Ohmygosh!!! This was everything. Such a fun story. Martha does it again. From the story, to the characters everything was delightful.

Martha Wells is one of my favorite authors, and I love that her older works are getting republished for a new chance at life. The Emilie Adventures combines two books: Emilie & the Hollow World and Emilie & the Sky World. They star 16 year old runaway Emilie, whose attempt to stowaway aboard a steamship to escape her overbearing aunt and uncle goes disastrously wrong when she ends up on a ship not bound for another port, but bound for another world through the magical aether current.

The two adventures Emilie and the crew she winds up with are a lot of fun, though probably more as a reader than for Emilie herself! Martha Wells has a great ability to develop non human people and societies, one of my favorite parts of her other series, The Books of the Raksura, and the ones she creates here do not disappoint. The Sky World was my favorite of the two, a pretty much non stop action adventure with flower people and invisible aether ghosts and an airborne mountain range that is both fascinating and kind of terrifying.

Emilie is a fun and engaging protagonist, who perhaps reads a little younger than sixteen but with her sheltered upbringing it works. I’m only sorry we don’t get to go on any further adventures with her. Perhaps with these books being in print again, Wells will return to this world.

I have been a fan of Martha Wells for a long time. Emilie's stories have been enjoyed by many of our readers, I'm so happy the stories are getting a rebrand that will allow more readers to enjoy Martha Wells work! Emilie's adventures are books that engage a spark in reading in younger readers. Thank you for the eARC.

I like the writer’s writing but this book just wasn’t for me. Maybe I would have liked it if I was younger but the story was just meh and young for my taste .

I can’t recommend.

Omgosh, where to start. This was such an epic adventure! The detail of the story made it play like a move in my head. What an amazing world the author created. It flowed effortlessly and I couldn’t stop reading to see what happens next.
If your a fan of the authors murderbot series and journey to the center of the earth, but high octaine levels, this story is for you. Perfect for younger teen and adults of all ages.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!
This was such a beautiful return to what I think is true YA fantasy. This collection gave me the nostalgia of reading a story when I was 12-16. It’s not overly dramatic, or too old. There are some adult themes but nothing overly sexual or inappropriate.
The YA/new adult craze has really stolen this kind of story away from young readers so this was a breath of fresh air!

Martha Wells is such a talented writer and I’ve loved her murder bot series. Her Emilie Adventures are a very steam punk adventure series about a young girl running away from her family who has misunderstood her. She ends up falling in with a crew of scientists and adventurers traveling through magic currents to other pocket worlds.
Four stars!

Emilie and the Hollow World

Emilie and the Hollow World is a fast-paced, journey to the center of the earth, where you won’t find dinosaurs, but you will find an action-packed, dangerous expedition on the sea.

Our story begins with Emilie seeking to escape the clutches of an unusually controlling uncle, who thinks any life course, besides marriage and child bearing, will automatically lead to prostitution. Emilie runs away, obviously, but accidentally boards a ship bound for middle earth. 👀 Will she make it out alive, or will she become a prostitute? You’ll have to read the book to find out. Regardless of the outcome, you will find no spice here, and minimal profanity. Good luck to you! I made it out alive and did not become a prostitute. In fact I thoroughly enjoyed this … highly chaperoned and respectable adventure.

Emilie and the Sky World

Emilie is back! She's still in danger though, because her unusually controlling uncle is on the prowl. Will he howl if she takes off again, instead of coming home? Probably. The telescope reveals a concerning anomaly in the sky. Are foreign entities stopping by? Emilie and friends must investigate straight away. Will her uncle denounce her as a prostitute when she returns, or will he just be glad she made it home at all? Put a pin in those questions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was my favorite of the two. I absolutely adored the colorful characters. One of them was blooming adorable. I lived in suspense. The action level was great. I never got bored. A great young adult steampunk fantasy adventure. No spice, mild profanity, mild violence/death. I highly recommend for the appropriate audiences. Bring a chaperone and don't become a prostitute, or uncle will not be happy with you.

