Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space

I originally borrowed this book from the library to read aloud to my, now six year old, daughter and I have to tell you the truth, I took it back with out reading it. It was too much for me, I couldn't do the accents right and the lingo and speech patterns were just too much for my brain that day. So, I borrowed the audio book and let Greg Steinbruner read it to her instead. Which was wonderful for all of us; he did the lingo the accents and the speech patterns of all the different characters flawlessly. And while she followed along looking at the fabulous illustrations in the book, we all fell in love with Larklight. It's a wonderfully imaginative and fantastic story of the giant spiders who attack Art and Myrtle Mumby and their home, Larklight, which is located in outer space, of course. If your child likes Peter Pan and pirates she might like this story, though it has a little bit of a scary factor, I could see it scaring some children, there are gigantic spiders attacking after all. But our kid loved this so much we bought her the sequel, Starcross, and read it to her ourselves. We got the hang of the accents and the lingo and all after repeatedly listening to Greg Steinbruner. Last year our girl insisted on being Jack Havock, the hero from Larklight for Halloween. And her birthday party last month was planned around Larklight. So, it's really made quite the impression with her. I highly recommend it and hope you love it as much as we do.

Larklight is a giant Victorian style home orbiting around the moon. It is inhabited by the Mumby's, including 15 year old Myrtle, 12 year old Art, and Edward, their Father. Their mother, Amelia, died a few years back on a trip to the Earth's surface. Edward is studying the habits of Aetheric Icthyomorphs, a breed of fish and sea like creatures that live in space. One day a man named Mr. Webster from the Royal Xenological Society pays a call on Edward to see his work, but Mr. Webster turns out to be a giant white spider that has come to unleash an army of similar creatures onto Larklight. When Art awakens the house is encased in spider webbing and he and his sister have to make an escape, leaving their father behind in the flight. Thus begins a tremendously adventurous feat of story telling. Reeve has outdone himself with this fine addition to the steam punk, space traveling genre. If Terry Gilliam, L. Frank Baum, George Lucas, and Jules Verne got together and had a lovechild I believe it would resemble this book. Oh, and throw in a bit of Herbert's "Dune" just for flavor. The thing is this, even with all of these influences "Larklight" is a story completely unique in it's own right. A rollicking tale of swashbuckling space pirates, intrigue, and mayhem makes this book a great read and the start of a thrilling new series. I can't wait to read the next one.

Space. It's so done, isn't it? Nine times out of ten the stories that take place in outer space are just metaphors for cowboys anyway. Star Wars. Star Trek. Firefly. Some work better than others, but the idea of a sci-fi space-based children's book would, under normal circumstances, do nothing to lift the rate of my pulse. Obviously this must have occurred to author Philip Reeve as well. Best known until now for his The Hungry City Chronicles, Reeve turns his sights on his nation's dirty past. But what if that dirty past were transposed into the outer regions of space? A space where breathing in zero gravity isn't really a problem, there are aliens galore, and the British figured out how to conquer the universe when Isaac Newton figured out space travel? Suddenly things are looking a lot more interesting. Living on a lonely little home floating not too far from their beloved Earth, young Art Mumby and his older sister Myrtle have only known Larklight as their home. After their mother disappeared a couple years ago, however, their father has become increasingly lost in his own private world. That all changes when suddenly when, without warning, Larklight and its denizens (robot servants and otherwise) are attacked by giant, vicious spiders. Art and Myrtle barely escape with their lives and in doing so come in direct contact with the infamous space pirate Jack Havock (approximate age: 14). It appears that there was always more to Larklight than met the eye, and when the siblings are split apart they must individually find a way to defeat a nefarious villain, save the British empire, and recover the ones they love. Pluck, in large quantities, is going to be necessary. Really, colonialism in space isn't necessarily a new idea either. Even Douglas Adams knew that. But to the best of my supremely limited knowledge, no one has ever created a sci-fi children's novel where the essential premise is that space travel came to Earth early. Just extrapolate that a little further and you end up with Britain at the height of its let's-grab-all-the-countries-in-the-world ideology, only transplanted into the universe at large and onto innocent planets (and their inhabitants). It's seamless. With peculiar aliens brought to London for "research", space colonists yearning to see the motherland, and a smattering of history alongside (the American colonies are still feisty but not, as of yet, beating England in the 19th century space race) the author turns the screw just a bit more when he makes the villain the biggest colonist of them all. Reeve employs a skill that has stood him in good stead all these years; He can make any situation believable. I mean, have you ever read his "Hungry City" titles? Few authors could pull off the whole in-the-future-wheeled-cities-will-eat-other-cities idea. He can. Now, having conquered the future, he's determined to bend the past to his will as well. And if along the way he's able to package it a

Art and his annoying sister live in a huge house, Larklight, which is traveling through space on an orbit beyond the moon - so they rarely have visitors in Phillip Reeve's Larklight. But visitors are expected -and the space pirates they encounter will teach them about a wider universe and more dangerous possibilities than they imagined in this fine Victorian space fantasy adventure kids in grades 4-6 will relish. The black and white illustrations throughout by David Wyatt add excitement to an already different, wonderful plot.

When eleven-year-old Art Mumby finds out that a visitor is arriving at his run-down home, Larklight, which floats in space beyond the moon, he hardly expects to be thrust into a frightening adventure of pirates, plates, and a millenium-long conflict upon which the fate of the solar system rests. He tells the story of this adventure in LARKLIGHT (occasionally giving his older sister, Myrtle, a chance to narrate via her diary), and the story is nothing if not fantastic. Philip Reeve (author of the Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles)) has created another fascinating world in LARKLIGHT. Art lives in the Victorian society of the 1800's--or rather, what Victorian society would have looked like if they'd developed space travel, and astronomy worked according to early speculations about aether (an air-like substance in space that people can move and breathe in), and interplanetary beings (Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter are all home to a variety of life forms). Reeve cuts no corners, painting the cities and citizens of the solar system in dazzling detail. The setting is a gorgeous mix of fantasy and science fiction, and fans of both genres will find much to enjoy. If the world wasn't exciting enough on its own, the adventure is of the edge-of-your-seat variety. Art and Myrtle tumble from one tense situation to another with alarming frequency. Most chapters end on cliffhangers, so be prepared to have trouble finding a place to pause. Reeve throws in enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing right until the end, and both Art and Myrtle get the chance to play hero. Art, as the main character, is not yet a teen himself, so teens may find his narration a little immature for their liking. If they're willing to give him a chance, though, they will discover that LARKLIGHT is a fast-paced, imaginative journey well worth taking. Reviewed by: Lynn Crow