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Empire Without End #1
The Stars Undying
A spectacular space opera debut perfect for readers of Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice and Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, inspired by the lives and loves of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.
Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed not just the crown of their planet Szayet but the Pearl of its prophecy, a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet's god. Stripped of her birthright, Gracia flees the planet—just as Matheus Ceirran, Commander of the interstellar Empire of Ceiao, arrives in deadly pursuit with his volatile lieutenant, Anita. When Gracia and Ceirran's paths collide, Gracia sees an opportunity to win back her planet, her god, and her throne…if she can win the Commander and his right-hand officer over first.
But talking her way into Ceirran’s good graces, and his bed, is only the beginning. Dealing with the most powerful man in the galaxy is almost as dangerous as war, and Gracia is quickly torn between an alliance that fast becomes more than political and the wishes of the god—or machine—that whispers in her ear. For Szayet's sake, and her own, Gracia will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before—even if it breaks an empire.
Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed not just the crown of their planet Szayet but the Pearl of its prophecy, a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet's god. Stripped of her birthright, Gracia flees the planet—just as Matheus Ceirran, Commander of the interstellar Empire of Ceiao, arrives in deadly pursuit with his volatile lieutenant, Anita. When Gracia and Ceirran's paths collide, Gracia sees an opportunity to win back her planet, her god, and her throne…if she can win the Commander and his right-hand officer over first.
But talking her way into Ceirran’s good graces, and his bed, is only the beginning. Dealing with the most powerful man in the galaxy is almost as dangerous as war, and Gracia is quickly torn between an alliance that fast becomes more than political and the wishes of the god—or machine—that whispers in her ear. For Szayet's sake, and her own, Gracia will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before—even if it breaks an empire.
518 pages, Hardcover
First published November 8, 2022
About the author
Emery Robin
2 books99 followersEmery Robin is a paralegal, recovering Californian, and sometime student of propaganda and art history living in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 401 reviews
October 18, 2022
My actual reaction to this book was a series of exclamation points, but you can't submit an Official Author Blurb in only punctuation so what I said was this:
The Stars Undying is a marvel; a whip smart, immersive, and intricately woven delight that will utterly transport you. Wherever Emery Robin goes from here, I'm going to follow.
AND I MEANT IT.
I think the moment this book had me was when Gracia's father had to remove the pearl (which is like-- a computer program that plugs into one's brain, but also happens to contain the soul or consciousness of this planet's god) and his head started bleeding. Just one of those great sci fi/fantasy moments where you just think, god, that's such a cool idea, I wonder what other cool ideas I'll discover if I keep reading.
Answer: lots.
The Stars Undying is a marvel; a whip smart, immersive, and intricately woven delight that will utterly transport you. Wherever Emery Robin goes from here, I'm going to follow.
AND I MEANT IT.
I think the moment this book had me was when Gracia's father had to remove the pearl (which is like-- a computer program that plugs into one's brain, but also happens to contain the soul or consciousness of this planet's god) and his head started bleeding. Just one of those great sci fi/fantasy moments where you just think, god, that's such a cool idea, I wonder what other cool ideas I'll discover if I keep reading.
Answer: lots.
September 10, 2022
had the distinct privilege of coming into this with exactly the right amount of familiarity with cleopatra caesar antony et al which is to say i was briefly, fervently interested when i was nine, u know, when ur nine, and ur discovering the full spectrum of how deranged and scary and magnificent people can be, ur reading HORRIBLE HISTORY or ASSASSINATIONS! (FOR KIDS), and ur like, "oh my god mom listen to this, this pirate used to MAKE PEOPLE EAT THEIR OWN BUTTS" and she's like "did i buy you that??"
there's an enormous and mystifying gulf, when ur nine, between yourself and all the impossibly real people you read about-- your contexts and drives are so different, you can't imagine why or how someone would ever do the things they are doing, but they did; they are infinitely more fantastic and fake than the child heroes in the fiction you're simultaneously reading. those children have passions and minds like urs; mark antony is out here like, i dont even know what he's doing.
so i read a lot of gory roman history, blinking and gasping, saying aloud, "personally i would simply NOT cross the rubicon," and i did not understand why literally anyone would ever do the stupid things these people did, and then i did not think abt them very much at all until i read this book.
listen. i do love retellings. like, there are so many lazy ones, but who among us does not have those handful of stories that will YANK them in id-first every time. and a good retelling has a particularly magical blend of coziness and uncanniness-- going back through a house you have lived in for years made up differently, in ruins or in twilight or in the bleeding sun, and delighting in the familiar made strange-- different notes pulled out, different lighting-- but still familiar, still yours.
the stars undying is an entirely different beast and it ate me. there's some sort of insane alchemy that happens here, and reading it felt like i was hearing this story for the first time.
there is a bit early on where someone describes prophecy as an act of translation, and the book is an impeccable act of translation as well-- carrying over lost political and personal resonances into a new language, finding the entry points for us, now, to understand something impossible, and gone, and shattering those doorways open, so that we are shocked (SHOCKED!) all over at what we already knew happened. like, i have not felt this clobbered by plot twists in my LIFE, and i grew up knowing these plot twists! i took exams on them!!!
frankly i was GASLIT (positive, narrative technique) into like, living out the song "pina colada" but with cleopatra. "oh my god," i would gasp, a split second after this cleopatra revealed she did something that has sung through culture my whole life. "she did that! wait-- i knew she did that!" (that's half the time-- the other half ur hearing someone mention, offhand, a carpet delivery and getting fucking CRANKED into delirious anticipation. there's a singular pleasure in reading something and coming to trust in its execution-- realizing that the jumps will be spectacular and the landings will stick. ur safe to get hype. u will get the payoff.)
anyway, what has changed, obviously, from when i learned this story and i was nine, is that the people feel real now. there is simply not another way to put it. reading this was like watching a human actor walk across a stage before the lowlights of legend, their shadows splashed up enormous behind them and like-- you can see them both at the same time, the person and the mythology, the stain they will make, that you grew up in without connecting it to any particular beating heart.
lots of other things too, insanely horny very funny smarter than any of us, conversations that demand u reread them to catch up to the politicking hidden inside the flirting, the fury, the oversized pink feather coats; a book that will make u think u understand imperial economics somewhat; a book that will bring back ur infantile fury at amy burning jo's manuscript that u thought u outgrew and didn't; a book that will remind u with the slow burn of an eclipse what the real romance is, what romance bludgeoned shakespeare and all the poets to death, and how it's gay, actually, how love spawns in the cracking-open of being truly seen, which is, actually, a fucking threat. like, u know the whole time, and still as it's happening, u think oh my god!!!!!! it's happening!!!!!!!!!
similarly, a narrator who tells u the entire time that she is lying to u and u still find urself gasping at least four separate times like WHAT?!?!? she was LYING TO ME!!! ME!!!!!! [touching my chest] her READER!
[-- the last reveal, of to whom, exactly, she is finally telling one truth--]
the last thing i will say is that the very last scene is the only thing i have read since the queen of attolia that blooms in me, trembling, the same feeling as the queen of attolia-- the light, precise dialogue, the held-breath revelation, of two people who have been knives at each other's throats regarding each other now across a quiet space and doing something new
10/10 ive been looping townie by mitski all week
there's an enormous and mystifying gulf, when ur nine, between yourself and all the impossibly real people you read about-- your contexts and drives are so different, you can't imagine why or how someone would ever do the things they are doing, but they did; they are infinitely more fantastic and fake than the child heroes in the fiction you're simultaneously reading. those children have passions and minds like urs; mark antony is out here like, i dont even know what he's doing.
so i read a lot of gory roman history, blinking and gasping, saying aloud, "personally i would simply NOT cross the rubicon," and i did not understand why literally anyone would ever do the stupid things these people did, and then i did not think abt them very much at all until i read this book.
listen. i do love retellings. like, there are so many lazy ones, but who among us does not have those handful of stories that will YANK them in id-first every time. and a good retelling has a particularly magical blend of coziness and uncanniness-- going back through a house you have lived in for years made up differently, in ruins or in twilight or in the bleeding sun, and delighting in the familiar made strange-- different notes pulled out, different lighting-- but still familiar, still yours.
the stars undying is an entirely different beast and it ate me. there's some sort of insane alchemy that happens here, and reading it felt like i was hearing this story for the first time.
there is a bit early on where someone describes prophecy as an act of translation, and the book is an impeccable act of translation as well-- carrying over lost political and personal resonances into a new language, finding the entry points for us, now, to understand something impossible, and gone, and shattering those doorways open, so that we are shocked (SHOCKED!) all over at what we already knew happened. like, i have not felt this clobbered by plot twists in my LIFE, and i grew up knowing these plot twists! i took exams on them!!!
frankly i was GASLIT (positive, narrative technique) into like, living out the song "pina colada" but with cleopatra. "oh my god," i would gasp, a split second after this cleopatra revealed she did something that has sung through culture my whole life. "she did that! wait-- i knew she did that!" (that's half the time-- the other half ur hearing someone mention, offhand, a carpet delivery and getting fucking CRANKED into delirious anticipation. there's a singular pleasure in reading something and coming to trust in its execution-- realizing that the jumps will be spectacular and the landings will stick. ur safe to get hype. u will get the payoff.)
anyway, what has changed, obviously, from when i learned this story and i was nine, is that the people feel real now. there is simply not another way to put it. reading this was like watching a human actor walk across a stage before the lowlights of legend, their shadows splashed up enormous behind them and like-- you can see them both at the same time, the person and the mythology, the stain they will make, that you grew up in without connecting it to any particular beating heart.
lots of other things too, insanely horny very funny smarter than any of us, conversations that demand u reread them to catch up to the politicking hidden inside the flirting, the fury, the oversized pink feather coats; a book that will make u think u understand imperial economics somewhat; a book that will bring back ur infantile fury at amy burning jo's manuscript that u thought u outgrew and didn't; a book that will remind u with the slow burn of an eclipse what the real romance is, what romance bludgeoned shakespeare and all the poets to death, and how it's gay, actually, how love spawns in the cracking-open of being truly seen, which is, actually, a fucking threat. like, u know the whole time, and still as it's happening, u think oh my god!!!!!! it's happening!!!!!!!!!
similarly, a narrator who tells u the entire time that she is lying to u and u still find urself gasping at least four separate times like WHAT?!?!? she was LYING TO ME!!! ME!!!!!! [touching my chest] her READER!
[-- the last reveal, of to whom, exactly, she is finally telling one truth--]
the last thing i will say is that the very last scene is the only thing i have read since the queen of attolia that blooms in me, trembling, the same feeling as the queen of attolia-- the light, precise dialogue, the held-breath revelation, of two people who have been knives at each other's throats regarding each other now across a quiet space and doing something new
10/10 ive been looping townie by mitski all week
August 9, 2022
stands on its own as space opera, but illuminates both the actual history and the cultural memory of the end of the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt in a brilliant synthesis. Even if you don’t realize that Ceirran is Caesar, Ana is Antony, Gracia is Cleopatra, or Alekso is Alexander, you’re still in for a wonderful ride full of exquisitely realized societies and bold, vivid, history-shaping personalities – but the more you know of history and memory, the richer this story will be, lifting away the familiar patterns of generations of Hollywood adaptations and high school readings to reveal the beating heart beneath.
