I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

S.P. Somtow's "Terrestrial Passions" is a delightful blend of the mundane and the extraordinary, set against the backdrop of a quintessentially English village—Little Chiswick. The novel follows the life of the widowed Mrs. Dorrit, who exists in a state of quiet desperation alongside her brother, a vicar, and her twin daughters. Living in a quaint cottage on the estate of her affluent cousin, Lord Chuzzlewit, Mrs. Dorrit is confronted with the complexities of societal expectations, familial responsibilities, and the ever-looming pressures of marital prospects for her daughters, Emma and her sister. The narrative begins to unfold as the season shifts, bringing with it the arrival of a rakish Earl who takes residence in the nearby Flanders House—a move that stirs excitement and trepidation in the hearts of the villagers. Somtow skillfully captures the nuances of small-town gossip and the anticipation of the local women as they speculate about the Earl’s intentions, particularly concerning the eligible daughters. The story delves deep into the intricacies of human relationships, with Mrs. Dorrit standing at the intersection of duty and desire, longing for a more vibrant existence than the one dictated by her responsibilities. However, the plot takes an unexpected turn when a starship unexpectedly descends into Mrs. Dorrit's apple orchard, introducing a thrilling element of science fiction into this otherwise pastoral setting. This bold narrative choice is where Somtow truly shines, as he masterfully juxtaposes the rigid social structure of Victorian-like England with the limitless possibilities of otherworldly visitation. The arrival of the starship serves as a catalyst for change, challenging the status quo and forcing the characters to confront their innermost passions and ambitions. Somtow's writing is rich in detail, and his characters are vividly drawn. Mrs. Dorrit’s internal struggles resonate deeply, capturing the heart of any reader who has ever felt confined by circumstance. The dynamic between the Dorrit family and the new Earl is beautifully fleshed out, creating a tension that keeps readers eagerly turning the pages. Moreover, the introduction of the starship injects an element of wonder and curiosity, compelling both characters and readers to reconsider their perceptions of love, ambition, and the boundaries of their everyday lives. At its core, "Terrestrial Passions" is a story about transformation—both personal and societal. As Mrs. Dorrit navigates her life amid the complexities of family obligation and newfound possibilities, the reader is invited to reflect on what it means to truly live and love in a world that can often feel restrictive. Somtow reminds us that passion can arise in the most unexpected situations, and that the arrival of the extraordinary can bring about profound change. In conclusion, "Terrestrial Passions" is a captivating exploration of human emotions set against an imaginative backdrop. S.P. Somtow's ability to weave together elements of romance, family dynamics, and science fiction makes this book a compelling read for those who appreciate a multifaceted narrative. Whether you’re drawn in by the charming characters, the intrigue of the Earl, or the thrill of an interstellar encounter, this novel will leave you pondering the nature of passion and the endless possibilities that lie beyond the familiar.

Even though this is not a mystery I got major Gail Carriger vibes from this story. I really enjoyed the mesh of science fiction and regency.

This book is a comedic scifi that unites satirical commentary on regency class politics with some ET phone home action. An alien crash lands into the garden of a house-poor, social-climbing British family and the family welcomes their new blue friend into their home. Hilarity ensues.

This book includes:
- Bridgerton style strict society sensibilities
- laugh-out-loud comedy
- hot blue alien
- balls galore
- satirical protestant vs catholic tension

If you love Bridgerton and have a taste for scifi, I recommend this comedy for a bit of fun and levity.

I received this ebook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, S.P. Somtow, and Diplodocus Press for the opportunity to review this book. This review has been posted to GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

DNF @ 50% on the dot. This is so tricky to review!!

For some context, this is my first spec fiction, but not my first alien and regency (both separate) book. I went into this expecting a spicy alien regency read and somehow I got that... just not in the way I usually do with the previous spice, regency, and alien books I've consumed. I know the problem lies in the way the book is written, filled with dry humour and satire, which leads me to conclude Spec Fiction is not for me.

But then again, it is nicely written, with a humorous alien as the MMC of the book to entertain me, but not for long. I cannot justify giving this one a low rating when nothing is wrong with the book, but personally it's my preferences that haven't been met.

