Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I love a good character-driven space opera, and this book delivered! The story takes place in a technologically advanced world where humans can 3d print new bodies and then essentially 'upload' their 'neural map' (or brain) to those new bodies. Sci-fi at its core is an examination of how technological advances could change the way humans live, and the fabricated technology O'Keefe presents us with was fascinating to think about. The strong female characters, the witty banter, the thought provoking questions about sustainability and capitalism all put this book at a 5 stars for me.

Okay, misprints are super creepy and scary! Especially the ones that can mimic talking! I definitely would not want them on the same planet as me, especially if I am trying to figure out what the heck went wrong with the relakite mining before I even landed, like Tarquin had to. He is a really awesome dude (even with the illicit pathways) and I love him and Naira. Plus Kaz is cool too. And the parts with the AI on the Einhorn are heartbreaking to read but also interesting. So many things going wrong and mysteries to crack in this first book. I really had fun reading this and can't wait for the next book to see what else happens and if they can stop the evil spread of the shroud that kills planets and the other fungus that shall not be named in case others have not read that far in the book yet. It is a race against time to solve those both and save humanity and the cradle worlds!

I liked this book a lot. first of al thank you to the author and the publishers for a free arc of this book.This book had everything I look for in a scifi book. It had action, fun and space. It was generally a good time. I would rec it to anyone who likes scifi as its generally a good time! four stars a a reread in the future! Author did a great job will be looking forward to her upcoming works.

The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe grabbed me by the throat from the first page and didn’t let me go. Gripping plot blending elements of survival horror and dystopian science fiction? Check. A protagonist who is trans and bi and who gets to just exist and be fulsomely complex and flawed? Check. One of the best enemies-to-lovers romances I have read in a long, long time? Check. A book that feels complete in and of itself but sets up a series beautifully? Check check check.

I can’t rave enough about this one, honestly. I loved the characters and couldn’t put the book down once I started it. This has inspired me to go back through and read O’Keefe’s backlist titles at some point because I want more of whatever stories she has to tell.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

I found this book surprisingly boring. I kept hoping it would pick up until past 75%, which is not great on such a long book. My two main issues were that I did not buy the insta-love main relationship that underpinned all decisions made later in the book, and I had some big issues with the world building that kept ruining the story for me. The main construct is that in the future, you can print minds into bodies, and this allows a degree of immortality. However, it only prints from its last save point, so you lose information if you don’t make it back to the save point. This is a very well-trod SF plot/mechanism. The new feature is that you can “crack” if you die too violently, or for other reasons, and then are no longer printable. However, I found no explanation for why “cracking” can make it back to the save file, but memory and relationships cannot. Also, apparently the MC is deeply grieving his “cracked” mother and afraid of cracking for that reason and then randomly at the end says that he never thought it was permanent anyways that someday technology would fix his mother. There are inconsistencies in the technology that underpins the entire world. I also got bored with all the hiking, and Tarquin and Naira seemed to get past their respective pasts way too quickly as well. Lots of people seem to love this relationship to be fair. It seemed a bit young to me. It is not without value, as I gave it three stars. I just had too many questions, but I do support any and all plot relevant fungi in sci-fi or horror, which this is not, despite the zombie like misprints. This is also one of those books where a perfect future seems to erase disability and that can be a problematic theme in sci-fi.

5/5 Stars and an easy 98/100 WGB Score. I loved every page of this book. O'Keefe checked all of my boxes for what I like in Scifi with sci-fantasy flavor. This book had vibes of Annihilation and Foundation but also a little but of Lost in Space too! The characters were unique and diverse and flawed and deliciously complex. The prose balanced between lavender and fast-paced. The LGBTQ+ rep for this book was seamless and exactly how I think authors should include it in their books and characters. O'Keefe's writing is on par with Pierce Browns and I cannot wait to read the sequel to this book! Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an arc of the title!

4.5 stars because it took me a little while to get into the story. There was a bit to learn at the beginning that made it slow going for me at first. Throughout the first third of the book I was enjoying it while I read, but easily able to put it down and not think about the book. There were many characters, who weren't exactly in the right bodies and different political/business factions vying for control. You even get the POV of a ship at some points. That being said, once I got my head around everything I loved it!