In particular, I wept for Ana, based on Antony, a character I thought I already understood from a dozen retellings; in Emery Robin’s hands, the rakish disciple of Caesar burns with passion and grief and longing, no less flamboyant and corrupt and happy-go-lucky than in HBO’s Rome, no less loyal than in Shakespeare’s plays, and yet ineffably different, revealed in her longing to be known. Ana -- Anita -- omg. A character defined by love -- in the most terrifying but wonderful ways. I need to spend another 400 pages with Ana asap.
The core of this story is a fraught intellectual romance between Altagracia and Ceirran, brilliant in utterly different ways, both power-hungry and driven to seek victory at any price – a familiar story, but rendered with technical sophistication and complexity that makes the old tale of Caesar and Cleopatra into a fascinating and carefully observed meeting of brilliant but ultimately incompatible minds, staged subtly through their different approaches to narration. And this book never lets us forget the human cost of these grand figures with their larger-than-life tragedies and victories, equally refusing to romanticize empire or to dismiss its power.
Here, the conventions of science fiction make the old stories new, revealing depths in them I never saw before. I did not know I could weep for Antony, love Cleopatra, or lament Caesar, but through Ana and Gracia and Ceirran, I do.
and I'll never be able to read "friends, romans, countrymen" the same way again; in my mind's eye, now, Antony is crying the entire time, but in the most badass way anyone ever has cried -- all the usual cunning with all the UNusual sincerity of someone who means every word.
In particular, I wept for Ana, based on Antony, a character I thought I already understood from a dozen retellings; in Emery Robin’s hands, the rakish disciple of Caesar burns with passion and grief and longing, no less flamboyant and corrupt and happy-go-lucky than in HBO’s Rome, no less loyal than in Shakespeare’s plays, and yet ineffably different, revealed in her longing to be known. Ana -- Anita -- omg. A character defined by love -- in the most terrifying but wonderful ways. I need to spend another 400 pages with Ana asap.
The core of this story is a fraught intellectual romance between Altagracia and Ceirran, brilliant in utterly different ways, both power-hungry and driven to seek victory at any price – a familiar story, but rendered with technical sophistication and complexity that makes the old tale of Caesar and Cleopatra into a fascinating and carefully observed meeting of brilliant but ultimately incompatible minds, staged subtly through their different approaches to narration. And this book never lets us forget the human cost of these grand figures with their larger-than-life tragedies and victories, equally refusing to romanticize empire or to dismiss its power.
Here, the conventions of science fiction make the old stories new, revealing depths in them I never saw before. I did not know I could weep for Antony, love Cleopatra, or lament Caesar, but through Ana and Gracia and Ceirran, I do.
and I'll never be able to read "friends, romans, countrymen" the same way again; in my mind's eye, now, Antony is crying the entire time, but in the most badass way anyone ever has cried -- all the usual cunning with all the UNusual sincerity of someone who means every word.
November 10, 2022
4.5 stars
The Stars Undying is, among other things, about a pearl, or, I should say, the Pearl, a computer that contains the immortal soul of Alekso Undying, and that makes its wearer his prophet and the Oracle of Szayet. I start with this because as a novel, The Stars Undying feels to me much like the pearl around which so much of its story revolves. For one, this novel is a thing of beauty: it is the product of brilliant work, and I know this because it is apparent on every page. The writing is polished, poised, elegant; it has a kind of classic quality to it that makes it feel at once historical and timeless. More to the point, it's genuinely some of the most impressive writing I've encountered in an SFF novel in recent memory.
Polished and elegant it may be, but The Stars Undying is, also like its Pearl, far from simple or straightforward. It gives with one hand and withholds with the other; gives under the guise of withholding, or else withholds under the guise of giving. It's a novel that doesn't tip its hand--not for the sake of some kind of contrived suspense, but because of the very nature of its world, and of the kind of story that's being told in that world. That is, if the novel doesn't tip its hand, it's because its characters don't. What they say and do is subject to the ever-present power dynamics of their world, to the way power--of the person, of the ideology, of the empire--warps everything around it so that what might have been direct becomes circuitous, so that characters have to tread carefully, and so that we have to read their silences as carefully as their utterances. And this power operates within as much as it does without: caught in these webs of power, the characters are not any less complex to themselves as they are to us.
All of this is to say, The Stars Undying is a book that, like its Pearl, is comprised of many accounts: Gracia's, Ceirran's, Anita's--its three principal characters--but also Szayet's and Ciao's accounts, the accounts of empire and all the history and storytelling that is attendant to it. It's an incredibly multilayered and rich novel, and the way it slowly and intentionally develops those layers is just exquisite (in the moment, but also, and perhaps especially, in retrospect). The word I keep reaching for here is simmering: there is so much bubbling beneath the surface of this story, some of which breaks its surface by the end, and some of which remains buried, subtext left to carefully put together based on what we know of these characters and their dynamics.
What I love most about this novel is, simply, how much it trusts its reader. There were so many points while reading it that I wanted something--a feeling, a suspicion, a thought--to be made explicit, to be specifically explained and justified--but that's not what I got, and I loved it. I loved that this book didn't give me what I wanted, but made me work for it. The Stars Undying is a novel that develops its characters--and, by extension, lets you work to decode them--by way of conversations. And there are some truly stunning scenes here: complex and thorny and compelling moments between these characters, all of whom are already fleshed out and alive in their own right. (Ceirran and Gracia? Endlessly fascinating. Gracia and Anita? ELECTRIC. Ceirran and Anita? Always compelling.) You know these characters, but you do not quite grasp them; they are many things, but they are not reducible to any one thing. And that is such a feat on Emery Robin's part: to craft characters who both reward and repel your efforts to know them, who are always both familiar and strange. Needless to say, I was utterly drawn in.
All this, and I haven't even touched on the worldbuilding yet, which is remarkable and everything you could ever want in an SFF novel, really. What stands out in particular is the sheer level of detail that animates this world. Szayet and Ceiao are suffused with so much life: they come with their own--sometimes distinct, sometimes overlapping--histories, cultures, ideologies, religions (or lack thereof), architecture, geographies, resources, languages. And it's not just that you know them, it's that you understand why they are the way that they are: the histories that animate their ideologies, the geographies that shape their economies, the sociopolitics that govern, and justify, the power they wield and the power they seek.
(And I haven't even mentioned the whole Cleopatra-and-Julius-Caesar retelling aspect of this because I only know the barest of barebones about that history and so can't really speak to how it was incorporated into the novel. But if this book is incredible without me knowing anything about what it's retelling then I can only imagine how good it is when you're actually familiar with its historical basis--which I am definitely planning on brushing up on when I reread this.)
I honestly don't know what else I can say about this book: The Stars Undying is a singular novel, and I absolutely adored it. I was already 100% going to read its sequel, but god, after that brilliant ending, nothing can come between me and that second book.
Thank you so much to Orbit for providing me with an e-ARC of this via NetGalley!
"In the first year of the Thirty-Third Dynasty, when He came to the planet where I was born and made of it a wasteland for glory's sake, my ten-times-great-grandfather's king and lover, Alekso Undying, built on the ruins of the gods who had lived before Him Alectelo, the City of Endless Pearl, the Bride of Szayet, the Star of the Swordbelt Arm, the Ever-Living God's Empty Grave.
He caught fever and filled that grave, ten months later. You can't believe in names."
The Stars Undying is, among other things, about a pearl, or, I should say, the Pearl, a computer that contains the immortal soul of Alekso Undying, and that makes its wearer his prophet and the Oracle of Szayet. I start with this because as a novel, The Stars Undying feels to me much like the pearl around which so much of its story revolves. For one, this novel is a thing of beauty: it is the product of brilliant work, and I know this because it is apparent on every page. The writing is polished, poised, elegant; it has a kind of classic quality to it that makes it feel at once historical and timeless. More to the point, it's genuinely some of the most impressive writing I've encountered in an SFF novel in recent memory.
Polished and elegant it may be, but The Stars Undying is, also like its Pearl, far from simple or straightforward. It gives with one hand and withholds with the other; gives under the guise of withholding, or else withholds under the guise of giving. It's a novel that doesn't tip its hand--not for the sake of some kind of contrived suspense, but because of the very nature of its world, and of the kind of story that's being told in that world. That is, if the novel doesn't tip its hand, it's because its characters don't. What they say and do is subject to the ever-present power dynamics of their world, to the way power--of the person, of the ideology, of the empire--warps everything around it so that what might have been direct becomes circuitous, so that characters have to tread carefully, and so that we have to read their silences as carefully as their utterances. And this power operates within as much as it does without: caught in these webs of power, the characters are not any less complex to themselves as they are to us.
"It has been a long time since that night, when I lay in the dark between Matheus Ceirran and the image of my god. I have thought of it often since, trying to make sense of it, of how vividly it stands out in my recollection. As I am telling these memories to you, I am turning them over in my hands, I am holding them up to the light. It is in memory that I am trying to find some kind of truth, if truth is anywhere to be found."
All of this is to say, The Stars Undying is a book that, like its Pearl, is comprised of many accounts: Gracia's, Ceirran's, Anita's--its three principal characters--but also Szayet's and Ciao's accounts, the accounts of empire and all the history and storytelling that is attendant to it. It's an incredibly multilayered and rich novel, and the way it slowly and intentionally develops those layers is just exquisite (in the moment, but also, and perhaps especially, in retrospect). The word I keep reaching for here is simmering: there is so much bubbling beneath the surface of this story, some of which breaks its surface by the end, and some of which remains buried, subtext left to carefully put together based on what we know of these characters and their dynamics.
What I love most about this novel is, simply, how much it trusts its reader. There were so many points while reading it that I wanted something--a feeling, a suspicion, a thought--to be made explicit, to be specifically explained and justified--but that's not what I got, and I loved it. I loved that this book didn't give me what I wanted, but made me work for it. The Stars Undying is a novel that develops its characters--and, by extension, lets you work to decode them--by way of conversations. And there are some truly stunning scenes here: complex and thorny and compelling moments between these characters, all of whom are already fleshed out and alive in their own right. (Ceirran and Gracia? Endlessly fascinating. Gracia and Anita? ELECTRIC. Ceirran and Anita? Always compelling.) You know these characters, but you do not quite grasp them; they are many things, but they are not reducible to any one thing. And that is such a feat on Emery Robin's part: to craft characters who both reward and repel your efforts to know them, who are always both familiar and strange. Needless to say, I was utterly drawn in.
All this, and I haven't even touched on the worldbuilding yet, which is remarkable and everything you could ever want in an SFF novel, really. What stands out in particular is the sheer level of detail that animates this world. Szayet and Ceiao are suffused with so much life: they come with their own--sometimes distinct, sometimes overlapping--histories, cultures, ideologies, religions (or lack thereof), architecture, geographies, resources, languages. And it's not just that you know them, it's that you understand why they are the way that they are: the histories that animate their ideologies, the geographies that shape their economies, the sociopolitics that govern, and justify, the power they wield and the power they seek.
(And I haven't even mentioned the whole Cleopatra-and-Julius-Caesar retelling aspect of this because I only know the barest of barebones about that history and so can't really speak to how it was incorporated into the novel. But if this book is incredible without me knowing anything about what it's retelling then I can only imagine how good it is when you're actually familiar with its historical basis--which I am definitely planning on brushing up on when I reread this.)
