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.

thank you orbit and netgalley for the ARC. first of all i want to apologize for not finishing this book before it was published like i was supposed to... in my defense, Life Happened, and also this is just such an amazing story that i had to savor it. really.
to start, yes i am a Classics Major. i am very, very familiar with the historical basis behind this story, and just from my own nerdy perspective it was a lot of fun to see which events mapped to the book. the stars undying is billed as space opera julius caesar and cleopatra, which instantly sold me, but seeing just how intricate this world is, how people like the gauls and cicero and pompey were included as well but obviously in a very different way, was delightful.
this is definitely pretty slow-paced, at least until the final quarter. every sentence is absolutely gorgeous, and i was just so enthralled overall, but for the first 3/4 ... it wasn't very exciting. which i enjoyed a lot! but your mileage may vary. the more critical reviews i've seen are not without merit. though i think the "character-driven vs plot-driven" dichotomy is reductionist, this is very much a "character-driven" book.
robin's prose itself, as i mentioned, is beautiful. it is lyrical and lush, and has a distinct 'latin' sense, as in some of the sentence syntax reminds me of latin. and i am always a fan of a well-done unreliable narrator, so let it be known i got the BIGGEST smile on my face when ~certain things~ started happening.
i'm absolutely going to be picking up the sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to read the eARC.

I loved the premise of a Cleopatra/Julius Caesar/Mark Antony retelling. The characters were believable and interesting, and the worldbuilding was out of this world (bah dum bump). But this book wasn't for me.

The writing style was SO COMPLEX. Dual POV in the first person with frequent flashbacks, long narratives to explain huge sections of action/backstory/worldbuilding, and a narrator who lies to her audience. It was all over the place.

Add that to lots of background, political intrigue, romantic intrigue, etc., and I honestly couldn't get into the story. I felt stuck on the periphery, unable to be drawn in by the characters. I found myself utterly uncaring during pivotal events that would have had me clutching pages and ruining bindings in other books. As a character-driven reader, I was unsatisfied and unconvinced by the various relationship webs.

This is not a standalone, but I will not pick up the sequel. However, this may be a case of 'it's not the book, it's me.' It's well-written, but I didn't enjoy it.

I ended up interested in this because it was framed as a retelling of Antony and Cleopatra, and specifically mentioned Ann Leckie and A Memory Called Empire in the copy. Turns out that this is to some degree more literal than I was expecting, as the Alexander the Great analogue is an AI copy of his memory and personality that is passed down from generation to generation. While the framing feels like it leans more into the Roman side of things with how the names are shaped/chosen and the aesthetics of the planets, the general framing of this story is such that if you already know the story of Antony and Cleopatra, with a few small exceptions, you know how the story turns out here. This is apparently the first book in a series, and Robin says that the next book leans into more of the queer sideplots that happened this book, and I'm at least interested to see where Robin takes the series next.

Book review y'all! Thank you @netgalley and @orbitbooks_us for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I begin? Let's start with the pros, or should I say prose? It's beautifully written. You can imagine the scenes, and the luscious word choices really do make this a tale about royalty and the struggle for power. The details on this book are delightful, there's a scene where you can literally feel your feet in the sand and the water from the beach. Also, there is butch rep 🙏 thank you gods.

However, while the details were luxurious, the overall picture seemed to be lacking in direction. It was often confusing with all the multiple names, and I was also expecting #sapphic content and more queer content from the book based on how it was marketed. I was heavily disappointed in this read, as I felt misled based on the selling points that were used to describe it not being accurate.

This book is also really heavy on the politicking, which I have a hard time following a lot in general (no fault of the authors - if you like heavy political intrigue and the story of Cleopatra, this book is for you).

⭐⭐⭐/5

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What an absolutely beautiful book. I admit it intimidated me, at first. But once I got stuck in, yeah, I couldn't put it down. Gender-bent Anthony and Cleopatra? Space opera? Scheming and politics and exquisite world building? Yes. I'll be steering readers toward this book in the store! Thanks to Orbit for giving me access to the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I seldom read books that are as beautifully polished in their prose as The Stars Undying is. Every word on every page has a purpose to serve, whether that is immediately known or not. This novel is a beautiful and clever reimagining of the story of Cleopatra, Marcus Antonius, and Julius Caesar, and I was captivated from the very first page.

Unfortunately, that captivation didn't last like I'd hoped it would.

The first third of this book enthralled me. I loved the shifting viewpoints between Ceirran and Altagracia (Gracia for short), and felt like I really got to know who these characters were even when neither was the most reliable or even likeable narrator at times. The non-linear narrative explaining Gracia's life in the lead up to the war with her sister was beautifully interspaced with her present attempts to resecure her throne. Ceirran's perspective on events Gracia was not present for helped build out the world and give an outsider's perspective to Szayet and the worship of Alekso, the undying god whose soul resides in the Pearl worn by the Oracle.

However, this conflict resolves so quickly that I was left reeling. The next third of the book was one of the toughest reads I've experienced in a while as the pace ground to a glacial halt. I have been a fan of novels in the past with a focus on politics, but the tone shift here was so abrupt that I felt like I was reading a different novel altogether. There are moments, at times, where a chapter will end on a point of high tension, but the next will shift to a different perspective, and by the time we return to the original POV character that event is never referenced again.

Things pick up again in the final third, but at a galloping pace I desperately wished to slow down. Moments I'd wanted to linger on were rushed past in the span of a paragraph, and time skips explaining decisions and machinations behind the scenes were common.

I know this book is the first in a series, but I'd wished The Stars Undying itself was two books instead of one. I wished it had spent more time developing Ceirran and Gracia's relationship in its beginning stages so that later moments felt like they paid off. Ana was a fascinating character that always seemed to be on the periphery of events, and never really developed beyond her initial presentation.

In the end, I don't know how to feel about this book. I love that it doesn't always hold your hand or explain things clearly, rather trusting the reader to infer the meaning of events, but sometimes it's a little too obtuse in this approach. While I loved Ceirran's perspective in the beginning, I wished chapters didn't shift as often between him and Gracia, as she felt far more central to the inciting of important events whereas he felt like he was always reacting to everything she'd set into motion. I desperately wished for a Glossary to help keep track of the myriad of proper nouns that are thrown at the reader so quickly and so often. It absolutely contributed to a gorgeous world-building, and a setting that felt alive and concrete, but left me treading water more often than not.

If you love sci-fi that is politically focused, features shifting viewpoints and unreliable narrators, and aren't afraid to dive into a challenging read, you'll love The Stars Undying. I'm eager to see where this series goes, but wish I'd had a bit more of a gentle introduction.

3.5/5 stars

I liked the idea of this story, but I felt like there was either not enough information at points or too much unnecessary information at other points. There was a lot of boring dialogue between characters and it was very slow moving at times.

Thank you to the author and publisher for an advanced copy of The Stars Undying!

This book was truly a sweeping well written book and world. If Cleopatra/Antony/Julius Caesar retelling but in space, it’s a bit of a far out concept and whilst it takes awhile to get engaged into the story, it’s a great read I enjoyed! The characters still kept to their respectiful historical figures.