About.com Rating

Emilie and the Sky World is the second book in Martha Wells' Emilie series. This steampunk adventure series featuring a slightly-too-smart-for-her-own-good girl hero is Wells' first foray into YA fiction, but like her books for adults, it is set in a richly-imagined secondary world that is similar to ours, but not quite the same. Adventure fans of all ages should enjoy this romp.

Publication Information

• Full Title:Emilie and the Sky World

• Series: Emilie (#2)
• Author: Martha Wells
• Publisher: Strange Chemistry
• Publication Date: March 2014
• ISBN: 9781908844521 (paperback), 9781908844538 (ebook), B00F1W0890 (Kindle ASIN)

Into the Sky

Book two in the Emilie series picks up not long after the end of Emilie and the Hollow World (read my review). Emilie and the crew have returned more or less intact from their under-sea adventure, intending to rest up and recover before returning to normal life. Emile and the young scholar Daniel go to visit Emilie's cousin -- to where Emilie was originally fleeing when she ended up on Dr Marlende's submarine instead.

During a visit to Daniel's friend Professor Abindon, they learn of a strange phenomenon in the aether currents of the sky which sends them hurriedly back to the Marlendes to report. When they investigate further, they discover a strange vessel approaching through what seems to be a hole in the sky. Naturally, they must investigate, and Emilie finds herself along for the adventure once again.

Another Adventure

Emile and the Sky World started off much more slowly than Emilie and the Hollow World. I can appreciate that we readers needed to be filled in on Emilie's situation back home, which she left unfinished when she accidentally ended up on the adventure of the first book, and that unfinished business did have a direct bearing on the events of this book. But I was impatient to get started, to be swept away on an adventure the way I was in book one.

It didn't help that the writing seemed a little stiffer than I remembered in the opening chapters. As I read them, I kept thinking maybe it was the victim of an overzealous editor, or maybe (though I didn't want to believe it of a favorite author) Wells felt she needed to make her writing more formally constructed for younger readers. Fortunately, I needn't have worried, and after the opening provided the necessary background, off we went on another high-speed journey into the unknown.

Another Strange World

In book one, the journey began with plunging into the depths of the sea, where a pathway to another world awaited. In this book, that pathway is through the sky. So instead of a submarine, the main vehicle this time around was an airship (yay!). The aether currents themselves get more attention in this volume -- rather than being a pathway elsewhere (though they are that) they are also a sort of place of their own. The fictional theory behind the other worlds also gets more play, though it's not too technical, so readers just looking for a fun read needn't worry about being overwhelmed by science.

As expected, the story features not only a strange new place to explore, but also new intelligent beings. There's some lovely and clever world-building and creature-creation here, as fans of Martha Wells would expect. And once past the somewhat stiff first chapters, the writing becomes lovely to read and deft at conveying all of the strange surroundings.

Self-Awareness

One of the fun things about Emilie as a hero is that she is so brash and confident, despite living in a world and time where women aren't expected to do much (the setting of the series is an alternate world at a stage something like our own late Victorian period). She's determined to do something with her life, and in the first book, she even ran away in order to get a start.

But the events of book one -- many of which were terrible, serious things, despite the overall fun-ness of the story) -- have tempered Emilie somewhat and she has begun to realize that sometimes confidence gets you in trouble. She has grown as a character, and continued to grow in this book. I'll be happily reading along for as many books as it takes for Wells to finish Emilie's tale.