Arabella and the Battle of Venus

Book excerpt: “Arabella embarks on another entertaining quest in an imaginative setting that combines 19th-century seafaring with pulp-style space adventure.” —Publishers Weekly Though happy to be back on her home planet of Mars, Arabella’s peace is shattered when she receives distressing news. Her long-absent fiancé Capt. Prakash Singh, commander of the Honorable Mars Company airship Diana, has been taken as a prisoner of war on Venus, the very planet where the exiled Napoleon has fled. Desperate to rescue Singh any way she can, Arabella pays off the gambling debts of a rakish privateer captain in order to arrange passage on his vessel. But when they’re captured by a French squadron and taken to Venus, Arabella finds herself reunited with Singh, as a captive in the same brutal prison-camp. In a spacefaring adventure filled with interplanetary espionage, cosmic combat, and mind-blowing inventions, Arabella finds herself torn between two very different—yet ultimately courageous—men. Together they plot a daring conspiracy to expose Napoleon’s dangerous plan: the building of a secret weapon that would make the French emperor virtually unstoppable. Praise for Arabella of Mars “If Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and Patrick O’Brien had sat down together to compose a tale to amuse Jane Austen, the result might be Arabella of Mars. So. Much. Fun!” —Madeleine Robins, author of the Sarah Tolerance Regency mystery series “A fanciful romp through a cosmic 1812, Hugo Award–winning Levine’s first novel is a treat for steampunk fantasy fans.” —Library Journal (starred review)