Reviews

I have put off writing a review of The Actual Star because I couldn't decide how to rate it. I give 1/3 of the book 5 stars, 1/3 4 stars, and 1/3 2 stars. Average rating: 3.666 stars. The book is made of three storylines interwoven together. My favorite storyline takes place a thousand years in the past in an ancient Maya kingdom. The author did extensive research on the ancient Maya and it shows. These sections of the book feel rich with a sense of place and I really enjoyed the characters. A second story line follows a young woman in 2012 who travels to the same area of Belize where the Maya characters live. This storyline is also well researched. It has a good sense of place and lots of interesting characters. However, it feels overly packed with both characters and scenes, which leads to pacing problems in the second half of the book. The third section takes place 1000 years in the future, and is my least favorite third. I couldn't connect with any of the characters or feel any sense of grounding. This latter may have been intentional on the part of the author, as it feeds into several of the book's themes of entropy and of searching for your true home. Still, I groaned whenever I would come to one of the future sections.

The Actual Star contains themes of betrayal and reconciliation, entropy, ways that humans might adapt to the changing climate, and the creation and evolution of a new religion. It is an ambitious novel that has some unfortunate flaws that lessened my enjoyment of the book.

kmaxey08's review against another edition

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Sounded cool but I’m not a usual fantasy person and was pretty lost even though I paid attention to the audiobook.

scienceworks's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

jwolflink3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

damesor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

testaroscia's review against another edition

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3.0

I heard such good things about this book that i'm almost a bit disappointed that i just did not love it as much as perhaps it deserved. Took three starts to get through it and although well crafted it did npt quite resonate.

kirayna's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

1.0

Stopped around 20%, dnf

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