Review: Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

When Diana Peterfreund came out with her futuristic re-imagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion last year, For Darkness Shows the Stars, I highly enjoyed it. I was swept up in Eliot and Kai’s star-crossed love story, and it made me giddy and squishy in the way only Austen can.

So when I discovered there was to be a companion novel — not a sequel, but another story set in the same world, this time to the tune of The Scarlet Pimpernel, I was anxious to read it. And fortunately, a friend graciously offered to let me borrow her ARC (which…I have not yet returned. She had life things and then had life things and what I’m saying is, Friend, if you want your ARC back, let’s do coffee).

Across a Star-Swept Sea does not pick up where the first book leaves off, and you don’t have to have read FDStS to enjoy it…but I’d still recommend first things first. It’ll be better that way.

The Plot (from Goodreads):

Centuries after wars nearly destroyed civilization, the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a terraformed paradise where even the Reduction—the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars—is a distant memory. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. The revolutionaries’ weapon is a drug that damages their enemies’ brains, and the only hope is rescue by a mysterious spy known as the Wild Poppy.

On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake. The teenager uses her shallow, socialite trappings to hide her true purpose: her gossipy flutternotes are encrypted plans, her pampered sea mink is genetically engineered for spying, and her well-publicized new romance with handsome Galatean medic Justen Helo… is her most dangerous mission ever.

Though Persis is falling for Justen, she can’t risk showing him her true self, especially once she learns he’s hiding far more than simply his disenchantment with his country’s revolution and his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. His darkest secret could plunge both islands into a new dark age, and Persis realizes that when it comes to Justen Helo, she’s not only risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect.

In this thrilling adventure inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diana Peterfreund creates an exquisitely rendered world where nothing is as it seems and two teens with very different pasts fight for a future only they dare to imagine.

My Thoughts:

The setting for Across a Star-Swept Sea is far removed from the Luddite estate of For Darkness Shows the Stars. The citizens of Albion and Galatea believe they alone survived the Reduction, but the two islands have very different ideas of how to move forward afterward, and each character in the story believes their way is the right one.

There are two main points of view, Justen and Persis, but several secondary characters get a bit of time in the POV spotlight as well, giving us every side of the conflict. The book plunges headlong into the science and politics that propel the revolution in New Pacifica, and the rebellion led by the Wild Poppy. The plot is smart and doesn’t coddle — there’s a lot of world-building and political set-up in the opening chapters, and that complex wider conflict sets the stage for the more intimate, personal conflict of the characters.

Though Justen and Persis team up almost right off the bat, Justen has no idea who she is — not as a spy, and not as a person — and spends the vast majority of the book believing she’s as vapid and shallow as she appears. Meanwhile, Persis has more than a few misconceptions about Justen as well. The false impressions carry us most of the way through the story, which normally I would find galling, but when you are reading a book based on The Scarlet Pimpernel, it’s kind of what you signed up for.

I enjoyed the characters in this story, maybe Justen a bit more than Persis simply because her Persis Flake act started to grate after a while. It was the point (and Persis was sick of it, too), but gave Justen a slight edge. As for the supporting cast, I enjoyed most of them, and was glad that we got to see perspectives of people on both sides of the conflict and from all the different social classes. It gave the story a good bit of variety and texture. I have to admit, though, I became the most invested when some familiar faces from For Darkness Shows the Stars showed up midway through the book. It was nice to revisit the characters I’d grown attached to in the first book and see how they interacted with the new characters in this unfamiliar setting.

Across a Star-Swept Sea isn’t as heavy on the romance as For Darkness Shows the Stars, though it certainly has its moments. Its plot relies more on intrigue and scheming, and so I found myself invested more in the fate of the people of New Pacifica, and Persis’ secret identity as the Wild Poppy, than the will-they-or-won’t-they between Justen and Persis. And really, that was enough, because that plot was interesting enough on its own. And I thought that was fitting, because it put my priorities in line with the characters, most of whom put the Revolution ahead of themselves. So the romance became a sweet dollop of icing on an already tasty cake.

If you’re a fan of both sci-fi and the classics, or if you read For Darkness Shows the Stars and want to revisit the post-Reduction world Diana Peterfreund created, or if you simply enjoy a smart futuristic tale populated with a variety of colorful characters, I’d recommend you pick up Across a Star Swept Sea.

Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

I have had For Darkness Shows the Stars sitting on my shelf since summer, because as soon as I hear the magic words “sci-fi Jane Austen retelling,” I am SOLD. (Not that I hear those words often, which is sad). But life and procrastination and over-commitment being what they are, I didn’t actually read it until over Thanksgiving. All the while being berated by friends who had red it and liked to yell at me, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” And it was getting ridiculous, so I read it.

The Plot (from Goodreads)

It’s been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth–an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret–one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

My Thoughts

You know what Jane Austen does really, really well? Break my heart. She has this knack for making her characters suffer and suffer and suffer — all internally, where no one else can notice — and then, when you are pretty much ready to throw the book, she turns things around. In a way that is beautiful and immensely pleasing and redeems all the prior suffering.

This is what Diana Peterfreund does extremely well in For Darkness Shows the Stars. The childhood letters between Elliot and Kai, spanning all the years of their friendship, are an excellent illustration of what sort of relationship they had, and why Elliot is so heartbroken when he comes back cold and distant. I loved the character development, and Elliot’s struggle between loyalty to her family, her people, Kai, and the people under her care. All of the many ways she is pulled make sense, and there’s no obvious answer to what she should do. And of course, there’s the Austen-esque dilemmas of characters who are constantly trying to do what they think is best for another person, and of propriety and decorum keeping people from speaking their minds. Even though For Darkness Shows the Stars takes place in the future instead of Victorian times, the way the world is constructed makes the Austenian society work.

I also liked the premise of the world, and the back story of what happened with the Luddites and the Reduction. It was fascinating, and I actually wish the details had been more fully explored. All we ever got was a broad overview of what happened, and while it didn’t leave me with any confusion, I still had questions.

The only thing I had a problem with — which unfortunately kind of tainted my overall feelings of the book — is that Kai does something that Elliot has a huge ethical problem with. It’s a major conflict in the book, and there are extremely legitimate reasons why she SHOULD have a problem with what he did. And yet, by the end of the book, it’s like she’s decided this major thing — the thing that kept them apart four years ago, the thing that’s kept her from being able to trust him when he comes back — that thing suddenly is a non-issue. And it really shouldn’t be. I wish it had been addressed. Even a look into Elliot’s head at WHY this thing no longer mattered to her would have been helpful. As it was, I felt like a huge part of her character and the plot was left kind of unresolved, and that bothered me.

Did I still love the slow, torturous romance between Elliot and Kai? Absolutely. Did I cry reading Kai’s final letter? Buckets. The emotions were handled masterfully in this book, and again, the characters are wonderful. It’s just that pesky logic thing that kept me from absolutely LOVING this book. As it stands, I really, really enjoyed it.

Content guide: Contains mentions of physical and sexual abuse

#SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9 Week 8 (@DANCEonFOX)

It’s Final Four time! I can’t say I’m in love with this top 4, as only one of my favorites is left standing (and since there will be two winners this season — one guy and one girl — I really wanted one of my male favorites to still be in it), but there were still some awesome routines last night.

Interestingly, I guess if you go by the routines I’ve picked for these book pitches, Chehon actually is one of my favorites, because I’ve selected his routines several times. But my heart still misses the ones who were eliminated.

I don’t know if we’ll see anything new next week in the finale — probably a new group routine, but normally the finale is an opportunity to revisit season highlights. But I’ll probably do a final pitch next week, even if it is a dance from a prior week, just so I have an excuse to do one more.

Anyway, here’s my pick for this week.

Song: Leave from “Once”

Choreographer: Stacey Tookey

Dancers: Chehon and Allison (Season 2)

Pitch: A boy and a girl grow up together as part of a small colony on a remote planet. Finally, as teenagers, they admit to the growing attraction they’ve both been feeling. But no sooner has their young romance blossomed than a ship shows up to take the girl’s family back to Earth, a plan that had been in place since before she was born. By the time the ship makes it back at relativistic speeds, everyone who remains back in the colony will be long dead. The girl is forced to make a choice: Stay with the family she relies on, or the boy she could love?

Suggested Author: Diana Peterfreund

What did you think of the final four’s performances? Did any of the routines particularly inspire you? And who do you think our two champions will be?

Past Pitches:

“Counting on You” Music Book Pitch

Week 6 & 7 Book Pitches

Week 5 Book Pitch

Week 3 Book Pitch

Week 2 Book Pitch

Week 1 Book Pitch

The original SYTYCD Book Pitch post