Just could not finish this book. I tried, I read the first few chapters and couldn't get into the writing or the Worldscape. Written for the Teen/YA market, this came off as juvenile for that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ingram publishing for giving me a free copy of Teslanauts! All thoughts and opinions are my own.


I couldn't get through the book. I DNF'd around 10% into the book. I really wanted to like this book! I'm a sucker for teen spy books and adventurous stories. Unfortunately, I have no idea what tone this book is going for. 1920s pulp, a serious war story with fantastical elements, a silly but comforting read? I don't know. I do know that I was immediately met with info-dumps instead of actual worldbuilding. It felt more like reading a summary than the story itself. I get that worldbuilding is hard but when I don't know the book's tone, it was jarring. Even as I got further along, I was hit with these info-dumps and I wished Donald would have shown me more than he told me all of these things.

The same applies to Raymond himself. I also don't know who the lead is on a personal level. Yes, Raymond Calvert is 16 and looking for his father but that's all I got from him other than some sarcastic comments now and then.

I know giving up at 10% feels a bit hasty but I had emotionally checked out by then. With a book like this, I need to care about the characters and their journeys and I didn't care about Raymond and Helen.

Overall, I'm not saying Donald is a bad writer but I do think this book could have done with a few more edits.

Clever and witty with plenty of science and steampunk ambiance. Part action adventure, part alternate reality, part science historical fiction, I enjoyed this YA novel

An interesting and creative YA! Alternate historical fiction, with dashes of sci-fi fun and quite an enjoyable read.