⋙ Download Free The Lady Astronomer eBook Katy O'Dowd

The Lady Astronomer eBook Katy O'Dowd

Download As PDF : The Lady Astronomer eBook Katy O'Dowd

The Lady Astronomer eBook Katy O'Dowd

It would be a great shame to waste a story like "The Lady Astronomer" on children, but I fear many will take a cursory glance at it, see its youthful and exuberant protagonists, with their wild pets and wilder pursuits, and dismiss it as being beneath them, part of the publisher-created "genre" of YA (a marketing ploy to bamboozle our label-obsessed world). If readers interested in fantasy, science fiction, alternate history, Georgian/Regency romance or steampunk/clockwork fiction (yes, I know, all publisher labels, but they are useful all the same) were to pass by "The Lady Astronomer" simply because they have no children to justify its purchase, they would be denying themselves a wonderful and whimsical story with highly engaging characters, a well-plotted storyline, and a worldview that is as solidly steampunk as it is historical.

The action takes place in the Georgian Era of England, and is based upon the construction of the Great Forty-Foot Telescope by William Herschel, which George III financed. The lady astronomer of the title is Caroline Herschel, the great astronomer's sister, but for the purposes of fictionalization she is Lucretia H and he is Freddie H, and they have another brother called Al. The King is, of course, "Your Majesty," though Freddie does at one point try to call him "Your Maj," to expected results...royalty is so easily not amused by things that are truly amusing.

Through persistent letter writing, Freddie gets a royal commission to build the largest telescope in the world, so the H family (one of the book's many quirks is that surnames are all letters, but, then, the King's children are all numbers, so there you are) pulls up roots in Bath, where Lucretia designed hats, Freddie built telescopes and Al invented wonderful clockwork mechanisms with otherworldly sentience, and move to a two-horse dorp called Slough. There they start a new life in service to the mercurial monarch, who is very impatient for the completion of his astronomical wonder.

It is the impatience on the part of Your Maj that leads to Lucretia becoming an unwilling guest of the King, where she earns the friendship and admiration of Princess 13 and Wodehouse, an animated suit of armor; she also earns the malice of evil-minded social climbers ensconced within the Castle. This animosity leads to Lucretia's incarceration and the most intense conflict of the book.

The world envisioned by author Katy O'Dowd captures the wild and enthusiastic spirit of the times, when England was scouring the skies looking for new worlds and sending naturalists to Unnamed Islands to study unknown animals. Though the activities of the characters are solidly historical, they are presented within a technological framework that allows dirigible flights above the clouds, clockwork creatures such as steam-pigs and eagle-owls possessed of a sentience not based on anything as clumsy as a Babbage engine, and the sort of reanimation written of by young Mary Shelly.

"The Lady Astronomer" is an exciting and well-written book which will engage and delight readers of ALL ages. If you know something about the period, the construction of the world's greatest telescope (a title it held for 50+ years), and the characters involved, you will doubly rewarded, but the author includes a short background essay at the conclusion of the story. Its whimsical style and breakneck narrative pace will quickly absorb the attention of even the most dour reader, and maintain that interest all the way through. It will appeal to readers of steampunk, alternate history and fantasy, as well as to fans of Regency romances, who will no doubt find some familiar faces amongst the rogues gallery of characters trying to curry the favor of Your Maj.


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The Lady Astronomer eBook Katy O'Dowd Reviews

The fabulous Katy O’Dowd is just awesome creative! The Lady Astronomer brings us a crew of spunky characters and witty dialogue. I loved the back and forth banter between Lucretia, Freddie and Al. Their relationship really made this book so enjoyable to devour. The dialogue, oh man, I laughed and laughed. The author does such a great job with mixing humor with loads of thrilling adventure. Also, Mrs. O'Dowd brought to life a clockwork orchestra, a freaking clockwork orchestra. How cool is that?!

