Larklight
Larklight is Philip Reeve's other series, and waaay on the other end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. A Steampunk Space Opera, it consists of three books, all told from the point of view of Art Mumby and his sister Myrtle:
Larklight is the series-naming first book, introducing us to the world, where the British Empire stretches out across the solar system, and its inhabitants, including Art and his family, the unpleasant First Ones, and Captain Jack Havock and his crew.
Starcross, the second book, involves Time Travel, a French radical, some goblins who want to knit a cover for an asteroid, and a race of nice hats.
Mothstorm, book three: a mysterious discovery on the edge of the solar system brings Art and co. to Uranus Georgium Sidus, and a Chekhov's Gun loaded in the first book finally goes off.
Tropes used in Larklight include:
- Action Dress Rip: Ulla does this when escaping Mr. Webster's mooks. Myrtle is horrified.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: They all have atmospheres that humans can breathe, at least.
- Then again, apparently so does space as a whole, if not something they can breathe for a long time.
- Amazon Brigade / Lady Land: The Snilth are very matriarchal. Imagine Victorian-era gender roles, only reversed.
- And I Must Scream: The settlers on Venus came down with Tree Sickness and turned into trees, though it's implied that since the transformation affects the mind as well, it's actually rather peaceful.
- Badass Grandpa: Amusingly subverted. The Verdant Meadows Retirement Colony Militia are rather ineffective, though they give it a shot.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Subverted. Space has a breathable atmosphere, but most species can only survive a few hours in it.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Myrtle, at least in Art's opinion.
- The British Empire: In SPACE!
- Chekhov's Gun: A minor footnote on an amusing aspect of Threl mythology in the second book becomes the major plot of the third. Well, minus the bit about eating the World Cozy.
- Dying Race: The First Ones, in this star system at least, as they are mentioned as colonizing other stars.
- Eldritch Abomination: Though most of them are benevolent, it's shown that Shapers have the potential to become this.
- Genius Loci: Thunderhead, Jupiter's Great Red Spot. A fully sapient storm.
- Smaller, also sapient storms make an appearance in Mothstorm.
- Genocide Backfire: Directly related to the above Chekhov's Gun.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Subverted - Nipper's pretty friendly.
- Giant Spider: The First Ones
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Ulla, Ssilissa to a lesser extinct.
- Instrument of Murder: The Snilth use blowpipes shaped like bagpipes.
- Interspecies Romance: Averted with Jack and Ssilissa; it was one-sided to begin with, and apart from Jack's clear interest in Myrtle the impracticality of this is one of the reasons Ssil gives up on the idea. Played straight with Art and Myrtle's parents, although apparently their mother's biological body is entirely human at least until the Mothmaker destroys it. However, Captain Moonfield does get married to a Snilth at the end of book three, so there is that.
- In Which a Trope Is Described
- Lighter and Softer: This guy wrote another Steampunk series. You may have heard of it. They are total opposites.
- Literary Agent Hypothesis
- Nice Hat: The Moobs
- To be clear, they don't wear Nice Hats, they are nice hats.
- Ninja Maid: Ulla, when undercover.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Specifically averted - Ssilissa, a reptilian alien, doesn't have them.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Snilth. Justified, as the Shaper who created them wanted wars between her creations.
- Queen Victoria: The books are set in the mid to late 1800s, so naturally she makes an appearance.
- The Reptilians: The Ssilissa and the Snilth, kinda.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: Jack, Nipper, Ssilissa, Squidley and Yarg all escaped from the Royal Xenological Institute.
- Shout-Out: And how. Some of the more obvious ones include Star Trek and The War of the Worlds
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Art's opinion of Myrtle and Jack.
- Single-Minded Twins: Squidley and Yarg, the Tentacle Twins.
- Sssssnaketalk: Every one of the Snilth, who have names like Zssthss and Alsssor.
- Lampshaded, where two characters agree that Zssthss sounds more like a gas leak than a name.
- Stiff Upper Lip
- Space Is Cold: Referenced at the veeeery beginning of the first book.
- Space Is an Ocean: Oh so very much. Includes fish of all kinds and ships that look like sailing vessels.
- Space Pirates: The crew of the Sophronia, at least in the first book.
- Space Sailing: The spaceships look like ships, powered by a mysterious chemical reaction called 'the chemical wedding'. There is air in space, though it's thinner than on any planet, and artificial gravity on most ships.
- Steampunk: Oh so very yes.
- Twin Telepathy: How the Tentacle Twins communicate with each other, since they can't talk.
- They Would Cut You Up: It's rather understandable that Jack is a little hostile towards the Empire, all things considered.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: In a somewhat meta example, Art and Mr. Wyatt, the illustrator, if the notes left in for him are anything to go by.