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difelicj's review
4.0
So i basically couldn't put this book down, it was so well written i just wanted to drink it in. The world building was great, small snippets given to you here and there created a believable story as to why this group left earth and what their life was like aboard the Asherah. The MC, Terra, was great. Flawed in all the right ways and not perfect at all. She developed throughout the story in a believable way and made me care about her, even though she was quite dumb in some moments (like really how could you not know about Koen). The subtle foreshadowing of the real purpose of the Captain and everything else going on was great. Can't wait for the next instalment!
nilchance's review
3.0
I was so delighted to start this book based on the description: secular Jews on a space ship! revolutionaries! queer representation!
Sadly, the book itself was disappointing. I wish the book had been about anyone but Terra, who is bounced from conflict to conflict, decisions made for her. Towards the end, that improves, but it's frustrating as a reader. There's also the fact that she uses an unfortunate term for the queer characters, and outs them, which makes me (as a queer reader) wince.
I might pick up the sequel based on the fact that there's a xeno romance and the book has left the claustrophobic confines of the ship.
Sadly, the book itself was disappointing. I wish the book had been about anyone but Terra, who is bounced from conflict to conflict, decisions made for her. Towards the end, that improves, but it's frustrating as a reader. There's also the fact that she uses an unfortunate term for the queer characters, and outs them, which makes me (as a queer reader) wince.
I might pick up the sequel based on the fact that
beccak's review
4.0
Terra lives on a generation ship, the Asherah, which is nearing the end to its journey to the planet Zehava. Only, things aren't going so well for Terra and her fellow citizens. Terra's mother has died of cancer after it was supposedly eliminated, and Terra forever feels like an outsider. Worse, a rebellion is brewing against the ship's captain, and the rebels expect Terra to join them, whether she wants to or not.
What Starglass has going for it is an author who really knows how to push a main character into a corner, and then push her into a tighter one...and then a tighter one. North also introduces three LGBT characters into the narrative -- but instead of 1) making the story all about them, or 2) knocking readers over the head with what her beliefs are about LGBT people, she masterfully describes characters's behaviors, feelings, and motivations and lets readers think about what she has presented them with. There are LGBT characters who are suffering - Frances and (well, not telling because it would be a spoiler) - but in some cases, they also cause people suffering. And in turn, they cause people suffering both because of an oppressive society (not just of LGBT people) but because of their own human shortcomings. While this is at least in theory a YA book, I found the handling of this delicate subject more sophisticated than in many adult books, and because it occurs in a fictional future, the discussion it inspires is less heated.
While I felt for Terra's terrible conundrum (really, a series of conundrums), I think North could have made her a little less wishy-washy. She often just falls into situations, rather than makes active choices. It also took a little while for me to settle into the book because Terra wasn't at first very likable and lacked strong voice.
The Jewish content was interesting. At first I was confused, to I appreciated the explanation of the secular nature of the culture (which really explained why they named the ship "Asherah" which refers to idolatry and seems an awfully strange name for a Jewish ship. "Teivah" would have made more sense.). The beautiful way North wove in the growing spirituality of Rachel as the book progressed delighted me...although I don't think that requesting forgiveness for your sins three times appears in the Torah. More likely, it appears in the Gemara or the works of the RAMBAM.
The twist ending is fabulous. I'm hoping to read the sequel.
There are no bad words, but because of the mature content and a few rather racy scenes, readers should be well into their teens, I think, before reading this. Yet once they hit that point, I highly recommend Starglass.
What Starglass has going for it is an author who really knows how to push a main character into a corner, and then push her into a tighter one...and then a tighter one. North also introduces three LGBT characters into the narrative -- but instead of 1) making the story all about them, or 2) knocking readers over the head with what her beliefs are about LGBT people, she masterfully describes characters's behaviors, feelings, and motivations and lets readers think about what she has presented them with. There are LGBT characters who are suffering - Frances and (well, not telling because it would be a spoiler) - but in some cases, they also cause people suffering. And in turn, they cause people suffering both because of an oppressive society (not just of LGBT people) but because of their own human shortcomings. While this is at least in theory a YA book, I found the handling of this delicate subject more sophisticated than in many adult books, and because it occurs in a fictional future, the discussion it inspires is less heated.
While I felt for Terra's terrible conundrum (really, a series of conundrums), I think North could have made her a little less wishy-washy. She often just falls into situations, rather than makes active choices. It also took a little while for me to settle into the book because Terra wasn't at first very likable and lacked strong voice.