The plot centers around dying worlds and underhanded business ventures that may be the cause of these plant's deaths. The mystery about why the worlds are dying runs throughout the story and you do get a satisfying ending in terms of what is causing it. However, this is definitely the first book of a series. I can't wait to see what happens because I really enjoyed the way things are going. I would dare to say there's a slight bit of horror blended into the narrative. This book is also about our two main characters, Naira and Tarquin. These are some complex, fully realized, and growing characters. The things they experience and the people they encounter all matter. I felt I understood them well and I felt the things they did always made sense for their character motivations. However, if you're someone who doesn't want ANY romance in your books then I'd skip this one, but I found it to be just enough. It never took over the story, but provided some lighter moments in a very bleak situation. Give me the next book now please!

This book didn't capture my attention as much as I hoped it would. the plot is a typical one that seems more common in sci-fi lately, focusing on a setting capitalistic family dynasty is leading several worlds to environmental ruin. The dual protags are the heir to this family and a Conservator, who is like a ecoterrorist bent on disrupting Mercator's plans. When the ship they're on crashes on a deserted planet, they'll need to work together to save everyone that's stranded and unravel the secrets they stumble upon. There wasn't anything super interesting in the setting plot or worldbuilding, though the stuff with the prints and misprints was fun. The characters were rather bland, and I found the romance between the protags to be distracting and unnecessary, and given that Sharp is lying about her identity for the majority of the book, it didn't make much sense for me. The book ends on the cliffhanger, but i'm not sure that i'm interested enough to read the sequel.

There is so much to like about this novel. I really like the characters and world. The premise, while not exactly unique, is interesting.

The story has some opportunities to fix for the second book. First, the uneven pacing. There are times, especially at the beginning that are sloooowwwww. I did not care for the ending; I felt cheated. The biggest thing though, is the begging feeling of familiarity. I don’t think anything was borrowed or reused, but there were a lot of instances where any event reminded of sometime ‘similar’ from a different story. Like, one scene remind me of Dune. No… make this your own! You have this!

I’m looking forward to book 2.

After enjoying Megan O’Keefe’s The Protectorate trilogy, I was more than eager to see where she would take her readers next, and after reading this first volume in The Devoured Worlds series, all I can say is that this author managed to enormously improve from an already amazing starting point. The Blighted Stars is a complex novel based on many narrative threads that are handled with such skill that I never felt lost (something that happened at times with the equally complex The Protectorate) - such complexity, however, compels me to share more of the story than I’m used to in my reviews, but I will try to do so avoiding any spoilers.

In the future, humankind has made amazing breakthroughs but also lost a great deal: society is in the hands of five dominant families who control the economy and rule humanity through what looks like a feudal system. Mercator is the most powerful of these families: they hold the monopoly on the mining of relkatite, a material employed in the construction of space habitats and the cores of ships’ engines, among other things. Unfortunately it seems that wherever relkatite is mined extensively, the world falls prey to the shroud, a fungal growth that destroys all indigenous life: several worlds - also called cradles - have been lost to the shroud, including Earth, and a growing conservationist movement asking for a stop of relkatite mining is trying to oppose the Mercators’ expansion to other cradles.

Naira Sharp is the most vocal adversary of the Mercators: once the personal bodyguard - or exemplar - to Acaelus Mercator, the family’s head, she tried to stop the mining through a public hearing that she lost, thanks to the testimony of Tarquin Mercator, Acaelus’ son and a renowned geologist. Losing the battle also meant that Naira was put “on ice”: in this universe people’s minds can be transferred to a new body, which is printed by the evolutionary successors of our 3D printing machines. It’s a technique that insures virtual immortality, provided that you can pay the process of re-printing, and that the death of your previous print was not a violent one, because in that case the transferred consciousness “cracks” and becomes irretrievable. This also means that one’s mind - as is the case for Naira - can be stored indefinitely (“iced”) and never re-transferred into another body. Virtual death.

As the novel starts, Acaelus and Tarquin are orbiting Cradle Six, another promising world for the mining of relkatite, when something goes horribly wrong: Tarquin and a few survivors manage to shuttle down to the planet, and among them is also Naira Sharp, whose consciousness was transferred - thanks to the conservationist underground - into the body of Tarquin’s exemplar. The planet they find themselves on is already in an advanced stage of shroud predation, and it’s also infested by misprints, mindless creatures whose body printing went awry and whose instincts bring them to target the survivors. As the uneasy relationship between Tarquin and Naira grows into a tentative alliance, the two of them discover that many of their respective assumptions might be wrong and that humanity is facing a danger of frightening proportions.

