Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - These Burning Stars

What would you get if you crossed 'She who became the sun' with 'The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet'? Why, you would get These Burning Stars.
I'm still reeling from the beauty and devastation and whirlwind that is this book. I adored the gender fluidity of the worlds, the sci-fi aspects, and all the tech and magic combinations.
We have strong powerful characters who are grey and often unapologetic. There are amazing mysteries to be solved, and ones that you didn't even know were needing to be solved.
The writing is hypnotic and beautiful as it shows the darker nastier side behind the Treble.
Natalie Naudus completely nailed this narration and damn, please tell me there is a book 2 ... there must be a book 2. But in keeping with the intensity of this book and the way the author allows the reader to truly decide how grey the characters are, perhaps there is no book 2 ... ARGH!
No romance as such but the intensity and obsession of the characters with each other, it was so much more intense for not having that more obvious subplot.

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odunayo_y's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Thank You to Netgalley for providing me with an E-ARC

A very strong sci-fi debut, the prose and overall writing was tight. Despite being an ARC I didn’t notice any typographical errors. The characters were all interesting amd compelling in their own ways. But it seems I’m a black sheep in reviews as i HATED Esek, i get that she’s meant to be awful but gyatt dam she was grating. Lol and i was kicking my feet when Esek starts having a Bad Time.

I will say that the characters being ultra talented Badasses as teenagers was giving a bit YA lol. Like no a 16 year old is not going to be a galactic level mastermind. But other than that it was great!

I did enjoy that Esek & Chono’s relationship was purely platonic.

Another aspect I appreciated was how religion and religious people were treated. It was good to see Chono not be denigrated by the narrative for her beliefs. While still being realistic that there are people and institutions who cynically use the veneer of religion to justify their actions or hold onto power.

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queenmackenzie's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

What a book! What a debut! I wasn’t going to request books on NetGalley anymore and then I saw people talking about These Burning Stars and I fell into temptation. I’m so glad I did… This is storytelling at its best, with vivid worldbuilding, characters that step off the page, and intrigue aplenty. It’s hard to talk about this book without giving anything away, though. The twists and turns are brilliant and I wouldn’t want to spoil them for anyone, so I will do my best to talk about it without doing so.

As the blurb says, These Burning Stars follows three characters: Esek, Chono, and Jun and the narrative jumps between past and present in a way that slowly and precisely develops their arcs and reveals their secrets. Before I talk more about those three – and the rest of the supporting cast – I want to mention the worldbuilding, because it’s brilliant. Unlike a lot of SF I’ve read that is set on other planets, there is no reference to Earth and a past connected to our own world, and somehow this made the setting feel even more real. There are mentions of the generation ships that brought the original population to the system of planets they colonised, but that event is so far in the past that it no longer affects daily life. And the planets we get to see are varied and wonderful; they each have defining characteristics (eg an ocean-dominated world, one known for its dusty landscape, etc) but they don’t suffer from the Star Wars effect of a planet having only one ecosystem.

The history is also very artfully crafted and contributed to the world of These Burning Stars feeling real and lived-in. There is one religion with six gods, and each planet prioritises the worship of one of them, and the system is ruled by the Kindom, an entity both religious and political with three factions: the clerics (somewhat like priests, and the ones most involved with communities), the cloaksaan (assassins and enforcers of law), and the secretaries (archivists and administrators). The Kindom is as corrupt as any large organisation can be, but it keeps the peace between the influential Families that, if unchecked, would wage constant war over resources and land. The Nightfoot Family is one of the most powerful due to their control of sevite, which powers the Gates that allow for fast space travel.

Esek is a cleric of the Kindom, but she is also a member of the Nightfoot Family and has always kept her ties to the family despite the kin being neutral. Esek does not play by the rules, though, and she is the most compelling character I’ve ever read. She is not a good person, and has very few redeemable qualities, but I could not stop looking away. There is such magnetism to her, and it’s not surprising that most of the events of the book are precipitated by Esek making selfish, cruel decisions. Chono has a quiet presence that is just as compelling: she was once Esek’s novitiate and is now a cleric herself. Though she is a good and selfless person, she has a history with Esek and been drawn into the older woman’s cruelties. Their dynamic was really interesting to read, especially because we get to see it both in the past and the present.

The main thing that binds Esek and Chono is their connection to Six, once Chono’s fellow student and the best in their year, but now a ghost who haunts and taunts Esek ever since she refused to take them on as novitiate. For someone who does not appear on page for the majority of the book, Six has quite the presence. They fill the thoughts of both clerics as they track down a memory coin containing information that could condemn the Nightfoots and divide the Kindom. As the past is slowly revealed, it seems impossible that it could be anyone other than Six orchestrating all that threatens the Kindom and Esek in particular, but there are still so many elements at play that are revealed piece by piece. Jacobs really knows how to build the tension, and how to reward a patient reader.

There is still so much I could say about what makes These Burning Stars such a good book, from the prose to the details of worldbuilding, but then this review would get too long. All I can say it that this is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and one of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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