The Emilie Adventures!!

Next in line for the Martha Wells update and republishing by @tordotcompub

The Emilie Adventures starts with 16 year old Emilie running from her home. Her Aunt and Uncle (who mostly raised her) are sure she will end up being “flighty” like her mother was and Emilie is determined to break free of them. But her plans to assist her cousin at her school fall to pieces as she ends up an accidental stowaway on a steampunk adventure to the Hollow World with a team of sorcerer philosophers. It’s here that she finally figures out what she’s made of and dares to start dreaming bigger.

The second story includes one of her brothers and is a lovely start to some family healing.

Both of these stories was phenomenal. I’ve come to expect great nuanced characters and world building from Martha Wells and this ticked those boxes and then some.

If you want a Jules Verne-esque YA adventure, look no further!

Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

These two stories were fantastic! It was so great watching Emilie deal with the situations she's gotten herself into, and to learn from them. She's off on an adventure at every turn!

3.5 Stars. The Emilie Adventures is a duology of Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World. It is a middle grade steampunk novel that follows a teen girl running away from home. Trying to get out from under the thumb of her bully Uncle, Emilie finds herself as a stowaway on a ship headed to a place she’s never heard about: The Hollow World. This Hollow World resides at the core of her world (a nod to Jules Verne) and the only way to get there is to travel along the aether currents connecting the two. Along the way, Emilie meets new friends, mentors, allies, and enemies in this unique adventure novel. Book two picks up exactly where book one leaves off. Emilie finds herself as the assistant to Ms. Marlendes and finds a portal to another world: The Sky World.

Emilie is a girl I would have worshiped if I had this book around in my tween years. She is smart, confident, stubborn, and a go-getter. She sees a problem and instead of freezing, she does her best to fix it, even when she doesn’t have a ready answer. I spent so many days fantasizing about happening upon an adventure and traveling the world. Emilie got to live this daydream.

I did have a few issues with this book. One being Emilie does read younger than her age. I went back twice to double check her age because I kept visualizing her as 11-13, maybe 14 at the oldest and not 16. Which in turn made me wonder several times “why are they just letting a child do this??” But then realizing she is nearly an adult and might have come across as more mature to the crew. This leads to my other issue of it being a bit unrealistic that as a stowaway on a research ship with zero education, she is allowed in several discussions that were meant to be private to only a few researchers. For me, it reads as something tween me wouldn’t have batted an eye at and believed Emilie just belonged. But as an adult, I’m side-eyeing all of these adults for even letting this child be in very precarious situations, let alone leave the ship at all.

Martha Wells writes beautiful scenery and descriptive passages so well. I loved her worldbuilding and could picture every detail. Her conflict scenes are also amazing and easy to visualize. With how small this book is though, it has taken away from character development. There are so many wonderful characters that are brought in, only to just remain a name and description.This could easily have been a two part, 5-book series (think Fablehaven/Dragonwatch) with just exploring The Hollow World and then the Sky World and all of the beauty each holds. I think that would allow for us to get to know Emilie more and watch her develop deeper emotional connections to the other characters.

Anyone that loves middle-grade steampunk fantasy and/or loves Martha Wells will devour this book. I do think it is geared towards the younger crowd and would be loved by tweens.

Thank you NetGalley and TorPublishing for allowing me to read this book!

Steampunk light with fun characters. Only read the first of the two books in the volume. Will come back to the second later. Quick read on a Sunday afternoon type of story.

This was a great collection of two stories that had that steampunk element that I was looking for. It uses the concept perfectly and was hooked from the first page. Each story was a great element in this world and was engaged with the characters. Martha Wells has a strong writing style and was enjoying the overall story going on.