A Steampunk novel. The Captain has a past that haunts him. Following his inner voice, he and his crew fly the Lady Fair through a storm, finds and rescues Alexandria and a baby she has saved from an assassins explosion on a transport luxury airship. That's when his quiet life as the Captain and owner of the airship Lady Fair ends and his adventures begin. He and his dedicated crew fight to stay alive and flying. His crew is his adopted family and to protect them all, he won't go down easy against dreadnaughts, gunships, airsharks or assassins. Ahead of his time he protects and nurtures women that he cares about and those he sees as wronged. Supporting women adds to his troubles. WARNING!!!!!!!!!! English majors and English professors buy at own risk. Contains passive voice and sections of tell. Get over it.
I received this book for free from Author Gifted in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Captain and the Lady Fair, based in the late 1800s is a Steampunk Novel. The Lady Fair allowed women to be part of its crew. Not only part of the crew, but high level crew members. These women, once given the change, not only performed their tasks, but excelled at them. The book takes place over the open ocean as well as the home island of the Lady Fair. The home island is similar to that of Hawaii in its overall attitude and clothing. Even much of the belief structure of the inhabitants are similar to that of Hawaii.
The beginning of the novel starts with Alexandria who is on a fateful voyage. Her dirigible is attacked from within and only Alexandria and the young Kira survive. Their survival however would not have been possible without the forward thinking of her aunt. As she is bobbing along in the water, another dirigible shows up to save the two survivors. The captain had the uncanny feeling that something is wrong. Without his crews fast thinking and his ability to read the cosmos, Alexandria and Orphan Kira would not have survived. That begins to start the story of woman empowerment, intrigue, and relationships.
The story is lengthy, but it does seem to move at a relatively good pace. The main plot of this story has to do with Alexandria who is a scientist. She created research that could make or break entire militaries. The other element that is prevalent is the unknown. Alexandria’s aunt knew to make her an outfit, the captain knew she was in the water. The list goes on throughout the book. While the plot is about Alexandria, the underlying theme is female empowerment in an age of male-centric world. The issues these women deal with could be from 1890 or from 50 years ago. This ability makes the story applicable across time periods. The conversational tone is not time specific so it is easily understandable without worrying about not knowing terms.
There are some issues that I had with the overall story, but the issues do not detract from the story. The first issue was the end. There was no real reason for it to happen at the end of this book. Knowing that there was going to be a second, and now a third installment of this series. The other issue I have is “talent”. The “Talent” aspect is a major element of this story. Due to overuse it almost became kitschy. The crew knowing something was going to happen, but instead of asking, they “shine brass”. Seriously instead of just saying “What’s going on?” they get rags and shine brass fittings. No one does that, in fact, it kind of takes away from the strength of the women.
Overall this is a good story with strong female characters and a mostly strong dialogue. I look forward to reading the other installments of this series. I really wonder where it is going to go.
About Quinne Darkover
Born in Tampa Fla, Quinne ( pronounced like two initials Q N ) has lived in England, Spain Italy, and Africa, traveled most of the U.S. and visited the East and West Caribbean. Quinne started his working life in satellite communications for aircraft for 11 years then changed his career to managing various clubs of over 1500 members for the next ten years. He has managed and overseen formal dinners that included Congressmen and Generals as special guests. He has let his varied interests take him through electronic, management and culinary schools and even flight school in Europe. Besides cooking he enjoys movies and Ren Faires for which he makes his own garb. Quinne has been in stage plays, acted as an extra on TV, read for Radio Reading Services for the Blind for 2 years and has been scuba diving in the British Virgin Islands. His pleasure is in making foods people enjoy but not overly complex. Hobbies include photography, sewing and reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. His next project will be working on cookbook 2. He has finished and published his Steampunk novel 'The Captain and the Lady Fair'. The sequel is in progress.