I honestly don't know what else I can say about this book: The Stars Undying is a singular novel, and I absolutely adored it. I was already 100% going to read its sequel, but god, after that brilliant ending, nothing can come between me and that second book.
Thank you so much to Orbit for providing me with an e-ARC of this via NetGalley!
July 26, 2022
lucky enough to read early, and beyond the fact that "cleopatra in space" is exactly as sexy and exhilarating as it sounds, i will say no more than this: the last line of this will drop your jaw. debut of the year.
March 18, 2023
This was a banger! Full review to come
November 10, 2022
The Stars Undying is everything that I have ever wanted in a SciFi book. Full of political scheming, war strategy, and powerful characters The Stars Undying is impossible to put down.
With a first line that is the longest sentence I have ever read, Emery Robin throws the reader into the deep end. The story begins in the middle of a revolution immersing the reader immediately. It is a bit of a daunting first few chapters, especially if you are not familiar with political SciFi or fantasy. (Orbit I am begging you to add a glossary to this book. There are too many C- names and different planets for there not to be one.) However, the characters are so fascinating that you will want to push through your confusion in order to uncover their secrets. Despite being a dense and complex book I could not stop reading. The story steadily expands from a battle between sisters to a conflict that shakes the empire.
Gracia is one of my new favorite characters. I love an unreliable narrator and her chapters were so engaging. She is badass and unapologetically clever and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. As much as I knew I shouldnt, I loved Ceirran. You know the author is talented when they make you care about a dictator based on Julius Caesar. I need the next book to have Ana's point of view. Though she takes more of a back seat in this book, she is such a raw and powerful character that she is destined to become another favorite.
The writing is beautiful. Emery Robin crafts such enchanting descriptions of the world and the characters. There are incredible conversations about power, religion, and justice that echo issues in the real world. Gracia and Ceirran have incredible dialogue. Their feelings for each other conflict with their personal ambitions and need to be the smartest person in the room. This creates conversations of sexual tension, double meaning, and heart break.
"Because if you and I are at all the same," I said, "I think I am the first person in a long while who has managed to surprise you."
Emery Robin transforms actual historical events into a uniquely powerful story. I had only a vague memory of the historical events or the Shakespeare play going into this. It was nice to see the similarities but I didn't want to spend the entire time comparing the book to the inspiration. That being said, there was a moment that was such a beautiful parallel to a scene in Julius Caesar by Shakespeare that I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
As I was reading I thought I had critiques. There were a few choices with the writing that threw me off. Not enough to stop me from enjoying it, but they were definitely strange. And then I got to the final chapter and I realized that every single strange writing choice was intentional. I firmly believe that multi-POV books should not be written in first person POV. But even that choice contributes to the overall story. So consider The Stars Undying an exception to the rule. So many moments came full circle with repeated lines that had me gasping as I realized what was happening. I am a huge fan of books that have a unique narrative style. Harrow the Ninth and The Fifth Season are some of my favorite books because of the way that they are told. The subtle choices Emery Robin made had me racing through the pages to find the answers to the strange, unsettled feeling I had.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of A Memory Called Empire and She Who Became the Sun. As a space opera, this will appeal to people who are already well versed in the adult high fantasy genre who are looking to read more SciFi.
I cannot believe this is a debut novel. It is genuinely one of the best books I have ever read.
This review was so difficult to write because I don't know how to properly convey how much I loved this book. The Stars Undying blew me away. It is a new favorite and I cannot wait to read the next book!
Thank you Orbit for the ARC!
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With a first line that is the longest sentence I have ever read, Emery Robin throws the reader into the deep end. The story begins in the middle of a revolution immersing the reader immediately. It is a bit of a daunting first few chapters, especially if you are not familiar with political SciFi or fantasy. (Orbit I am begging you to add a glossary to this book. There are too many C- names and different planets for there not to be one.) However, the characters are so fascinating that you will want to push through your confusion in order to uncover their secrets. Despite being a dense and complex book I could not stop reading. The story steadily expands from a battle between sisters to a conflict that shakes the empire.
Gracia is one of my new favorite characters. I love an unreliable narrator and her chapters were so engaging. She is badass and unapologetically clever and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. As much as I knew I shouldnt, I loved Ceirran. You know the author is talented when they make you care about a dictator based on Julius Caesar. I need the next book to have Ana's point of view. Though she takes more of a back seat in this book, she is such a raw and powerful character that she is destined to become another favorite.
The writing is beautiful. Emery Robin crafts such enchanting descriptions of the world and the characters. There are incredible conversations about power, religion, and justice that echo issues in the real world. Gracia and Ceirran have incredible dialogue. Their feelings for each other conflict with their personal ambitions and need to be the smartest person in the room. This creates conversations of sexual tension, double meaning, and heart break.
"Because if you and I are at all the same," I said, "I think I am the first person in a long while who has managed to surprise you."
Emery Robin transforms actual historical events into a uniquely powerful story. I had only a vague memory of the historical events or the Shakespeare play going into this. It was nice to see the similarities but I didn't want to spend the entire time comparing the book to the inspiration. That being said, there was a moment that was such a beautiful parallel to a scene in Julius Caesar by Shakespeare that I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
As I was reading I thought I had critiques. There were a few choices with the writing that threw me off. Not enough to stop me from enjoying it, but they were definitely strange. And then I got to the final chapter and I realized that every single strange writing choice was intentional. I firmly believe that multi-POV books should not be written in first person POV. But even that choice contributes to the overall story. So consider The Stars Undying an exception to the rule. So many moments came full circle with repeated lines that had me gasping as I realized what was happening. I am a huge fan of books that have a unique narrative style. Harrow the Ninth and The Fifth Season are some of my favorite books because of the way that they are told. The subtle choices Emery Robin made had me racing through the pages to find the answers to the strange, unsettled feeling I had.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of A Memory Called Empire and She Who Became the Sun. As a space opera, this will appeal to people who are already well versed in the adult high fantasy genre who are looking to read more SciFi.
I cannot believe this is a debut novel. It is genuinely one of the best books I have ever read.
This review was so difficult to write because I don't know how to properly convey how much I loved this book. The Stars Undying blew me away. It is a new favorite and I cannot wait to read the next book!
Thank you Orbit for the ARC!
Links to my TikTok | Instagram
November 17, 2022
MARK ANTONY. IS. MY. BABYGIRL!!!!!!! *my telekinesis throws everything across the room*
PHEW. i was looking through reviews for this book and the negative ones generally remark on how 1) there’s too much politicking/statecraft - to which i, in the nicest way possible, say grow up and get better taste and 2) they didn’t “like” the gracia/cierran relationship - to which i say the same thing, and also that i don’t think you’re supposed to “like” the relationship at all, because this isn’t ao3. personally throughout the entire third act i was waiting for her to fuck anita instead and oh boyyyyy. anyway. i was very taken with the first two acts in particular; the prose has a classic, timeless quality that doesn’t at all come across as affected, which is rare and a welcome departure from the current unbearable landscape of retellings.
despite not being a roman history girlie i still had a supremely good time with this, and as always i respect the decision to make caesar deeply pathetic and loserish in spite of or in this case because of his hubris, lmao. the worldbuilding does a convincing job and mostly avoids the pitfalls of just Transposing Ancient Rome Into Space, but there were a couple moments where mentions of antimatter or spaceship engine mechanics took me out of the atmosphere. however those can be largely ignored because the book does everything else so well. i looooved the unreliable narration and how gracia is pulling the reins and the whole alekso thing, which does recall my favorite part of a memory called empire (a book that imo is a little too committed to its worldbuilding). i guessed who “you” is pretty early on but was still floored when the reveal came. and the last act is just batshit insane; i will be thinking about that final line forever.
PHEW. i was looking through reviews for this book and the negative ones generally remark on how 1) there’s too much politicking/statecraft - to which i, in the nicest way possible, say grow up and get better taste and 2) they didn’t “like” the gracia/cierran relationship - to which i say the same thing, and also that i don’t think you’re supposed to “like” the relationship at all, because this isn’t ao3. personally throughout the entire third act i was waiting for her to fuck anita instead and oh boyyyyy. anyway. i was very taken with the first two acts in particular; the prose has a classic, timeless quality that doesn’t at all come across as affected, which is rare and a welcome departure from the current unbearable landscape of retellings.
despite not being a roman history girlie i still had a supremely good time with this, and as always i respect the decision to make caesar deeply pathetic and loserish in spite of or in this case because of his hubris, lmao. the worldbuilding does a convincing job and mostly avoids the pitfalls of just Transposing Ancient Rome Into Space, but there were a couple moments where mentions of antimatter or spaceship engine mechanics took me out of the atmosphere. however those can be largely ignored because the book does everything else so well. i looooved the unreliable narration and how gracia is pulling the reins and the whole alekso thing, which does recall my favorite part of a memory called empire (a book that imo is a little too committed to its worldbuilding). i guessed who “you” is pretty early on but was still floored when the reveal came. and the last act is just batshit insane; i will be thinking about that final line forever.
September 17, 2022
Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed not just her crown of their planet Szayet, but the Pearl of its prophecy, a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet's God. Stripped of her birthright, Gracia flees the planet just as Matheus Ceirran, Commander of the Interstellar Empire Celao arrives in deadly pursuit with his volatile lieutenant Anita. When Gracia and Ceirran's paths collide, Gracia sees an opportunity to win back her planet, her god, and her throne. If she wins the commander and his right-hand officer over first.
But talking her way into Cerirran's good graces and his bed is only the beginning. Dealing with the most powerful man in the galaxy is almost as dangerous as war, and Gracia is quickly torn between an alliance that fast becomes more than political and the wishes of the god or machine that whispers in her ear. For Szayet's sake and her crown Gracia will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen, as history has never seen before, even if it breaks an empire.
Robin's constructs a masterfully crafted retelling of one of the oldest classics, one of Caesar and Cleopatra. A fantastical excursion into the subconscious is rendered as a space opera where Cerirran is Caesar, Gracia is Cleopatra, and Ana is Antony.
Robin's word building is exquisite. It is filled with a richness of philosophy, poetry, and lyricism, making the writing style resplendent. An intricate labyrinth-like quality is woven throughout with mystery, and delusion, that only a true wordsmith could master.
The characters were amazingly captivating and pulled you in immediately.
Gracia is breathing taking, and cunning. At the same time, Ceirran is powerful and commands the room. Then there is Ana, the warrior that is there but is not. Finally, let's not forget Arcelia, who started it all by warring with her twin Altagracia.
Robin's also sprinkles in side characters that play either major or minor roles next to the three main characters, such as Jonata, Octavio, Celestino, Flavia, and Catia, so they too should not be forgotten.
Robin's Beats, Punches, Kicks, and "SMASHES" down the door so that the world acknowledges her presence.
The Stars Undying says, "HERE I AM."
The concluding line will have everyone with their mouths hanging open. "Yeah, that line!"
"THAT LINE SOLIDIFIES HER MARK"
This is one "HELL" of an impressive novel, in all its intricacies that you are not soon to forget. You will remember this one as well as you remember the classic Cleopatra and Caesar.
Be prepared, and wait for the ride of your life…...
