Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869

The Space Race of 1869
(Castle in the Stars #1)
By Alex Alice
First Second, 2014, 2017. Comics. 60 p.
Seraphin's mother is a scientist who dies trying to prove that aether exists. Months after her hot air balloon crash, someone finds her flight log and discovers that she did reach the aether layer before she died. That discovery and the belief that the aether can be used to power engines that could take a ship to outer space, fuels a race between enemy nations to be the first to make a aether ship. Seraphin's father is recruited by the king of Bavaria to design his aether ship, but Seraphin suspects that there is a Prussian spy in the castle trying to steal the plans.

This is a fun graphic novel full of action and suspense and set in a steampunk version of the 1800's. It is as if the author wondered what space travel would be like if the universe actually was how people thought it was in the 19th century. The book was originally published in France in 2014, but was translated into English this year. Give this to readers who liked Amulet or Newprints.

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