I love Pride and Prejudice. I love Elizabeth and Darcy. Heck, I love outer space.

This was fine. A solid read. It’s the same story but in space. Just like the title reads. One thing that I did really enjoy was the multiple POV! The illustrations were also beautiful!

I couldn't finish this book. As much as I love the story of Pride and Prejudice, the actual text has long been something I can not get through. This book felt too much like the original text smattered with some spacey words and locations and suffered from that. It could have been a lot of fun, had the author had taken the time to make it their own, rather than relying so much on Austen's words.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC! I've historically not had good luck when it comes to enjoying classics, which is why I've avoided Jane Austen up til now. It was hard to resist how pretty this book's cover was, though, and I wanted to give it a shot even if I wasn't sure if space might be enough to make Pride and Prejudice interesting.

In the biggest twist of my reading career: I loved it. It is very literally Pride and Prejudice, in space, so I get where longtime fans of the original might be coming from when they complain about that aspect, but I enjoyed the little details of the changed setting, the hints of worldbuilding that altered the original to science fiction, while retaining the original dialogue and writing style. I wasn't sure if that style would fit together with a sci-fi setting when I started the book, but it really worked for me, and honestly increased the whimsy and romanticism for me.

The absolutely gorgeous artwork throughout was certainly a treat too! I'll have to get myself a physical copy of the book as soon as I can, just so I can page through and experience the colors and designs again. One of my favorite reads of autumn so far, that's for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for providing the ARC.

I love Pride and Prejudice as much as the next hopeless romantic, but what I was hoping for with Pride and Prejudice in Space was great retelling but futuristic. This book is bordering on a scene for scene copy of the source text with enough of it changed to give it that sci-fi feel. Don't get me wrong - I relish any reason to reread P&P, but I would just as soon pick up the Austen version over this, especially with how similar they are.

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for this arc!

Pride and Prejudice has always been my favourite book, and I generally enjoy any retelling of it. This was no exception, I appreciated the blend of accuracy and imagination throughout the novel but my favourite thing about Pride and Prejudice in Space had to be the fun illustrations scattered throughout. These depictions of fashion, ship designs, and travel destinations gave a clear image of Lamprey’s Pride and Prejudice and I loved this immersion factor.

DNF around 18%

A retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in space has so much potential. There are so many great "futuristic" retellings out there. Unfortunately, this book is not one of them. For one, most of this book is just the story of Pride and Prejudice, scene by scene (even paragraph by paragraph at times) with a few changes to make it "in space" such as jargon or renaming planets. I was hoping there would be some kind of world-building explanation to clarify why this futuristic setting still abides by the social class rules of Regency England, but there wasn't. Instead, this book was just a mesh of the original text with a "space" bent. It didn't add anything to the story or really feel like the author's own original idea. The title is much more literal than I expected.

The highlight of this book is definitely the addition of mixed media art in the form of chat logs, journal entries, and other similar "files." Unfortunately, those didn't really seem to add anything to the story either. Instead, it made it painfully obvious that the book was just portions of the original text tweaked to fit with the new setting. The author even attempted to make some of the journal entries and chat logs have the more formal language of a classic novel, but it comes across weird and half-hearted in an attempt to give the story a unique spin.

This book comes across more like glorified fanfiction instead of a retelling or even imagining. I'm not sure the rules about plagiarism in regards to books that are in public domain, but this book definitely toes that line. I'm surprised a publisher approved of this without more effort to retell the original.

It's fair to see that I am mostly a Austen purist. I have read a number of Austen-inspired mysteries, but the recent Pride & Prejudice adaptations [like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies] haven't enticed me to try another version of this much-loved classic. For me, Pride and Prejudice is the best romance book ever written. I saw the 1995 adaptation as very impressionable teen and fell in love. The book is even better. So what has enticed me to pick up this new version? It's in space! Once I took a look at the cover I absolutely couldn't resist.

Here is why you need to read Pride and Prejudice in Space:
- First and foremost, Alexis Lampley keeps to the story that we love so much. There are moments where I felt like I was reading the original text, especially some of the most memorable lines...

"You're mistaken, my dear. I have the utmost respect for your nerves. They've been my companion for twenty years at least."

