A review by kapellosaur
An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
4.0
Absolutely loved this book. Its characters are all deeply complex and nuanced, and the author rewards the reader for paying attention, generally avoiding spelling things out too much, or at least seeming to—having two characters familiar with Earth helped with this. There is also a glossary at the end; unfortunately I didn't discover it until finishing the book! A dramatis personae would also have helped; there is a huge cast of characters and while the author is restrained with how many of them are given POV, it was a lot to take in to begin with. However, they all felt distinctive enough that I wasn't generally getting them confused.
The narrative is okay on race (there's great multiracial representation, but the cultures in this world are all extremely racially divided, and while this is clearly not endorsed by the author, neither is it particularly challenged within the narrative) and has some LGBT representation, and the diversity of both is at least a nice contrast to what has historically been published here. At times Saffron's inner monologue did feel a little like a proxy for the author delivering lessons, but that felt forgivable in a YA novel. Speaking of which, for a YA novel, this book did not hold back; this book isn't for anyone who doesn't like seeing main characters getting absolutely bombarded with trauma, both physical and mental. Look up content warnings if you think this may be you.
The world-building was also excellent, though a little high fantasy for my taste. In general though, this was a set of personal stories, with world politics mostly taking a back seat.
The editing could've been a bit sharper; various small typos that spell-checker software wouldn't spot, and at one point the character Mesthani is mistyped as "Methane", oops. Yet these are but minor complaints in prose that generally drew me in and, especially towards the end, made the book easy to just keep on reading. I'm looking forward to starting the sequel!
The narrative is okay on race (there's great multiracial representation, but the cultures in this world are all extremely racially divided, and while this is clearly not endorsed by the author, neither is it particularly challenged within the narrative) and has some LGBT representation, and the diversity of both is at least a nice contrast to what has historically been published here. At times Saffron's inner monologue did feel a little like a proxy for the author delivering lessons, but that felt forgivable in a YA novel. Speaking of which, for a YA novel, this book did not hold back; this book isn't for anyone who doesn't like seeing main characters getting absolutely bombarded with trauma, both physical and mental. Look up content warnings if you think this may be you.
The world-building was also excellent, though a little high fantasy for my taste. In general though, this was a set of personal stories, with world politics mostly taking a back seat.
The editing could've been a bit sharper; various small typos that spell-checker software wouldn't spot, and at one point the character Mesthani is mistyped as "Methane", oops. Yet these are but minor complaints in prose that generally drew me in and, especially towards the end, made the book easy to just keep on reading. I'm looking forward to starting the sequel!