The Stars Now Unclaimed IS a good space opera. If you’re in the mood for a book that is the equivalent of reading Star Wars, this may be for you. However, I personally prefer Star Wars on the screen, and while some elements of this novel were clearly developed and well thought through, there were a couple of things that just made it impossible for me to rate it a 3.

Honestly, I was expecting something more Becky Chambers-ish, but this was a pleasant and greatful surprise. I mean, this book does not try to innovate or do anything new, but what it does, pure space opera, is so funny and page binging that it is a huge must read. I loved it.

A dense, complicated, smart, well-written scifi story. Slow build of tension, layered interpersonal relationships. The climactic battle rages on too long but the EMP-afflicted galaxy is fascinating, as is Jane’s history.

As far as space operas go, this book did a good job for a debut! I found this book to be full of action! The world-building is slow but steady. I'll never tire of meeting new races. What I didn't like, was the language that really could have been reduced or left out for a better reading experience, and a wider audience. I do hope the author keeps writing and makes a few tweaks in the next book. I'd like to see more of this "huge" space that currently has just five races.

Thanks to Net Galley for my copy of this book. This review is my own, left of my free will, and contains my thoughts and opinions of this book.

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. It was all action and very little character development and it just felt fast and rushed. While I appreciate a plot driven book the over the top action with little else was just too much for me.

Hard to believe this is a first novel by this author; I was captivated from the very start and this really is a hard to put down book. We are plunged into a future Galaxy where numerous sects and species had been constantly at war with several having ambitions to rule the entire Galaxy by force. In support of these ambitions had come the development of ever more powerful weapons, some capable of destroying an entire planet. So, in what seemed like a good idea at the time, one sect - the Justified – developed the Pulse, which was designed to target and neutralise the production facilities of these super weapons but only on the worlds that were home to the most violent races. Unfortunately, this plan went terribly wrong and instead, the pulse spread far and wide and wiped out advanced technology, indiscriminately, throughout the known galaxy. Some worlds were left largely untouched but, in some cases, the Pulse knocked back the technology to before the invention of electric light and anybody arriving on these planets, equipped with later technology would find that technology would be made unusable within a few hours of arriving. Enter the story’s heroine, Jane, who has been sent by the Justified to seek out members of the Next Generation, being children born since the Pulse who have developed special abilities such as telekinesis and telepathy. The Justified planned to recruit these children to their peaceful cause aimed at understanding the Pulse and preventing its bounce back from the edge of the galaxy. Unfortunately, one of the sects aimed at galaxy domination – the Pax – had also learned about these children, and wished to recruit them as super soldiers and they turned up in force on the planet where Jane had located Esa, a young girl with special abilities. From here the story develops at a breakneck pace, with Jane and her Justified colleagues drawn into an ever increasing battle with the Pax, who have also discovered the location of the Sanctum – the Justified’s home planet - and are intent on conquering the Justified - or destroying their world. This is without doubt the most original and enjoyable science fiction novel I have read in a long time and I can’t wait to hear more from Drew Williams in a similar vein. Many thanks go to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book for review.

I appreciate getting a chance to read this prior to the release of the second book. Strong story, great author, and looking forward to where the series leads in the future.

This is a relentlessly action-packed sci-fi novel that I couldn't get enough of! I fell in love with all of the characters, and since I'm a huge fan of things going BOOM, this was the perfect book for me. My only quibble would be that it was difficult for me to picture the locales in my mind, as the descriptions were fairly vague. I'm waiting eagerly for the library to get book two!

This was a fun and fast paced junior space opera. I’m not really the target age group and as such would have preferred more intricate world building and a more substantial plot – fight scenes are fine but I wanted more character development in between. That said this was an enjoyable read, perfectly accessible for adults as well as YA/ children.

There's just something about space battles that I love. Lucky for me this book is chock-full of them, leaving my sci-fi heart feeling pretty good after finishing this story.

In The Stars Now Unclaimed, Jane Kamali is tasked with finding children with special abilities and bringing them back to Sanctum. Years prior to this story the Pulse went through the galaxy sending thousands of worlds back to the dark ages. Some planets, however, were affected more than others. Now it is certain that the Pulse is coming again and Sanctum needs those children with special abilities to help find a way to stop it from doing even further damage. However, Jane is not the only one looking for these children. The Pax want them too, but in the Pax's case, they do not want the children to help the galaxy - they only to brainwash the children into helping the Pax conquer more worlds. And the Pax will destroy anything in its path to get them.