As I said, I was completely engrossed in this story: there are so many narrative levels here, and I enjoyed them all. The whole concept of preserving human consciousness - or neural map - and transferring it to another body, is both fascinating and terrifying: if one can afford the expense, any time a body is damaged, or old, that individual can migrate to a brand-new one being so assured of near-immortality. But it’s not a perfect process, because multiple re-printings or a particularly gruesome death can affect the map and cause it to “crack” in the new body and bring the subject to madness - and even if the process is successful, where people are unable to upload their memories to the map, the new being might lose part of the experiences that occurred between the previous reprinting and the current one, and be a different person altogether. And all of the above does not even take into account the ramifications of suicide or euthanasia to preserve an individual’s map in the transition from a damaged print to a whole one - there is one sentence in the novel that to me summed up the various implications of the process:

People get to keep coming back, as long as they can afford to reprint. But I don’t believe the human heart has caught up with technology.

The society depicted here is equally fraught with contradictions: where on one side we see a star-faring humanity expanding through the universe, we have on the other a limited group of individuals ruling over their subjects with literal powers of life and death, asking for obedience and submission in exchange for the chance of a better life. Environmental, economical and political themes are also explored in a way that is never preaching but well-integrated into the story and the aspects of privilege and the relationship between ruler and subjects are woven into the narrative creating an intriguing whole that never suffers a moment of boredom.

The characters are equally well constructed and explored and I must applaud the way Megan O’Keefe treated the theme of enemies-to-lovers because I was not only captivated by the slow-burn development of the relationship between Tarquin and Naira, but I was actively rooting for it, something that does not usually happen to me, given my wariness toward any romantic entanglement in the stories I read. Tarquin is something of a naive individual, uncomfortable with the power his family exerts and more inclined toward academic studies rather than wielding that power and the privilege that come with it. Naira, on the other hand, had to fight for her survival all her life and she is a mixture of combat readiness and vulnerability that instantly endeared her to me. The way in which tentative banter and growing mutual respect turn the relationship between the two of them from bodyguard and charge to uneasy allies and to something more - united in a common front against the looming danger that might wipe out humanity as we conceive it - was a delight to behold and certainly one of the main strengths of the novel.

And of course there is the mystery at the core of the story, one that is slowly uncovered through a series of well-placed twists and turns that keep the pace going at a good speed and move the story from adventure to fight for survival to horror and to breakneck runs through a shroud-infested terrain that will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the book. As the start of a new series, The Blighted Stars manages to both lay the groundwork and to create the stage for what promises to be a no-holds-barred battle for survival against a pervasive, insidious foe - and I can’t wait to learn how that battle will be fought.

Megan E. O’Keefe’s latest novel is a sci-fi action adventure mystery romance wrapped up in one. The Blighted Stars has a fascinating premise and excellent world-building. It’s set in a distant future in which humans can “print” new bodies, extending their lives far longer than our own. But of course to do that, one needs to (i) be wealthy or connected-enough to pay for the reprinting and (ii) avoid a death so traumatizing that it destroys your mind.

O’Keefe did some really fascinating things with this premise, given that individuals can inhabit bodies that are not “theirs” – this is how Naira Sharp, once a body-guard for the royal family and now a revolutionary on the run, is able to disguise herself as a soldier for the Mercator family. As luck would have it, she finds herself stranded on an uninhabited planet with a crew that includes Tarquin Mercator, heir to the Mercator dynasty. Forbidden romance ensues.

I’ll admit the romance didn’t do anything for me and I wish I had felt a bit more invested in the characters. But the world-building and the plot was terrific, so I’m definitely planning to read the sequel.

If you enjoy the concept of being able to commission a new body, I highly recommend that you read The Blighted Stars and then check out Tanith Lee’s Biting the Sun!

Thank you to Orbit Books for the advanced readers copy – this novel is out now!

Megan O'Keefe is always good for sci-fi. I don't think I've disliked anything by her I have picked up, and this is no different. I highly recommend it for fans of space operas.

There are quite a few books I was looking forward to this year, and this one did not disappoint. The Blighted Stars by Megan O’Keefe is the first in a new science fiction trilogy, known as The Devoured Worlds, that is shaping up to be a dark and thrilling ride.

Earth is dying, the few remnants of humanity left on it are confined to domes to protect them from the decayed landscapes. The rest are living in space, under the rule of the five corporate families of MERIT. Naira Sharp used to be an Exemplar, an elite body guard for the leader of the Mercator family. That was until she became a Conservator, a revolutionary, so that she may prove once and for all that the Mercator’s processes for mining cradle worlds for the rare relkatite kill those same worlds. But after being caught, her neural map was put on ice, never to be printed into another body again, unless at the express wishes of Acaelus Mercator. So when she wakes up on a ship headed to the sixth cradle world, inside the body of another Exemplar, she thinks she’s escaped. But Tarquin, the son of Acaelus Mercator is also there, hoping to prove that their processes are not the cause of the cradle worlds’ many deaths. So Naira must act the part in the hopes of finding the evidence, while also planning her escape to rejoin the Conservators.

