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.