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TL;DR: I feel so bland on this. Meandering, with what should have been stellar themes and ideas. But little to no connection for the reader.

The Stars Undying is meant to be a Cleopatra and Caesar inspired space opera. One would think that the word “opera” might involve a lot of emotional drama and intensity. One would be… wrong.

I genuinely don’t know that I have a ton to say about this. I was so disconnected from the story as a whole that I found mind wandering and I went to sleep several times while reading. The idea of the story, a planet caught in a civil war between sisters when one of which uses the visiting empire’s golden boy to win it. From there the story attempts to look at themes of personhood and AI, themes I adore.

I think the killer on this one was the story telling style which was a retrospective story, Gracia is telling us her story from the future but she meanders, dumping information in the process. We also have chapters from Ceirran (our Caesar) which are full of complicated politics that we don’t get a chance to care about.

Overall just… fine. Not offensive, not upsetting, just okay. I think if you want something real dense, with just the politics? This could work. It starts strong but quickly dissolves out into meandering. Many people have adored it, so I can’t say it won’t work. Simply that it didn’t connect for me.

2.5 stars out of 5

Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet’s god.

So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. To regain her planet, Gracia places herself in the hands of the empire and its dangerous commander, Matheus Ceirran.

But winning over Matheus, to say nothing of his mercurial and compelling captain Anita, is no easy feat. And in trying to secure her planet’s sovereignty and future, Gracia will find herself torn between Matheus’s ambitions, Anita’s unpredictable desires, and the demands of the Pearl that whispers in her ear.

For Szayet’s sake and her own, she 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.

Rate : 4 out of 5
Thoughts : I WAS HOOKED! CAN'T STOP! LOVE THIS SCIFI + CLEOPATRA TROPE!
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy!

The Stars Undying is a political sci-fi at its heart. There's lots of war strategy and political scheming. The writing style wasn't personally for me. It is told as if it happened in the past and in a long, very detailed way. It can go on and on about things. With this style, I think a tighter plot and more interesting characters would've helped. I recommend it if you're a fan of A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

It’s Cleopatra, Caesar, and Marc Antony but in space.

The thing that I thought would make me love this book instead made it difficult to get through. I took seven years of Latin during school. I’ve read Caesar (unfortunately, he’s so full of himself!) and had to study the events that inspired this book. I had trouble getting through this book because the way information is delivered, knowledge of Ptolemaic Egypt is super helpful to wade through the deluge of information, but I was unable to then switch off the part of my brain constantly making those connections. It was taking me a while and I decided to DNF when I realized I’d rather be reading either a different SF novel or a non-fiction history of the events which inspired it.

Some (most?) of this is on me, but I do think better information sharing early in the story and a deeper emphasis on the ways this story deviates from its inspiration would be helpful. The more unique elements- eg the soul of Alexander the Great being in a tiny super computer pearl- don’t interact with the narrative in interesting ways in the early story.

I don’t strongly dislike this book, I just wasn’t enjoying it and life’s too short to never DNF. Ending here to avoid starting a reading slump.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Stars Undying was a fantastic sci-fi novel inspired by the lives of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Mark Antony. Emery Robin does a great job balancing intense, political intrigue and romance against planetary settings that feel incredibly well realized. I loved every moment of this book!

If you are looking for a new scifi to dive into then look no farther, this is a queer, space opera debut inspired by the rise and fall of ancient Rome and Egypt—and reinvents the lives of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. You know how sometimes you read the synopsis for a book and immediately want to read it, that’s what this book did to me. I love Egyptian based stories, assassins creed origins is in my top 3 assassins creed games for that reason. The author intertwines that history we all know a little about and just throws it into a space setting. I just didn't know what to expect and was so surprised!

I was undying to keep reading this book! Delightful tale, full of promise and hope, with action and adventure for the whole family.

The Stars Undying by Emery Robin is a debut sci-fi novel that re-imagines the story of Cleopatra, Caesar, and Antony, except make everybody queer and set it in space. Fans of Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire will find a lot to love in this book; the richly layered politics and worldbuilding unfold in incredibly satisfying ways. Regardless of if you know the historical events this novel draws from, there are surprises and delights to be found and the narrative stands well on its own. For me, the character work often got lost in favour of the Big, Fascinating conceptual ideas explored within the text. This was a perfect book club read because there was so much to discuss, and I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.

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

Absolutely loved this. 'Cleopatra in space' is already a very neat hook of a premise, but I feel like it does an injustice to the expansiveness and the imagination of this book. Really enjoyed the way that the narration played with truth and perspective; loved the issues it decided to wrestle with, power and politics and empire; SO enjoyed the politicking and the complex, absorbing relationships between the characters. Me, a Marc Antony stan?? More likely than you think. The structure of the book was something I didn't think much about -- just sort of accepted it as your standard fantasy POV switching, well employed -- and then the last chapter, the last line, knocked me flat on my face. I'm all in on this series, I can't wait for the next one

I was slow to start this book because the initial info dump was a lot heavier and took up more time than I was ready for, but man I’m glad I pushed through and saw this beautiful book to the end. Doing a Cleopatra/Caesar retelling in space is a unique enough concept, but the execution is nothing like I expected. It’s not an obvious retelling to anyone unfamiliar with the original story, and the complex layers and world building of this fictional universe bring the story to a new level.