Oh yes, "THE CARPET," never mind, just read it yourself. It is far better that way, anyhow.
Robin's is a "BEAST!"
"MAGNIFICENT!!!"
"SMASHINGLY DONE!!"
"2022 BEST LIST"
#Orbitauthor
Thank you, NetGalley/Emery Robin/ Orbit Books.Orbit/ For this sensational eARC for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.
#ORBITFAN
#ORBITHASTHEBESTAUTHORS
But talking her way into Cerirran's good graces and his bed is only the beginning. Dealing with the most powerful man in the galaxy is almost as dangerous as war, and Gracia is quickly torn between an alliance that fast becomes more than political and the wishes of the god or machine that whispers in her ear. For Szayet's sake and her crown Gracia will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen, as history has never seen before, even if it breaks an empire.
Robin's constructs a masterfully crafted retelling of one of the oldest classics, one of Caesar and Cleopatra. A fantastical excursion into the subconscious is rendered as a space opera where Cerirran is Caesar, Gracia is Cleopatra, and Ana is Antony.
Robin's word building is exquisite. It is filled with a richness of philosophy, poetry, and lyricism, making the writing style resplendent. An intricate labyrinth-like quality is woven throughout with mystery, and delusion, that only a true wordsmith could master.
The characters were amazingly captivating and pulled you in immediately.
Gracia is breathing taking, and cunning. At the same time, Ceirran is powerful and commands the room. Then there is Ana, the warrior that is there but is not. Finally, let's not forget Arcelia, who started it all by warring with her twin Altagracia.
Robin's also sprinkles in side characters that play either major or minor roles next to the three main characters, such as Jonata, Octavio, Celestino, Flavia, and Catia, so they too should not be forgotten.
Robin's Beats, Punches, Kicks, and "SMASHES" down the door so that the world acknowledges her presence.
The Stars Undying says, "HERE I AM."
The concluding line will have everyone with their mouths hanging open. "Yeah, that line!"
"THAT LINE SOLIDIFIES HER MARK"
This is one "HELL" of an impressive novel, in all its intricacies that you are not soon to forget. You will remember this one as well as you remember the classic Cleopatra and Caesar.
Be prepared, and wait for the ride of your life…...
Oh yes, "THE CARPET," never mind, just read it yourself. It is far better that way, anyhow.
Robin's is a "BEAST!"
"MAGNIFICENT!!!"
"SMASHINGLY DONE!!"
"2022 BEST LIST"
#Orbitauthor
Thank you, NetGalley/Emery Robin/ Orbit Books.Orbit/ For this sensational eARC for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.
#ORBITFAN
#ORBITHASTHEBESTAUTHORS
December 3, 2022
at some point I’ll sit down and write a coherent love letter to this book but here are my initial, unfiltered, lovestruck thoughts:
My first reaction is to say the triumph of this book is its characters. The way that Emery Robin manages to make their audience immediately fall in love with Gracia, Ceirran, and Ana is almost obscene. The chemistry between these three characters is something out of a craft book. Their banter, the way they orbit each other, the way they undermine and help one another is just INSANE in the best way possible!
BUT, I can’t say that because the triumph of this book is also the plot. And I can’t even say that because the triumph of this book is also the prose. The weaving, unique way the author tells this story is absolutely genius.
This book is a love letter to ancient Mediterranean history nerds. I’m serious. This can absolutely be enjoyed with no context but if you do know the histories it is SUCH a fun ride. Not only will you get fun Easter eggs like the Nefertiti/Akhenaten cameo but you will also sit in awe of the way Emery Robin has adapted this story and the relationships between these three figures to the world they have constructed. Gracia, Anita, and Ceirran ARE Cleopatra, Antony, and Caesar because they represent so truthfully the dynamics between these three but in equal measure they are their own distinct, lovable, complex individuals. That I couldn’t help but love. Seriously, Anita is the love of my life 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
Obsessed with the conversations about religion and also the conversations Cleopatra has with her god. The politicking in this book is next level. Honestly I’m stunned this is a debut.
Perfect for fans of the traitor baru cormorant, a memory called empire, and Gideon the ninth!!
TLDR READ THIS BOOK AHHHH
tw: death, parental death, murder, grief, child murder, war, gun violence, decapitation, suicide, injury/injury detail, forced confinement, religious bigotry, toxic relationship, infidelity, sex
My first reaction is to say the triumph of this book is its characters. The way that Emery Robin manages to make their audience immediately fall in love with Gracia, Ceirran, and Ana is almost obscene. The chemistry between these three characters is something out of a craft book. Their banter, the way they orbit each other, the way they undermine and help one another is just INSANE in the best way possible!
BUT, I can’t say that because the triumph of this book is also the plot. And I can’t even say that because the triumph of this book is also the prose. The weaving, unique way the author tells this story is absolutely genius.
This book is a love letter to ancient Mediterranean history nerds. I’m serious. This can absolutely be enjoyed with no context but if you do know the histories it is SUCH a fun ride. Not only will you get fun Easter eggs like the Nefertiti/Akhenaten cameo but you will also sit in awe of the way Emery Robin has adapted this story and the relationships between these three figures to the world they have constructed. Gracia, Anita, and Ceirran ARE Cleopatra, Antony, and Caesar because they represent so truthfully the dynamics between these three but in equal measure they are their own distinct, lovable, complex individuals. That I couldn’t help but love. Seriously, Anita is the love of my life 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
Obsessed with the conversations about religion and also the conversations Cleopatra has with her god. The politicking in this book is next level. Honestly I’m stunned this is a debut.
Perfect for fans of the traitor baru cormorant, a memory called empire, and Gideon the ninth!!
TLDR READ THIS BOOK AHHHH
tw: death, parental death, murder, grief, child murder, war, gun violence, decapitation, suicide, injury/injury detail, forced confinement, religious bigotry, toxic relationship, infidelity, sex
August 11, 2022
There's a line from Anais Mitchell's Hadestown that goes "To know how it ends / and still begin to sing it again / as if it might turn out this time..." To take an old tale and make it new again, make me believe that it might work out this time, that the star crossed lovers might yet live, that the ides of March may pass with dulled blades and clean hands, that's challenge enough. But to fill me with a sense of creeping dread, so that even as I'm hoping that it works out, I can see how it won't? That displays a deep mastery of craft. The Stars Undying delivers on all of this and more. It presents rich themes, vivid characters, and glittering opulance from start to finish.
From the outset Gracia and Ceirran are so alike, and yet so different. From the moment they interact, you can see how both of their worlds become emptier without the other. I am obsessed with how Gracia is a liar who will lie to shape the world in her image, and Ceirran is a consumate truth teller who demands the good opinion of the public so he must always be a hero to himself so that he can maintain the facade of heroism to the people. Gracia tells you from the start not to trust her, and yet every time her lies are revealed to the reader I gasped. To be able to take the larger than life figures of Caesar and literally Cleopatra and have something new to say about them is an incredible feat. And yet, despite the well trodden history from which they were inspired, Gracia and Ceirran are characters in their own right. Gracia the polyglot prophet with her love of beautiful things, and Ceirran the consumate conqueror with his well oiled elbows.
And Anita!!! Anita my beautiful dirtbag girlfriend. Anita with her feet up on the desk and her mouth full of blasphemy and smiles that cut across a crowded room. Anita whose tension with Gracia crackles across every page. Anita with her soldier's bravado, with her heart on her rolled up sleeve and closed fist, ready to go at any opportunity. Anita who loves so fiercely. Anita who mirrors Arcelia and therefore cannot be trusted by Gracia, but must always be watched. And by god Gracia is watching. God bless.
I would be remiss not to mention Flavia. Truly the whole Ceian crew - Flavia, Jonata, Catia, Celestino - this story is so rich with characters and so masterful in how each of them plays a part in the events that unfold. I particularly loved the way you could sense Jonata's growing anxiety and their growing discontent, and how Ceirran kept trying to hold them closer.
The Stars Undying is a beautiful book. It takes a classic tale and reinvents it, bringing new light to old stories. It is a masterful work of craft and voice, and let me tell you, it's got a killer last line. Just you wait.
From the outset Gracia and Ceirran are so alike, and yet so different. From the moment they interact, you can see how both of their worlds become emptier without the other. I am obsessed with how Gracia is a liar who will lie to shape the world in her image, and Ceirran is a consumate truth teller who demands the good opinion of the public so he must always be a hero to himself so that he can maintain the facade of heroism to the people. Gracia tells you from the start not to trust her, and yet every time her lies are revealed to the reader I gasped. To be able to take the larger than life figures of Caesar and literally Cleopatra and have something new to say about them is an incredible feat. And yet, despite the well trodden history from which they were inspired, Gracia and Ceirran are characters in their own right. Gracia the polyglot prophet with her love of beautiful things, and Ceirran the consumate conqueror with his well oiled elbows.
And Anita!!! Anita my beautiful dirtbag girlfriend. Anita with her feet up on the desk and her mouth full of blasphemy and smiles that cut across a crowded room. Anita whose tension with Gracia crackles across every page. Anita with her soldier's bravado, with her heart on her rolled up sleeve and closed fist, ready to go at any opportunity. Anita who loves so fiercely. Anita who mirrors Arcelia and therefore cannot be trusted by Gracia, but must always be watched. And by god Gracia is watching. God bless.
I would be remiss not to mention Flavia. Truly the whole Ceian crew - Flavia, Jonata, Catia, Celestino - this story is so rich with characters and so masterful in how each of them plays a part in the events that unfold. I particularly loved the way you could sense Jonata's growing anxiety and their growing discontent, and how Ceirran kept trying to hold them closer.
The Stars Undying is a beautiful book. It takes a classic tale and reinvents it, bringing new light to old stories. It is a masterful work of craft and voice, and let me tell you, it's got a killer last line. Just you wait.
January 3, 2023
2.5 stars rounded up
This is one of those books that has a great premise and starts off really strong, but then becomes kind of dull to read. At least for me. And I'm bummed because this is a book I really WANT to like, but if I'm being honest it was just very okay. Take my review with a grain of salt because plenty of people seem to be loving this one, it just didn't hit the way I wanted it to.
The Stars Undying is a political sci-fi novel drawing on the lives of Julius Ceasar and Cleopatra. Which is very cool in theory. It's also set in a queer-norm world with casually pansexual, polyamorous characters. Which I also think is great. But while the beginning drew me in with an intriguing world and a civil war between royal sisters, I kind of lost interest about a hundred pages in and some specific moments aside, never quite regained it.
I think part of the problem is the choice of narrative structure. This is being told as a story that occurred in the past, and it's also told in a rather long and meandering way. All of which makes it feel quite passive and slow to read. This storytelling style can work for me sometimes, but it would need to have a much tighter plot and more dynamic characters. As it is, I wasn't emotionally invested and even scenes that should have felt very tense or tragic left me feeling very little at all. The concepts it's exploring about personhood, AI, and immortality are also interesting ones, but done in a way that ends up feeling kind of bland. This had potential, but sadly didn't end up being a hit for me. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
This is one of those books that has a great premise and starts off really strong, but then becomes kind of dull to read. At least for me. And I'm bummed because this is a book I really WANT to like, but if I'm being honest it was just very okay. Take my review with a grain of salt because plenty of people seem to be loving this one, it just didn't hit the way I wanted it to.
