Kane

A humourous and light hearted read about a guy who just wanted to get out on his feet and learn more about the people impacted by the oil industry.
As a through hiker and environmentalist myself I loved it and it inspired me to do my own environmental exploration.

This book took me to space in a way that no other book has for a long time. You fall in love with the characters yes there is more than one and humor of the writing. Much like Pringles - once you pop you can't stop (turning pages).

Characters and DevelopmentPersonally I found this one of the weakest elements. The characters were good but they didn't develop in any meaningful way. They started off as well thought out characters and remained solid throughout; but, I didn't feel like they developed over the time we are with them or reach any drastic developments.

PlotSimple plot, in theory. Earth is in trouble and Ryland, a former discredited academic and current high school science teacher, is sent to space to find the solution. What happens while he is out there is unexpected (having not read some of the more spoiler synopsis), funny, and heartwarming. I feel like the less you know about the plot the better for this one.

Setting
The majority of the book is spent on a tiny ship but that didn't limit the enjoyment at all. If anything the environment allowed the focus on the plot and the simple but impactful story it tells.

TL;DR
Pros

• Funny and feelgood writing
• Scientific accuracy (as far as I can tell - not being an astrophysicist)
• Unputdownability (Con: lack of sleep)

Cons

• Character development is eh
• Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger

Amazing. Nothing really happens; but, the character development is second to none. It's obviously a book building up to a an intricately described cast and world and does a fantastic job at it. 

A strong finish to the trilogy that I didn't find as engaging as the first two books but I loved all the same. 

Abercrombie still showed his mastery of character development and wrapped the various story lines up well. 

Some twists I saw coming but others like the first magi being in control of the bankers I did not 

Overall - amazing. I can't wait to read the other books in the universe. 

Interesting premise and setting but just boring execution.

I didn't feel engaged in the story at all or really care about any characters. The technology was also glossed over and never really explained and used terms that probably showed up in a quick google like when they reference using a SIEM to protect their mech, which is a defensive security tool but doesn't really make sense in the context.

I think if you are interested in the premise you are probably better off reading a book about the actual Nigerian civil war.

Clearly an expert in his field but not an expert on engaging literary structure. This book proved a hard read through repetitive and poorly structured content.

## Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



## Review

#### Cover

The cover of These Burning Stars is nice and simple if not a little generic. It doesn't really give you any insight into the story or evoke any particular emotion. 

#### Initial Draw

I love sci-fi so any new sci-fi that pops up I am willing to give a go. The main plot reads as:

Jun Ironway, hacker, con artist, and only occasional thief, has got her hands on a piece of contraband that could set her up for life: evidence that implicates the powerful Nightfoot family in a planet-wide genocide seventy-five years ago. The Nightfoots control the precious sevite that fuels interplanetary travel through three star systems. And someone is sure to pay handsomely for anything that could break their hold.

Which sounds intriguing in itself. I work in cyber security so anything in the hacker culture vein gets extra points for me when it comes to picking it off the shelf. 
#### Characters

The characters overall I didn't find particularly exciting. Not great but not bad either. I'm a sucker for a strong character driven story but this delivered less in character development and more in political intrigue and cat and mouse. 

Esek and Chono were the two supposed “good guys” but it was clear that Esek was being portrayed as unhinged from the start so it really didn't provide much in the way of shock factor the more she did anything and everything in her persuit of justice. 

The hacker Jun, Six and associated cast were much more engaging. I'm not sure if the intention was for the reader to engage with them more from the start but that was certainly what kept me interested. 

#### Pacing

Pacing was fast and flowing but the jumping around between characters and time periods did break the flow a bit. In general it could do with a more engaging overarching story as a large chunk of the book was just between the hands and six going tit for tat over finding or evading each other. 

I did enjoy the pace and constant action though as without it the story could easily have lost me. 

#### Finish line feeling 

Overall I found this book enjoyable but I don't think it will turn out to be overly memorable. It's an amazing effort for a debut novel and I am really keen to read the remaining books in the trilogy. 

My hope is that the world that Bethany has created gets fleshed out more in future series as it seems to have a lot of potential to be explored and expanded upon with other stories. Similar to something like the Scythe book series. 

I loved the whole getting the band back together vibe. Perfect blend of humour and fantasy elements .

I am definitely in the camp of people who do not understand the “Unfinished sentence” writing style that Claire employs.

