Scan barcode
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2013/07/2013-book-206.html
ceuran's review against another edition
4.0
4.5*
This book was so good! The first half was only a little slow, but the second half is excellent!
If you loved Beth Revis' Across the Universe trilogy, I highly recommend you read this!
This book was so good! The first half was only a little slow, but the second half is excellent!
If you loved Beth Revis' Across the Universe trilogy, I highly recommend you read this!
sungmemoonstruck's review against another edition
3.0
Terra is on the starship Asherah, which has been heading towards a distant planet for 500 years after the predicted collapse of Earth. She's struggling with her alcoholic father, and hoping to be able to pursue a career as an artist, when she witnesses a member of the captain's guard shoot a man. I wanted to love this book so very badly but the book chemistry just didn't click. It was well written, with a beautifully drawn and complete-feeling world, a wonderful and complex depiction of the friendship between Terra and her best friend Rachel, and a whole host of surprising plot twists in the second half of the book. But the beginning was incredibly slow, with only North's engaging writing keeping the book going, and Terra herself is quite difficult to warm up to. She's often easily manipulated, sullen, and angry without ever doing anything about it for most of the book. Her relationships with the two different boys she became involved with were also quite troubling. Of course, North deserves credit for daring to create such a flawed heroine and the complicated and excellent supporting cast, especially Terra's mentor Mara, make up for it somewhat. Recommended for readers of serious sci-fi.
Spoiler
Her relationship with Silvan just made me so uneasy, especially what it did to Rachel (probably my favorite character in the book), and her reaction to Koen's being gay and later outing of him were quite frustrating.skundrik87's review against another edition
4.0
This is amazing. Sci-fi with a jewish flavour. The language and characters are sophisticated and the world is a living, breathing thing. So highly recommended!
vita_zeta's review
3.0
I'm still not entirely sure what to make of Starglass. It's a strange quiet book about a sad girl in a sad stifling world. The gray mood of the story can be overwhelming at times. I don't think I ever felt particularly excited about what I was reading, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
I appreciate that Phoebe North didn't want to tell the typical rebellion against authority story. She didn't want to create the typical beautiful girl who doesn't know she's beautiful character. And she certainly didn't want to tell the usual love story. This book boxes its hero, Terra, into a corner until she has no choice but to break out of the box entirely.
Terra is deeply real and deeply relatable, as are many of the other characters, and the setting is an innovative take on a generation ship. North certainly did her research, there was never moment where I thought, "Well, THAT wouldn't happen." Maybe Starglass is a little too real. Terra doesn't get to save the day, she doesn't woo the boy of her dreams, she loses the biggest parts of her life tragically and painfully, and even though she proves herself a good friend in the end, she makes some terrible misteps along the way. I sympathized with this girl, and I wanted to be there for her journey, even if it wasn't the most enjoyable trip to ride shotgun on.
I can definitely see Terra becoming a stronger person in the next book, and I am very much looking forward to that. Starglass is worth the read, if anything for its fresh take on a futuristic post-apocalyptic society, and its honest treatment of its teenage characters. The writing is lovely and evocative, everything about this feels touchable. It could have just been a little...warmer, maybe is the word I'm looking for. It was at the end when Terra really started to get focus, when she finally began to define what she wanted and how to get it, that I felt the story was moving towards something interesting. Hopefully, there will be more of that in the next book.
I appreciate that Phoebe North didn't want to tell the typical rebellion against authority story. She didn't want to create the typical beautiful girl who doesn't know she's beautiful character. And she certainly didn't want to tell the usual love story. This book boxes its hero, Terra, into a corner until she has no choice but to break out of the box entirely.
Terra is deeply real and deeply relatable, as are many of the other characters, and the setting is an innovative take on a generation ship. North certainly did her research, there was never moment where I thought, "Well, THAT wouldn't happen." Maybe Starglass is a little too real. Terra doesn't get to save the day, she doesn't woo the boy of her dreams, she loses the biggest parts of her life tragically and painfully, and even though she proves herself a good friend in the end, she makes some terrible misteps along the way. I sympathized with this girl, and I wanted to be there for her journey, even if it wasn't the most enjoyable trip to ride shotgun on.