The Jewish content was interesting. At first I was confused, to I appreciated the explanation of the secular nature of the culture (which really explained why they named the ship "Asherah" which refers to idolatry and seems an awfully strange name for a Jewish ship. "Teivah" would have made more sense.). The beautiful way North wove in the growing spirituality of Rachel as the book progressed delighted me...although I don't think that requesting forgiveness for your sins three times appears in the Torah. More likely, it appears in the Gemara or the works of the RAMBAM.
The twist ending is fabulous. I'm hoping to read the sequel.
There are no bad words, but because of the mature content and a few rather racy scenes, readers should be well into their teens, I think, before reading this. Yet once they hit that point, I highly recommend Starglass.
ruthsic's review
5.0
Terra has never known anything but life aboard the Asherah, a city-within-a-spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago in search of refuge. At sixteen, working a job that doesn't interest her, and living with a grieving father who only notices her when he's yelling, Terra is sure that there has to be more to life than what she's got.
But when she inadvertently witnesses the captain's guard murdering an innocent man, Terra is suddenly thrust into the dark world beneath her ship's idyllic surface. As she's drawn into a secret rebellion determined to restore power to the people, Terra discovers that her choices may determine life or death for the people she cares most about. With mere months to go before landing on the long-promised planet, Terra has to make the decision of a lifetime--one that will determine the fate of her people.
Um, wow! When I started it, I thought it will be like Across the Universe - in fact, while reading it too, you feel the ghost of AtU - it has most of the tropes, like big spaceship floating to colonize a planet, closed community, strict laws, dissent among people, and all that conspiracy vibe. Thing is, since it follows Terra's journey during the six months prior to landing, it has a lot of shift in plot. First, she is having a bad life at her house - her alcoholic widowed father expects her to meet his expectations of the perfect daughter, then when she does and gets a vocation she doesn't really care about, she is being pushed to marry. When she witnesses a murder and comes in the sphere of the rebelllion's plans, she joins them in the hope of finding a place to belong. But even there, she doesn't get the freedom she craves. Entrapment is a big plot device in the story - with each character feeling bound by the rigid laws of the ship.
The political and cultural structure of the ship is largely secular but their customs are kind of religious. Even though it is sci-fi, the focus is more on survival and sustainability, which means the scientific progress is more biological than technology based. Religious guidelines define the rules, but the system is more of a military rule. The underlying plot of the rebellion is juxtaposed against by Terra being mostly a reluctant pawn in their plans. She thinks picking sides would help her find acceptance, but in the end you know that not everyone is full of good intentions or bad. It is a slow build-up of the lies and the plotting that leads to a final power grab, something that wasn't for the best interest of the ship, especially when they have bigger problems at their door. Overall, the atmosphere of the book was grim, and a bit sad when it came to how Terra tries to find a solution for her loneliness. What seems to be a love triangle isn't, since both the guys were unsuitable for her. And with that ending, I would love to see what happens in the next book, with her as well as with the ship. Plus, aliens!! Woo! (Avatar feels at that one)
But when she inadvertently witnesses the captain's guard murdering an innocent man, Terra is suddenly thrust into the dark world beneath her ship's idyllic surface. As she's drawn into a secret rebellion determined to restore power to the people, Terra discovers that her choices may determine life or death for the people she cares most about. With mere months to go before landing on the long-promised planet, Terra has to make the decision of a lifetime--one that will determine the fate of her people.
Um, wow! When I started it, I thought it will be like Across the Universe - in fact, while reading it too, you feel the ghost of AtU - it has most of the tropes, like big spaceship floating to colonize a planet, closed community, strict laws, dissent among people, and all that conspiracy vibe. Thing is, since it follows Terra's journey during the six months prior to landing, it has a lot of shift in plot. First, she is having a bad life at her house - her alcoholic widowed father expects her to meet his expectations of the perfect daughter, then when she does and gets a vocation she doesn't really care about, she is being pushed to marry. When she witnesses a murder and comes in the sphere of the rebelllion's plans, she joins them in the hope of finding a place to belong. But even there, she doesn't get the freedom she craves. Entrapment is a big plot device in the story - with each character feeling bound by the rigid laws of the ship.
