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A review by lila_still_reads
The Stars Undying by Emery Robin
Did not finish book.
It’s Cleopatra, Caesar, and Marc Antony but in space.
The thing that I thought would make me love this book instead made it difficult to get through. I took seven years of Latin during school. I’ve read Caesar (unfortunately, he’s so full of himself!) and had to study the events that inspired this book. I had trouble getting through this book because the way information is delivered, knowledge of Ptolemaic Egypt is super helpful to wade through the deluge of information, but I was unable to then switch off the part of my brain constantly making those connections. It was taking me a while and I decided to DNF when I realized I’d rather be reading either a different SF novel or a non-fiction history of the events which inspired it.
Some (most?) of this is on me, but I do think better information sharing early in the story and a deeper emphasis on the ways this story deviates from its inspiration would be helpful. The more unique elements- eg the soul of Alexander the Great being in a tiny super computer pearl- don’t interact with the narrative in interesting ways in the early story.
I don’t strongly dislike this book, I just wasn’t enjoying it and life’s too short to never DNF. Ending here to avoid starting a reading slump.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The thing that I thought would make me love this book instead made it difficult to get through. I took seven years of Latin during school. I’ve read Caesar (unfortunately, he’s so full of himself!) and had to study the events that inspired this book. I had trouble getting through this book because the way information is delivered, knowledge of Ptolemaic Egypt is super helpful to wade through the deluge of information, but I was unable to then switch off the part of my brain constantly making those connections. It was taking me a while and I decided to DNF when I realized I’d rather be reading either a different SF novel or a non-fiction history of the events which inspired it.
Some (most?) of this is on me, but I do think better information sharing early in the story and a deeper emphasis on the ways this story deviates from its inspiration would be helpful. The more unique elements- eg the soul of Alexander the Great being in a tiny super computer pearl- don’t interact with the narrative in interesting ways in the early story.
I don’t strongly dislike this book, I just wasn’t enjoying it and life’s too short to never DNF. Ending here to avoid starting a reading slump.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.