Prudence by Gail Carriger

The Custard Protocol
Prudence * Imprudence

Publish Date: March 17th, 2015
Publisher: Orbit
Series: The Custard Protocol

Format Reviewed: Book and Audiobook
Author: Gail Carriger
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Introduction

Lady Prudence, known as Rue, had an unusual upbringing. Along with her mother and werewolf father, she was also adopted by another father, a vampire. She is a take-charge kind of twenty-something girl, and she is also a metanatural. A gift bestowed by her mother, Rue can touch a supernatural and take their form, strengths, weaknesses, and immortality, if only for a short time. Her vampire father tasks her to take her very own dirigible, The Spotted Custard, to India for a venture in tea. As captain, she gets a crew, brings along her best friend, and two boys to make a love triangle.

Setting

The setting is what brought me in. I've been meaning to read the steampunk genre and I finally took the dive. The conventions are there: industrial, steam-powered machines, but also aristocratic society as well. The paranormal is also integrated into London, as vampires and werewolves dress in fancy attire and attend balls. They own hat shops and live lives similar to humans. 

Love Triangle

I dislike love triangles and there is sort of one here. One is presented here not as an overt who will she choose?! We know both men are excessively handsome and available. It does become pretty obvious that one of the men will not be chosen, which was a shame, because he was arguably the most interesting character. The love story is flimsy and it went into a weird direction.

Gripes 

There's too many. Here are some in point form: 

This is the first book in a series, but not the first book in this established universe. I had seen others ask, can you read this if you haven't read the author's other books? Internet says yes. After reading, I disagree, unless you like being lost. I have too many questions and went unanswered, or they were brought up late in the book. 

Werewolves also can't be in the daylight (do they die like vampires, turn back mortal, no idea). I didn't know werewolves had some concern about daylight at nearly the end of the book.

Hives, drones? What does this all mean? There are different levels of governments and policies and decrees that went right over my head. Apparently, this is all managed somehow, but the book was throwing stuff at me like I just knew. No, I don't live here, please elaborate.  

For perhaps 50 pages or more, not much happens. She's on her dirigible, flying about to India. Alright. But nothing happens. Almost DNF'd, and I don't DNF. 

Rue literally has her nose in the air for most of the book, so I didn't particularly like her. If the author/world acknowledged that she was arrogant and full of flaws, fine, but it doesn't. I'm supposed to like her. 

When you steal someone's supernatural state, they become mortal. Which means they can die. I'd be fairly annoyed if she stole my immortality, and someone took the opportunity to off me. 

Lots of talk about what people are wearing. Oh boy, could I care less about all the details.

EDIT 03/09/2020

After reading the entire Parasol Protectorate series, I revisited this story by listening to the audiobook. I have updated my original rating and have come to the following thoughts:

• This series, along with the Parasol Protectorate, is definitely an adult series by the grace of the characters' ages alone. However, teens can very easily get into the stories. Aside from the steamy bits being too much for some teens (or their parents), there's nothing stopping teens from enjoying the universe (language, themes, pacing, etc.) However, Prudence is listed in the YA genre on Goodreads. In the next book (Imprudence), we learn that Prudence hit the age of majority (21). YA is generally considered 13-18, though I think there's some wiggle-room for that. Based on the age ranges and sexual passages that happen, this puts it in the adult category.  
• So, what does this mean? My library split the universe into two: The Parasol Protectorate in regular fiction, and The Custard Protocol into YA. Whoa. What a huge disservice to the series and the readers! For librarians who may come across is, these really belong together. Just because Goodreads has it listed as YA, keep it wherever you have the Parasol Protectorate series. 
• I did check some other public libraries. For my own privacy, I will not be naming or linking, so please take my word for it. What I found was that both Prudence and Soulless were in regular fiction (not the YA section) or the science fiction section (also not YA exclusive). The call numbers on both of them were FIC CAR. 
• Ok, seriously, I have a point. A lot of my above gripes could be solved by reading The Parasol Protectorate first. I still think you have to do some backtracking for people who don't remember what was explained four books ago. But these books belong together, don't split them up. The author is a marvellous story-weaver with many series set in the same universe, and it also does her a disservice to split her work up across the stacks. 
• Goodreads also isn't the final say on genre, as genres are determined on user-created "shelves", which can be incorrect.               

Final Verdict 

The setting is what brought me in and I am still fairly intrigued! I'm going to pick up Soulless from the library to read about this universe more, and maybe I'll give this series another chance. If you have teens that like steampunk, or if you want to build on that genre, this is alright, though there are probably more gripping stories out there. I say that because for about 50 pages, nothing happened and I was bored to tears. Only objectionable content I say in here is the representation of India. The author could probably have used some sensitivity readers first.  

EDIT 03/08/2020:
I read Soulless and I LOOOOOVED it. Go read that first.