I WILL say as an avid reader of regency novels my whole pre-teen and adult life, that the author seems to be lost on how to write it. They're brilliant in Spec Fic but floundering with the tone of a regency/victorian era novel. Thus, if half of the genre is poorly executed the overall idea is awkward and a bit cringe.

Anyhow, I'll give this one 3 ⭐s. It didn't leave me with good feelings but I didn't have a visceral reaction to it either. It's simply, as many have said about Spec Fic, not for me. I hope this finds it's audience!

I’m about 36% through this book and I’m sorry to say that it’s just not catching my attention. The cover made me think alien romance in regency England and I thought that was an interesting cross-over. So far however, it’s not meeting that expectation. Additionally the portrayal of the residents of this town and their reactions to the alien aren’t as compelling as I would expect and the alien world building aspect isn’t resonating with me. I’m not going to finish this book.

I couldn't put it down. I was enthralled with the story. The characters were well-written. The story was good! It kept me interested from the beginning till the very end of this intriuging story.

This was a very unique book. It is a pride and prejudice retelling with aliens. It was very funny and I loved reading it so much! I would highly recommend reading this book.

I had never previously heard of this author, although he's a well-known polymath who has written a number of books, some of which are speculative fiction. I picked the book up because I enjoy both spec-fic and Regency romance, and this offered a combination of the two.

Unfortunately, while it has some elements of a Regency romance, it manages to be almost completely unlike one, like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation vending machine in Hitchhiker's Guide that always produced a beverage almost, but not entirely, unlike tea. The overall tone is much closer to an 18th-century bawdy comedy (like <i>[book:The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling|99329]</i>) than to Jane Austen, and while I wouldn't say that it has more anachronisms, Americanisms or malapropisms than the average 21st-century-written Regency romance, it does have different ones. Note that I read a pre-publication ARC (which had some significant formatting issues, and was therefore hard to read, because of the file format I received it in), and some of the errors I outline below may be fixed before publication.

The author was born in Thailand, educated at Eton and Cambridge, and spent some time living in the US; sometimes the words he uses are used in the US rather than the British sense ("betimes" and "celebrants," for example), and sometimes they are just wrong, like "mealy-mouthed" to describe a character who is extremely frank and uncensored, the opposite of what "mealy-mouthed" means. He's fond of the word "melisma," and sometimes uses it, incorrectly, for instrumental as well as vocal performances. The word "lugging" is used to indicate "throwing".

There are a couple of instances where some cultural detail is a little off, too, such as styling noblemen "the Right Honourable" when they are not ministers of state, or referring to "the ton" in a way that does not reference a single united body. I didn't believe that someone would be "the Earl of Little Chiswick"; it would be "Earl of Chiswick," with Little Chiswick being one of the associated places. Nor did I really believe "Lord Chuzzlewit"; it's too Dickensian a name.

There are a couple of minor continuity errors; an unimportant character who starts out as Lady Sanditon becomes Mrs. Sanditon, and a conversation which starts at the end of one chapter as people arrive home for a party continues at the beginning of the next chapter, but takes place before they leave the party.

The characters, who live a couple of miles from London, are so non-cosmopolitan that most of them are entirely prepared to believe that a blue alien is a Frenchman, and they react with surprising aplomb when he performs apparent magic using his advanced technology, or speaks about his alien culture in ways that a Regency English person, in an era of French cultural dominance, should know are not true of France. In fact, that was one of my biggest issues with the book: the way people acted didn't ring true, either to human nature in general or the time and place in particular. One of the key things about Regency romance is how much people care about certain things (the opinion of the ton, getting an advantageous marriage, proper behaviour - all of which are, of course, deeply entangled); the things these people care about, or rather the things they don't care about, don't feel authentic to the period. Ironically for a book with the word "passions" in its title, I never felt that anyone was particularly passionate about anything.

