What is Into The Dark?
At fifteen, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem – she’s a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family’s vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded Navy spaceship with no other women.
Review
INTO THE DARK by JA Sutherland is the first novel of the Alexis Carew series. I’m really fond of this series because it’s so damned weird yet familiar at once. It’s a steampunk space opera series about a midshipwoman working for Her Majesty’s Navy IN SPACE. It’s a little Honor Harrington, it’s a little Spelljammer, and it’s a little bit classic coming of age story all crammed together. They’re relatively short novels too, verging on novellas, and perfect for an afternoon’s read. However, what about the first one? What is it like?
The story begins with Alexis growing up on a plantation on an isolated world in the far ends of Her Majesty’s Empire. It was settled only a few generations ago and the locals have degenerated a bit to a more rustic chauvanist lifestyle. It is going to be a pain for Alexis to be able to inherit as a woman, let alone live any sort of daring life. Life as a farmer, even a wealthy one, is not what destiny has in store for her, though. No, circumstances contrive for her to end up joining the space navy and not as an officer either. No, she’s being forced to work her way up from the bottom.
The universe as depicted in the book is fundamentally ridiculous because it’s the Age of Sail in space. Their ships have literal sails, they are travelling through the very ocean-like dark space, and the chauvanism that Alexis encounters in her homeworld is prevalent throughout the outer colonies. It’s also a place with space ships, computers, and things like vats that grow disgusting meat for the crew to subsist on. It’s a fascinating world and I have to say that I very much enjoy wandering around in it.
Alexis Carew is an extremely likable heroine but it should be noted she’s also very much YA heroine. She’s a plucky adventuress who is bull-headed in her stubborness and prone to bashing herself against whatever barrier that she runs into. Those hoping for her not to be able to overpower her present situation through sheer force of will are looking to the wrong book. This is very much a story of rugged determination overcoming all obstacles.
One matter that deserves to be addressed is that despite this being a Young Adult novel, this does include some very dark thees. I know, YA fiction always does, but in this case there is an attempted SA that may put off plenty of people from ever reading the book. There’s nothing wrong with that, though I believe the event is handled with respect and well-handling. Some may disagree where the plot goes but I feel like it was written about as well as it could have been without removing it,
This book is full action, adventure, and wonderful weird elements. Alexis’ adventures enraptured me when I first read this book years ago and still did upon the second time I read it. I recommend you check out the entire series and if you binge it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