After heaping praise on The Protectorate, I’ve come to expect several things from O’Keefe’s next outing. Well drawn characters, twisting plots, fun yet thematic worldbuilding, and all of these delivered at breakneck speed. The Blighted Stars delivers all of these in spades. Naira and Tarquin are incredibly fleshed out, with great chemistry. The universe of the Devoured Worlds is dark, creepy, and filled with a perverted techno-optimism that really builds on the corporate structure she imagines. The plot reveals information at just the opportune times, skirting information dumps and avoiding out of character dialogue.

The part of the book that kept me coming back for more, though, was the dynamic O’Keefe writes between Naira and Tarquin. The dueling perspectives heighten the dramatic tension for the audience, as Naira tries to steer Tarquin towards an escape plan for herself while tearing down his family’s name. Her inner thoughts convey a constantly shifting seesaw of anxiety and assurance, questioning every word and action as she tries to play her part. Tarquin on the other hand is a naive academic trying to live the Mercator name while not fully understanding the power behind it. The societal pressures both experience push up against the interpersonal pressures that arise from their dire situation. The back forth between re-establishing the hierarchical expectations, and the slow blooming romance complicates both of their objectives. I found myself biting my nails in suspense, rooting for them to admit their weird feelings for each other, while being constantly reminded of the ethical implications of such a bond. It was gripping and heartbreaking.

The perspectives for the most part are well balanced. Though the latter half favors Naira’s perspective, it didn’t detract from the compelling pull of the narrative. O’Keefe has shown herself to be a master at delivering information, anticipating when aspects of the world need to be revealed for the plot to continue its merciless charge to the end. The story of The Blighted Stars is a tense mystery, baked into a cake called survival. Not only for the characters as they traverse a dying world, but the survival of humanity. The more Naira and Tarquin discover on Sixth Cradle, the more questions are asked. Assumptions about how everything works are tossed in the bin as bits and pieces are discovered in both Naira’s and Tarquin’s, for the most part, opposing goals. It’s well balanced, and O’Keefe does a good job of making you root for both as individuals, while reminding you of their baggage.

And let’s get real, it wouldn’t be an O’Keefe novel if it didn’t dive into the baggage. One of my favorite parts of The Protectorate was just how deep characters and their fights got. Water under the bridge, even at times of great stress and possible annihilation, is a foreign concept to O’Keefe’s characters. Characters tear into each other like a worm through dirt, digging deep and unearthing a fertile soil. There are several confrontations from The Blighted Stars that stand out and make the characters shine. They go through great pains to expose each other and most of the time, the tension is never fully resolved. It stews, it rebuilds and finds another point to be released. There are ebbs and flows to these relationships and it really makes me feel like a compassionate but messy bitch who lives for the drama. It hurts so good and I can’t wait to see how O’Keefe expands on these threads in the future.

On the thematic side, it feels like O’Keefe has once again become stronger. Being the first in a trilogy, there are unresolved themes, but they are sharper and more realized. The survival of humanity is not only an open question as to whether it will happen, but who gets to define it. There are opposing forces, pushing and pulling in different directions. Each character is an individual to be sure, but their ideals are deeply rooted in their experience of the world. Individualism is also on the table, not only through the intense hierarchy of MERIT itself (I love the brick through a window subtlety), but questioned by a looming threat. What does it mean to truly work together in order to survive? What does one have to give up in order to be best suited for the tasks ahead. All unanswered, but all given a nuance that is begging to be explored in the future books.

My only complaint about the book is that it feels a little long. O’Keefe accomplishes a lot, and the speed with which it occurs compacts everything to a nice density. But it also means you have to be constantly on your toes. I wasn’t exactly exhausted by the end of the book, but I needed a breather. However, I felt the same way about Velocity Weapon and the sequels were way easier to handle after that action packed thrilling cram session.

The Blighted Stars was more than I had hoped for and sets up The Devoured Worlds Trilogy to be a rollicking good ride with deep characters. If you haven’t given O’Keefe’s work a spin yet, you can’t go wrong with her latest. It’s a dark science fiction story with humanity on the ropes at its own hands. It’s a tale of ecological woe and the lengths people will go to in order to survive. And it has some heart to counter the despair.