I adore biased narrators and complex relationships, and this book does it perfectly. While I think the narrative style held me back from personally connecting with the characters, I still think their layers and depth were well woven throughout the book. And the prose, phew it was perfect to set the tone for such an epic space opera.

Super excited to see where the next book goes

This was a novel take on the story. I think it's hard to live up to the legends we've been telling ourselves for centuries, and the author does an admirable job blending it with the space opera genre!

This was truly a treat. Everything from the world building to the romance was so wonderful. I always love a good space opera and I am so glad to have had the chance to read this one. I loved the in depth exploration of the lore of the world and the description of the various space religions. I love political intrigue and I love power struggles so what wasn’t to love about this one? Everything about this was wonderful.

4.5 stars!

A fascinating retelling of the life of Cleopatra, with a space opera twist! I loved the style of it— the first person storytelling was gorgeous, and fit so perfectly with what the book was doing.

At times, it WAS a difficult read due to the style, but that was a matter of dense-ness as opposed to poor writing. Once I sat down to finish it, I zoomed through the last 30% like it was nothing. Genuinely such a fascinating and novel book, I deeply enjoyed this!

Based on the description, I really wanted to like this book. It checked a lot of boxes for me and seemed similar to some of my favorite books. Unfortunately, after reading 100+ pages, I just couldn't get into any of it. The world seemed...fairly interesting, but there didn't seem to be any political entities that weren't problematic in some way; this wouldn't have been an issue if every character hadn't been aligned with one of them and wholeheartedly supporting them. The characters all seemed to be morally questionable, which again, sometimes works for me, but in what I read, I just couldn't get behind any of them. There was no one to root for, and the story and world weren't exciting enough to keep me slogging through it.

Now, maybe I just tried it at the wrong time. I do definitely intend to try to finish it someday, but I just couldn't get motivated or excited by what I read.

This book wasn't for me. I intitially took a DNF, but decided to give it another go. Unfortunately, I ended up with the same result. I think the thing that's getting me about this book is that I'm not convinced on the sci-fi aspects. The descriptions given just don't convince me that this world needs to be set in space or that the author really loves the possibilities of technology that could enable readily available space travel. I also found the writing to just not suit my tastes. I got used to it, but didn't enjoy it. I think there are definitely people who will like this book though, but I encourage people to read a sample if possible!

The minute I heard The Stars Undying with Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Mark Antony in space, I knew I had to read this book. Plus the cover is absolutely. stunning. This book might have the best sci-fi cover I've ever seen.

The Stars Undying is about a Altagracia who sees power wrested from her by her twin sister. She then goes on a journey to build alliances so that she can take that power back. The characters were all fascinating and so wonderfully morally gray. I can't wait for the sequel to see what happens next!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to start off by thanking NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I was initially drawn in by the concept of a space opera inspired by Cleopatra x Julius Caesar. As someone who loves history it was a no brainer that I’d pick this up as a read!

However, I really struggled to get into the story even as it progressed. The beginning was a lot of world building (as sci-fi and fantasy often calls for), but it was tough for me to follow and I found myself flipping back through the story for clarification.

Still, this is by no means a lazy retelling! The characters are complex and well developed, the story itself progressed at a reasonable rate. I was even thoroughly surprised by our unreliable narrator at times. I’m happy that I stuck it out and finished it!

Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I think the premise had so much potential, but it kind of felt like I was being hit in the head with information dumps over and over without enough context or a clear indication of where this was going. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right headspace at the time, and maybe I'll revisit this one in the future when I am, but I lost interest quickly, making it difficult to want to pick back up. It's a bummer because this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022, but you can't win them all.

Big thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for the eARC!

The thing about a good retelling – especially of a tragedy – is that the familiarity of the plot is both comforting and utterly horrifying, delightful and heartbreaking, capable of inspiring joy and dread in equal measure. Emery Robin’s THE STARS UNDYING is an *excellent* retelling, and a stunning tragedy.

“Cleopatra but queer and in space” is what sold me on this book, but quite frankly, the description doesn’t do it justice; this is a gorgeous, sweeping, heartwrenchingly intimate space opera, and easily one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. It tosses you into the story with a bang, and from there only gets better. I won’t recap the plot - if you want to know its outline, the Cleopatra Wikipedia article should do just fine - but it was well-paced and tightly constructed, and once it got rolling, I had a very hard time putting the book down.

The characters and atmosphere were where this book really shone. The dual POV worked perfectly for the story; Gracia and Ceirran (and Ana, my beloved!!) were deeply compelling, wonderfully complex narrators. And the world in which they lived was so brilliant and creative and beautifully painted; an absolutely stellar (no pun intended) combination of sci-fi delights with ancient history.