In the mix, we get to meet a lemur (Leibniz) and an owl (Orion) in the story, and even though they're animals, I felt their role was just as great as Lucretia and her two brothers. The adventure came when these crazy siblings are sought to build the great forty-foot telescope. Holy crap! I know, it's so big, right! The King! Oh, I laughed every time he'd follow up with, "what, what." So funny! In conclusion, I really think what makes The Lady Astronomer such a great read is that all ages can enjoy this story. Steampunk at it's finest <3
THE LADY ASTRONOMER took me by surprise. I purchased it because of my grown daughter's love of astronomy. She is a teacher, and the idea of previewing it for possible use in her classroom appealed to me. The genre of "steampunk" novels is not my normal choice; however, this one intrigued me from the first page. I did not learn that the life of a real person, Caroline Herschel, inspired the story until the end of the book. This delighted me, even with the fairy-tale like fiction of this particular story. The author, Katy O'Dowd, grabbed my heart with the relationships she creates throughout the book. It starts on the first page with Lucretia's companionship with Orion and Leibniz, an owl and a lemur, building outward to include her two brothers, Freddie and Al, then an ever-widening circumference of characters. Some may find the characters listed by only initials or numbers, like" Mr. E" or "Lady K", to be disconcerting. I did not find them to be. It seemed the author provided full names for those becoming true family and friends in contrast to the `everyman' characterizations of the others. One of the exceptions being the character of "Rapier" whose name became symbolic with his actions. In many ways, the clockwork characters have more humanity than those representing general society. This speaks volumes for the creator or repairer of such in her brother, Al, and the treatment all- things-different receive throughout. The scenes move from the rooftop where we first meet Lucretia stargazing with her animal friends, to the millinery, telescope, and windup shops in which she and her siblings make their livings indulging customers. Events change at a rapid pace, and the reader soon finds them on their way to fulfill the King's request for the construction of a forty-foot telescope. The fanciful journey unfurls in a delightful to horrific tale. The first few pages reveal a monoscope Lucretia wears due to visual impairment from a severe period of illness. Throughout the story, the reader comes to find those with physical and emotional impairments often see the world with more clarity of heart than general society. There is no need to reveal more of the story in this review. I will leave that unique discovery to each new reader. This is not a book for elementary students due to the grievous events occurring at the hands of cruel courtiers late in the story, but the creative characters and storyline will delight older students.
It would be a great shame to waste a story like "The Lady Astronomer" on children, but I fear many will take a cursory glance at it, see its youthful and exuberant protagonists, with their wild pets and wilder pursuits, and dismiss it as being beneath them, part of the publisher-created "genre" of YA (a marketing ploy to bamboozle our label-obsessed world). If readers interested in fantasy, science fiction, alternate history, Georgian/Regency romance or steampunk/clockwork fiction (yes, I know, all publisher labels, but they are useful all the same) were to pass by "The Lady Astronomer" simply because they have no children to justify its purchase, they would be denying themselves a wonderful and whimsical story with highly engaging characters, a well-plotted storyline, and a worldview that is as solidly steampunk as it is historical.

The action takes place in the Georgian Era of England, and is based upon the construction of the Great Forty-Foot Telescope by William Herschel, which George III financed. The lady astronomer of the title is Caroline Herschel, the great astronomer's sister, but for the purposes of fictionalization she is Lucretia H and he is Freddie H, and they have another brother called Al. The King is, of course, "Your Majesty," though Freddie does at one point try to call him "Your Maj," to expected results...royalty is so easily not amused by things that are truly amusing.

Through persistent letter writing, Freddie gets a royal commission to build the largest telescope in the world, so the H family (one of the book's many quirks is that surnames are all letters, but, then, the King's children are all numbers, so there you are) pulls up roots in Bath, where Lucretia designed hats, Freddie built telescopes and Al invented wonderful clockwork mechanisms with otherworldly sentience, and move to a two-horse dorp called Slough. There they start a new life in service to the mercurial monarch, who is very impatient for the completion of his astronomical wonder.

It is the impatience on the part of Your Maj that leads to Lucretia becoming an unwilling guest of the King, where she earns the friendship and admiration of Princess 13 and Wodehouse, an animated suit of armor; she also earns the malice of evil-minded social climbers ensconced within the Castle. This animosity leads to Lucretia's incarceration and the most intense conflict of the book.

The world envisioned by author Katy O'Dowd captures the wild and enthusiastic spirit of the times, when England was scouring the skies looking for new worlds and sending naturalists to Unnamed Islands to study unknown animals. Though the activities of the characters are solidly historical, they are presented within a technological framework that allows dirigible flights above the clouds, clockwork creatures such as steam-pigs and eagle-owls possessed of a sentience not based on anything as clumsy as a Babbage engine, and the sort of reanimation written of by young Mary Shelly.

"The Lady Astronomer" is an exciting and well-written book which will engage and delight readers of ALL ages. If you know something about the period, the construction of the world's greatest telescope (a title it held for 50+ years), and the characters involved, you will doubly rewarded, but the author includes a short background essay at the conclusion of the story. Its whimsical style and breakneck narrative pace will quickly absorb the attention of even the most dour reader, and maintain that interest all the way through. It will appeal to readers of steampunk, alternate history and fantasy, as well as to fans of Regency romances, who will no doubt find some familiar faces amongst the rogues gallery of characters trying to curry the favor of Your Maj.