Teaser Tuesday – Mrs. Darcy Versus the Aliens by Jonathan Pinnock

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

“The truth is out there,” he added significantly. “Though it is not yet universally acknowledged.”

page 4, Mrs. Darcy Versus the Aliens by Jonathan Pinnock

Synopsis:
A year or two into her marriage, Elizabeth Darcy has much on her mind: she has still not produced an heir for Mr Darcy, there are preparations to be made for the Pemberly summer ball, and her youngest sister Lydia has been abducted by aliens. As Regency England sleepwalks towards tentacled oblivion, will she be able to reunite with her old foe Wickham and put a stop to their evil plans?

Meanwhile, in the East End of London, the repulsive Mr Collins is running a Mission for fallen women whilst his poor wife Charlotte has fallen under the malign spell of Lord Byron and is now a laudanum addict. But is everything at the Mission all that it seems? What is Mr Darcy doing there? And why are there strange lights in the sky over Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s seat at Rosings?

What I think of it so far:
Not quite as clever as Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, nor quite as funny as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but still a fun read. Pinnock pits our beloved Elizabeth against invaders from another planet and, on the whole, it does well, but some of the pop-culture in-jokes will probably not age quite as well as the ones based on more classic areas. This really is a major mash-up, not just between Austen and aliens, but also time, as the Regency meets the Victorian age too.

If you’re a fan of mash-ups, especially of Austen-based ones, you’ll probably enjoy this. If not, then you’re probably best to steer clear, as you simply won’t get it.