What goes with this text is "space" and she makes it fit within the text so seamlessly that you might be mistaken for thinking the original wasn't set in space. Lizzie is still our headstrong heroine, but she is also interested in how spaceships work, and instead of taking a walk across the countryside to visit her sick sister, she takes quite the solo journey in a spaceship.
- The world building and illustrations are phenomenal. The illustrations are so good, especially of the space ships and other areas that comprise the world. The reader also gets added details through com messages between characters and various journal-style entries. This all adds to a believability that Pride and Prejudice could have really been set in space!

I'll be honest I picked up Pride and Prejudice in Space for the illustrations and the concept of "space" but I stayed for a wonderful, new take on a classic and I really just have one question... when will it be on the screen? Because this would be epic on the big screen! Whether you've read the original text or not, I highly recommend Pride and Prejudice in Space. It's a fun take on a classic.

So excited to buy this book! I love Pride and prejudice retellings but sometimes they get a bit boring. This one was anything but and it gave a wonderful fresh of so to my favorite classic

Thanks to Nerdy Ink for gifted access to this eARC via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

I am a sucker for a Jane Austen retelling, I have read all of them I can get my hands on. What I look forward to most is the chemistry and intensity of the characters when put in a new setting.

This retelling is very close to the original, while the world building is amazingly unique, the plot and dialogue are almost too close to the original for me to have been wow-ed. The world building was so good, I would have hoped for a more nuanced retelling of Elizabeth and Darcy and Jane and Bingley. Taking place on a moon based setting with spaceships I'd hoped for unique clothing, societal rules and futuristic discourse. Instead the clothing was very regency inspired with most of the rules and emotional resonance of the regency era. If you haven't read a lot of retellings of this story, it's a good place to start, giving you the nuts and bolts of the story without being inaccessible.

That said, there is amazing original art throughout the story, which resonated with me, I have several illustrated editions.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. Something about the communication logs really threw me off. The back-and-forth between the semi-formal third-person narration and the first-person more contemporary feeling dialogue was distracting. And maybe I'm wrong about the tone and it's just the space words making it feel that way.

Pride and Prejudice is an all-time fave of mine so I appreciate the respect shown in this retelling. The space and sci-fi concept is wild and had fun reading.

As an avid consumer of all things Pride and Prejudice, including every retelling I can get my hands on, I was so excited for this. I have purchased many book covers and special editions from Nerdy Ink and know of the author’s love of Jane Austen. However, I have to say I was disappointed by this. The setting was exceedingly creative but that’s where the creativity ended, as huge portions were lifted directly from the original text. I would have liked to see the dialogue and scenes interpreted more to fit the setting, or it felt as though Pride and Prejudice was literally taking place in space-but not in a good way.

I love Pride and Prejudice. it’s one of my favorite novels and I will fight you over the fact that the 1995 BBC version is the best movie adaptation. Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy. I also love P&P retellings. I am a sucker for them. I have a whole Goodreads shelf, dedicated to this tiny sub genre. So when I saw this book on NetGalley, I was very excited. I had never read a sci-fi retelling of P&P.

And guess what? I still haven’t.

This is not a retelling. This is literally Pride and Prejudice with the setting changed to space. The characters all have the same names. Much of the dialogue is exactly the same. The place names are either identical or slightly modified to sound more spacey. And the plot is blow by blow exactly the same except for a minor alteration at the end with Lydia’s character. Besides the fact that I already knew everything that was happening, it felt strange to me that this futuristic society who could navigate some far-flung reach of space and build spaceships and cities on moons would have the same patriarchal traditions of early 19th century England. Just like in the original women could not inherit property and spend their days painting and sewing.

The book does have gorgeous illustrations. And that’s the only reason I gave three stars instead of two. (Although my review copy had a lot of blank spots were illustrations will, I assume, be added in the final edition.)

But if I hadn’t been reading this to review, I would’ve DNFd. I don’t need to read a word for word space version of Pride and Prejudice. I’d rather read the original. And I recommend you do too.

I think I expected more from this than for the original text to be pasted into a space setting. I was expecting a true adaptation…. with that said I had to DNF. The illustrations are gorgeous and I am excited to see what they look like in print.

This retelling of the classic novel is exactly what it sounds like: Pride and Prejudice, but set in a galaxy far, far away. As a diehard Jane Austen fanatic, I am often skeptical about reading reiterations of her novels. However, when I saw the cover and concept of this one, I had to give it a try.