Rating: The Blighted Stars – 9.0/10
-Alex

An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

When a spy is stranded on a dead planet with her mortal enemy, she must figure out how to survive before she can uncover the conspiracy that landed them both there in the first place.

When I saw this book called a "space opera", I must say I was doubtful that I would enjoy it. I imagined a huge book that overwhelmed me with the large number of characters and several competing plot lines. I am so happy that I took the chance on this book, because I was so wrong.

This book has a focused plot, smooth pacing, and great character development. I enjoyed that, although there was a slight romance between the two main characters, the romance did not change the essence of their characters. The plot touches on the unintended consequences of technological advancements, consequences that impact not only the environment, but humanity itself. I did not see the plot twists coming and the ending was satisfying, but left the door open for a second book.

This book is the first in an expected duet. I highly recommend this book to anyone willing to try out a sci fi book. Thanks to Net Galley and Orbit Books for providing a review copy to me in exchange for my honest review.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

When I try and organize my thoughts in order to speak clearly about this book, I can't help thinking about Lady Gaga's famous interview -- now an infamous meme -- <i>with Hollywood Reporter</i>. In her words, I would describe <i>The Blighted Stars</i> as "Talented. Brilliant. Amazing. Show stopping. Spectacular."

To begin, I was enthralled by both the incredible science fiction as well as the political intrigue. In <i>The Blighted Stars</i>, humanity has reached the point of brushing shoulders with immortality, as a person's thoughts, memories, and personality can be mapped and "printed" into a new body, exponentially extending their original lifespan. However, those who are printed too many times, or those who suffer traumatic deaths, risk "cracking" and losing their sense of self, never to be reprinted again. Of course, it is an expensive process, and only those connected to one of the eight family dynasties, or those who manage to scrape together the funds, can have their "phoenix fees" paid for and be reprinted. This concept opens the door for ethical dilemmas, questions about the nature of the self as separate from the body, explorations into the extremes of capitalism, and more.

As a layer on top of that brilliant bit of hard science fiction, the political intrigue and space opera of it all kept me at the proverbial edge of my seat. The story unfolds though the perspectives of a number of different characters, and the reader often learns new information before those characters do. However, despite seeing those revelations coming, I was always excited when characters caught up to my own understanding, and I was always eager to see how the would react to a new spanner throw into their works. The mystery at the core of this novel -- the truth about how these habitable planets are dying, and who is responsible -- unfolds inch by inch, but at such a steady rate that reading never felt like a chore. Finishing one chapter just left me hungry for the next one.

The romance aspect between Tarquin and Naira was also surprisingly lovely. The way these two seemingly opposite characters grew closer to each other was slow enough to be believable, while also being charming enough to make me fall in love with them. Their relationship was grounded in a mutual need to survive, as well as a mutual respect as they grow together, challenge each other, and ultimately help each other become better people. You love to see it!

There were definitely moments, as there always are, that didn't land like I wanted them to. Certain conversations felt forced and clumsy. Pacing stuttered in a number of places, either too slow or too fast. But I never once felt like those flaws were anything more than a minuscule speed bump in an otherwise incredible read. I am very much looking forward to seeing where the rest of this trilogy goes. Book two,<i>The Fractured Dark</i>, will easily climb its way to the top tier of my reading priority list once it's released. In the meantime, I can't recommend <i>The Blighted Stars</i> enough.

Megan E. O'Keefe has a future in which bodies can be printed and minds downloaded, but multiple copies of minds in different bodies causes insanity. Terraforming new planets has resulted in The Blighted Stars (paper from Orbit), Unfortunately a shroud has destroyed life on terraformed planets , and has spread to Earth. Naira Sharp was a bodyguard for the Mercator family until she found out their mining efforts were responsible for the shroud and was part of a revolution against the family. Tarquin Mercator might have been heir to the family, but he was mainly a geologist trying to discover where the shroud came from. The answers may lie on the sixth, cradle. When their ship is attacked by another ship in their expedition and overwhelmed by misprinted bodies that attack in Zombie-like fashion, they and some of the crew manage to get to the surface in s shuttle. Survival is difficult on a world affected by the shroud, but there are misprints waiting to attack. Many of the answers lie on the surface, if Naira and Tarquin can work together. This is a puzzle piece of a tale, setting up a sequel that promises to solve the problem. Very exciting.

