Review by just_one_more_paige - The Stars Too Fondly

just_one_more_paige 's review for:

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

5.0

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Alrighty, I have been planning and planning to read this, and renewing and renewing it at the library, and we are finally here. And it was worth the wait!

This was such a fun setup and framework for a sci-fi story. A found family group of friends plans to break onto the Providence, a spaceship whose crew mysteriously vanished twenty years ago, to try and figure out what happened. But while they're in the midst of the "heist," the ship takes off, catapulting them into a space adventure with dark-matter-bestowed magic, a quest to actually save said lost crew (and the hive mind that kidnapped them?), and a budding sapphic romance between one of the group, Cleo, and a hologram of the ship's previous captain, Billie. Just truly, unmitigated, delightful, reading fun.

The storytelling style, current day interactions interspersed with news stories/logs/narratives/conversations/archives from the past, was interesting and kept the narrative paced with perfect speed/unfolding/reveals. And when the sort-of-omniscient narrator joins the voices, I had inklings of who it was, but it definitely added some great intrigue as to how it would play out. The underpinning mystery of what happened to the crew, along with the low key tension of "will our group of friends actually be stuck in space for 17 years?!," added just enough depth to the otherwise entertaining and (mis)adventurous plot. The writing was smooth and the dialogue is so real, funny and smooth and genuine and I’m really loving it;.

Final thoughts. The title, and the OG text it's pulled from, are a great fit. I actually kind of liked that love was being the saving force not because of supernatural powers it provides, but rather because it is the force opposite of destruction, and therefore, following its lead, instead of away from it, can prevent/save from destruction. It's a cheesy concept, but it was deployed more or less palatably. Shoutout to Libro.fm for the ALC, the narration was solid. This was a sweet story about a intrepid group of queer (sexually and as far as being, kind of, oddballs) friends in space; a cozy and fun sci-fi that I enjoyed every minute of!

“But the thing about trusting in something you don’t fully understand is that you can’t. Not when it comes to science, not when it comes to people’s lives, and definitely not when it comes to the darker parts of the universe.”

“Love - real, honest love - is safe, and it is reliable…”

Content Warnings