The Grand Ellipse

A contest is announced to travel a steampunk world, the contestants' choice of transport and route, to win a prize and world acclaim. As events unfold, there are political underpinnings, with a prussian-esque expansion, and governments surreptitiously angling for advantage.

Loved the world building, loved the variations on our earth, the way Volsky implied exoticness and cultural contrast via menus and landscapes. Sadly, the heroine was infuriating and was unable to pass an entire novel in her company. Considering she was set up in the initial chapters as a protofeminist and hopeful career woman, she seemed coy, passive, reactive - no planning skills - and inattentive to the scenes around her, although travelling, we were told, was her show more dream.

A lot of the text was about her indecision between two suitors. show less

It was indeed an entertaining read. It started a bit slow and went slowly but after a while, it was interesting enough that I didn't mind. It was a bit ridiculous and predictable as far as the parallels to today's world which make me roll my eyes because it means that nothing truly compelling occurred. I stand by that it was entertaining and for that I thank Paula Volsky.

The Grand Ellipse is the tale of a pseudo-19th century international balloon race, which had a strong flavor of Jules Verne, blending strangely with the fantasy elements. It was good… ish. Didn't hate it, but didn’t love it; didn’t love the characters, though they were more interesting than in many VLFN's; thought the attempt at light Regency-esque froth was a little forced. Not her best.

Embarassingly, though I know I have read The White Tribunal, Illusion, The Gates of Twilight and The Wolf of Winter, it has been too many years ago for me to recall any of them in any great detail. However, I must put this one down as worse than both the Wolf of Winter and Illusion, but better than The Gates of Twilight and (especially) The White Tribunal, which I didn't like at all.

Ms. Volsky has a superb imagination when it comes to creating an entertaining alternate universe, which she then proceeds to fill up with some rather two dimensional "stock" characters, beginning with and especially including the heroine of this novel, Luzelle Devaire. And often what seems to be the most important action is taking place elsewhere. As in, show more we've got an Around the World in Eighty Days analog going on, which is where 90% of the action takes place, while the Prussia-analog (Grewzland) is poised to overrun the world, including the France/Britain-analog of Vonahr. As in, best I can recall, Vonahr was France in Illusion and Britain in India in The Gates of Twilight. There's also a foolish king in what is (possibly) some sort of Dutch analog who has a pet magician who invents a sentient fire, another bit of ingenious plot display from Volsky. There's also a rather silly love triangle that isn't worth mentioning. The book does drag at various points, and the heroine seemingly goes from cynical woman of the world to coy ingenue by the end of the book, but overall a very solid work. Recommended. show less

Adventuress seeks to save her country from invasion. To do this, she needs the secret of Sentient Fire--and to get that, she needs to win the Grand Ellipse. This story is basically Around the World in 80 Days in an alternate WWII-era Europe.

What can I say about this book? I loved parts of it, for instance the setting - this world is fantastic. Some of the characters were great. I was so disappointed when some of them were just dumped along the way, or died. The heroine is a naive, selfish and not very smart woman. As you might be able to tell I don't like her very much, and that's a major drawback. The plot was disappointing too. The race - The Grand Ellipse from the title - was fascinating. It took the characters around the world, letting them experience all the various countries and cultures. Then when it ends the story more or less ends too. I could have given this book four stars, but as it was, I was considering giving it only two.