Pride and Prejudice in Space, by Alexis Lampley

Genre: Retelling, Science Fiction, Romance

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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!

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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.

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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

I recently re-read the original Pride & Prejudice in January of this year, and loved it just as much as the first time I read it. I’m also working on writing Pride & Prejudice retelling myself. So, naturally I was very excited to read this ARC. And unfortunately I was quite disappointed. I thought this was going to be a fun, slightly campy sci-fi reimagining of the original tale. However, nothing significant was altered from the original plot, just the way things played out. For example, whole entire conversations, recognizable pieces of dialogue, etc. are essentially copy and pasted into this sci-fi context with only some sci-fi slang flair added, or with letters presented as “emails” / journal entries that read in a very different tone than the rest of the book. Pride & Prejudice is a beloved story, I believe a successful retelling needs to capture the spirit of the original while making meaningful changes to suit a new context. For example, A Court of Thorns and Roses is essentially a Beauty & the Beast retelling but there is a lot of newness added to it. In any case, this story unfortunately fell flat for me and I don’t know if I could recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Union Square & Co., and Alexis Lampley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This P&P adaptation was really refreshing to read. Certainly unique in its way taking place in space but very interesting especially with the landscape descriptions too. Some aspects from the original plot that do make sense in the regency era felt a bit out of place in this space setting. Other than that it was an entertaining read for sure.

Pride and Prejudice in Space...say no more. I always enjoy a good twist on Pride and Prejudice. This one worked really well for me.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy.

DNF @ 18%

...I didn't see the point of this. This is not a book I would consider a retelling, it's at best a space AU that I would see well on ao3 but not as a book people pay money for. And it makes me sad to say this because I do see where the author put her own effort into this, but none of it made any sense to me. Why use actual P&P dialogues, speaking like they do in the book, only changing a few words here and there to fit the space concept? Why do people in space still hold all these visiting people's houses spaceships rules, why is marriage still so important, etc etc etc? I liked seeing Darcy's POV but then doesn't it spoil the fun of finding out, yet again, that's he's madly in love? Idk.

I liked the illustrations though. I wish the e-ARC had been formatted better, because I wasn't able to properly view them or zoom in on them, but I'm sure this is something that will be fixed in the final version.

3.5 STARS
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I should start by stating that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite stories of all time. I collect every edition I can get my hands on, and I read the book at least once every other year and watch the different screen iterations more than I probably should.

All that being said, I was very excited when this book was announced, and even more excited when I was chosen to review it. I really did enjoy this one for the most part, there were just a few things I didn't love.

First, I think the concept was very cool--bringing the Pride and Prejudice story into a space/sci-fi setting. I just don't think it was very well executed. I would have loved to see the story adapted into a sci-fi rather than how it was done, which was to take Austen's words and paste them into this setting while only changing a few words so that it "fit" contextually. This actually kind of threw me off more than pulling me in. Why do these people with electronic communication devices, and spaceships care at all about balls and the societal pressures to marry well? It just didn't make much sense, or flow very well to me. It would have been much better if the original story had been altered more to fit into the setting better.

But like I said, I did enjoy it for the most part, as I really liked the concept. I did like that Lampley slightly altered some of the characters storylines, and I really enjoyed the "journal" entries from some of the other family members we don't normally get pov's from like Mary.

Also, the illustrations were GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to get my finished copy of the book, because the artwork is phenomenal.

Overall it was alright decent read, and I think it is worth picking up if you like the original story, and also like sci-fi stories. If you don't like either of those things, it may be confusing and hard to read.

I absolutely loved this book. I have never read or watched Pride and Prejudice, so I can't speak on how similar it is to Jane Austen's novel. All I can say is that it was amazing, and now I'm more inclined than ever to do so. All the little space details really just did it for me since I love space. As well as the way the book is formated with different pieces of content in between the chapters was a really nice touch. Thank you NetGalley for the privilege to read this book.

Don't get me wrong this book is absolutely stunning, the illustrations blew me away and I would love to see the artist maybe make an edition of the original P&P with her gorgeous art. But, that's pretty much where my love for this book ends. I was really excited and maybe it's on me for assuming this would be a retelling but it isn't, at all, it's borderline word for word the same. It is quite literally the original P&P but in space and I totally see that's how it was described but like would this not be considered sort of a rip off to not change anything but the setting?? I don't know overall it was just disappointing

That concept! Could not resist it. And the book is a delight. Really fun to read, very much enjoyed.

Just fantastic! Such a fast paced read but one I wanted to sit down and savor and have it never end. I loved it so much and I need more from this author immediately. The characters, the plot, the pacing. It was all perfection.