The Stars Undying is a political sci-fi novel drawing on the lives of Julius Ceasar and Cleopatra. Which is very cool in theory. It's also set in a queer-norm world with casually pansexual, polyamorous characters. Which I also think is great. But while the beginning drew me in with an intriguing world and a civil war between royal sisters, I kind of lost interest about a hundred pages in and some specific moments aside, never quite regained it.
I think part of the problem is the choice of narrative structure. This is being told as a story that occurred in the past, and it's also told in a rather long and meandering way. All of which makes it feel quite passive and slow to read. This storytelling style can work for me sometimes, but it would need to have a much tighter plot and more dynamic characters. As it is, I wasn't emotionally invested and even scenes that should have felt very tense or tragic left me feeling very little at all. The concepts it's exploring about personhood, AI, and immortality are also interesting ones, but done in a way that ends up feeling kind of bland. This had potential, but sadly didn't end up being a hit for me. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
October 31, 2022
i received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. thank you orbit publishing !!
i was really interested after hearing this was a space opera inspired by Cleopatra and Julius Caesar but i had a really difficult time getting into the story. each chapter flipped between Gracia and Ceirran in first person POV which isn't my favorite and i find that authors rarely do a good job at creating a voice distinct enough that i don't have to constantly flip back to the first page of each chapter to see who's POV i'm reading. they are much better off writing in the third person. also, the side characters all felt the same. there was no personality crafted for any of them.
there was a LOT of politics. there would be long paragraphs of history/world-building and would feel like i was reading a textbook. in the beginning, there were lots of flashbacks as well which were interesting at first but after a while, i didn't think it was very relevant to the plot. it's just world-building for the sake of word-building😭 i tried to jot down notes on my ipad while reading in the beginning bc the information thrown at us was so much and i ended up with like 3 pages of notes💀
i did not like the scenes with ceirran and gracia, i felt very icky reading it. ceirran seems like he would be a very cool character (since he is a commander and i LOVE that) but he was such a disappointment. gracia was much better but it was something in the way she talks or approaches things that just gives me secondhand embarrassment (i loved her flashbacks though, it was very interesting to find out how she grew up)
i was really interested after hearing this was a space opera inspired by Cleopatra and Julius Caesar but i had a really difficult time getting into the story. each chapter flipped between Gracia and Ceirran in first person POV which isn't my favorite and i find that authors rarely do a good job at creating a voice distinct enough that i don't have to constantly flip back to the first page of each chapter to see who's POV i'm reading. they are much better off writing in the third person. also, the side characters all felt the same. there was no personality crafted for any of them.
there was a LOT of politics. there would be long paragraphs of history/world-building and would feel like i was reading a textbook. in the beginning, there were lots of flashbacks as well which were interesting at first but after a while, i didn't think it was very relevant to the plot. it's just world-building for the sake of word-building😭 i tried to jot down notes on my ipad while reading in the beginning bc the information thrown at us was so much and i ended up with like 3 pages of notes💀
i did not like the scenes with ceirran and gracia, i felt very icky reading it. ceirran seems like he would be a very cool character (since he is a commander and i LOVE that) but he was such a disappointment. gracia was much better but it was something in the way she talks or approaches things that just gives me secondhand embarrassment (i loved her flashbacks though, it was very interesting to find out how she grew up)
November 15, 2022
Thank you Orbit for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I heard queer Shakespeare in space, how could I not come running?
The Stars Undying is a queer space opera retelling of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra (partially the history, partially Shakespeare), featuring a butch lesbian Mark Antony and a gay dead god based on Alexander the Great.
Reading this book, I was constantly torn between the desire to pace myself to savor the material and the incapability to put it down. Emery Robin has delivered a shining pearl of a debut, overflowing with fascinating character dynamics, captivating dialogue, and expansive political world-building. And at the heart of the story stood Gracia, one of my FAVORITE main characters in a long time. She is quick and blunt and sexy and terrifying and badass, but most of all, fabulously unreliable. I had no idea what she had up her sleeve at any given time, and loved being on the edge of my seat all the way through her chapters.
I also didn't expect this book to be as Jewish as it was. Mind you, it isn't marketed as such, but Emery Robin is indeed Jewish and I found this to be reflective in the text, especially in some of the more religious elements of the story. It's not an obvious feature, and a goy would never recognize it, but I found myself gushing over some of the parts of the story that I found to deeply emulate the Jewish experience.
And though yes, it is based on history and Shakespeare, I don't think you need to be familiar with either to appreciate the craft of this work.
If you like dense political SFF stories, unreliable badass MCs, religious discussions, and were obsessed with either the Roman Empire, Ancient Egypt, or Shakespeare at any point in your life, I'd HIGHLY recommend The Stars Undying.
CW/TW: war, imprisonment, violence, gun violence, parental loss, grief, decapitation, sexual content (not graphic), child death, suicide (mention)
I heard queer Shakespeare in space, how could I not come running?
The Stars Undying is a queer space opera retelling of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra (partially the history, partially Shakespeare), featuring a butch lesbian Mark Antony and a gay dead god based on Alexander the Great.
Reading this book, I was constantly torn between the desire to pace myself to savor the material and the incapability to put it down. Emery Robin has delivered a shining pearl of a debut, overflowing with fascinating character dynamics, captivating dialogue, and expansive political world-building. And at the heart of the story stood Gracia, one of my FAVORITE main characters in a long time. She is quick and blunt and sexy and terrifying and badass, but most of all, fabulously unreliable. I had no idea what she had up her sleeve at any given time, and loved being on the edge of my seat all the way through her chapters.
I also didn't expect this book to be as Jewish as it was. Mind you, it isn't marketed as such, but Emery Robin is indeed Jewish and I found this to be reflective in the text, especially in some of the more religious elements of the story. It's not an obvious feature, and a goy would never recognize it, but I found myself gushing over some of the parts of the story that I found to deeply emulate the Jewish experience.
And though yes, it is based on history and Shakespeare, I don't think you need to be familiar with either to appreciate the craft of this work.
If you like dense political SFF stories, unreliable badass MCs, religious discussions, and were obsessed with either the Roman Empire, Ancient Egypt, or Shakespeare at any point in your life, I'd HIGHLY recommend The Stars Undying.
CW/TW: war, imprisonment, violence, gun violence, parental loss, grief, decapitation, sexual content (not graphic), child death, suicide (mention)
November 28, 2022
11/28/22 update: just read it again via audio. much has been said about the narrators and they were right to say it //
the genius of this book is how cleopatra keeps saying 'reader i lied. that was a lie, from a liar (me)' but the book made me believe her. 'but heather', you might say, 'aren't you just a lesbian'. and well. that's true. but still.
and you're like oh, unreliable narrators, we've seen those before. first of all that's because they rule, second of all the way robin handles it, it's not just gracia and cierran seeing events differently from their own perspectives, it's two larger than life characters trying to shape the world in their image, made heartbreakingly human by the delusion that they might move forward in this together.
then there's ana. anita. the perfect foil to them both with all her passions on heady display, perfectly antony but you've never seen him like this. and her tension with gracia is electric. we know what happens in the stories, and here we see exactly how, and why these two get each other. i can't say more. i'll eat my own fist.
as far as i'm concerned this IS the julius caesar retelling, this is it. it's not just "what if it was in space", though that part is cool - the exploration of imperialism past and current especially. but with a light touch robin takes the Big Moments we remember from the story and makes us anticipate them, dread them, understand them better. the last line WILL punch u in the throat.
thanks to orbit/netgalley for the chance to read it early.
the genius of this book is how cleopatra keeps saying 'reader i lied. that was a lie, from a liar (me)' but the book made me believe her. 'but heather', you might say, 'aren't you just a lesbian'. and well. that's true. but still.
and you're like oh, unreliable narrators, we've seen those before. first of all that's because they rule, second of all the way robin handles it, it's not just gracia and cierran seeing events differently from their own perspectives, it's two larger than life characters trying to shape the world in their image, made heartbreakingly human by the delusion that they might move forward in this together.
then there's ana. anita. the perfect foil to them both with all her passions on heady display, perfectly antony but you've never seen him like this. and her tension with gracia is electric. we know what happens in the stories, and here we see exactly how, and why these two get each other. i can't say more. i'll eat my own fist.
as far as i'm concerned this IS the julius caesar retelling, this is it. it's not just "what if it was in space", though that part is cool - the exploration of imperialism past and current especially. but with a light touch robin takes the Big Moments we remember from the story and makes us anticipate them, dread them, understand them better. the last line WILL punch u in the throat.
thanks to orbit/netgalley for the chance to read it early.
December 22, 2022
DNF @ 40%
I gave it a solid go; taking a pause at the 3 hour mark and eventually abandoning it at the 6 hour mark. At this point I had zero interest in the characters, what was going to happen to them, and the book is actively beginning to annoy me. I really dislike the trope of the narrating character withholding interesting scenes, and I hate even more when they tell you that they're doing that.
I gave it a solid go; taking a pause at the 3 hour mark and eventually abandoning it at the 6 hour mark. At this point I had zero interest in the characters, what was going to happen to them, and the book is actively beginning to annoy me. I really dislike the trope of the narrating character withholding interesting scenes, and I hate even more when they tell you that they're doing that.
July 26, 2022
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author, Emery Robin. and to Orbit Books for allowing me this ARC for a review! This book is my first real space opera, and by the gods, I am so happy it is! I always like a good sci-fi, and in space??? Yes please! And, of course, the classicist in me LOVES the Caesar, Cleopatra, and Antony connections.
This book was such a phenomenal read, and I cannot wait for it to be published. I really enjoyed the characters and the different relationships we see in between all the characters. The different motivations and personalities makes this story so good and impossible to put down!
My favorite part, however, was the world building. I loved the aspect of religion and the political intrigue. When looking to the ancient Mediterranean for inspiration, religion and politics is such an important aspect to consider and I really felt that in this story. It’s also easy to do wrong, but The Stars Undying passed that test with flying colors in my opinion. The religion felt complex and interesting without being redundant or annoying, and the politics was believable but not overburdening. Both were handled fantastically.
Lastly, being a classicist, I REALLY enjoyed the references to the Ancient Mediterranean. I’m usually not a philosophy person at all outside of the Greek philosophers, but the inclusion of philosophy reminiscent of Plato and the likes made it so interesting and digestible. I even recognized some of the specific philosophical questions brought up in this book from my translations of Plato, which was fun! But regardless, I thought this aspect was handled well. The philosophy is not thrown in our faces in a way that we can’t understand, and that’s hard to do so well done.
I really, really enjoyed this book and I will absolutely reread it if I’m ever in a reading slump. I feel like it would be exactly what I need to get out of one, and I also think it’s the type of book where you could read it a million times and find something new each time. Thank you again for the ARC—I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity.
This book was such a phenomenal read, and I cannot wait for it to be published. I really enjoyed the characters and the different relationships we see in between all the characters. The different motivations and personalities makes this story so good and impossible to put down!
My favorite part, however, was the world building. I loved the aspect of religion and the political intrigue. When looking to the ancient Mediterranean for inspiration, religion and politics is such an important aspect to consider and I really felt that in this story. It’s also easy to do wrong, but The Stars Undying passed that test with flying colors in my opinion. The religion felt complex and interesting without being redundant or annoying, and the politics was believable but not overburdening. Both were handled fantastically.