Every story needs good world-building, but none more so than in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Thankfully, this book delivers. Using an event called the Pulse, the author is able to explore different species, races, and sects and show us who they were and who they are now. The Pulse is like a blanket covering all the planets and species that binds the story together. No race or species was left untouched by the Pulse - they just were each affected differently and each to different degrees. Even if their home world was untouched, the new social order post-Pulse altered everything. It is a unique device to this story and to future stories in this series - not only because of what the potential harm the Pulse can create, but how they continue to recover from it, and the legacy of impact it left on different species.

Regarding the action - there is plenty to enjoy and scattered through-out the entire book, but there is also downtime too where you get a chance to understand the different characters, their species, and their perspectives on a range of subjects, which of course includes the Pulse. As a reader I was pleased to see that the action alternated from battles on planets to battles in space, so that you were never kept in one type of battle too long, while also providing the characters an opportunity to use a diverse list of strategies to obtain their objective and keep themselves alive. The battles were terrific - well written with a sense of urgency, but written in a way that was not only easy to understand but also easy to grasp the important of each strategic objective.

Overall, I found the book to be structured well with good plot pacing. It had everything you could want - space battles, daunting missions, AIs with personality, and even pirates. The characters were relatable in a sci-fi way and the race distinctions were easily understood. I also appreciate how many different avenues the next stories in this series can take. But as much as I enjoyed this book, I do believe language was overly-colorful at times and should have been toned-down in parts. Don't misunderstand - there were long sections where colorful language was non-existent or at a minimum, but then there would be a few pages with several f-bombs or worse on it that were not able to be easily ignored.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor for this book and the opportunity to review it.

If you like action in a book, and ONLY action non-stop, here is your dream book come true.
After an 'Event' civilizations across the universe have their technological machines fail. The result is many are pushed back to a technology level before the discovery of electricity. Principal character at the beginning of the story is a mercenary of sorts tasked with retrieving a psychic female orphan teenager from a truly dystopian future world. Although the action moves fast, the REASON for all the fighting is not addressed, It just goes on and on. There is unending conflict with a group of aliens that are the only ones remaining in the universe that are territorially aggressive, have offensive weapons and limited tactical training.

This book was not what I expected, Likely it is written for the Young Adult market, more likely early teenagers. After reading 20- 30% of this book, gave up on ever finding the story line. Did not finish.

Disclaimer: I have voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy from NetGalley.

Warning: This review may contain minor spoilers!

When I first started reading The Stars Now Unclaimed I was actually rather skeptical. I was just done with another ARC that I didn’t really like that much and the first person’s POV reminded me of a bad romance YA novel. However, as it turned out, I was about to get pleasantly surprised.

The Stars Now Unclaimed is exactly what comes to your mind when seeing the words “space opera”. The story is about an agent from an organization that gathers children with special powers from around the galaxy. Such children started appearing after a phenomenon known as the Pulse swept through space, taking many planets back to the time before spaceflight or even electricity though disabling their technology. Moreover, most planets are surrounded by radiation even a century after the Pulse, making it hard to get close to them on space ships or use advanced weapons.

The plot is very simple and there aren’t many plot twists or surprises. The main character, Jane, must find a girl with powers and get her out of the planet safely and then transport her back to her organization’s hideout, Sanctum, while not getting them killed by an evil sect called the Pax that destroys everything on its way to take control of the Galaxy. On the way, we meet some new characters, learn about their secrets and past and watch the relationships between them develop, all decorated by epic space battles.

And I mean A LOT of space battles.

It’s all kind of a big space road trip and I really enjoyed reading it. That to be said, I feel like the final battle was dragged on far too much for my liking. The preparations and the battle itself took almost three acts out of five in the book and at some point in the middle of the fourth one I grew really bored because seriously, how much space chases and shooting can you read? Thankfully the action became more interesting at the beginning of the fifth act and kept me glued to the book until the end.

I was positively surprised by the characters in this book. The main character, Jane, is a strong woman, focused on her job. She used to be a soldier and she thinks like one, trying to strategically approach every situation, even those that require a more emotional response. That often influences her personal relationships. She believes that what she’s doing is right and doesn’t hesitate to use violence to reach her goals but all in all she’s not a bad person who would hurt people for no reason. I found it to be quite refreshing compared to other meek and indecisive main characters I had an opportunity to read about.

