Book Reviews

Liberty and Other Stories by Alexis Hall

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Liberty and Other Stories by Alexis HallLiberty and Other Stories (Prosperity #2)
on 2015, eBook, 335 pages
Purchase a copy: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

For the delight and edification of discerning readers, we present diverse stories concerning the lives, histories, and adventures of the crew of the aethership Shadowless.
Lament! as an upstanding clergyman falls into the villainous clutches of a notorious criminal mastermind.
Question your sanity! as a dissolute governess confronts blasphemies from beyond creation.
Wonder! at the journey of the dashing skycaptain Byron Kae across sapphire oceans, through smog-choked streets, and to the depths of the sky itself.
Gasp! at an entirely true and accurately rendered tale of pirates, cavalrymen, aethermancers, scientists, and a power to unmake the world.
Plus, hitherto unseen extracts from the meticulous and illuminating journals of Mrs. Miranda Lovelace, rogue scientist and first of the aethermancers.



After falling in love with the world and characters of Prosperity, I jumped on the chance to read this collection of short stories/novellas. There are both prequel and sequel stories, both origin stories and what-happened-afterwards. All the characters from Prosperity showed up again AND there were some fun new ones!
Shackle, the first story, is how Ruben and Milord got together! It’s just as painful and powerful as their scenes in Prosperity, and it is also super hot. I think this (younger) Ruben is somehow more aware of how impossible it’d be to change Milord than the (older) Ruben in Prosperity, which makes me wonder what happened between this story and that one.
Squamous with a Chance of Rain is how Jane became an insane mistress of monsters. It’s a gothic horror story written in letters and is full of fun lesbian undertones and overtones. There are references to Rebecca as well, which made me happy.
Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies is Byron Kae’s memoirs of how their life from childhood to becoming captain of the ship, with bonus kissing and sexytimes with Dil. Said sexytimes is fairly undetailed, which seems unusual for this series because every other sexytime is VERY detailed. Since it’s from Byron Kae’s POV, though, and not Dil’s (who is the master of sexytime details), I suppose that makes sense, character-wise. But it was still a strange difference from every other couple.
Liberty is my favorite story of the set, and not just because it gives heaps of more information about the world of Prosperity. It’s super exciting! There is a mad scientist, monsters, slightly dishonorable soldiers, spies and sky pirates! It’s also told in reports and letters and depositions, which is a fun format for a novella.
I very much enjoyed getting back into the world of Prosperity, and I can’t wait to more stories and books set in it. Yay!
Read: January 2, 2015

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.