The political and cultural structure of the ship is largely secular but their customs are kind of religious. Even though it is sci-fi, the focus is more on survival and sustainability, which means the scientific progress is more biological than technology based. Religious guidelines define the rules, but the system is more of a military rule. The underlying plot of the rebellion is juxtaposed against by Terra being mostly a reluctant pawn in their plans. She thinks picking sides would help her find acceptance, but in the end you know that not everyone is full of good intentions or bad. It is a slow build-up of the lies and the plotting that leads to a final power grab, something that wasn't for the best interest of the ship, especially when they have bigger problems at their door. Overall, the atmosphere of the book was grim, and a bit sad when it came to how Terra tries to find a solution for her loneliness. What seems to be a love triangle isn't, since both the guys were unsuitable for her. And with that ending, I would love to see what happens in the next book, with her as well as with the ship. Plus, aliens!! Woo! (Avatar feels at that one)
davida's review
3.0
I wanted to like this book more than I did. It's an interesting conceit, and I'l certainly read the next one, but I wasn't particularly thrilled with the main character; she just wasn't that interesting, and one of the things I love about YA fiction is how engrossing and dynamic the female characters are. She didn't have any agency, which I guess is the point, but I didn't feel like she was doing any real thinking.
thereadingshelf's review
DNF - this wasn't bad, it just used too many tropes and characters that I'm tired of; and I'm just getting tired of dystopians, so that didn't help this book's case.
caitlin_bookchats's review
2.0
What and odd and interesting book.
The two stars was definitely an it's me thing. This book is certainly well written and I agree with several other reviewers that the descriptions of the world (especially botany) and Terra's growing appreciation of her fellow workers is really well done but it was also quite painful to read in several parts where Terra couldn't see what I did and I read in horrifying realism as she saytalked herself into thinking she loved a man who obviously loved another man or didn't recognize the signs of her father's depression and impending suicide or even as she drowned herself in lustful desire to distract herself from a task she didn't truly want and an emptiness she didn't know how to fill .
When Terra finally reaches for more control in the last chapters of the book, I think it was too late for me to truly love the book. This is definitely a situation in which your mileage may vary.
One quick note. I've seen several reviewers mention they're hesitant to read this because the starship it takes place on is culturally Jewish and they are worried the book is trying to push a religion. To that I say: it's a secular Jewish starship which means they're dedicated to preserving Jewish culture absent the religious aspects (more or less). Overtly religious tradition is only mentioned once by a character who only late in the book discovers the Torah and begins to read it.I'm not quite sure if it was intentional but I also thought it seemed to say something that the character who began to take comfort in the Torah was of a lower social/intellectual class than Terra and Terra seemed to clearly think it was a sort of emotional crutch.
The two stars was definitely an it's me thing. This book is certainly well written and I agree with several other reviewers that the descriptions of the world (especially botany) and Terra's growing appreciation of her fellow workers is really well done but it was also quite painful to read in several parts where Terra couldn't see what I did and I read in horrifying realism as she say
When Terra finally reaches for more control in the last chapters of the book, I think it was too late for me to truly love the book. This is definitely a situation in which your mileage may vary.
One quick note. I've seen several reviewers mention they're hesitant to read this because the starship it takes place on is culturally Jewish and they are worried the book is trying to push a religion. To that I say: it's a secular Jewish starship which means they're dedicated to preserving Jewish culture absent the religious aspects (more or less). Overtly religious tradition is only mentioned once by a character who only late in the book discovers the Torah and begins to read it.
renc7c69's review
2.0
Originally reviewed on Words in a Teacup
Terra has lived all of her life on the spaceship Asherah. Her people left Earth centuries ago and are headed towards a faraway planet in the hope of finding refuge there. The Council rules over everyone's lives: people marry at eighteen, have exactly two kids, and work at their Council-assigned jobs for the good of the ship. Terra thought that was going to be her life too -- but then, only a few weeks before landing, she witnesses a murder and discovers a secret plot to overthrow the Council and the Captain.
...Too bad that Terra is one of the most boring characters ever and she doesn't do anything about it. I had two huge issues with this book, and the first one is the protagonist. Out of all the teenagers who get involved with a secret society, Terra is probably the most realistic I've ever read about, in which she shows zero initiative and does whatever other people tell her to do. She never questions anything she's told, unless someone tells her that there's something fishy going on. It's so frustrating, because I can see that she wasn't written to be such a passive character, but that's how she comes about.
Terra did show some signs of improvement in the end, and the last third of the book was definitely more enjoyable, but I don't think I would have bothered finishing it if I hadn't been reading it for a challenge. It's one of my big pet peeves: the author had a plot in mind and forced the characters to go through all the required plot points, no matter how inconsistent with their characterization their actions were.