Lastly, being a classicist, I REALLY enjoyed the references to the Ancient Mediterranean. I’m usually not a philosophy person at all outside of the Greek philosophers, but the inclusion of philosophy reminiscent of Plato and the likes made it so interesting and digestible. I even recognized some of the specific philosophical questions brought up in this book from my translations of Plato, which was fun! But regardless, I thought this aspect was handled well. The philosophy is not thrown in our faces in a way that we can’t understand, and that’s hard to do so well done.
I really, really enjoyed this book and I will absolutely reread it if I’m ever in a reading slump. I feel like it would be exactly what I need to get out of one, and I also think it’s the type of book where you could read it a million times and find something new each time. Thank you again for the ARC—I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity.
September 26, 2022
Thank you to Orbit, NetGalley and Emery Robin for the ARC.
This book achieved an astonishing feat of narration that changed how I think about both space operas and retellings. I’m not a natural hand at ancient history; to me—as fictional retellings, and this book, perhaps agree—such personages found in ancient history function primarily in the niche of myth. I was not familiar with the story of Cleopatra going in, and as a result the book didn’t strictly click for me until I caught up on the historical background partway through. I recommend this to readers also unfamiliar with her story, because the follow-through makes it so worthwhile.
This book is at once literary theatre and oral history. As is common to space operas, there are wars and planets, colonies and commanders, queens and histories; but Ceirran (Caesar) and Gracia (Cleopatra) tell the audience about their experiences with each other through the lens of war, rather than simply about the war. They do this, effectively, through twin entwining histories/monologues. We follow the characters' interactions almost as we would if they were on a stage in front of us. In the author’s note, Robin makes an allusion to directing the characters, but the impression is given without reading the note.
As a result of this constraint or innovation, much information about world history and character history is delivered in telling; indeed, the act of telling is very much the point. This book is, in no small part, a love letter to Shakespearean theatre in specific, with overt if abbreviated allusions to his plays (most identifiably to me Julius Caesar, for obvious reasons) peppered through the text. Gracia herself delivers a riff on Shakespearean poetry halfway through the book. The book is conversation- and character-heavy not only for the reader with the book in their hands, but Gracia and Ceirran are focused on the personages around them to a remarkable degree owing to this theatrical flair. There is a narrative reason for this character-heavy focus, but it is also for the sake of balance: at the beginning of the text, Gracia is leaving (rising) Szeyet as Ceirran is arriving (falling). This predicts their narrative arcs. It is natural the book begins here, and that they should follow each other throughout; Gracia tells the story of her rise using Ceirran as catalyst, and Ceirran tells the story of his fall using Gracia as catalyst in kind. This is not only because their stories are contemporaneous, but because they are thematically entwined.
This book demands a close read, and the smoothness of the storytelling may depend on the reader’s ability to closely follow details. Throughlines are provided sometimes a bit obliquely, trusting the reader to make the requisite connections. I myself did not make all of them. At times I wondered what motivated character decisions, particularly when it came to the events that led to the climax of the book, though this may all be explained by the narrative frame—particularly Gracia’s insistence that she is a liar and Ceirran’s repeatedly demonstrated arrogance. The romance wasn’t strictly a slow burn, but the true nature of the affair between Ceirran and Gracia was. All of this promises to reward a reread. What Ceirran and Gracia really want with the other—as themes of empire, land, and wealth form the rich context to the book, though neither narrator is particularly inclined to comment on these topics directly—remains in my mind an open question, and makes me excited to return to this world.
If approached a bit sideways by the character-focused nature of the narration, empire is a significant and foundational focus of the book. Questions of law and migration, of war and imprisonment, of resources and territory, of religion and “civilization” are all raised, particularly as Ceirran’s political drama begins to ramp up on Ceian. These topics are—thanks to close first POV from two characters who aspire to imperial power—discussed by the characters with notable neutrality, almost indifference. The facts of empire are indeed treated as facts; and why shouldn’t they be? They were; they are. Yet the book is intensely interested in the spectacle of empire, a focus that makes their narrative bias plain.
The book is interested in governance in general: democracy, law, mandated secularization and divine rule. One reason Gracia and Ceirran are so preoccupied by each other is because they are reflections of each other’s relationship to power and empire. Ceirran’s (at this point) ease with power and liberality with resources is not something Gracia (at this point) experiences, though it is something she envies, admires, and sometimes rues. Gracia, meanwhile, is both ruthless and effortless in her own right, and her ambition and spiritual power Ceirran admires in kind. Ceirran’s aspiration to Gracia’s form of power is novel to him and therefore exciting; this aspiration is integral to his downfall. Ceirran’s power is comparatively simple, realized from consensus and material assets that Gracia is capable of coveting if she plays the right cards, and does collect throughout.
The throughline in each of their ambitions is that of spectacle, which is featured prominently each time the story endeavors to look at empire head-on. Each strives for spectacle, because without the social and political affirmation created by spectacle, their imperial (territorial, political, economic, military) power is diminished, unjustified, perhaps unstable. Ceirran is shown, in every conceivable way, to care so much about appearance, spectacle, pomp and circumstance that it makes others—including Gracia—nervous. The feeling of scope and scale is occasionally elided at the beginning of the book by Gracia and Ceirran’s preoccupations with each other; but as the story proceeds, those details are filled in gradually through the characters' ambitions. The world broadens as the characters' focus and ambitions do, and almost without realizing, the reader finds themselves in a dynamic, complex world rendered by events of imperial spectacle within, of, and aside those ambitions.
This book changed what I understood retellings were capable of. Like any book demanding of a reader’s attention, it delivers a great deal to anyone willing to lend it their ears (god, sorry): a unique narrative frame, a compelling approach to a space opera, and… Anita. God; Anita. Am I a Mark Antony stan now? Is that something it’s possible to be? Do I devote time to thinking about this? Only Book 2 can address these questions.
This book achieved an astonishing feat of narration that changed how I think about both space operas and retellings. I’m not a natural hand at ancient history; to me—as fictional retellings, and this book, perhaps agree—such personages found in ancient history function primarily in the niche of myth. I was not familiar with the story of Cleopatra going in, and as a result the book didn’t strictly click for me until I caught up on the historical background partway through. I recommend this to readers also unfamiliar with her story, because the follow-through makes it so worthwhile.
This book is at once literary theatre and oral history. As is common to space operas, there are wars and planets, colonies and commanders, queens and histories; but Ceirran (Caesar) and Gracia (Cleopatra) tell the audience about their experiences with each other through the lens of war, rather than simply about the war. They do this, effectively, through twin entwining histories/monologues. We follow the characters' interactions almost as we would if they were on a stage in front of us. In the author’s note, Robin makes an allusion to directing the characters, but the impression is given without reading the note.
As a result of this constraint or innovation, much information about world history and character history is delivered in telling; indeed, the act of telling is very much the point. This book is, in no small part, a love letter to Shakespearean theatre in specific, with overt if abbreviated allusions to his plays (most identifiably to me Julius Caesar, for obvious reasons) peppered through the text. Gracia herself delivers a riff on Shakespearean poetry halfway through the book. The book is conversation- and character-heavy not only for the reader with the book in their hands, but Gracia and Ceirran are focused on the personages around them to a remarkable degree owing to this theatrical flair. There is a narrative reason for this character-heavy focus, but it is also for the sake of balance: at the beginning of the text, Gracia is leaving (rising) Szeyet as Ceirran is arriving (falling). This predicts their narrative arcs. It is natural the book begins here, and that they should follow each other throughout; Gracia tells the story of her rise using Ceirran as catalyst, and Ceirran tells the story of his fall using Gracia as catalyst in kind. This is not only because their stories are contemporaneous, but because they are thematically entwined.
This book demands a close read, and the smoothness of the storytelling may depend on the reader’s ability to closely follow details. Throughlines are provided sometimes a bit obliquely, trusting the reader to make the requisite connections. I myself did not make all of them. At times I wondered what motivated character decisions, particularly when it came to the events that led to the climax of the book, though this may all be explained by the narrative frame—particularly Gracia’s insistence that she is a liar and Ceirran’s repeatedly demonstrated arrogance. The romance wasn’t strictly a slow burn, but the true nature of the affair between Ceirran and Gracia was. All of this promises to reward a reread. What Ceirran and Gracia really want with the other—as themes of empire, land, and wealth form the rich context to the book, though neither narrator is particularly inclined to comment on these topics directly—remains in my mind an open question, and makes me excited to return to this world.
If approached a bit sideways by the character-focused nature of the narration, empire is a significant and foundational focus of the book. Questions of law and migration, of war and imprisonment, of resources and territory, of religion and “civilization” are all raised, particularly as Ceirran’s political drama begins to ramp up on Ceian. These topics are—thanks to close first POV from two characters who aspire to imperial power—discussed by the characters with notable neutrality, almost indifference. The facts of empire are indeed treated as facts; and why shouldn’t they be? They were; they are. Yet the book is intensely interested in the spectacle of empire, a focus that makes their narrative bias plain.
The book is interested in governance in general: democracy, law, mandated secularization and divine rule. One reason Gracia and Ceirran are so preoccupied by each other is because they are reflections of each other’s relationship to power and empire. Ceirran’s (at this point) ease with power and liberality with resources is not something Gracia (at this point) experiences, though it is something she envies, admires, and sometimes rues. Gracia, meanwhile, is both ruthless and effortless in her own right, and her ambition and spiritual power Ceirran admires in kind. Ceirran’s aspiration to Gracia’s form of power is novel to him and therefore exciting; this aspiration is integral to his downfall. Ceirran’s power is comparatively simple, realized from consensus and material assets that Gracia is capable of coveting if she plays the right cards, and does collect throughout.
The throughline in each of their ambitions is that of spectacle, which is featured prominently each time the story endeavors to look at empire head-on. Each strives for spectacle, because without the social and political affirmation created by spectacle, their imperial (territorial, political, economic, military) power is diminished, unjustified, perhaps unstable. Ceirran is shown, in every conceivable way, to care so much about appearance, spectacle, pomp and circumstance that it makes others—including Gracia—nervous. The feeling of scope and scale is occasionally elided at the beginning of the book by Gracia and Ceirran’s preoccupations with each other; but as the story proceeds, those details are filled in gradually through the characters' ambitions. The world broadens as the characters' focus and ambitions do, and almost without realizing, the reader finds themselves in a dynamic, complex world rendered by events of imperial spectacle within, of, and aside those ambitions.
This book changed what I understood retellings were capable of. Like any book demanding of a reader’s attention, it delivers a great deal to anyone willing to lend it their ears (god, sorry): a unique narrative frame, a compelling approach to a space opera, and… Anita. God; Anita. Am I a Mark Antony stan now? Is that something it’s possible to be? Do I devote time to thinking about this? Only Book 2 can address these questions.
December 1, 2022
4.5 stars
Picture this: You're watching a period drama where two of the opposing main characters are talking while drinking tea. The conversation builds, the tension is ramping up, until suddenly one of the characters stands up, places down their teacup, and says "Good day to you"!!! Holy shit!! They managed to insult the character while ostensibly wishing them well and following the conventions of a society of manners!! I eat it up with a spoon.
