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A review by theaurochs
The Stars Undying by Emery Robin
2.0
Competent but tediously written. Yes this is a retelling of the story of Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra but in space. Retelling or original, I just prefer my books to be interesting. The space elements are massively downplayed, and even the most interesting sci-fi conceits (an AI reconstruction of a dead King’s personality) is pushed so far to the sidelines that you wonder why its included at all. The bulk of the book focuses on the romance (loosely termed) between our two main characters, which seems to have no grounding in anything other than physical attraction; these are people who fundamentally do not understand each other. At over two-thirds of the way through the book we still get lines like “She smiled at me, and I didn’t know what the smile meant” or “I couldn’t see past the veiled expression on his face” and so on. This is not an uninteresting dynamic to set up on its own, but the fact that it remains static like this for the entire novel really starts to drag. They appear to be in exactly the same emotional place at the end of the novel as when they first meet; so what was the point of it all?
There’s also so much telling and not showing. Whenever there’s the threat of something interesting happening, we get our narrators telling us “something interesting happened” and how they reacted to it, and how they perceived the reactions of others to the situation. Again; not in itself a negative but this is the only way that any progress in the novel is really described, and combined with all the other aspects and the book’s not inconsiderable length it becomes an incredible drag.
A very slow book; ostensibly political but, after a somewhat more active start with the takeover of a government, lacking in any real political interest. None of the conflicts set up really seem to have any weight behind them. For a book that takes its time on every aspect of daily life, we seem to skimp in the areas that might actually have provided some interest; scheming senators and religious disputes.
Might work best as a slice-of-life novel, but even by those standards it feels somewhat tedious. Deeply lacking in the space opera department, and ditto for political intrigue.
There’s also so much telling and not showing. Whenever there’s the threat of something interesting happening, we get our narrators telling us “something interesting happened” and how they reacted to it, and how they perceived the reactions of others to the situation. Again; not in itself a negative but this is the only way that any progress in the novel is really described, and combined with all the other aspects and the book’s not inconsiderable length it becomes an incredible drag.
A very slow book; ostensibly political but, after a somewhat more active start with the takeover of a government, lacking in any real political interest. None of the conflicts set up really seem to have any weight behind them. For a book that takes its time on every aspect of daily life, we seem to skimp in the areas that might actually have provided some interest; scheming senators and religious disputes.
Might work best as a slice-of-life novel, but even by those standards it feels somewhat tedious. Deeply lacking in the space opera department, and ditto for political intrigue.