Ignite the Stars

Content Warnings: Violence, racial discrimination, murder.

I keep mistaking this title with its sequel – Eclipse the Skies – so I often refer to this book as Ignite the Skies and the sequel as Eclipse the Stars. I don't remember whose blog post I read who spoke about this series and made me decide to pick it up – I really should've.

I really enjoyed this book (and its sequel). I was also moving between if I wanted this series to be like 9 books long and just revolve around the characters just like chilling in space, watching movies. Or if these two books were excellent just as two books. I'll probably keep that argument in my head for a long time.

REASON NUMBER ONE:

Ia Cōcha was just a fun character to read and I loved her so much. Like yes!! Stare down a general and tell him how to pronounce your name, girl!!! Be badass and excellent!! I just loved everything she did and rooted for her alllll the way, no matter what she was planning to do because she is excellent and if you say anything else, well, then, you're wrong, sorry.

Ia is the best and I'd gladly let me kill her (if she wanted to, of course). Like I wanted to punch those who wanted to punch her. And give her all the awards?? Like sure, she's a criminal. But she's a cool criminal (get that reference?).

REASON NUMBER TWO

KNIVES KNIVES KNIVES. I just loved him so much? Can we just??? appreciate him, please? Yes, he's a little soft and he just likes to fly and people want him to be more than what he wants and I just wanted to cry?? because just like let him fly?? and watch his movies!! Sorry, if you can't tell I really loved Knives.

He was just such a interesting character – definitely one of my favourites and will go in my favourite box and also into the ‘will adopt this character' section. Which by now is turning into such a large project I think I'll need to rent a town to hold all the characters.

REASON NUMBER THREE

BRINN TARVER YOU BEAUTY. She's just so strong???? And I clapped when she started to be proud of herself and started a friendship with Ia. She's such a strong character and I lived for all her moments because she's been through a lot and will still go through a lot. She continues to be strong and realise her confidence in herself and her race.

REASON NUMBER FOUR

The Academy that they're all in – was really interesting to read about. I'm always up for reading school set books (even though I'm not the biggest fan of school? Maybe I like reading about characters who are smarter than me?) I liked all the classes and just being in the whole Academy environment was exciting to read. Definitely a favourite book of mine – where books are set in a school environment!

REASON NUMBER FIVE

There's politics involved in the book, ranging from immigration, to slavery, to if the government is a good government (which is just an all-around theme, I guess). I think I've mentioned before that I'm not the biggest politics person, but I did really like what was said in the novel and how it was portrayed. It's also interesting how the novel focused on people and how some of them are seen as lesser than others because of their race – which is still a problem today, unfortunately.

OTHER (SUB) REASONS I LIKED THE BOOK

I liked the slang they used in the book. I know some people didn't like it but I've always enjoyed slang in sci-fi books.

I UHHH also REALLY LOVED how the Monitor (classic character) played heavy metal because that's seen as classical music in the universe and I thought that was hilarious. Heavy Metal and Rock were two of the first genres i listened to (thanks, big sis).