This book is like 500 pages of that, but as a queer retelling of Roman history set in space. If you're like me, you simply love this kind of stuff. The witty conversations, the subtle misdirections, the high-end philosophizing and politicking. Emery Robin has constructed a web of characters who are so interesting to watch, and I could watch our unreliable narrator, Gracia, talk her way out of a dozen corners. Even though this is a retelling, you don't really need to know anything about Julius Caesar or Cleopatra, though I have to think that you would get even more out of this book if you do. My partner is a historian, and I really enjoyed trying to interpret the book's events into Roman history with him.
And the relationships! ER knows how to draw out the tension between [redacted] and [redacted] and [redacted] and [redacted], even when you know what's going to happen. Thematically, also, this book is fascinating. I'm really interested in how the story plays with the ideas of religion and technology, and also stability vs. change.
That being said, this book is not for everyone. The story is so narrowly focused on the interactions between the main characters that there's not a lot of room for anything else. I really liked the glimpses of worldbuilding and setting we got here, but details about these areas are few and far between, always because we're building to the next exchange. I'm not sure if this is a choice of the author, or the choice of the author as a choice of the narrator, but I wish we had gotten a bit more about where these characters are situated and what they look like beyond initial introductions. There were also moments where the narrative would start following an event, and then the subject would abruptly get dropped and we would skip forward to the day afterwards. This meant that the pacing of this book is a little uneven.
It's also definitely not a book interested in holding your hand with the politics and characters, so the first 50 pages or so is a bit difficult to get through. This book desperately needs a character list!
But don't let these minor things stop you. Emery Robin is unfolding something epic here, and I can't wait to see how the story unfolds. It's pretty amazing that this is the author's debut novel. If you're a fan of A Memory Called Empire or the scenes in Death Note where L and Kira are trying to predict the other's next actions four steps ahead, then you will love this.
Thank you to Orbit for the review copy (my first ever!)!
Picture this: You're watching a period drama where two of the opposing main characters are talking while drinking tea. The conversation builds, the tension is ramping up, until suddenly one of the characters stands up, places down their teacup, and says "Good day to you"!!! Holy shit!! They managed to insult the character while ostensibly wishing them well and following the conventions of a society of manners!! I eat it up with a spoon.
This book is like 500 pages of that, but as a queer retelling of Roman history set in space. If you're like me, you simply love this kind of stuff. The witty conversations, the subtle misdirections, the high-end philosophizing and politicking. Emery Robin has constructed a web of characters who are so interesting to watch, and I could watch our unreliable narrator, Gracia, talk her way out of a dozen corners. Even though this is a retelling, you don't really need to know anything about Julius Caesar or Cleopatra, though I have to think that you would get even more out of this book if you do. My partner is a historian, and I really enjoyed trying to interpret the book's events into Roman history with him.
And the relationships! ER knows how to draw out the tension between [redacted] and [redacted] and [redacted] and [redacted], even when you know what's going to happen. Thematically, also, this book is fascinating. I'm really interested in how the story plays with the ideas of religion and technology, and also stability vs. change.
That being said, this book is not for everyone. The story is so narrowly focused on the interactions between the main characters that there's not a lot of room for anything else. I really liked the glimpses of worldbuilding and setting we got here, but details about these areas are few and far between, always because we're building to the next exchange. I'm not sure if this is a choice of the author, or the choice of the author as a choice of the narrator, but I wish we had gotten a bit more about where these characters are situated and what they look like beyond initial introductions. There were also moments where the narrative would start following an event, and then the subject would abruptly get dropped and we would skip forward to the day afterwards. This meant that the pacing of this book is a little uneven.
It's also definitely not a book interested in holding your hand with the politics and characters, so the first 50 pages or so is a bit difficult to get through. This book desperately needs a character list!
But don't let these minor things stop you. Emery Robin is unfolding something epic here, and I can't wait to see how the story unfolds. It's pretty amazing that this is the author's debut novel. If you're a fan of A Memory Called Empire or the scenes in Death Note where L and Kira are trying to predict the other's next actions four steps ahead, then you will love this.
Thank you to Orbit for the review copy (my first ever!)!
October 10, 2022
3.5 stars
This is a slow burning science fiction loosely inspired by historical events. Given the premise, I expected this to be an epic love story between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, but the focus of this novel is actually on this woman's rise to power after the takeover by his sister. I was not originally aware of these events and found myself researching the history alongside this book.
In terms of tone and narrative style, this one strongly reminded me of A Memory Called Empire. Like that popular title, this is a dryer narrative with lots of political intrigue. I did not necessarily connect with the characters which held me back from completely loving this one.
That being said, I would love to see more by this author, either in this universe or another one. While this is science fiction, I think it will have a lot of cross appeal with fantasy readers who love politically driven narratives.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a slow burning science fiction loosely inspired by historical events. Given the premise, I expected this to be an epic love story between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, but the focus of this novel is actually on this woman's rise to power after the takeover by his sister. I was not originally aware of these events and found myself researching the history alongside this book.
In terms of tone and narrative style, this one strongly reminded me of A Memory Called Empire. Like that popular title, this is a dryer narrative with lots of political intrigue. I did not necessarily connect with the characters which held me back from completely loving this one.
That being said, I would love to see more by this author, either in this universe or another one. While this is science fiction, I think it will have a lot of cross appeal with fantasy readers who love politically driven narratives.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
November 14, 2023I gave up on this one at a sad 10%.
I wanted to just slip this one under the radar and dodge reviewing it but as it's one of my Twelve Recommendations in Twelve Months.. I sorta feel obliged to slap s o m e t h i n g together in honour of the buddy who was kind (and brave) enough to offer said recommendation.
But ultimately.. I have no idea what is happening, to whom, or why, and was too confused to push on or answer those questions because, unfortunately, I just wasn't convinced it would be worth it. Even though the Cleopatra x Caesar retelling pitch did, initially, pull me in.
So sorry to my buddy who recommended this to me!
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
I wanted to just slip this one under the radar and dodge reviewing it but as it's one of my Twelve Recommendations in Twelve Months.. I sorta feel obliged to slap s o m e t h i n g together in honour of the buddy who was kind (and brave) enough to offer said recommendation.
But ultimately.. I have no idea what is happening, to whom, or why, and was too confused to push on or answer those questions because, unfortunately, I just wasn't convinced it would be worth it. Even though the Cleopatra x Caesar retelling pitch did, initially, pull me in.
So sorry to my buddy who recommended this to me!
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
September 18, 2023
"When you are held in the mouth of a god, sometimes the best you can do is let yourself be swallowed and call it a homecoming.”
Dense, intricate, challenging, rewarding. This is a sci-fi retelling of Julius Caesar that reads more like epic fantasy than traditional science fiction, and Emery Robin's prose is sharp and shimmering, completely immersive. With clever parallels, gorgeous settings, vicious characters and a supremely unreliable narrator, this novel is a carefully spun political tapestry of theology and power.
“I don’t know whether I believe in the immortality of the human soul,” I said. “I don’t know. That’s true, Captain. But perhaps I do believe—in the immortality of a man’s name. Might that be the same thing?”
“No,” she said. “It isn’t the same thing at all.”
Dense, intricate, challenging, rewarding. This is a sci-fi retelling of Julius Caesar that reads more like epic fantasy than traditional science fiction, and Emery Robin's prose is sharp and shimmering, completely immersive. With clever parallels, gorgeous settings, vicious characters and a supremely unreliable narrator, this novel is a carefully spun political tapestry of theology and power.
“I don’t know whether I believe in the immortality of the human soul,” I said. “I don’t know. That’s true, Captain. But perhaps I do believe—in the immortality of a man’s name. Might that be the same thing?”
“No,” she said. “It isn’t the same thing at all.”
September 7, 2022
To win a civil war against her twin sister, Altagracia must gain the alliance of the Empire of Ceiao through its Commander, Matheus Ceirran - but their ambitions may get in their own way as their stars rise.
Obviously I snapped this book up. It's a Cleopatra and Julius Caesar retelling - set in space! I even reshuffled my TBR to read a short biography of Cleopatra in preparation, because I'd heard that my experience The Stars Undying would be richer for it. I was not disappointed.
Robin introduces us to a lushly built world with plenty of history and politics to keep my intrigue-loving self satisfied. The theme of religion was explored in a truly fascinating way, and I found myself turning the philosophical questions over in my mind long after I finished the book. And the characters! The central trio of Gracia, Ceirran, and Anita are well-realized and deliciously morally grey. I also liked the complicated relationship between Gracia and her twin Arcelia.
However, I did have one major quibble with this book - I didn't necessarily buy the romance between Gracia and Ceirran. I enjoyed their intellectual sparring very much, but I did not think the feelings between them were on the epic scale that the events of the book imply. (However, I did love the tension between Gracia and Anita!)
I also thought the secondary characters in Ceiao - Jonata, Otávio, Celestino, and the rest - were rather underutitlized. My main question now that I am done reading is whether or not there will be a sequel, as I think this second problem will at least partially resolved with a second book.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Obviously I snapped this book up. It's a Cleopatra and Julius Caesar retelling - set in space! I even reshuffled my TBR to read a short biography of Cleopatra in preparation, because I'd heard that my experience The Stars Undying would be richer for it. I was not disappointed.
Robin introduces us to a lushly built world with plenty of history and politics to keep my intrigue-loving self satisfied. The theme of religion was explored in a truly fascinating way, and I found myself turning the philosophical questions over in my mind long after I finished the book. And the characters! The central trio of Gracia, Ceirran, and Anita are well-realized and deliciously morally grey. I also liked the complicated relationship between Gracia and her twin Arcelia.
However, I did have one major quibble with this book - I didn't necessarily buy the romance between Gracia and Ceirran. I enjoyed their intellectual sparring very much, but I did not think the feelings between them were on the epic scale that the events of the book imply. (However, I did love the tension between Gracia and Anita!)
I also thought the secondary characters in Ceiao - Jonata, Otávio, Celestino, and the rest - were rather underutitlized. My main question now that I am done reading is whether or not there will be a sequel, as I think this second problem will at least partially resolved with a second book.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
November 5, 2022
(4.5)
so there's a sequel right?
read my review on reads rainbow
Rep: bi mcs, lesbian side character, nonbinary side character, gay side character
so there's a sequel right?
read my review on reads rainbow
Rep: bi mcs, lesbian side character, nonbinary side character, gay side character
July 25, 2022
was beyond lucky to get an advanced copy of this book and i say without ANY hesitation that it is one of the best debuts I've read in years. it's beautiful, haunting, and just fucking incredible.
Read
February 19, 2023RTC. I’m glad to get to talk about this one with Pages Unbound because I have a lot of nebulous Thoughts that I can’t quite articulate yet.
November 29, 2022
3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2022/11/21/...
The Stars Undying is the debut novel of Emery Robin, the first volume of the Empire Without End series inspired by the lives of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony with a space opera twist.
The story opens with an introduction to Princess Gracia of the planet Szayet, recently forced into exile after losing everything in a bloody civil war to her twin sister. In a last desperate attempt to regain her throne, Gracia turns her focus on winning over Matheus Ceirran, the commander of the Empire of Ceiao who has just arrived on-planet with his trusted lieutenant Anita.