Second huge issue: the worldbuilding. Or spaceshipbuilding, since all of the book is set on the Asherah. Simply put, it makes absolutely zero sense. There's a spaceship that's been built in a hurry (I assume) to escape the dying Earth, and it's been travelling for five hundred years, and it's literally a miniature city with fields and a forest and people live in houses for heavens' sake, despite the fact that the ship carries only a thousand people. That makes absolutely no sense.
Have you ever seen a spaceship, real or fictional? Living spaces are cramped because they're at a premium, you just can't have a huge pasture with grazing sheep on a spaceship travelling to another galaxy. It's like going on holiday with a camper, except your camper is a three-floor mansion with two bathrooms and five guest bedrooms. Maybe I could have accepted the huge-ass spaceship if I believed that we were far in the future and technology was very advanced... but given that people are back to writing with pen and paper because computers are too rare, I somehow doubt that's the case.
The people on the Asherah, by the way, are as a whole extremely gullible. Like I said, there's about a thousand people on board. Considering the limited gene pool, it would only take a couple centuries before people start marrying their cousins. And yet everyone follows the custom of "checking the bloodlines" before marrying, to ensure they're not marrying a relative. I thought this was yet another plot hole, until it was revealed that the Council tampers those bloodlines results to forbid all marriages they don't approve of. So it's not a plot hole, it just means that nobody on this ship has a working brain.
I was looking forward to reading something set in a spaceship, because Firefly is one of my favourite tv series ever, but the author has no sense of proportion at all. The spaceship is too big, there aren't enough people on board, and the pacing is just wrong. To top it all, it ends with a prophetic dream of Terra's new love interest (I kid you not) and a rather boring cliffhanger. Pass on the next instalment -- and someone rec me a better book set in space!
Terra has lived all of her life on the spaceship Asherah. Her people left Earth centuries ago and are headed towards a faraway planet in the hope of finding refuge there. The Council rules over everyone's lives: people marry at eighteen, have exactly two kids, and work at their Council-assigned jobs for the good of the ship. Terra thought that was going to be her life too -- but then, only a few weeks before landing, she witnesses a murder and discovers a secret plot to overthrow the Council and the Captain.
...Too bad that Terra is one of the most boring characters ever and she doesn't do anything about it. I had two huge issues with this book, and the first one is the protagonist. Out of all the teenagers who get involved with a secret society, Terra is probably the most realistic I've ever read about, in which she shows zero initiative and does whatever other people tell her to do. She never questions anything she's told, unless someone tells her that there's something fishy going on. It's so frustrating, because I can see that she wasn't written to be such a passive character, but that's how she comes about.
Terra did show some signs of improvement in the end, and the last third of the book was definitely more enjoyable, but I don't think I would have bothered finishing it if I hadn't been reading it for a challenge. It's one of my big pet peeves: the author had a plot in mind and forced the characters to go through all the required plot points, no matter how inconsistent with their characterization their actions were.
Second huge issue: the worldbuilding. Or spaceshipbuilding, since all of the book is set on the Asherah. Simply put, it makes absolutely zero sense. There's a spaceship that's been built in a hurry (I assume) to escape the dying Earth, and it's been travelling for five hundred years, and it's literally a miniature city with fields and a forest and people live in houses for heavens' sake, despite the fact that the ship carries only a thousand people. That makes absolutely no sense.
Have you ever seen a spaceship, real or fictional? Living spaces are cramped because they're at a premium, you just can't have a huge pasture with grazing sheep on a spaceship travelling to another galaxy. It's like going on holiday with a camper, except your camper is a three-floor mansion with two bathrooms and five guest bedrooms. Maybe I could have accepted the huge-ass spaceship if I believed that we were far in the future and technology was very advanced... but given that people are back to writing with pen and paper because computers are too rare, I somehow doubt that's the case.
The people on the Asherah, by the way, are as a whole extremely gullible. Like I said, there's about a thousand people on board. Considering the limited gene pool, it would only take a couple centuries before people start marrying their cousins. And yet everyone follows the custom of "checking the bloodlines" before marrying, to ensure they're not marrying a relative. I thought this was yet another plot hole, until it was revealed that the Council tampers those bloodlines results to forbid all marriages they don't approve of. So it's not a plot hole, it just means that nobody on this ship has a working brain.
I was looking forward to reading something set in a spaceship, because Firefly is one of my favourite tv series ever, but the author has no sense of proportion at all. The spaceship is too big, there aren't enough people on board, and the pacing is just wrong. To top it all, it ends with a prophetic dream of Terra's new love interest (I kid you not) and a rather boring cliffhanger. Pass on the next instalment -- and someone rec me a better book set in space!