Title: Ice and Embers: Steampunk Snow Queen
Author: Melanie Karsak
Series: Steampunk Fairytales #2
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Retellings, Steampunk
Dates read: 19th – 29th October 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: “You’re very kind.”

When actress Elyse McKenna fell in love with Lord John Waldegrave, she was prepared to keep their liaison secret. What she wasn’t’ ready for was how her newfound love would rock her relationship with her dearest friend, Doctor Kai Murray.

With the 1814 London Frost Fair in full swing, Elyse and her troupe at the Ice House Theatre find themselves at the heart of the excitement on the frozen Thames. But when an exotic ship captain, whose vessel is trapped in the ice, turns her attention to Kai, everything Elyse thought she knew about her feelings for her old friend gets flipped upside down.

While the Ice House Theatre’s production of A Midwinter Night’s Dream thrills the London crowd, Elyse’s life begins to take on a distinctly Shakespearean turn.

Elyse must find a way to discover the truth about the captain, Kai, John, and her own feelings if she hopes to escape the Thames with her heart intact.

Ice and Embers is a retelling of the classic Snow Queen fairy tale set in Regency London.

I must admit that The Snow Queen is one of my all time favourite fairy tales. Which meant that a steampunk adaptation of it was immediately going to draw me in. Particularly when the other two adaptations I’ve read by Karsak (Curiouser and Curiouser and Wolves and Daggers) were just so damn good. And you know what? This didn’t disappoint. It was fantastic and wonderful and did absolute justice to the original fairy tale (thank goodness).

Although the original fairy tale focuses on two children, I loved that Karsak bought this into adulthood. It wasn’t necessarily sexual (although there were moments of that), but Elyse’s battle and journey was that little bit more intense and serious because she was an adult. That, and the fact that it was partnered with Shakespeare, although I probably didn’t pick up on all of the references because I’m a little bit “eh” about The Bard. It was all very well done and completely seamlessly executed.

It may have taken me a bit over a week to read this novel, but the majority of it I actually read in one night. A night when there were thunderstorms overhead and the rain beating down on my tin roof. Which was an absolutely perfect setting for the Frost Fair on the frozen river Thames. Something about the winter setting and my own winter nest was really nice and fun. Cuddling up beneath my blanket while listening to the rain pour down and having my heart beat alongside Elyse’s… it was something very beautiful and thematic. Or at least, my fanciful heart felt so.

This doesn’t have as much of a steampunk feel as Curiouser and Curiouser. It’s a little more a regency feel with a few dashes of steampunk thrown in. Yet, I liked it. It was a nice way to show different classes and people within the same social setting and whilst I loved the Bandersnatch, I don’t think Elyse would have been so suited with so much machinery around her in her adventures…

<- Curiouser and Curiouser

Beauty and Beastly ->

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Curiouser and Curiouser
Author: Melanie Karsak
Series: Steampunk Fairytales #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Retellings, Steampunk
Dates read: 25th – 28th July 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: Nonsense.

To save the Hatter, Alice must work with the one man she despises so much that she might still love him.

Alice thought she’d turned over a new leaf. No more working for Jabberwocky. No more making deals with the ruthless Queen of Hearts. No more hanging around The Mushroom with tinkers, tarts, scoundrels, and thieves in London’s criminal underbelly. But she’d been bonkers to dream.

Hatter’s reckless behavior leads Alic back to the one person she never wanted to see again, Caterpillar. Pulled into Caterpillar’s mad schemes, Alice must steal a very big diamond from a very royal lady. The heist is not problem for this Bandersnatch. But protecting her heart from the man she once loved? Impossible.

I seriously love Alice in Wonderland. Or anything that uses themes and imagery from this story. And it’s moved beyond the Lewis Carroll original to something more. As time has moved and the many, many, many retellings have weaved their way into pop culture, the story has taken on more and more of a life of its own. Which is also probably why I love it so much. Each person’s take is amazing. Each aspect of the story that is focused on… but I’ve never read a steampunk retelling of this tale. Until now. And wow.

Every single moment in this story had an allusion to Alice in Wonderland. Yet, the creation of this world in a steampunk underbelly also made it completely disjointed from the original. I loved the way that these two ideas sit against each other. Alice is full of muchness (much like the original), but she’s also older, wiser and in a much darker world. The Queen of Hearts is also far more terrifying than she is in Carroll’s version. This separation between the two realities was just fantastic and it made me sink my nose into this book and refuse to get out. A bit like falling down the rabbit hole…

One of my favourite things about this retelling is the repurposing of the names throughout. Alice becomes the Bandersnatch, her father-figure the Jabberwocky and her love interest Caterpillar. They’re such familiar names and characters, and whilst I could still recognise them in the characterisation, they added a new layer, an extra something that was previously not there. It was so cleverly and seamlessly done that it would be so easily missed if I hadn’t recently been on an Alice in Wonderland binge.

Although this is an amazing retelling that just completely sweeps you into a whole new world, it is also a fantastic story in and of itself. Even if you have been living under a rock and had absolutely zero exposure to Alice in Wonderland, it is still something that you’d thoroughly enjoy. Actually, this is something that is almost impossible to put down. And I really wouldn’t suggest that anyone do so. It’s amazing! I can’t wait to read the next Steampunk Fairytales.

<- More Melanie Karsak

Ice and Embers ->

Image source: Amazon