While I have to draw the line somewhere (usually around the realm of contemporary romance), I try to read as many Jane Austen re-tellings as I can! This one had immediate appeal as it combined both a “Pride and Prejudice” re-telling with science fiction, one of my favorite genres! There was also the promise of beautiful illustrations to spur me forward!

There was a lot to like about this book! However, I do think that readers might not be properly prepped for the sort of story this is meant to me. When I first picked it up, I was expecting a loose re-telling in which the main characters and plot are the same, but the story itself is written over again in a wholly original manner. Instead, this falls much more in line with re-tellings like “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” where the majority of the text is directly pulled from the original book. Now, the original book is obviously brilliant, and once I understood what we were doing, it was fine. But I do think some readers may be surprised to find themselves largely reading the original version of “Pride and Prejudice” all over again with a few tweaks here and there. Some of those tweaks, of course, were fairly straightforward changes. Instead of travelling by carriages, they would trap in space ships. The villages were not towns, but different planets and moons. There was also a very useful map included in the beginning which really helped with this new layout.

However, the book diverged further from the original novel by including chapters from other characters’ perspectives (like Jane’s) as well as various communications between characters (texts and emails and such). I think, overall, the latter was more successful than the former. With the messages and communications of that sort, the style was clearly different from the novel portions, so the change in language served to enhance the added information we were getting. However, when the book would switch from Jane Austen’s original text to a wholly original chapter from Jane’s perspective, for example, it was a bit jarring to mentally switch over. The author makes a strong attempt, but doesn’t quite capture the same tone as Austen’s writing, making these switches feel a bit clunky. They also felt largely unnecessary. This is, perhaps, one of those situations where less is more, and the book would have been better served to remain largely as a slightly adjusted re-imagining of the original, with the addition of the epistolary sections for extra flair and insight.

The unfortunate thing about reading this book in its ARC format was that I was cruelly teased with regards to the art. The cover, of course, is fantastic. And as I was reading, there were numerous spreads of art throughout. Unfortunately, this was all in greyscale, so I wasn’t able to fully appreciate what I’m sure were excellent pieces of art.

Overall, I thought this was a very fun re-telling of the classic tale. I do wish that it had perhaps committed a bit more fully one way or the other. Either, remain using mostly only the original language with only little flairs of unique text here and there. Or re-write the entire thing in the author’s own words. As it is, the story was a bit clunky and broken up at times switching between the two. However, fans of Jane Austen who are looking for a new version of this story should definitely give it a go!

Rating 8: Who knew that what we really needed was a version of “Pride and Prejudice” where Darcy and Elizabeth whizz around in space ships?? Well, we did, and this was great fun all around!

(Link will go live October 25 on The Library Ladies blog).

I felt like this was a bit toooooo spot on to P&P and I’m not sure how to feel about it.

I’ve read quite a few P&P adaptations and spot offs but this is the first one that made me feel like I was reading P&P just in space. No twists or individuality and that was odd.

I really wanted to like this one, but alas, it wasn’t for me, arc was provided for an honest review

I had to sit on giving this feedback for a bit to come to final conclusion. I'd give this book 3.5 stars,

I love Pride and Prejudice and this is a rewrite so I'm not surprised I enjoyed this ! Adding in the space theming is really cool and added new aspects to a story I already love so much. Also the author kept some of my favorite scenes and I was happy to be reading them again!

What a marvelous reimagining of a beloved classic. And the illustrations are breathtaking. While the author stayed fairly close to the original, she offers an experience through the vastness of space. Towns become planets and moons; galaxies become a normal sight during the day and night; space travel a wonder brought to life.

Elizabeth is still formidable, strong, and unyielding to flattery, forcing Darcy to face his flaws and earn her love. And as usual, Darcy wins us over with his brooding nature, lack of tack, but his big heart, and willingness to change. Lampley fleshes out the rest of the characters in a way that holds to their true nature from the original (their mother is still insufferable and self absorbed, as is their sister, Lydia), but with a fresh new look.

If you are a fan of the original, and you love science fiction, you will love this new take on Jane Austen’s most well known novel. It’s a welcomed and refreshing view of the Bennett sisters and their journey from the lower ranks of society, to the life of wealth through love.

I'm sorry to report that Pride and Prejudice and space go about as well together as oil and water.

At least the way Alexis Lampley went about it.

Pride and Prejudice in Space didn't work me the for the same reason Pride and Prejudice and Zombies didn't work for me--both authors take entire scenes and sentences from Jane Auten's work and dump it directly into their own. I'm hard-pressed to call this a Pride and Prejudice retelling when it's literally just Pride and Prejudice with bits of "space" thrown in. (I guess is it right there in the title, so I have no one to blame but myself.)