Besides Jane, there’s also Esa - the girl whom she’s transporting, Schaz - the AI on her ship, Preacher - a member of an old, robotic race with very developed AI who is Esa’s guardian. In the second act, we also meet Marus - an informant from the same organization Jane belongs too and Javier - her ex-lover who was banished from the organization for treason. They are all likable and their relationships with each other feel natural and pleasant to read about. My favorites were Esa with Jane - an energetic, curious teenager basically adopting herself and Jane with Javier - I really liked how an appearance of a love interest didn’t suddenly make Jane incapable of doing things she’s been doing for years and just to show how cool of a guy Javier is. Moreover, she didn’t start putting her relationship over the literal lives of millions.

The worldbuilding was a little flat at times. There were many species of aliens mentioned but only two played an actual role as characters. The world was mostly described in reference to the Pulse, not as a world on its own. There was a mention of an ancient alien race that created the Barious but the topic was never explored. I don’t actually mind that, as I believe it can be a topic for another book and I’d love to learn more about that. The Pax wasn’t exactly a villain, the fight with them felt like fighting a natural disaster more than a collective of people. I understand that the most common soldiers were slaves but there must have been some leadership that created the Pax and was giving them orders but in the end. The Pax messenger had two lines in the whole book. I felt like destroying the Pax fleet was a little inconclusive if there was no mention if the leadership was also destroyed and wasn’t going to attack again after gathering some more soldiers.

One more small thing that bothered me was how despite the Barious being canonically monogendered, the author chose to use female pronouns to describe the members of the species while they could easily be referred to as “they”.

All in all, The Stars Now Unclaimed is a solid space opera with a likable cast of characters and good premise. The Pulse and the characters’ opinions on it make a good base for conflict but in the end, the group always works together when it's necessary. I would recommend this book to everyone who likes a good space opera, Star Trek and Star Wars style. I’m also eager to read another part of Jane’s adventures and learn more about the universe created by the Pulse.

Rating: 4,5/5

Some really great worldbuilding. The "pulse" and everything around it is really intriguing and sets up a whole universe of potential. There's a lot of other strong, interesting ideas in there but they all take a back seat to fights scenes. It's all about the fight with any breaks between the fights simply moving everyone along to get to the next fight. 5 acts, 5 big fights and, well it's just a shame. The ideas within are way more interesting than the adventure and I'd love to read more about them and more about the exploration of the pulse and it's effects and less about how many bullets it takes to break a tanks shields.

Action-packed space opera. Long ago, 17 species began warring within the galaxy. Then, the Pulse - a strange force that destroyed almost all destructive technology and sent many planets back into the "dark ages" - happened. Technology is now more limited, and space flight is limited to a handful of planets. Jane is a pilot working on behalf of the Justified, a sect that believes the Pulse will return and is seeking children with special abilities to help protect humanity against the potential destruction. The Pax, a sect bent on conquest, is chasing her and her latest recruit, and the companions they pick up along the way. The storyline takes a few chapters to pick up, but once it does, the action is non-stop. I really liked the secondary characters and alien races introduced along the way, and thought the author did a great job of worldbuilding and slowly unpacking the core questions of the story. Entertaining read. I look forward to the sequel.

Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Stars Now Unclaimed. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The Pulse has spread across the universe, infecting whole worlds and pushing them back into the dark ages. There has been an unusual side effect to the Pulse, however. Children are being born with unique gifts, special powers that may help to stop the Pulse once and for all. Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified, an organization that has a mission to recruit special children and use them to stop the Pulse.

The Stars Now Unclaimed was an interesting concept, but I really just could not get into the book. The idea of an adventure-filled space opera appealed to me, as I am a child of the original Star Wars age. This novel failed to grab my attention from the beginning, however, and I found it a struggle to finish. The writing style was choppy, with alternating sentence structure that ranged from short thoughts to rambling run-ons. In an attempt to bring readers up to speed with the vast world that comprises the book's universe, the author created a confusing mess. For this reader, The Stars Now Unclaimed was a missed opportunity by the author to give the science fiction / fantasy genre a fast paced and less technical offering from the usual fare. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend The Stars Now Unclaimed to other readers.