This is the first YA I've ever read from Martha Wells, and it is as charming and inventive as I expected. I love that her older work is being brought out again now that she's become such a rock star. Looking forward to seeing more folks enjoy her fantasy along Murderbot.

A fun read. I loved the steampunk/sci-fi elements to the book.

The world building and found family (my favorite in books) was done really well.

This was definitely for a younger crowd. Emilie did read really young at some points, but she is 16. My younger self would’ve ate this up.

I still liked it, but I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was a bit younger.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for this eARC.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor, and Martha Wells for this ARC of The Emilie Adventures.

I've loved Martha Wells' sci-fi works and fell in love with Murderbot from the second page of the first entry. I've had less effusive praise for Ms. Wells' fantasy in the past, but the Emilie Adventures was a strong outing. As the reader gets to know Emilie, it's easy to get lost in her story and find oneself transported several hours into the future when next you look up, without having noticed the passage of real-world time at all.

This was my first time reading Martha Wells' fantasy books. I am obsessed with The Murderbot Diaries so I was very interested when I saw The Emilie Adventures. Overall I really enjoyed The Emilie Adventures! This book contains two full length novels and follows a teenaged Emilie.

In the first book Emilie is unhappy with her life and decides to run away from her aunt and uncle in an attempt to meet up with her cousin. Of course it all goes wrong with Emilie boarding the wrong ship and ending up in a new world. I was really reminded of Jules Verne novels with the adventure, world, and creatures. I really enjoyed Emilie's character but felt the world building wasn't as strong as Wells' sci-fi books.

The second book for me wasn't as strong as the first but I still really enjoyed the adventure. I love that we see two different experiences with Emilie. I did enjoy seeing the crew again and love their found family relationship.

Overall I enjoyed The Emilie Adventures and loved reading some of Martha Wells fantasy books for the first time. I think the writing style and worlds are really creative and unique, but this story is definitely for a younger audience. Very excited to read more from Martha Wells!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing me an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Emilie Adventures is two separate books by Martha Wells. Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World.

In the first novel, Emilie is running away from home. She’s lived with her aunt and uncle and at the age of 16 she’s finally had enough. She attempts to run away to a school where her cousin is but accidentally boards the wrong ship! Shortly after casting off, the ship goes to a new world within the planet, the Hollow World. While there, the ship is damaged and it’s believed to be sabotage. Will the crew be able to fix the ship and return home?

This books is like Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Treasure Planet, except the treasure is more like a discovery, so maybe Atlantis?? It has a ton of found family vibes for sure. This book was fun and I enjoyed the expansive characters. The world building wasn’t my favorite and I feel Wells does a better job in a sci-fi setting than a fantasy setting when it comes to this. Her characters were enjoyable, however, everything does not need to be spoon fed to the reader. Overall, I gave the first book 4/5 stars.

In the second novel, the crew is back together along with some new faces. This time, instead of going down, we are going up! The crew discovers a lost ship in the sky and is thrust into a whole new adventure with new creatures and new worlds!

With a similar feel of the first book, we get the same comparison as the first (JttCotE/Treasure Planet/Atlantis) but with a new twist! This book wasn’t as strong as the first and gave a lot less for the reader to imagine and more hand feeding the information. The story felt geared for a younger audience than the first book which was a bit of a drawback. Overall, I gave the second book 3/5 stars!

Thank you to Tor for the e-ARC.

4.25 stars for a wholly enjoyable early YA/middle-grade fantasy adventure duology in one edition.

The characters endear, a family is found, interesting worlds are built (aka endearing characters, found family, and excellent scifi/steampunk fantasy worldbuilding).

Emilie has chutzpah, a yearning for adventure, and a chip on her shoulder. She desperately wants a life more exciting than the one her aunt and uncle are determined to confine her in, but isn’t a perfectly skilled or courageous heroine, though she rises to the occasion.