At least when it came to the zombie edition, Grahame-Smith made an attempt to incorporate the zombie-aspect into the original story, but Alexis Lampley makes no such efforts in her debut novel. She quite literally takes the world of Pride and Prejudice and dumps it in space without any explanation. Why are we hosting balls and speaking of accomplished women in space? I'm not saying we can't, but I'm going to need a compelling reason WHY. And the most frustrating thing is that Lampley doesn't even try to explain why we're in a futuristic(-ish) world but acting like it's 18th century.

The worldbuilding is absolutely atrocious. Like I said earlier, the story is basically the original text, and the "world building" is a whole slew of random space terms thrown in without any explanation. Like, I'm sorry, but just because you put the word "moon" in front of something, it doesn't mean you've built a fictional world. Lampley relies too much on random brochures and articles to info dump instead of actually building it into the story, and even then, her world isn't nearly developed enough to call this an actual setting.

And the writing isn't any better. Lampley tries to mimic Austen's writing style, but her attempts at a more formal tone pale in comparison. Often more casual modern language sneaks in and doesn't mesh well with the story and comes across as awkward and stilted. It's done really clumsily and is a stark contrast to Jane Austen's subtle and deft writing. The random diary entries and chat logs interspersed throughout the story are filled with colloquialisms and interrupt the flow of the story. (While we're on the topic, why people are 1) texting each other when they're in the same house and 2) relying on email when they literally have holographs is beyond me.)

Because entire chunks of the story are lifted are lifted from P&P, I often found myself wondering why I was reading this knock-off version instead of the original. What Lampley does add to the original story isn't particularly interesting or memorable. (One thing I found particularly distracting was the fact that Darcy's hair was dripping wet during the proposal scene. Like, I know she mentioned the hanging gardens were humid, but that's kind of gross...) She makes one pretty big change to the original plot, but she doesn't really do much with it, so I'm not convinced it needed to happen or added anything new to the story. There are also times when it felt like she's just using her novel as a way to shove her interpretation of Pride and Prejudice down the throats of her unsuspecting readers.

The one good thing going for this is that some of the illustrations are cute, so I'm sure the final product will look amazing 🤷🏻‍♀️ But while I love P&P retellings, this is less of a reiteration of Jane Austen's beloved classic and more of a bastardization.

Poorly formatted copy that made it extremely difficult to read. The cookie cutter copy and paste of the original Pride and Prejudice was off putting. If you're going to reboot a classic at least don't copy most of it word for word

I had a really hard time getting into this because it felt like it pulled word for word from the original text and just changed the settings. I'm a huge Pride and Prejudice fan, but this didn't do it for me.

Elizabeth Bennet lives on a small moon in the Londinium lunar system with her parents and four sisters. While she dreams of piloting a starship rather than settling down with an eligible man, her world turns upside down when the handsome Mr. Bingley docks the Netherfield StarCruiser on the neighboring estate. The arrival thrusts the Bennet sisters into the bustling asteroid field of the system’s wider society, and Elizabeth’s aspirations are suddenly in flux. Drawn into the orbit of Mr. Bingley’s friend, the proud Fitzwilliam Darcy, Elizabeth is determined to dislike him despite his ten thousand aurum per year.
Can the Bennet sisters navigate the perils of love and space? Will Elizabeth avoid the collision course she’s on with the formidable Mr. Darcy? This tale of scifi romance for women explores timeless themes of love, pride, and prejudice, set against the backdrop of the infinite cosmos.Pride and Prejudice in Space features stunning, colorful chapter headers and an array of interior art. With over 60 full-color illustrations and designs, readers will be captivated by this new world—from maps and brochures to digital message logs and pages pulled from the Bennet sisters’ journals and sketchbooks.

A visually stunning book that puts you in the original story of pride and prejudice. I wasn’t necessarily expecting the story to be a retelling due to the title being very literal to what the plot is, taking pride and prejudice and putting it in space, but I was not expecting the language to be very similar to that of the original story’s decade. It kinda put me out of the story a little bit at first, since it didn’t have the futuristic language that you’d expect from space. In other words, picture futuristic type technology, but with the language and customs of 19th century England. I did appreciate the designs and pictures throughout the book that allows you to get a grasp on what is discussed, and in all honesty it was a pretty good version of pride and prejudice. I would probably recommend this to people who like the original and basically want to reread the original but change some tiny elements.

Look, this is exactly what it says on the tin: Pride and Prejudice in Space. So if you're expecting something along the lines of what Sharon Shinn did for Jane Eyre in JENNA STARBORN, you'll probably be disappointed--but if you're interested in a fun, visually gorgeous, and extremely faithful to the original narrative retelling of Pride and Prejudice as a science fiction graphic novel, you'll love this one like I did. I'm looking forward to including it on my list of recommended Austen retellings, particularly for YA readers.