I can definitely see Terra becoming a stronger person in the next book, and I am very much looking forward to that. Starglass is worth the read, if anything for its fresh take on a futuristic post-apocalyptic society, and its honest treatment of its teenage characters. The writing is lovely and evocative, everything about this feels touchable. It could have just been a little...warmer, maybe is the word I'm looking for. It was at the end when Terra really started to get focus, when she finally began to define what she wanted and how to get it, that I felt the story was moving towards something interesting. Hopefully, there will be more of that in the next book.
folklaureate's review against another edition
3.0
Jews in space.
If you wanted me to sum up Starglass in three words, there you have it folks. I can tell you, from the synopsis, I never would have guessed I'd be reading about a spaceship filled with an entire Jewish colony looking for a new planet to live on. Nevertheless, Starglass had its charm and it's quirk along with the weirdly strange.
The roughest patch of the novel had to be the pacing. It was dreary in the beginning, painfully slow with much to be told about the customs and the history. Between the Hebrew words that I did not know the meaning to as well as the customs that were tossed around from character to character, all I can say is that whenever I saw bar mitzva and maezl tov I finally felt like I knew what was being said. Now, like I said, that was the rough patch of the novel. If you really aren't accustom to the Jewish customs, like me, then it will be a bit of a challenge to want to keep at Starglass in the beginning.
Once the world on the Asherah carefully forms itself, Starglass gets heavily entertaining. The world building does not disappoint. At all. It will probably be one of your favorite things about the novel as it was mine.
In most YA novels of late, the society that the characters live in like to pick and choose the lives of those living within their jurisdiction. Sort of like in Matched by Ally Condie. It is typical in their society to be a full fledged by the age of like sixteen and married around the same year. Unlike the typical dystopianish novel out there, each couple is allowed one boy and one girl to keep the gender balance on the ship. And those babies are incubated not the natural way that mommies and daddies made you and me. No, they are made inside eggs, as I had mentioned before. Unlike Matched, at least the characters can pick who they want to marry as long as they go through all the precautions and such. Only the higher powers of the spaceship city deem what each newly adult will be working as for the rest of their lives up until they land on the planet they've been racing towards for almost 500 years.
Terra's vocation happens to be an extremely interesting one to read into and watch flourish. Botany. What I thought was going to be a rather dull addition to the slow cranking novel actually was rather insightful and fun. Following Terra's piqued interest in her new line of work, even after her debauched dream of being an artist, really brought the flow back for the book. Whenever Terra was working I found that kept on wanting to read Starglass.
Character-wise? Terra had her ups and downs. She grows much stronger as a character during the books slow progression. She starts to inherit realistic, moral qualities. She has lived a life where her mother died from a disease after she had been told that all the diseases had been eradicated. Her father, a violent man whose eye is directly locked on authority and honor through status, I felt impassive with, but the remorse and pity did leak away for his character during some scenes. Her brother had left her behind to start a family of his own. There is so much diversity in this novel than I was even expecting. North does a fantastic job at keeping the norm of most YA from really seeping into her characters.
Final Summation: Though STARGLASS really was a fascinating read towards the latter of the novel, I found it to have so much really going on all at once for one book that it can get a little confusing at times. I was, indeed, happy with how the book progressed. The second books is welcomed to my reading stack. Even though STARGLASS doesn't necessarily take precedence as a remarkable sci-fi YA novel compared to it's spaceship counterparts, it does have qualities that I hadn't expected it to really hone in on, like the heavy incorporation of Judaism. STARGLASS makes for a slow-paced, informational, snowball effect read. Fans of the Across the Universe or Inside Out series are welcome to take a crack at another trek through the starry abyss of space.
If you wanted me to sum up Starglass in three words, there you have it folks. I can tell you, from the synopsis, I never would have guessed I'd be reading about a spaceship filled with an entire Jewish colony looking for a new planet to live on. Nevertheless, Starglass had its charm and it's quirk along with the weirdly strange.
The roughest patch of the novel had to be the pacing. It was dreary in the beginning, painfully slow with much to be told about the customs and the history. Between the Hebrew words that I did not know the meaning to as well as the customs that were tossed around from character to character, all I can say is that whenever I saw bar mitzva and maezl tov I finally felt like I knew what was being said. Now, like I said, that was the rough patch of the novel. If you really aren't accustom to the Jewish customs, like me, then it will be a bit of a challenge to want to keep at Starglass in the beginning.
Once the world on the Asherah carefully forms itself, Starglass gets heavily entertaining. The world building does not disappoint. At all. It will probably be one of your favorite things about the novel as it was mine.