I am sad to say I got about 30% of the way through and figured there were better uses of my time. I hate abandoning books but I was just not enjoying the experience.

I don't know how to to describe this as anything but average. Considering how thick this book is, I would have thought something would actually happen. At best though it ended up being a mess of random ideas thrown together without much care for forming an engaging narrative. The very start and very end where okay, leaving the middle feel like a massive waste of reading time.

Overall a pretty enjoyable book but it just didn't have the plot or character development to make it completely satisfying. Not helped by the fact the book finishes on a cliffhanger with most arcs unfinished in preparation for a sequel. 

The concept of the pandomonium planet collective and “The Registry”  (Think Thunderhead from Sythe) really intrigued; but, they got barely more than a mention as to their existence. Hopefully book 2 actually explores these concepts more and brings the much needed depth to the world. 

Review to come. TL;DR didn't really like much about it. 

Nothing particularly remarkable about this short novella, but it does provide some crucial background for Fred who you meet in the first book.

## Ratings

Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

## Review

#### Cover

Great matching cover to the rest of the series and most importantly they stand out on the shelf.

#### Initial Draw

This is the first standalone after the First Law trilogy so is a must read for anyone who loved the trilogy. It has just enough linkages to the trilogy while also working well as a standalone that could be read (or watched with the upcoming TV series) without having read any other "First Law" books.

#### Characters

Nobody writes characters like Joe. You can tell the character without their name ever being uttered by his excellent portrayals and mannerisms.

Shivers does an excellent job of filling the lead character role despite his relatively brief involvement in the first trilogy.

#### Pacing

With an almost 700 page book the pacing is expertly handled with fast and medium portions expertly weaved to keep things flowing. None of it slowed down sufficiently to make it feel like it was dragging on.

#### Finish line feeling

Excellent. Can't wait for the TV show and I can't wait to read the rest of the first law series and Joe's new book "The Devils"

I picked this up cheap at the local discount book store as the premise sounded really interesting. Ultimately I got about 25% of the way through before I got thoroughly bored and picked something else up.

The concept of magical manipulation of man made materials was cool. The book itself though was just okay - I would have loved to have had way more magic and ways less dwelling on mostly irrelevant memories.

Umm .. just read this book if you love fantasy. I can't believe it took me so long to start the series.

The first season of Amazon's series follows this book. If you have watched the TV series and are confused then reading this book will make everything much much much clearer.  The book and series start and end at basically exactly the same place so don't worry about spoiler one or the other by reading/watching the first book/season. The more minor plot lines of the TV series deviate wildly from the book and generally not in a good way but they mostly fold back into the same end result and ready for you to start book 2/season 2.

TL;DRRead it. If you enjoyed the TV series then definitely read it. If you didn't enjoy the TV series then this will probably make you mad about the weird changes, but still read it.

I received this as an eARC from Netgalley.

I really struggled with this book. The concept sounds fantastic. I have been getting into grimdark lately, having discovered it later than I should have. This grimdark with Celtic elements should have been right up my alley; but, ultimately it wasn't and I was pretty bored and keen for it to end. 

I realised it was going to be a slog when at 30% in we are still going back and forth between the main character and her children on the run from an unspeakable evil. Even after spending that first third of the book doing nothing but building the characters (the plot certainly wasn't progressing) I found I didn't care about any of them and ultimately didn't care what happened. 

Overall I think the concept is great but it wasn't for me. If you want something that focuses on what older parents with a young family on the run is like then this might be for you. If your idea of a good grimdark is more like first law then this is not going to scratch your itch. 

Dull. Really dull. 
Plenty of opportunity for character growth but they are all so flat. The main character does nothing but pine for another character. I feel like I know nothing else about her. 
The entire premise of the story is entirely predictable after the first quarter or so too. I finished it for completion rather than any need to find out how it ended. 
Overall - dull.

Foodmeat. 

I don't really get it. The native dialect poetry was lovely to read and I appreciate the effort to try something new; but, the narrative and characters were uneventful and forgettable. 

What really lost it for me though was the extremely odd choice to concatenate a string of synonyms together in the translation even if clearly some of them made no sense in context. I can understand there may not be a perfect 1:1 translation for some things; but, at points it became a little obsurd. 

A short little book that focused less on the automation of work and more on the topic of post-scarcity and UBI than I thought it would.
I felt it was missing a conclusion although it was thought provoking .

Amazing portrayal of white colonial attitudes in a well researched historical fantasy setting.