Thank you to the author Drew Williams, the publisher McMillan-Tor, and to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

The story dragged just a bit in the beginning....or maybe I should say that I was conscious of the writing in the beginning. And then the story took off......and I was hooked. It is a post-dystopian planatery us versus the world story that had beings from different planets and species, AI piloted spaceships with VERY developed personalities, weird sentient AI-like beings... and the evil enemy, ironically named "the Pax". Oh, and don't forget the kids with the special powers that developed after the Pulse was released. The Pulse was supposed to end war, but ended up taking the worlds back to various stages of pre-spaceflight technology.

And the story all revolves around a butt-kicking, no names taken, hundred plus year old space warrior who you would love to have as your best friend.

It was such a great, riveting, suspenseful book that I am disappointed that the next episode is not going to be available until May. Boo hoo for me....but you all will have time to read the first book in time to be ready for the next!!! I can't wait!

Galactic battles ranging from small to large in a sci-fi action book that is a lot like the tv show Firefly.
Large macguffin that alters the technology levels of various planets across the galaxy leads to fights between two organizations, The Justified and The Pax, looking to control kids gifted with x-men like powers. Not a bad story. I can see how this is marked as a #1 since there are a lot of unanswered questions at the end. The whole Pulse thing that alters the tech levels of various planets is kind of hokey. It seems like it is a smart thing in terms of how it reduces tech levels, but then also stupid as it is completely random in where it effects. Mainly it seemed like a way to have high tech people fight low tech people in the beginning.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. If you like action fights in space and ground, then this book is full of both. If you like strong female leads, this book is full of them. If you like wise-cracking banter from AI, then its got you covered. Basically, something for everyone.

This was a fairly enjoyable but ultimately forgettable space adventure. It tells the story of Jane and her mission for the Justified to locate and retrieve gifted children who have been genetically altered by the pulse - an energy release that sent some worlds back to the stone age. There are some nicely quirky AI's in this that I really liked and I found the idea of the pulse and it's effects quite interesting. Otherwise, much of this plot was quite unoriginal and didn't really break any new ground. That being said, it was well written and enjoyable whilst reading it, but I can't see it being one of those narratives that really sticks with me long term. If you like your sci-fi quite light and lots of action, then certainly give this one a try.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A great story with drama, sadness, and hilarious bits!
Brilliant. I don't normally read space opera, although I love scifi. This book reminded me of some of the scifi books I read, many, many years ago, before the name 'space opera' had come into use. So don't be put off, if you, like me, aren't that mad on battles or space marines - this book is so much more than that.
The story was great, and original (yippee!), with plenty of unexpected things happening. However, what made it best for me was the way that the characters were so well developed and interesting - and there were so many of them that we cared about. The best, of course, was the spaceship Scheherazade, or Schaz, with a wonderfully sarcastic nature and just a touch of OCD - "They're going to leak oil and lubricant all over my nice, shiny floors! ... But my floors!" had me in hysterics.
There were also times of peril, times when you think you are going to cry, and a teenager being, well, a teenager.
So yes, there were battles, even a great big space battle, but throughout it all you had the great personalities, and a load of fun comments. Also a very interesting world that had been built. Yes, another reviewer has complained about the physics, but hey, it's a story. Sometimes realism just wouldn't work if you want a good story. And this is what this was, a really good story. With great characters. And great characters who are spaceships.

If you are in the mood for fast-paced, action packed, space opera, this book is for you. Set in a galaxy where a weapon (The Pulse) was released and pushed most planets way back the technological scale (think going back to pre-Industrial Revolution). Each planet was affected differently, so while some kept space travel, others went back to nothing. Another side effect of The Pulse was children born with miraculous gifts and that is who our main character, is looking for. The organization she is a part of, Justified, knows the Pulse will come back and thinks that these gifted children can help stop it. While picking up one particularly gifted teenager, Esa, Jane finds out the bad dudes of the galaxy, the Pax, are on the hunt for not only the same children, but also Justified. Because they want to take over the entire galaxy. What comes next is the Justified fighting for their lives and the research they are doing to help stop the Pulse and to try and stop the Pax from taking over everything. Like I said, if you like action, you will enjoy this one. Don’t expect deep characters, but they are rounded enough to not be cookie-cutters.