In most YA novels of late, the society that the characters live in like to pick and choose the lives of those living within their jurisdiction. Sort of like in Matched by Ally Condie. It is typical in their society to be a full fledged by the age of like sixteen and married around the same year. Unlike the typical dystopianish novel out there, each couple is allowed one boy and one girl to keep the gender balance on the ship. And those babies are incubated not the natural way that mommies and daddies made you and me. No, they are made inside eggs, as I had mentioned before. Unlike Matched, at least the characters can pick who they want to marry as long as they go through all the precautions and such. Only the higher powers of the spaceship city deem what each newly adult will be working as for the rest of their lives up until they land on the planet they've been racing towards for almost 500 years.
Terra's vocation happens to be an extremely interesting one to read into and watch flourish. Botany. What I thought was going to be a rather dull addition to the slow cranking novel actually was rather insightful and fun. Following Terra's piqued interest in her new line of work, even after her debauched dream of being an artist, really brought the flow back for the book. Whenever Terra was working I found that kept on wanting to read Starglass.
Character-wise? Terra had her ups and downs. She grows much stronger as a character during the books slow progression. She starts to inherit realistic, moral qualities. She has lived a life where her mother died from a disease after she had been told that all the diseases had been eradicated. Her father, a violent man whose eye is directly locked on authority and honor through status, I felt impassive with, but the remorse and pity did leak away for his character during some scenes. Her brother had left her behind to start a family of his own. There is so much diversity in this novel than I was even expecting. North does a fantastic job at keeping the norm of most YA from really seeping into her characters.
Final Summation: Though STARGLASS really was a fascinating read towards the latter of the novel, I found it to have so much really going on all at once for one book that it can get a little confusing at times. I was, indeed, happy with how the book progressed. The second books is welcomed to my reading stack. Even though STARGLASS doesn't necessarily take precedence as a remarkable sci-fi YA novel compared to it's spaceship counterparts, it does have qualities that I hadn't expected it to really hone in on, like the heavy incorporation of Judaism. STARGLASS makes for a slow-paced, informational, snowball effect read. Fans of the Across the Universe or Inside Out series are welcome to take a crack at another trek through the starry abyss of space.
lpcoolgirl's review against another edition
5.0
Such a great book, interesting, fun, and I can't wait for the next book!!!
tuna_fish's review against another edition
2.0
Weird book, though I'm not really sure what I was expecting. The whole concept (Jews... in space!) sounds like the plot of a Mel Brooks movie, and the peppering in of words like "oy" into typical YA problems made the novel unintentionally funny. The Jewish-ness seems to only be added for a novelty effect. The Judaism as portrayed is so utterly warped and unrecognizable that the author could have stuck any culture in and the book would have read the same.
The story itself is a mix between The Giver and You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, except replace "Bat Mitzvah" with "Obligatory and Mildly Creepy Wedding". I knew to expect some sort of teen drama, but it's bordering on silly when you have a bunch of sixteen-year-olds arguing about who is going to marry whom. Sixteen? Really? And, apparently, there are only two other sixteen-year-old guys on this spaceship, so our main characters had better pick one quick before her best friend gets the other one. This is the scariest part of the book.
Overall, the plot kept me reading, but once I reached the cliffhanger of an ending I suddenly realized I didn't care enough about these characters and their claustrophobic spaceship to read the sequel. And if you want to write about a Jewish spaceship, name-dropping Yiddish words and phrases like "bar mitzvah" does not automatically make something Jewish. Oy gevalt.
The story itself is a mix between The Giver and You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, except replace "Bat Mitzvah" with "Obligatory and Mildly Creepy Wedding". I knew to expect some sort of teen drama, but it's bordering on silly when you have a bunch of sixteen-year-olds arguing about who is going to marry whom. Sixteen? Really? And, apparently, there are only two other sixteen-year-old guys on this spaceship, so our main characters had better pick one quick before her best friend gets the other one. This is the scariest part of the book.
Overall, the plot kept me reading, but once I reached the cliffhanger of an ending I suddenly realized I didn't care enough about these characters and their claustrophobic spaceship to read the sequel. And if you want to write about a Jewish spaceship, name-dropping Yiddish words and phrases like "bar mitzvah" does not automatically make something Jewish. Oy gevalt.
palmaceae's review against another edition
2.0
A disappointing read. I was recommended this book as a rare example of science fiction dealing with Jews. The Jewish element of this book is shallow and irrelevant. Without the Jewish cultural angle, there's not much to make this book stand out from the numerous other okayish YA dystopian novels. I'd give 2.5 stars but the system won't let me.