Of course, a lot of Regency romances written today impose the sensibilities and cultural values of, often, the contemporary US on the England of 200 years ago. This book mostly doesn't do that, but still manages to be jarring with it. Arabella, one of the several main characters, is a (largely self-taught) intellectual, and holds advanced views on the position of women and on slavery which are not anachronistic for her time, though they line up with our modern sensibilities. But when she discovers that her love interest, a slave owner in America, had children with multiple slaves, who he didn't consider human enough to even consider them bastards, by means of sex that was coercive, even if it wasn't violent, because of the power differential (a point she herself has made earlier in a slightly different context) - she doesn't appear to care. It's not a dealbreaker, or even much of a concern. Her mother, another of the main characters, discovers that <spoiler>her brother the vicar has been getting regularly buggered by their black manservant</spoiler>, and is completely unperturbed. Arabella's sister Anna <spoiler>marries a man she is largely indifferent to, who is inexplicably attracted to her now that she can play the piano well, despite her lack of money, charm or social position; the plot requires him to be attracted to her, so he is.</spoiler> Anna is also foul-mouthed in a way that would bring instant shock and condemnation from any actual member of the Regency middle class; nobody is at all bothered by this. That's what I mean when I say that it feels a lot more like an 18th-century story than an early-19th-century one, though with extra anti-Christian sentiment that feels more like the author's intrusion.

There's a Cinderella vibe running throughout, with the alien in the role of fairy godmother, providing the wherewithal for the sisters to go to the ball and thereby attract their mates. There's even a clever classical reference to a book with a Latin title that means "turning into a pumpkin" - there's the Eton and Cambridge coming out - and the magic/advanced technology indistinguishable from magic ends at midnight <spoiler>(including the girls' dresses, which require them to wrap themselves in tablecloths that are, apparently, the only real things in the entire banquet)</spoiler>. To me, though, the happily-ever-after ending felt both unearned and unconvincing.

The spec-fic aspects came across to me as contrived, the aliens being so advanced that they might as well be powerful Fae or demigods; it was a thin shell of technological language over whatever the plot required in order to be more strange and wonderful, or just to have a sense of movement (the alien requires certain resources in order to remain alive and contact his people, but this doesn't quite manage to provide urgency to the plot). The alien is also aware of Earth technological and cultural references that are in the future from the point of view of the setting, though time travel is never mentioned.

Overall, I felt it was a bit of a mess, which missed any authentic feel of the genre or the time and place and also didn't work for me in terms of an emotional arc for any of the characters or a plot that made much structural sense. The multiple characters diffused the plot in too many directions, and they seemed not to care about the things they ought to have cared about. It's a miss as far as I'm concerned.

A story set in the 19th century, and populated by characters from several of Charles Dickens's novels (and influenced by others from Bronte and Austen). The twist, making this book a satirical farce, is that these characters' existence and English sensibility are upended when they encounter an alien who becomes stranded in Little Chiswick. The story follows the characters (mainly women) as they discover joy, sex, love, and self worth. The alien turns out to be a fun loving, extroverted, kind-hearted, sex obsessed being, who enjoys shattering middle class mores, and helping his friends discover that these mores were never more than a thin veil of moralising not adhered to by the English (or, for that matter, Russian) aristocracy.

The book is funny, taking no prisoners with regard to showing a very different version of literary 19th century England. It is hilariously matter of fact, and, with its tongue in cheek approach, helps upend views of the role of women (and gay people) at that time. Choosing to do this on the basis of Dickens's characters is doubly courageous, as he shows what might have been were these characters more real. The critique of religion and the role it plays in society are also noteworthy - these are not spared ridicule, making the whole farce even funnier.

I recommend this book to anyone who read English 19th century literature, looking for a bit of levity and fun. It was an easy read, and very entertaining. Having read the author's vampire novel, this is a huge departure, but equally well written and composed.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This quick, light work is a pastiche of Regency romances, the period works of Jane Austen, and the romance sub-genre of human/alien romance. Somtow effectively adopts the tone of the period novel and antically and comically propels his characters from one absurd incident to the next. Apparently it began as a serial and has that end-of-chapter cliffhanger quality that comes with the territory. So, well written, droll, and occasionally highlighting a more serious theme, including the universality of love and the virtue of both legal and real emancipation. I don’t think I am the target audience and it was a bit precious for my taste but I think it will find a happy audience.