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A review by booksandcatslife
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
5.0
What constitutes a soul? How do you decide who is worthy of saving & who should not be? Some of the deeply soul-searching questions this book will make you think about over the course of reading it, & long after you’ve finished it.
This book intrigued me from the moment I saw the beautiful covers (I’m a sucker for a beautiful cover) but then I read the blurb & knew I would be hooked. Earth being the bad guys? A colony planet fighting for independence, so Earth doesn’t pollute & destroy their world? Big gates capable of instant interstellar travel just like one of my favourite shows Stargate? Sentient ‘mech’ (android) discovering his personality with the help of a fiery & courageous young woman who will do anything to save her world? Honestly what’s not to love!
The whole book was so beautifully written (although I expected nothing less from this wonderful author), the characters were compelling & you really felt invested in their journeys. Noemi’s strength, bravery, resourcefulness, empathy & kindness made me love her quickly, & that’s not even getting into her wonderful wittiness, sarcasm & ability to see beyond someone’s exterior & see into their soul.
Abel was a refreshing change in the genre, the most advanced, one of a kind ‘mech’ in the galaxy who was mistakenly stranded for 30 years until Noemi came along, freed him & then went on an epic journey with him across solar systems & worlds in an effort to protect & save her home world, all while knowing his loyalty to Noemi may end in his destruction. His discovery of emotions & feelings over the course of different interactions with different people from different worlds was such a fascinating journey to read, being able to read chapters from his point of view was a great way to really humanise him & empathise with his evolution.
Abel and Noemi’s interactions & banter were brilliantly written, often sharp witted, snarky, amusing & made you think deeply about the moral implications behind the themes they discussed & their adventure together.
It is a fast-paced, deeply meaningful, and captivating sci-fi story. At its very core it is a story about what it means to be human, deciding what you truly believe in, & about finding your place in a universe that wants you to only be what they deem you should be.
This book intrigued me from the moment I saw the beautiful covers (I’m a sucker for a beautiful cover) but then I read the blurb & knew I would be hooked. Earth being the bad guys? A colony planet fighting for independence, so Earth doesn’t pollute & destroy their world? Big gates capable of instant interstellar travel just like one of my favourite shows Stargate? Sentient ‘mech’ (android) discovering his personality with the help of a fiery & courageous young woman who will do anything to save her world? Honestly what’s not to love!
The whole book was so beautifully written (although I expected nothing less from this wonderful author), the characters were compelling & you really felt invested in their journeys. Noemi’s strength, bravery, resourcefulness, empathy & kindness made me love her quickly, & that’s not even getting into her wonderful wittiness, sarcasm & ability to see beyond someone’s exterior & see into their soul.
Abel was a refreshing change in the genre, the most advanced, one of a kind ‘mech’ in the galaxy who was mistakenly stranded for 30 years until Noemi came along, freed him & then went on an epic journey with him across solar systems & worlds in an effort to protect & save her home world, all while knowing his loyalty to Noemi may end in his destruction. His discovery of emotions & feelings over the course of different interactions with different people from different worlds was such a fascinating journey to read, being able to read chapters from his point of view was a great way to really humanise him & empathise with his evolution.
Abel and Noemi’s interactions & banter were brilliantly written, often sharp witted, snarky, amusing & made you think deeply about the moral implications behind the themes they discussed & their adventure together.
It is a fast-paced, deeply meaningful, and captivating sci-fi story. At its very core it is a story about what it means to be human, deciding what you truly believe in, & about finding your place in a universe that wants you to only be what they deem you should be.