This was a really intriguing beginning with a whole lot of potential in the premise, some met here and some hopefully to come in future installments. The one thing it unfortunately lacks is a complete story arc that would make it stand on its own as well as part of a series, which made it disappointing to read towards the end as this became apparent. 

The book has a warm, pleasant atmosphere and I enjoyed the effect of it: it left me feeling invested in the characters and hoping for their success, but not constantly worried about them. The writing style that builds this up and keeps it consistent is genuinely lovely to read, I just wanted more of it. More plot, more interactions between the characters — it would have been nice to see Alicia and Elena have more equal parts in the story and to see the latter's impression of the former. Elena's characterization felt inconsistent at times, and seeing more parts from her perspective would likely have helped balance that.

I wanted more because I loved the beginning of what this gave: a fascinating concept, interesting characters and the promise of something bigger ahead.

She wanted to go back to her tower room and absorb herself in her stacks of algebra
Alicia Reynard, a country farm girl, has dreamed of flying like a bird as long as she can remember. For her, these dreams have become a quest to build a flying steam carriage. Lady Elena Singleton, a young noblewoman, is in love with mathematics and the new field of mechanical computation. When their country Maedrelleden goes to war with their northern neighbor, Vergenstat, the men are conscripted to fight for king and country. In their absence, an opportunity arises for these two very different women to gain a higher education in the capital of Aeterall. Will this chance be the opportunity to unlock their potential and ingenuity?

The Mechanical Bird: A Tale of Two Ladies is, as far as I can gather, a whole book chopped into thirds. Whilst it is the length of a novella it is not a novella in the sense that it does not contain a complete story arc and so, whilst I enjoyed the characters and the direction that this book was taking, I'm not quite sure why the author chose to publish his work thus, which is why I have left this book unrated.
She admired Elena's beauty but she could not emulate it. Alicia wore plain dresses. She worked with her hands and came home muddy and dirty and there was no place for makeup in her life

A Tale of Two Ladies is, you guessed it, the story of two ladies. Alicia Reynard, who gets the lion's share of the page time, is a country girl with an interest in machinery and flight. She is encouraged to read and learn in her spare time by her father. When a war breaks out and her father goes off to join the war effort, Alicia and her mother are left to tend to the family farm. But when the capital of Aeterall opens it's university's doors to young women, Alicia decides to apply.

"There's a new edition calculus book coming and I want that."
"Poetry you say? Girls love poetry."

Elena Singleton is a young noblewoman whose older brother has just been conscripted to fight and whose mother is determined to marry her off to an eligible young man, either unaware or uncaring that Elena prefers women. Elena's love of mathematics and calculations is secretly supported by her grandmother, who encourages her to apply for the University of Aeterall despite her mother's wishes.

Both young women are interesting main characters, but I thought it was a shame that Elena gets so little page time. When the two women meet, we only ever see Elena from Alicia's perspective and never the other way around, which I was a touch disappointed by. Their stories are laced with ideas of equality, tradition, feminism, and a good dose of humour, which I enjoyed.

I was disappointed when it ended because it seemed like we were just getting to the crux of the story: Elena and Alicia going to study at the university. I would have loved for this to have been a full book.

This book felt like a third of a book. Like it was only the beginning of something - but not in the way a first installment of a series feels. It was just like someone had written a whole story, then chopped off two thirds of it. And that's the reason why I felt this did not work for me. Even if it is a novella I still expect it to have a proper beginning, middle and end - and this one only had one of those three things.

The characters were interesting, the world was interesting, the writing was good - but the story felt chopped off. And then I can't give it a higher rating.

I was excited to read this for various reasons: it's steampunk, includes two women grasping at the opportunity to attend university, and it's the first book in a series. I was intrigued by the short length of this book and at just over 100 pages I was looking for a novella, but in fact, A Tale of Two Ladies felt more like the opening of a full-length novel than a story in itself, which is the reason for the low rating in this case.

