I really do not know how I feel about this book, so forgive me if this review is rambling. Billed as a political space opera inspired by the lives of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, The Stars Undying has a lot going for it but ultimately fell apart for me in its execution.

I think where I struggled the most is in the choice to have each of the perspectives in the first person. There was a lot of "I did x,y,z" and none of the voices felt distinct enough for me to remember whose perspective I was actually in. It was slow to start and unfortunately never fully hooked me into the plot, which made it feel even slower and more meandering. I do love the inspiration and found myself researching some of the historical events this book takes inspiration from. Thematically, I think this is doing some interesting things with AI and the concept of immortality. Maybe if I had known more about the real life counterparts to these characters I would have been more invested.

I think A Memory Called Empire is a good comp title to this, though as that is one of my favorite books I'd personally rather reread that. I've seen so many people rave about this though so maybe if I'll come back to it before the sequel is released with more tempered expectations.

Blog post goes live March 1s
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To be discussed in February Reads pt 1 on Youtube

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!