An extraordinarily easy five stars from me, and I will be avidly keeping an eye on whatever Emery Robin does next — Orbit’s blog post about this book’s acquisition does mention a sequel (!!), so best believe I will be on top of that as soon as it exists. Thanks so much to Orbit and Netgalley for an advance copy!

Emery Robin’s The Stars Undying Immortalizes Cleopatra in an Unforgettable Retelling

Early on in The Stars Undying, Emery Robin’s Cleopatra-in-space-opera debut, the sci-fi analog for the infamous Egyptian queen has revealed herself to the Julius Caesar of interstellar expansion in a move that will be familiar to all of us who eagerly devoured ancient Egyptian history in sixth grade: Szayeti princess Altagracia Caviro Patramata has unrolled herself from a carpet to seduce Ceiao’s beloved commander Matheus Ceirran into joining her side to wrest back control of her planet Szayet (and her birthright, the Pearl of the Dead) from her own sister. Right before the kiss that will alter her kingdom and his empire, as he marvels at her crude yet effective gambit, Gracia quips, “Oh, please, Commander, tell me how you would have done it differently.”

There are a myriad of different approaches to a Cleopatra retelling, but Robin’s meticulous narrative choices dazzle. Though Robin follows the blueprints of the Cleopatra/Julius Caesar/Mark Antony love triangle, the space setting and the incorporation of technology (including some that approaches magic) elevate this trio of rulers and soldiers beyond their historical archetypes. This is a compelling (if slightly overlong) epic of couplings versus coups, worship versus heresy, memory versus immortality.

The superb worldbuilding hinges on the tiniest detail: a pearl, from the legendary story of Cleopatra demonstrating the magnitude of her wealth by dissolving a priceless earring in a goblet of wine. Quicksilver pearl is the literal building blocks of Szayet, as it can be sculpted into temples, conduct electricity… and house a complex supercomputer artificial intelligence. The Pearl of the Dead is Szayet’s greatest treasure and also its most controversial for nonbelievers, as it contains the entire lifetime and memories of its greatest ruler, the ancient conquerer Alekso Undying. Every leader of the Caviro line has had Alekso murmuring counsel into their ear; but whereas Gracia thinks herself—with her aptitude for scholarly texts and soft power—the ideal ruler, her sister Arcelia, a budding military strategist, considers herself the better vessel for Alekso.

Gracia’s conviction is so compelling as for there to be no question that Alekso exists in some form the same as she lives and breathes, yet it balances nicely with her discomfort at outsiders’ skepticism regarding Szayeti “cult paraphernalia.” The reader can hold both perspectives, which is crucial as the story hinges upon the belief that an artificial intelligence can approximate immortality for a larger-than-life man.

While Ceiao looms large in the background, this is an epic of civil wars. Robin smartly grounds every conflict in the personal: Gracia versus Celia, a constant poignant throughline of sibling misapprehension even once Gracia has taken back the throne; Gracia versus Alekso, who sees less of himself in her than in her sister; Gracia versus Ceirran, though mostly as foreplay for their dynamic; Gracia versus Ceirran’s lieutenant Anita Decretan, whose regard ranges from irreverent to the rarely reverent.

When Gracia and Ceirran meet, each has become unmoored by a personal schism: she facing Arcelia at the barrel of a gun in their childhood bedchamber, he having tracked down his former mentor and current rival Quinha Semfontan to the skies over Szayet. It’s no wonder that each, having lost a beloved confidante-turned-reluctant rival, attaches themselves to one another so quickly. Yet they never entirely engage in the self-denial that this is anything but another partnership, if a more physically intimate one.

The knife-sharp edge of their triangle is Anita, Ceirran’s righthand woman (or, as Casey McQuiston quite accurately describes her, Mark Antony as “the hottest butch girl in space”). While this compellingly hedonistic soldier commands every figurative room she’s in, Ana’s significance to the main plot is difficult to parse, as she and Ceirran seem to play their own power game in which he pushes her away and she tests those boundaries. So by the time she engages with Gracia regularly on her own turf in Ceiao it’s difficult to truly know how to take Ana’s very intriguing moves.

Despite the anticipation of Gracia delivering herself to the greedy empire that would dissolve her like the pearl, the Ceiao portion of the novel is uneven. Much of the plot-moving conflict tends toward lofty philosophical debates, especially among Ceirran and his fellow members of the Merchants’ Council. In these sections, it’s unclear whose allegiance is to which people (and/or causes), even as a reader without all of the scholarly context grasps to remember who is supposed to be which Roman countryman, and when the Ides of March might occur in space. Yet when those differences in opinion manifest into petty slights and minor scandals, the action picks up again. No doubt about it, Robin’s talent is in the nitty-gritty details.

The final act of the book elevates Anita in a way that would feel too abrupt for a standalone, but this is the first in Robin’s Empire Without End series. With that in mind, Robin’s withholding of Ana earlier on makes much more sense. Here’s hoping that the next book will adopt her perspective opposite Gracia’s, because so much about Ana is teased (pink feather coat!) that I’m dying to know more about.