Prudence

More fantasy than sci-fi, but airships exist. Anyway, Prudence Akeldama is pro-British Empire so I don't have a ton of nice words to say about her as a protagonist, but will trudge through the rest of the series because I have a hard time DNFing anything.

The Parasol Protectorate had its silliness, but Alexia was usually at least aware of fantasy geopolitics and its implications. Rue and the gang go off on what they think is a clandestine tea mission (capitalism~) only to stumble into fantasy geopolitics stemming from the British empire not fully understanding the supernatural lay of the land in India. Awful lot of, "Just sign the treaty; the Queen will understand" as if... there isn't... a history of the British and colonization... show more granted, as an aristocrat, Rue's not going to understand that but blegh. All the fancy gown descriptions aren't enough sugar to coat the unpleasant framework the plot relies on (EMPIRE).

Oh. Belatedly realized I forgot to mention that I really don't think the author did enough homework to fairly characterize Indian (and possibly Egyptian?) supernaturals... I'm not as familiar with rakshasas or vanaras but it feels simplistic to apply the vampire/werewolf framework to them (and perhaps that is indeed the lesson Rue learns: international supernaturals are not the same as the ones at home and one should never assume such... even if you can steal their powers anyway). Based on the cover of the next one, heading back to Egypt? ~fingers crossed it doesn't get too into orientalism~ show less

The metanatural Rue and her friends are on a mission for Queen and Country! And tea, of course. Prudence Alessandra Macon Akeldama (Rue) has been gifted an airship, which she charmingly names the Spotted Custard. She’s also been given a charge, and that is to fly off to India on a mission of secrecy – it involves tea. There’s proper manners and attire, werewolves, tea-time, weremonkeys, and plenty of proper British manners.

Rue and her best friend Primrose (Prim) Tunstall make a great team for mayhem. In fact the opening scene is one where Prim and Rue work together to turn a stuffy British cocktail party into a race through the Victorian London streets. Rue’s metanatural abilities allow her to temporarily ‘borrow’ the powers show more of a paranormal. For instance, she can become a werewolf (which tears her lovely gown and underthings all to hell) and then Prim can catch a ride on her back as they make a noisy exit from the boring party.

Of course these hijinks are just the latest and Rue’s parents, along with her adoptive vampire father Dama, decide she needs a job. Hence, she’s given a mission that involves tea in India. Rue selects Prim, of course, to accompany her but then also Prim’s bookish brother Percy. Toss in the intense Quesnel Lefoux, who Percy detests, and you have quite the madcap company for the trip. The crew who actually do all the work are quite fun as well, not giving a fig if the passengers are practically nobility or not.

This was a my first Gail Carriger book and it was so much fun! It was light and silly and full of adventure and flowery phrases that just had me giggling. Maybe I was just in the right mood for this book, but I really did get a kick out of it. There’s some light flirting between Rue and Quesnel but there’s also some pond tossing that comes up as well. It’s a love/hate thing and very amusing.

There’s a bit of a steampunk flavor to this story but it’s not a heavy element of the tale. Of course the dirigible is fun. I enjoyed all the action scenes because they were often had some bits of comedy involved. I especially enjoyed Percy and his hunt for mushrooms. He was delightfully bookish.

Once the Spotted Custard gets to India, things change as the local paranormal citizens checkout the Londoners. There’s plenty here that surprised me! It’s a whole different rule book and Rue and Prim have to do some improvising, even if it means ticking off the local English gentry. I was entertained throughout the entire book and I look forward to reading more Carriger novels in the future.

The Narration: Moira Quirk was so good in this book! She’s the perfect Rue but she’s also the perfect Prim and the perfect Dama and the perfect Percy! She’s got these English characters down to a T. I loved her light lisp for Dama as I could totally picture him talking and every so often on certain syllables, a touch of a lisp due to this teeth. I loved her distracted Percy, his head always in a book. She really did a most excellent job with this narration. show less

UPDATED REVIEW (from 2024):

Haha, so funny that I originally read this series in December of 2016, and here I am, back for the light fluffy meringue escapism of it all in December 2024. Yes, very funny. What a coincidence. I might actually cry.

BUT. I stand by everything I said in the original review, especially the utterly horrifying scene where Rue is mistaken for Lakshmi, and also the Quesnel/Rue romance, which I could live without. This time, though, I noticed something else. Because I have read basically the entire main line of this series right through with only a tiny break, I realized that the Custard Protocol one is just -- less fun. And that's partly because of the flaws I mentioned earlier, but also because of the generational show more nature of it.