But striking a deal with a foreign power has its costs, as Gracia soon discovers once her birthright is returned to her. Back in her possession is the Pearl of the Dead, a family relic containing the AI consciousness of Szayet’s founder, the legendary conqueror Alekso, who is not at all happy with her new alliances. As Gracia and Ceirran grow closer under the disapproving gaze of Anita, the Empire of Ceia is also facing instability resulting from internal conflict amongst the merchant guilds.
As the plot unfolds, the chapters mostly alternate between Gracia and Ceirran’s perspectives, gradually following the trajectory of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s lives. For those who are even passing familiar with the historical events, it will be easier to understand the story behind The Stars Undying and find even more about it to enjoy.
But first, readers will have to contend with the plodding pace. The Stars Undying is probably best described as a slow burn political drama—emphasis on slow. If I were to rate the book based solely on the contents of its first half, I’d give it no higher than a 2. The prose itself very rich and lyrical but also very dense, describing laboriously the internal thoughts of the characters. With so much classical history involved, it’s inevitable too that the introduction requires much setup and a deluge of information which readers will need to persevere against in order to finally get to the good parts.
When the good parts do come though, it’s well worth the wait. In fact, the second half of the novel probably rates 4 stars or higher, as the seeds sown earlier in the book come to fruition and the heavier emphasis on the political intrigue begins working in its favor. The scope of the story narrows to focus on the interplay between the key characters while at the same time expanding to encompass the power games, backroom deals and other political shenanigans of Ceian empire, which is essentially ancient Rome.
For the most part, the overall story also adheres to the historical record, though my favorite aspect of the book was probably the Pearl of prophecy, a computer which contains the “soul” of Szayet’s god and founder, whom you might have guessed by now is modeled upon Alexander the Great. Rightful rulers of Szayet receive the wisdom and prophecies of Alekso by “plugging” the Pearl’s program directly into their brains, a very unique concept in what might otherwise be considered a run-of-the-mill retelling. I wish the book had contained more of these types of sci-fi elements.
Overall, I enjoyed The Stars Undying a little more than I expected. Granted, having read a few reviews of the book which warned against the slower pace of the first half, I was able to push through to the good parts in the second half, with my final rating reflecting the middle ground between the two extremes. For now, tentatively, I have plans to continue the series, partly because I think the rest of it has potential especially if Emery Robin has more interesting ideas waiting in the wings. More plainly though, with The Stars Undying so deeply incorporating the story of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony, history tells me the best is yet to come.
The Stars Undying is the debut novel of Emery Robin, the first volume of the Empire Without End series inspired by the lives of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony with a space opera twist.
The story opens with an introduction to Princess Gracia of the planet Szayet, recently forced into exile after losing everything in a bloody civil war to her twin sister. In a last desperate attempt to regain her throne, Gracia turns her focus on winning over Matheus Ceirran, the commander of the Empire of Ceiao who has just arrived on-planet with his trusted lieutenant Anita.
But striking a deal with a foreign power has its costs, as Gracia soon discovers once her birthright is returned to her. Back in her possession is the Pearl of the Dead, a family relic containing the AI consciousness of Szayet’s founder, the legendary conqueror Alekso, who is not at all happy with her new alliances. As Gracia and Ceirran grow closer under the disapproving gaze of Anita, the Empire of Ceia is also facing instability resulting from internal conflict amongst the merchant guilds.
As the plot unfolds, the chapters mostly alternate between Gracia and Ceirran’s perspectives, gradually following the trajectory of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s lives. For those who are even passing familiar with the historical events, it will be easier to understand the story behind The Stars Undying and find even more about it to enjoy.
But first, readers will have to contend with the plodding pace. The Stars Undying is probably best described as a slow burn political drama—emphasis on slow. If I were to rate the book based solely on the contents of its first half, I’d give it no higher than a 2. The prose itself very rich and lyrical but also very dense, describing laboriously the internal thoughts of the characters. With so much classical history involved, it’s inevitable too that the introduction requires much setup and a deluge of information which readers will need to persevere against in order to finally get to the good parts.
When the good parts do come though, it’s well worth the wait. In fact, the second half of the novel probably rates 4 stars or higher, as the seeds sown earlier in the book come to fruition and the heavier emphasis on the political intrigue begins working in its favor. The scope of the story narrows to focus on the interplay between the key characters while at the same time expanding to encompass the power games, backroom deals and other political shenanigans of Ceian empire, which is essentially ancient Rome.
For the most part, the overall story also adheres to the historical record, though my favorite aspect of the book was probably the Pearl of prophecy, a computer which contains the “soul” of Szayet’s god and founder, whom you might have guessed by now is modeled upon Alexander the Great. Rightful rulers of Szayet receive the wisdom and prophecies of Alekso by “plugging” the Pearl’s program directly into their brains, a very unique concept in what might otherwise be considered a run-of-the-mill retelling. I wish the book had contained more of these types of sci-fi elements.
Overall, I enjoyed The Stars Undying a little more than I expected. Granted, having read a few reviews of the book which warned against the slower pace of the first half, I was able to push through to the good parts in the second half, with my final rating reflecting the middle ground between the two extremes. For now, tentatively, I have plans to continue the series, partly because I think the rest of it has potential especially if Emery Robin has more interesting ideas waiting in the wings. More plainly though, with The Stars Undying so deeply incorporating the story of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony, history tells me the best is yet to come.
November 10, 2022
"Narcisa Cipon lives in her cups. Semfontan's friends live in disgrace. I'm sure a man can cramp himself to fit into an earring."
the advantage of reading historical tragedy is that you get to feel a little like the audience of a horror movie, shouting at the characters not to go in there, you idiot, don't you know what's going to happen to you!, and the knife of history is just as sharp and inevitable as michael myers in pursuit of Unsuspecting Teenager #4. emery robin humanizes that creeping, looming, delighted horror, makes it wonderfully intimate, close enough to reach out and touch, renders the confounding comprehensible and the unknowable knowable. rarely, I think, will you have the opportunity to feel both smarter than and wistfully sad for julius caesar, even in the full knowledge that you're viewing his retold story through the twenty-twenty hindsight of two thousand years.
fantastically human. fantastically smart. fantastically stupid. all of them complex and horrible and foolish and dear.
"Your hair is like wine. Your eyes are also like wine. Your mouth is like a serpent's. What a joy to die in your arms."
"As I said. Your scansion's off."
I've been trying to describe this book to people, because I'm eager to talk about it, to try to sell them on it, and 'cleopatra but in space' comes up short every time. 'cleopatra but in space, but better than that suggests, and not as a gimmick' doesn't do much better.
religion! empire! sex! power! worship!
"When you are held in the mouth of a god, sometimes the best you can do is let yourself be swallowed and call it a homecoming."
it was a pleasure to spend time in this world with these characters. (linguistically very strong and fun also, although the presence of the surname xicaran does raise some questions the answers to which I would be genuinely delighted to hear from robin.) feeling very lucky and really just pleased as punch to have had the opportunity to read it early in exchange for an honest review.
(like robin, I also dressed up at a young age for a research project on cleopatra that impacted me deeply, lastly, and embarrassingly; who among us, in all honesty, did not? to this day, if I try give my ful name as cait— hel— cec— cib— without including the 'cleopatra' that I at age ten insisted on adding after my patron saint's name, I have friends who are QUICK to correct me. there's no escaping.)
"my own hand works all right" is a banger of a fuckin line.
November 12, 2022
BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH
September 22, 2022
It’s a bold idea for a debut novelist to choose the stories and legends of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar projected into a space opera. Bold, I think, because these were formidable people in life, and I’ve been disappointed too many times with thin fictional replicas of great historical figures. But Emery Robin’s The Stars Undying succeeds brilliantly in rendering interesting and complex characters for these difficult roles.
The Stars Undying begins with parallel escape and pursuit sequences by the two main characters, a would-be queen briefly leaving her planet to escape her throne-usurping sister and a powerful commander of an imperial army descending to it in search of an old foe. Altagracia Caviro Patramata (known as Gracia) flees from her twin sister, Arcelia, who has recently seized control of the Szayeti Empire by defying the traditional rituals. The queen’s enormous hologram hovers over all as Gracia flees to a satellite in a smuggler’s spaceship. Just at this time the great Matteus Ceirran, commander of the Ceian Empire, with his captain Ana arrives at the Szayeti city of Alectelo in pursuit of his former mentor Quinha, now on the run in a broken down space ship. And so we have the recast Cleopatra as the teenager seeking her rightful throne and Caesar with Mark Antony at his side pursuing the defeated Pompey to the shores of Egypt.
The fact that we already know the highlights and the ending of the story of Caesar and Cleopatra makes it possible for Robin to allude to the best known events while taking us deeply into the minds of its two main characters. The alternating chapters devoted to Gracia and Ceirran, both in the first person, elaborate the strikingly different worlds of the religiously observant Szayeti and the rigorously secular and power driven attitudes of the Ceian empire.
While there are space battles and bloody conflict, these are glancingly referred to as the focus remains on the relationships at the heart of the story and the parallel rise of Gracia and the deepening conspiracies surrounding Ceirran. More than once I was reminded of Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan novels. I think both writers are equally brilliant in examining the subtleties of imperial intrigue and the mental and moral acrobatics involved in the exercise of power.
..........
The Stars Undying is full of beautifully rendered moments ... that make the story exceptionally rich and rewarding. There are dozens of scenes I come back to again and again. This may be a debut novel, but it is the work of an incredibly accomplished writer. I look forward to the hoped-for follow-up novel on the exploits of Ana and Gracia.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
The Stars Undying begins with parallel escape and pursuit sequences by the two main characters, a would-be queen briefly leaving her planet to escape her throne-usurping sister and a powerful commander of an imperial army descending to it in search of an old foe. Altagracia Caviro Patramata (known as Gracia) flees from her twin sister, Arcelia, who has recently seized control of the Szayeti Empire by defying the traditional rituals. The queen’s enormous hologram hovers over all as Gracia flees to a satellite in a smuggler’s spaceship. Just at this time the great Matteus Ceirran, commander of the Ceian Empire, with his captain Ana arrives at the Szayeti city of Alectelo in pursuit of his former mentor Quinha, now on the run in a broken down space ship. And so we have the recast Cleopatra as the teenager seeking her rightful throne and Caesar with Mark Antony at his side pursuing the defeated Pompey to the shores of Egypt.
The fact that we already know the highlights and the ending of the story of Caesar and Cleopatra makes it possible for Robin to allude to the best known events while taking us deeply into the minds of its two main characters. The alternating chapters devoted to Gracia and Ceirran, both in the first person, elaborate the strikingly different worlds of the religiously observant Szayeti and the rigorously secular and power driven attitudes of the Ceian empire.
While there are space battles and bloody conflict, these are glancingly referred to as the focus remains on the relationships at the heart of the story and the parallel rise of Gracia and the deepening conspiracies surrounding Ceirran. More than once I was reminded of Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan novels. I think both writers are equally brilliant in examining the subtleties of imperial intrigue and the mental and moral acrobatics involved in the exercise of power.
..........
The Stars Undying is full of beautifully rendered moments ... that make the story exceptionally rich and rewarding. There are dozens of scenes I come back to again and again. This may be a debut novel, but it is the work of an incredibly accomplished writer. I look forward to the hoped-for follow-up novel on the exploits of Ana and Gracia.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
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