Just could not finish this book. I tried, I read the first few chapters and couldn't get into the writing or the Worldscape. Written for the Teen/YA market, this came off as juvenile for that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ingram publishing for giving me a free copy of Teslanauts! All thoughts and opinions are my own.


I couldn't get through the book. I DNF'd around 10% into the book. I really wanted to like this book! I'm a sucker for teen spy books and adventurous stories. Unfortunately, I have no idea what tone this book is going for. 1920s pulp, a serious war story with fantastical elements, a silly but comforting read? I don't know. I do know that I was immediately met with info-dumps instead of actual worldbuilding. It felt more like reading a summary than the story itself. I get that worldbuilding is hard but when I don't know the book's tone, it was jarring. Even as I got further along, I was hit with these info-dumps and I wished Donald would have shown me more than he told me all of these things.

The same applies to Raymond himself. I also don't know who the lead is on a personal level. Yes, Raymond Calvert is 16 and looking for his father but that's all I got from him other than some sarcastic comments now and then.

I know giving up at 10% feels a bit hasty but I had emotionally checked out by then. With a book like this, I need to care about the characters and their journeys and I didn't care about Raymond and Helen.

Overall, I'm not saying Donald is a bad writer but I do think this book could have done with a few more edits.

Clever and witty with plenty of science and steampunk ambiance. Part action adventure, part alternate reality, part science historical fiction, I enjoyed this YA novel

An interesting and creative YA! Alternate historical fiction, with dashes of sci-fi fun and quite an enjoyable read.

I had a great time reading this book, it was what I was looking for in a steampunk novel. The writing was really well done and I loved the use of historical figures to keep the plot going. I enjoyed getting to know Raymond and I really enjoyed the action sequences in the book. Can't wait to read the sequels.

"He had one target, and he had to make it. Behind him, he could feel the energized aura of Ziegler’s electrical field closing in. It was a race between the engineer and the cliff on which would splatter Raymond first."