In Parasol Protectorate, Carriger took people of the upper class and gave them real problems. And then, as you do, she solved them. And she elevated them to extremely high societal and political positions, again as you do if you're giving your characters a classic historical romance happy ending. And then she gave them daughters to carry on the series.

The problem is that functionally, these daughters are starting off more or less where their parents ended up: with an absolute metric ton of everything good in life. Rue is the most special! (Literally. There's only rumors of another of her kind.) She is the most rich! She has so many friends and family members! She has the best things! She has the highest status! As a result, none of her problems feel like real problems, and she's, uh. Kind of annoying. Like, Alexia had to actually be good at things in order to succeed. So did Sophronia. Rue's not good at much, honestly, but she gets her way anyway, because she comes equipped with all the wealth and privilege and connections and power in the world.

Basically, while reading this book, I realized that if Miles Vorkosigan had been a) not disabled b) actually unusually and extremely abled and c) not very bright, he'd be Rue. They have the same MO: show up underprepared, bullshit their way through on courage and confidence alone, and then try to think their way out of the problems they've created. The difference is that Miles can actually sometimes do that. (And the other, equally important difference is that Miles has problems he absolutely did not create and cannot really solve. Rue has none of those.)

Also, Carriger took a trope I love (two people agree to a friends with benefits thing but WHOOPS they have feelings and WHOOPS it causes problems) and did it just off-center enough that it doesn't work for me. And, yes, I realize this is an me problem, unlike the rest of the flaws in this book, but, well. This is my review.

All in all: not enjoying this nearly as much as the rest of the books I've read by her. Took a break in the middle of this novel to read multiple RPF fics about members of blink-182 instead. Two star rating stands.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (from 2016):

For me, Gail Carriger books are like meringues: extremely light, frothy, and sweet, and if I eat more than one or two, I feel ill. In other words: total fluff, don't think about it too hard, where "too hard" is "at all." But, hey, at this point, after this year, I am ready for fluff. I want fluff. Not thinking is exactly what I want to do.

And while this is a very Carriger book, it didn't quite deliver on its meringue promise, mostly because of a couple of minuses her other ones haven't had for me. First, her approach to the romance is a bit, uh, off for me -- like, any time the author sets up a competent woman and then makes the mark of her True Love being that she's incompetent and helpless around him, I'm apt to narrow my eyes and hope against hope that the love interest will be anyone else.

But the second flaw is the bigger one for me. Basically, this is an imperialist romp. Rue goes to India and there is much marveling at the natives! And imitation of native gods! And oh look, the white girl has come to save you! It's just...really painful, and it makes the too-much-meringue nausea kick in way earlier.

Basically the only reason I finished this one is the background queer pairing, which I kept hoping hoping hoping would see some sort of resolution of basically any kind. And that's the reason I read the second one, too. So far, no luck; the het romance remains on the page, and the queer romance remains on the back burner on low. I'd probably read a third book in the series today, if it were out, just to see if AT LAST the queer couple might at least kiss, but it's not out. And that's the other thing about these book-meringues: they're totally forgettable. By the time the next one arrives, I'm not sure I'll remember who any of these people are. show less

Life as a metanatural has always been exciting for Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (but preferably Rue), although never easy. When her adopted father, Lord Akeldama gifts her with a new dirigible and a mission revolving around tea in India, Rue jumps at the opportunity bringing along a crew of friends to aid in the mission. But things quickly become more complicated than Rue anticipated when she encounters the supernatural set in India and discovers that her original mission was far more complicated than her dear Dama let on. Unfortunately, not all complications can be solved with tea.

For anyone who has read Carriger's other series, this book will be an absolute delight. With characters and references to both series, long-time fans show more will get extra to enjoy but Prudence and her group of friends stand very well on their own. The central plot is well constructed and while I saw some twists coming, I did enjoy the ride. Rue's powers add for an intriguing new element within the supernatural steampunk world and her flirtations with Quesnel introduce a nice swoony element. Of course, Carriger's delightful humour is liberally spread throughout the book making for a highly enjoyable read. While it would be preferable to start your introduction to Carriger's universe with Soulless, this novel is also a decent starting point. show less

This was a fantastically fun steampunk paranormal read. I really really enjoyed it. I think this is Carriger's best series yet. I am also a fan of the Parasol Protectorate series and the Finishing School series; but I think this book was more well written than any of those.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was incredibly well done. The narrator sounds exactly how I imagined Rue would and does an excellent job with other character voices too. She portrays emotion well and made this book an absolute joy to listen to.

Prudence (aka Rue) is the daughter of Lord and Lady Maccon (the main characters in the Parasol Protectorate series) but has been raised by the vampire Lord Akeldama. Rue is the world’s only metanatural which show more means she has the ability to steal a supernaturals’ form.

