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A review by ilidorin
A Circle of Stars by Craig Montgomery
4.0
I received an ARC copy of this novel and am willingly leaving a review in exchange.
I was so excited for this ARC. I was telling everyone I knew about how good it sounded, and how excited I was, and then I started it and ... dragged my feet on it, as only I can truly do (sorry!).
As a fan of YA, fantasy, urban fantasy, and queer lit, ACoS was an amalgam of everything I like in a book, with bonus world-building. However, I found the fact that the magic system is named after astrological signs jarring, and I think that's what made me put it down for a while. It wasn't like the naming convention came out of nowhere - we had contextual explanations for it as, y'know, the book's a sci-fi, but it just threw me a little to have something so ... known in a fantasy book. It just threw me a little, I think, and took me a little while to become re-absorbed in the world of Novilem as its own thing, and stop comparing the terms to what we use them for in astrology. I'd joke this is 'typical Aries' of me but ... actually, on second thought, "you can't walk around in full Aries aether all the time. It will overstimulate your nervous system" - perhaps it's not the ADHD and anxiety after all. I should give my psychiatrist a call.
Complaints aside (and they're little, and petty), I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the second (and last) in its duology. As some others have mentioned, a pronunciation guide and a map would be incredibly helpful, but I would also like to add a glossary could be useful too! I know they're not particularly popular these days, nor are character lists, but sometimes I do like them just so I can keep track of everything and submerge myself in the rest of the world.
All in all, a lovely debut, and I will be keeping an eye out for more Craig in the future.
I was so excited for this ARC. I was telling everyone I knew about how good it sounded, and how excited I was, and then I started it and ... dragged my feet on it, as only I can truly do (sorry!).
As a fan of YA, fantasy, urban fantasy, and queer lit, ACoS was an amalgam of everything I like in a book, with bonus world-building. However, I found the fact that the magic system is named after astrological signs jarring, and I think that's what made me put it down for a while. It wasn't like the naming convention came out of nowhere - we had contextual explanations for it as, y'know, the book's a sci-fi, but it just threw me a little to have something so ... known in a fantasy book. It just threw me a little, I think, and took me a little while to become re-absorbed in the world of Novilem as its own thing, and stop comparing the terms to what we use them for in astrology. I'd joke this is 'typical Aries' of me but ... actually, on second thought, "you can't walk around in full Aries aether all the time. It will overstimulate your nervous system" - perhaps it's not the ADHD and anxiety after all. I should give my psychiatrist a call.
Complaints aside (and they're little, and petty), I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the second (and last) in its duology. As some others have mentioned, a pronunciation guide and a map would be incredibly helpful, but I would also like to add a glossary could be useful too! I know they're not particularly popular these days, nor are character lists, but sometimes I do like them just so I can keep track of everything and submerge myself in the rest of the world.
All in all, a lovely debut, and I will be keeping an eye out for more Craig in the future.