My only real complaint is that the pacing dragged in some bits. But the second of the two books was really excellent and Hyacinth was a top-tier character.

From the publisher: Two YA steampunk adventures from the author of the wildly successful Murderbot Diaries.

The Emilie Adventures contains two full-length fantasy novels. Teenaged Emilie lives with her uncle and brothers and is extremely unhappy at home. Her uncle insults her and her brothers don’t respect her. She decides to run away from home and go help her cousin run a school for girls. But things don’t go exactly to plan.

What follows is two adventures right out of Jules Verne. The tales remind me very much of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, only updated and featuring a female main character. Emilie plans to stow away on a ship to get to her cousin but accidentally stows away on the wrong ship – the very wrong ship. During an attack by another crew, Emilie sees her first non-human (with black fur, glittery scales, and pointed teeth) and finds herself delving under the sea to another world. The second adventure features an ascent into the sky and yet another world.

The best way I can describe The Emilie Adventures is sweetly old-fashioned. I was surprised to see that the two stories were originally published in 2013 and 2014. They feel like they were written forty years ago. They are also marketed as young adult, but they feel more like kids books than teen books to me. (The only thing any parent could possibly object to in The Emilie Adventures is the barely-mentioned-in-passing fact that two men were in love years ago before breaking up and marrying women.)

Emilie is plucky and resourceful but also very smart. She meets magicians and adventurers, sailors and more aliens. Most of the people are some shade of brown, and there are plenty of other resourceful women. Emilie is also a reader of romantic adventures stories and draws on them when she finds herself inside of one. The tales were a lot of fun – both familiar and unfamiliar.

I read an advance reader copy of The Emilie Adventures from NetGalley. The books are being republished because of the popularity of the author’s Murderbot Diaries series. The Emilie Adventures will be available at the Galesburg Public Library.

These were certainly adventurous and fun! I think my niece would really enjoy these, as it's obvious they are for a younger crowd. But I mean that in a good way! It was still a fun read for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed Emilie's interactions with the other characters, as well as her development. At times, she did seem a bit like she was just going along with the crowd, but she did take initiative in other times! A fun read!

These stories are fabulous and great reading for young adults (and adults too!) Set in a world of airships and futuristic occurrences, young Emilie accidentally falls into a fantastic adventure. Emilie has run away from her uncle, who she lives with, because he thinks she is worthless and wants to be like her mother ,who ran away to be an actress. He wants Emilie to make a good marriage or become a respectable governess as young women do in Victorian times. Emilie plans to join her cousin at her school in the next port, but when she gets to port she doesn't have enough money for the ferry. She stows away on a ship. Unfortunately the ship is an unusual vehicle that can travel on the aethereal flows and takes her to a land below the earth's surface. She meets strange creatures, get shot at , has all kind of dangerous adventures and barely makes it back to the surface before she takes off in an airship on more dangerous adventures!
It's a raucous blend similar to 200,000 Leagues under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
They are enjoyable type of adventures that I wish more authors were skilled at writing. I have also read the author's Murderbot series and find it wonderful reading as well!!!

This book was lovely! I adored Emilie, and her problem-solving reminded me of the Percy Jackson series and seeing how the trio would get out of difficult situations. Truly delightful.

This was fun! I enjoy Martha Wells' writing and this did not disappoint. I am glad these stories are getting a rebrand and will reach more audiences!

"The Emilie Adventures" by Martha Wells is a collection of two YA steampunk stories focused on a teen named Emilie and the adventures that she goes on. The first story is about when she runs away from home and ends up on a ship that is actually headed for the inside of the planet. The second story is another adventure where there is an aetheric disturbance and Emilie and her friends must travel to the Sky World to fix it. Both stories have interesting worlds with a lot of mayhem and adventure. Emilie shows her resourcefulness and bravery in both stories. A recommended purchase for YA collections where fantasy and steampunk are popular.

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.