Alicia and Elena are from very different worlds. Alicia is a country farm girl who has dreamed of flying since childhood. Elena is a noblewoman who loved mathematics but is being pushed into marriage by her traditional mother. When the kingdom goes to war, the university in the capital city of Aeterall opens its doors to women for the first time, and these two women both jump at the chance to chase their dreams. This story follows their journey to becoming students at the university, from filling in their applications to meeting briefly at the university's entrance tests and interviews. I understand from the description that this is a serial, but personally, for me, there was not enough of a story arc in this book. I think that the first part of a series in particular should always have a self-contained story to it as well as being the beginning to an overarching story so that people can enjoy the book in and of itself, but this was just an opening to a larger story.
Apart from the flaws with the plot in this book, I really liked other aspects of this story, and definitely think that if it had been the opening to a full-length novel I would have kept reading. I was getting strong Anne of Green Gables vibes from Alicia's character, who loves her family and seems to live partly in her dreams of flying. I also enjoyed Elena's rebellious streak and her resistance to her mother's choice of husband - there was also a moment with a biscuit that made me laugh out loud. The story in general, with two women from different walks of life meeting and clashing at university, also reminded me of Wicked, which I enjoyed. I liked how the two women clashed somewhat, but there was still a hint at a future relationship. However, I did have some issues with the character development, especially for Elena. She seemed smart and funny in the first half of the novel, but at the university she was suddenly socially awkward and incapable of verbal communication, which felt odd. I would have liked some more consistency here.

I definitely feel like Glenn Song has all of the ingredients for something really fun and exciting - the world-building was good, the steampunk concept was intriguing, and the characters are easy to get behind in their respective goals. With some tweaking, I think that this could be a great opening to a really interesting novel, but on its own, The Mechanical Bird: A Tale of Two Ladies just doesn't stand up all that well.

I really wanted to give this story 3 stars.
It is steampunk, the main protagonists are women who are struggling for the right to a university education.

Unfortunately the sorry just didn't make it past 2.5 stars.

I checked the page count before I started so I wasn't surprised that it was a novella. But the length, or lack of it, did not allow the author to really develop the story. Just as the narrative seemed to be finding some momentum it stopped.
In addition although the title claims it is 'A Tale of Two Ladies' it is 1/4 a tale of one lady and 3/4 of the other. Elena's character is not fully examined and there seems to be quite a jump between her character as seen from her own point of view and her character as described by Alicia.
This would have made an interesting contrast if it had been fully developed but there was no space for that in 122 pages.

The world building although hardly original was interesting but there were some 'anachronistic' uses of vocabulary that were jarring. Throughout the narrative the use of syntax, grammar and vocabulary was decidedly odd. Odd enough that it frequently took me out of the story and made the writing seem very immature.
In fact the novella read 'young' from the first page and seemed suitable to an age group somewhere between middle-grade and YA.

With further development of the narrative and some serious editing this might make a good YA novella.

Fun steampunk story about women in STEM
I enjoyed this book. Author Glenn Song did some interesting world-building and created some fascinating characters. The story is well paced and involves politics and reaching for your potential. And very directly, I felt, it encourages women to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). I am not sure this is intentional on the part of the author, but since I think that more women should be in STEM, I liked it. I also liked the rebelliousness of the main characters. I recommend this book for anyone who likes the steampunk subgenre.

This read like the first 100 pages of a novel rather than a novella in its own right.

Nothing really happened. all the plot just surrounded the two eponymous ladies, Elena and Alicia, applying to university and getting into university. The only conflicts are exceedingly minor, and there didn't seem to be any particular plot, only the seed of one. Quite frankly, this should not have been published in its current form; it should have comprised part of a novel or novella, instead of being released by itself, because currently it is 100 pages of nothing.

Another criticism I have is that Elena seemed like two completely different people in her sections and then from Alicia's point of view. I understand the writer wanted to show the two sides of her, but it just didn't work; Elena seemed like a different person in the two halves of the book.

All in all, there could be an interesting plot surrounding this intriguing steampunk world and the characters, but... where is it?? There isn't one!! Maybe it comes in the second book, but that should not be the case. each volume of a series has to have its own discrete plot; you can't just have one book entirely of build-up, which is what this one was. Sorry, this just completely did not work for me.