Chasing the Star Garden by Melanie Karsak

Chasing the Star Garden by Melanie Karsak
E-book Edition
Published December 4th 2013 by Clockpunk Press
Review copy provided by author.

Review by N. E. White.

Chasing the Star Garden, book one of The Airship Racing Chronicles, by Melanie Karsak is a steampunk fantasy about Lily Stargazer, a drug addict and airship pilot extraordinaire.

The book begins in the middle of a race. Lily and her crew are sailing through the sky above London, hot on the heels of her racing nemesis, an obviously better pilot than she because he wins and she doesn’t. Lily does come in second place, which isn’t half bad, but before she can claim her trophy, a man dressed in harlequin assaults her by shoving a long, clothed cylinder down the front of her pants – then promptly plunges to his death.

Thus begins the strange and adventurous tale that will lead Lily across Europe to Venice, where she finds out that she has a connection with a god and that god needs her – now. She must find the statue of Venus before art hunters take the last earthly avatar of Venus and move her away from those who would worship her properly. Along with her casual lover, a Venus devotee, and an obedient crew, Lily heads for Greece to find Venus before anyone else does. Along the way, she must cross war-filled seas, challenge her physical fear of water, and finally allow a happiness to enter her life that she has pushed away since the day Lily’s mother left her.

An adult tale with steamy sexual scenes, I really wanted to like Chasing the Star Garden. Ms. Karsak writes well and has given us a courageous, but flawed, heroine who is capable and comfortable with her skills as a airship pilot. The author also builds a steampunk world filled with alluring devices with several chase scenes that should have pumped my heart. Regardless, the story fell flat for me.

I’m not entirely sure why, but I think there were several points that tripped my disbelief sensors. The first was the harlequin shoving something long and hard down Lily’s pants (yes, an obvious phallic reference, the story is filled with ‘em). Lily takes the assault all in stride, and even hides the fact from the officials around her that the man gave her something. The author failed to convince me that someone, even someone as sexually focused as Lily, would do that. Why would she trust a complete stranger that then kills himself? On the same token, I couldn’t buy Lily’s motivation for taking her airship on a journey across Europe based solely on that stranger’s suggestion.

In addition, though Chasing the Star Garden was an interesting read and had some wonderful airship maneuvers, I never felt a connection to the main character. Lily’s life begins with the strict attentions of a couple of horrendous male guardians. She’s psychologically scarred and becomes an opium addict because of them, but somehow Lily ends up with well-intentioned men around her during this story. Though her love affair with Lord Byron, also a benefactor, might be construed as damaging, he does not demand much from Lily. He seems more of a easy crutch for the author to give Lily want she needs when she needs it.

And then we have the older, endlessly accommodating Sal, willing to do anything for his younger lover. He seems more of a father figure than a lover, and when they finally hook up, I couldn’t help but think that Lily was using him to fill her needs of a loving patriarch. Another point that grated my nerves was that everyone was beautiful and sexually hip. That’s fine and all, but that is not something I look for in my fiction.

Despite all this, Chasing the Star Garden was a quick and entertaining read. If you like your lofty steampunk sexy and adventurous, you may want to give this story a try.