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eldane's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is exactly the space opera I was needing. This was a beautiful, powerful, and emotional book with some of the best-written characters I have ever seen. It takes immense skill to write bloodthirsty, cruel, murderers as your protagonists, but Bethany Jacobs does it well. The worldbuilding is incredible and detailed, and the plot is tightly woven and well-paced. I also loved the voice and writing style, and the descriptions were out of the world (ha). And the twist at the end? WOW. I was not expecting it at all. This has established itself as one of my favorite books of all time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Gore, and Grief
Moderate: Genocide, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, War, Colonisation, and Pedophilia
entropyseeker's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
3.75
This book was so immensely slow, I didn't start actually being interested in the book until 60% of the way in, though it is a sci-fi novel so that's usually the case. While the first half was confusing with all the time skips, and it was a lot of world building, gore, violence, the last quarter of the book was rather great and built up to quite a few surprising twists that left me gaping. Will still read the second part of the trilogy. Definitely read the content warnings. Not for the front of heart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, Gore, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gun violence, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, and Sexual violence
Minor: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Rape
queenmackenzie's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Toxic relationship, Genocide, and Murder
Moderate: Torture and Pedophilia
Minor: Rape and Child abuse
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