The Asherah is "committed to the continuation of the Jewish culture" and launched by secular Jews. Jewish culture is heavily derived from religious practice. What Jewish culture has been preserved exactly, other than most of the characters' names and dropping Yiddish and Hebrew words once in awhile? The only hint of religious practice is that some people light electric candles on Friday night. The average citizen doesn't know about the Torah (Bible), even in a non-religious way. The name "Asherah" is problematic as my understanding is that it refers to an idol/polytheism, something expressly forbidden in Judaism. Sterilization is a big no-no in Judaism, and any sort of circumcision would have to take place on the eighth day of life, not at age 13. The requirement that "seventy percent of the passenger list must be of Jewish descent" comes off... I hesitate to say racist but it's problematic (I think secular Jews insisting that their secular children only marry other Jews is a problematic stance, but this is not the place for that discussion), as the Jewish bloodline is being preserved, not culture (and what's the point of bringing along non-Jews? Not genetic diversity, as that can easily be manipulated, all I can think of is patrilineal descent, which was traditionally and is currently not accepted by many branches of Judaism).
I could keep going. I'm not criticizing that the author changed or evolved practices and culture, I'm criticizing that there was little to no grounding in actual Jewish-Ashkenazi culture (the dominant group I am assuming this is based on, due to the Yiddish - I'm not seeing any Ladino or Judeo-Arabic, for example, so that rules out the other groups). To be fair, there are some things I could connect to Judaism (such as requirement to reproduce - interestingly enough, the onus is on men, not women, to reproduce, and the definition of what fulfills that requirement is varied, but one common thought is that it's one boy and one girl...) but the average reader would not be able to spot that connection, and given Terra and her ancestor's penchant for exposition, there are many opportunities to elaborate. As it stands though, you could remove almost any Jewish reference and insert a non-Jewish reference in its place without making a difference in the story - it doesn't matter. Jewish culture is rich and diverse, and I wish that it was relevant to the plot in some way and left readers feeling like they had learned something about Jewish culture.
The Asherah is "committed to the continuation of the Jewish culture" and launched by secular Jews. Jewish culture is heavily derived from religious practice. What Jewish culture has been preserved exactly, other than most of the characters' names and dropping Yiddish and Hebrew words once in awhile? The only hint of religious practice is that some people light electric candles on Friday night. The average citizen doesn't know about the Torah (Bible), even in a non-religious way. The name "Asherah" is problematic as my understanding is that it refers to an idol/polytheism, something expressly forbidden in Judaism. Sterilization is a big no-no in Judaism, and any sort of circumcision would have to take place on the eighth day of life, not at age 13. The requirement that "seventy percent of the passenger list must be of Jewish descent" comes off... I hesitate to say racist but it's problematic (I think secular Jews insisting that their secular children only marry other Jews is a problematic stance, but this is not the place for that discussion), as the Jewish bloodline is being preserved, not culture (and what's the point of bringing along non-Jews? Not genetic diversity, as that can easily be manipulated, all I can think of is patrilineal descent, which was traditionally and is currently not accepted by many branches of Judaism).
I could keep going. I'm not criticizing that the author changed or evolved practices and culture, I'm criticizing that there was little to no grounding in actual Jewish-Ashkenazi culture (the dominant group I am assuming this is based on, due to the Yiddish - I'm not seeing any Ladino or Judeo-Arabic, for example, so that rules out the other groups). To be fair, there are some things I could connect to Judaism (such as requirement to reproduce - interestingly enough, the onus is on men, not women, to reproduce, and the definition of what fulfills that requirement is varied, but one common thought is that it's one boy and one girl...) but the average reader would not be able to spot that connection, and given Terra and her ancestor's penchant for exposition, there are many opportunities to elaborate. As it stands though, you could remove almost any Jewish reference and insert a non-Jewish reference in its place without making a difference in the story - it doesn't matter. Jewish culture is rich and diverse, and I wish that it was relevant to the plot in some way and left readers feeling like they had learned something about Jewish culture.
petk0616's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/5
Felt like a mix between City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau and Across the Universe by Beth Revis.
Felt like a mix between City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau and Across the Universe by Beth Revis.