My initial impression was the mindblowing visuals: lunar maps, communication logs, character sketches, and journal entries. The concept of this was immediately exciting and the graphics were beautiful. As I read through the book, I did find the characters a little flat, however. It was essentially the original text overlaid with an outer space storyline, but I wanted more from the characters. Again, the concept is incredible, but I was found wanting more in the dialogue.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy. I personally thought this would be a retelling, but it was almost the exact original in the space setting, which disappointed me. I think that people who enjoyed the original will enjoy this, but it wasn't for me. I would still recommend it to patrons at the library.

This was a cute rewrite of Pride and Prejudice, only of course set in space. It felt very similar to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies where the language and scene by scene were almost exactly the same but the setting was just space. I did enjoy the story, but I don't think this format worked as well with a space setting. I almost wish it was just a variation of Pride and Prejudice with more world building of the space stations and moons and such. The juxtaposition of space and the old English and traditional values like the need to get married etc. just felt out of place. Overall if you love pride and prejudice and you love silly families and awkward men- youll still love this, just know what it is going in!

I love a good retelling, especially when it’s a book I’ve enjoyed many times over the years. There is so much that can be done to bring classics into the modern age, and I especially love when populations of people who may have been omitted from the original work are somehow included in the reimagining.

While retellings can vary so much, with some only loosely relying on the source material and others sticking to the original plot, I generally expect there to be some bigger changes that deviate from the original to keep my interest piqued. Unfortunately this one felt like the original work with a modern filter overlaying it. While I did like the world of Londinium and the spacey setting, I noticed that there were entire scenes that seemed to have been taken almost word for word (with some added slang) from the original book. This was honestly disappointing to me because I was hoping for something fresh and new to re-invigorate the original story. Some of the original plot ideas simply don’t feel like they logically work in a futuristic space setting, and I would have loved to see some adjustments made to modernize the themes rather than only the setting.

Some aspects of the book that were positives were the gorgeous illustrations, the communication logs in lieu of diary entries, and the extra points of view! If you have never read Pride and Prejudice and have been intimidated by the idea of reading a classic, this modern edition might be a fun one to try. If you do, I recommend a print version so you can get the best view of the gorgeous illustrations!

I felt that there was a disconnect here. The story is written in a mix between ordinary fiction and diary entries and letter/message exchanges. The language of the ordinary fiction parts was super close to the original P&P (sometimes even verbatim, I believe, which also bothered me), but the other parts were more informal and more sci-fi, YA-ish. I don't know, it just didn't jive with me. And I usually love a good Austen-retelling. This just didn't work for me.

It is my life's aim to read all the retellings of P&P. But this one did not cut it. You cannot make a retelling by lifting entire plots and dialogues and just putting them in a different setting.

Of course, the hero earns in aurums than pounds. Of course, they send comcasts instead of letters. But that was about it.

2 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Union Square & Co. for an ARC.

Pride and Prejudice in Space, by Alexis Lampley

Genre: Retelling, Science Fiction, Romance

...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a booklover in possession of a brain must have read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen or also have known any other work related, either cinematographic or literal.

I am one of those girls who grew up with the cult of Elizabeth Bennet as one of the most fascinating characters in English Literature and fell in love with Mr. Darcy's professions of love for Lizzie.

I can admit it's one of the main reasons I've applied for reading this ARC, combined with my own obsession with astronomy & astrophysics.

A Retelling set in space, with spaceships & court manners? Sign me in!

...
Probably the strongest (and weakest) point is that it's Pride & Prejudice. I've read both the original novel and the translation in my native language (Italian), and I can say with precision that most parts are indeed a copycat from the 1813 novel.

Yes, the parts (and traits of the characters) were adjusted to the setting (I really loved a Lizzie space pilot, btw), but this was P&P. Point.

This will surely be appreciated by the "purists", but also raises, in my opinion, a doubt: was this really necessary?


In truth, Lampley gives spotlight to the other characters: we have coms between the Bennet sisters, journal entries from many characters, including Charlotte Lucas and even the one and only Fitzwlliam Darcy.

The author's artistic side is showed in colourful drawings of the Londinium (London) Solar System and its surroundings moons (Kaels - Kent, or Dyberion - Derbyshire), creating a little gem, which I could say it's on my physical TBR.

In the end, I can only lower my rating (a .5 rounded higher) being this truly P&P with fewer innovation that I'd expected.


Rating: ★★★.5 (rounded to ★★★★) but infinitive for the AustenVerse.

...

I want to thank UnionSquare & Co for the digital ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) via Netgalley. I'm not affiliated to the author, to the publishing house or any other person/agency. My review is honest and based only on my thoughts/feeling while reading the book.

Anais by The Bookish Scorpio