Rue has been causing a bit of a ruckus in London so Lord Akeldama asks her to go on a mission to India to hunt down some very important tea. In an airship named the Spotted Custard (while happens to be painted like a giant ladybug) Rue journeys to India. However once there she accidentally ends up enmeshed in a battle between two supernatural groups no one even knew existed.

This is a fast-paced story that never slows down and the characters are highly entertaining. This book takes place after The Parasol Protectorate series (which takes place after the Finishing School series). So you do see/hear quite a bit from characters in the previous series, although they are mostly in the background.

I loved this new crew of characters; there is a lot of adventure, hilarity, and hi-jinks. Prudence is a wonderful heroine and her co-horts in adventure are all just as entertaining as she is. I especially enjoyed Primrose (Ivy Tunstell’s daughter) and Quesnel Lefoux (Genevieve Lefoux’s son). Primrose is much more practical than her mother ever was and can solve just about anything with her charm. Quesnel is delightfully French and a little bit naughty, but his concern and respect with Rue makes him a perfect love interest for her. I love Quesnel to bits and can’t wait to read more about him.

The story was wonderfully engaging, fun, full of witty dialogue and spectacular adventure. It’s a very well balanced book with lots of humor, action, romance, steampunky goodness, and a wonderful plot.

Overall this series is highly recommended to those who love steampunk reads with a heavy dose of humor. I really enjoyed this a lot. It’s my favorite Gail Carriger series yet and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series! show less

Summary: Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama, daughter of a soulless and a werewolf, and adoptive daughter of a vampire (political reasons, you know), is a metanatural - that is, she can steal the supernatural powers of a werewolf or vampire at a touch, and use them as her own until she gets too far away from their source. But she's also a refined and proper young lady of good social standing… well, she might be working on the "refined and proper" part a bit. When her adoptive father Lord Akeldama gives Prudence her own airship, she promptly names it The Spotted Custard, has it painted like a giant ladybug, and - at some subtle prompting by her father - takes it off to India, ostensibly as part of a Grand Tour, but also to investigate show more some new tea business. She's not going alone, of course: she's got her best friend Primrose Tunstell, Prim's distractedly scholarly older brother Percival, and the rakish but oddly charming Quesnel Lefoux. Things are floating along smoothly, until Prudence stumbles into a plot involving a kidnapping, Indian political dissidents, and several supernaturals who know who she is, and revile her as a soul-stealer.

Review: This was just as much fun as Carriger's other books; I would expect nothing less. They're not Serious Literature, for sure, but sometimes you need something silly and funny and light that contains a good adventure and some good laughs and a touch of romance and some vampires and werewolves and a little bit of steampunky-ness and Prudence delivers on all counts. I also liked that it was set in colonial India under Queen Victoria, which was not something that I've read about before, and even though this is clearly an alternate fantasy universe, it did touch on some of the legitimate issues of the time. This book is fun, fast reading, and very easy to get absorbed in and fly through. The only issue was that my copy was very poorly copyedited, and had tons of typos (someone "gave case" [chase]; someone was "ginning [grinning] hugely"; "the wolds [words] resolved themselves into: 'My hat. My favourite hat!'") that I found very distracting.

Like Carriger's Finishing School series, this book (and the series it is starting) is understandable on its own without having read The Parasol Protectorate books, but I think it's probably better for knowing at least something about the previous generation. For example, I remembered the basics of Alessandra and Lord Maccon and Lord Akeldama and Ivy from when I read the original series a few years ago, but I know there were some secondary characters that seemed familiar, but whose details I couldn't entirely remember, so I probably missed some of the subtleties. Not that a book featuring a giant ladybug dirigible is one that is necessarily awash in subtleties, but still. And on the subject of "not subtle," the romance angle in this story, while sweet, was probably the least interesting part - it just felt too straightforward, and like something I've read before, which was unfortunate, considering how much I liked the romance in The Parasol Protectorate series. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: If you like steampunk / historical fantasy and are looking for a light, fun, easy read, you could do a lot worse than Gail Carriger. Would be perfect for an airplane, beach, or lazy summer afternoon. show less

Lord Akeldama's darling daughter comes of age with impeccable taste, irritating allies and a taste for adventure. This is a scrumptious book, full of delightful and hilarious turns of phrase, sensible applications of tea and a confection of an airship.

Having followed the adventures of the marvelous Sophronia through finishing school, I wanted Rue to rival her extraordinary abilities in espionage. Alas, as a true daughter of Alexia and Maccon, she is destined to be far less subtle, but equally entertaining for all that.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Edelweiss.

Audiobook is also outstanding. The only voice I don't like is Biffys, and the story holds up splendidly to rereading.