Do you like the worldbuilding of The Expanse series, or even The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes? Are you a fan of The Last of Us? Have you read YA sci-fi books like Illuminae or Aurora Rising and just want something a little more sophisticated? Then, The Blighted Stars is the perfect next read for you.

The Blighted Stars follows two primary POV characters, with a couple of other POVs thrown in every once in a while to shake things up. Tarquin Mercator is the geologist son of one of the ruling families in the whole space system, and he's out to prove his family isn't killing worlds. So he undertakes a mission on another mining planet to find answers. Naira Sharp, on the other hand, is the disgraced and imprisoned bodyguard of Tarquin's father, and Tarquin is the one who helped put her away. When she gets printed into a new body on the same ship as Tarquin, well, a lot of things go wrong. Especially when they're forced to crash-land on a dying planet. The Blighted Stars definitely has the suspense of a stranded-on-a-deserted-island story and add onto that some creepy creatures, mysterious infections, and people keeping big secrets, and you get a wild ride.

The worldbuilding in The Blighted Stars is heavy. Like the author really did her research, or at least, she made up some really cool, smart-sounding stuff. And while this is a science-heavy book, for those who are less scientifically-minded like me, it was still easy to drift over those explanatory sections and not miss out on the next plot development, except in a couple of cases. So don't worry about memorizing all the things. But, if you're a fan of geology, biology, or epidemiology, then this will be right up your alley.

The two main characters are also super fun. It's a bit of a gender flip. Instead of the rough-and-tough survivalist guy, we get Naira Sharp, the badass female bodyguard, while Tarquin is the more peaceable character with knowledge about rocks, not fighting or leading. He also has a cute (or so I imagine) robot companion. I genuinely liked Tarquin and Naira's dynamic. Their conversations and banter were great. I was pretty devastated whenever they were apart, as those chapters dragged a little bit. Time flew by so fast when the two of them were bickering at each other. But, that could just be the romance reader in me that loves the relationship tension. However, this 100% isn't a romance book. It's just the first book in a sci-fi series that has romantic elements.

All in all, I enjoyed this first book, and I want to read book two whenever it releases. It does take some time to get through this 500-page tome, but it's worth it. Just don't pick it up when you have lots of things going on. You'll want to dedicate some brain power to this one.

4 stars

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

I was so excited for this book because let’s face it, it sounds right up my weirdass alley. And it was, nice and messy, very unique, and definitely entertaining.

Things start out hectic from the first, with our new friends finding themselves in the midst of an interstellar catastrophe. And Naira doesn’t know who she can trust, but she’s sure it’s not any member of the universal tycoon family the Mercators. Certainly not the dude she finds herself stranded with, Tarquin. Only, she doesn’t know as much as she thinks about Tarquin. And he has no idea that she’s actually Naira Sharp, former employee he betrayed, and not the random bodyguard whose body she’s wearing.

It’s very The 100 in the sense that we’ve got body snatching and planet hopping and a ton of wonderfully gray morality. These are a few of my favorite things, after all. I found the whole concept to be very fresh, and the reader has the opportunity to uncover secrets (and lies) at every turn.

My only minor complaint is that I didn’t wholly love the bits with Tarquin’s dad, in part because I hate him (which I’m meant to) and partly because I just hate those Musky types and their stories of being The Worst ™. But it IS important to the story, those bits just excited me less.

Discovering all the aspects of the planet, the ships, and the world back home was awesome. The whole business about undying was very interesting. And the characters were definitely my favorite part. They’re incredibly multifaceted, and certainly not always what, or even who the seem. Can’t wait for book two!

Bottom Line: Loved the world and the characters and this story full of secrets and excitement.

This was a great start to a fun scifi series. I love the concept of printing mind maps into new bodies after death. Tarquin is my favorite character. Of course, the two mc's being stranded and having to work together to survive is one of the best tropes. There were some issues in my opinion that keeps it from being a new favorite, but there's a lot to enjoy here. I will absolutely be grabbing the sequel. All I have to say is I hope to see more Einkorn in the future!

Thank you to Orbit and the author for the e-arc to review!

Thank you netgalley and orbit for this e-arc.
This was a great time. In this story we are following Tarquin Merator who is the 2nd in line successor to this powerful family that is mining a mineral on several planets and seems to be destroying the ecosystem. Tarquins main mission is to go to the sixth cradle(planet) and prove that his family isn't to blame for these disastrous events. Mean while there is an hidden enemy that Tarquin has never encountered. Will humanity survive and find a sustainable home?