do housework, etc.--and whimsical moments that on occasion made me laugh awkwardly out loud when I should have been paying attention in class.

The Bad Stuff: To be honest, I actually put this book down for several weeks about halfway through. Not because of anything in particular that I didn't like; I just put it down and entirely forgot that I was reading it, which really says a lot.
It definitely did have plenty of cliche going on. A reptilian character who speaks with an exaggerated lisp, evil giant spiders--although one of the spiders wears a bowler hat, which is pretty awesome.
I didn't really engage in the characters either. I really wanted to like them, but the only ones I actually found myself caring about were all fairly minor. Art makes for a rather dull hero, as he did so little throughout the course of the book that he might as well have just been a narrator describing everybody else's stories in third person.
As for his sister, Myrtle... Well, excuse me while I Caps Lock for a moment.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THAT GIRL! I DON'T THINK THERE WAS A PAGE OF THIS BOOK WHERE I DIDN'T WANT TO SLAP HER PERSONALITY-LESS FACE! Seriously, though, I normally have problems with Mary-Sues, that is, "perfect characters," but I didn't realize that it was possible to go the opposite direction and create a character who's such a dim-witted, ugly, and downright useless loser that it actually makes her unrealistic.Sure, there are moments that imply that by the end of the series, she just might improve, but it's gonna be a long, tedious process at the rate she's gone in the first book. I understand how the twelve-year-old narrator might have a low opinion of his sister, in a teasing, brother-sister way, but the author clearly doesn't like her either. Or maybe--or probably, in fact--she's supposed to be a satire of "Victorian values" and gender roles, but that's really no excuse to make such a whiny, helpless brat a main character. Maybe I've been spoiled by the likes of Katniss Everdeen and her bad-ass-girl brethren, but Myrtle quite nearly ruined this book for me.

The Verdict: Larklight is fun once you get past its flaws. I'm not urging you to run out and buy this right away, but there really were quite a few cool moments, and, for all its bumps in the middle, it really did leave me in a good mood. All in all, this was a pretty good read, but I have to admit that I'm glad I bought it used for a buck at Goodwill.

Costume Tutorial: Eyepatch/Monocle Combo

To begin with, sorry for my recent lack of posts; I've been feeling a bit lazy ill this past week.But anyway, as Halloween approached, I couldn't decide if I wanted a monocle or an eyepatch. So I decided to make both at once! I wore this to a recent Halloween party, and got lots of attention for it...But that might have been because I was the only one to show up in costume...

1. Cut an oblong piece of fabric large enough to cover the area around your eye. I used faux leather scavenged from an ugly purse I found at Goodwill.

2. Find a round piece of slumped glass about an inch in diameter. Cut a hole in the leather that's just a little bit smaller than the glass piece.

3. Cut two more pieces of leather, each about an inch wide and long enough to go about halfway around your head.

4. Punch holes along the outer edge of the leather oval and down the center of the straps, each about a half-inch apart.

5. Take a long hemp cord and whipstitch through the punched holes around the edges of the leather. Use the cord to stitch the straps to the main part of the patch.

6. Glue a piece of fabric over the back to the patch to prevent the stitching and the ends of the straps from poking your eye. The fabric should be just slightly smaller than the main part of the patch, also with the hole in the middle.

7. Attach the glass piece over the hole. There are two ways of doing this. If the glass is wire wrapped, as mine was, you can run several pieces of thread between the wire and the hemp stitching to sew it into place. If not, a bit of hot glue will do.

8. Add a fastener to the backs of the straps. I used an elastic piece from an old laptop charger, but, lacking any of those, you could also sew on buckles, hooks, or even magnets.

9. And it's done! By the way, if you can think of any clever names for this, could you leave a comment letting me know? I can't think of any. Whoever comes up with the best one gets an imaginary cookie. :)