This book has been a great listening experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* I am not a huge fan of scifi or anything space related but i have been known to like one now and again thanks to netgalley, this was not bad but was not one of the magical ones that made me think "Why don't i read more of this" but i would recommend this to ppl who like that kind of stuff

This was a fairly easy listen. It started very well and I was really engaged, however, throughout the book I found myself feeling a little underwhelmed.

I feel like there could have been so much more expansion on the plot. Typically Sci-Fi is around 400-500 pages to allow for a sufficient picture to be built via world building, for this genre is pretty important to set the scene and unfortunately this fell a little short for me.

It was a fair listen and I’m sure Sci-Fi fans who enjoy a YA would find this pleasant.

I’d like to thank NetGalley & CamCat Books for a copy of the audiobook in return for an honest review.

A Great listen for YA who want an intro into Sci-Fi. The Narrator did a good job bringing the story to life.
Set in a futuristic Earth Jake a soldier is caught in a struggle between love and honor. Will Jake make the right decisions?

A young man in love who is determined to save his beloved when she's taken and, in the process, to save his reputation and his nation. A perfectly fine and derivative SF story of youth, love, and friendship.

The audio narration didn't help in making the story feel distinct, but I guess that's not the job of the narrator.

A 2.5 star read rounded up.

This book gave me old school Star Trek vibes. Especially the creature in the cave at the beginning of the book and the pirate who tried to steal "Queen Diana's" jewelry. This book was an easy read. This book was personally not for me. This book is geared towards Ypung Adults, but mainly the younger side. I was a little confused with how big a role Sloan played at the beginning of the book for him to be absent throughout the rest of rhe book.

This book was well planned, well structured, with clear world building and characters that I could relate to. There's a clear moral conflict that Jake is having to work through all laid out in an exciting well paced book. Having said that...I don't feel that I was the targeted audience for this book and that's ok! This is the kind of book I was looking for when my oldest son was a young pre-teen and would inhale books so much that he left our librarians scrambling. I didn't really start paying attention until I was about halfway through, but I don't even think there were any bad words in it. It's a clean book, suitable pre-teens as well as teens, and more than likely the target audience this book was intended for.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

This just couldn’t pull my interest for some reason.
It’s an interesting concept but for some reason I just couldn’t. You know, 47 airplane there’s nothing wrong with it I just didn’t like it

Thank you to Netgalley and CamCat Books for providing a copy of The Brighter the Stars
by Bryan Prosek in exchange for an honest review.

The Brighter the Stars is a YA Sci-Fi story reminiscent of Star Wars, Star Trek, or The Illuminae Files. It follows
Jake Saunders, a Legion soldier who fights to honor his Uncles legacy and prove that he can protect Earth against the same alien aggressors who killed his beloved family member. Jake joins his friend Cal and Cal's sister (and secret crush) Diane on a journey to another planet for a political assignment when things quickly devolve into a fight for their lives. Jake must decide who to trust and whether to fight for those he loves or for revenge.

Set in 2185 Earth is only a small part of a bigger universe full of different planets and species. The author does a good job of world building and setting up the lore of the story in a short burst. This story was shorter than I expected but it still had a feeling of resolution at the end. I enjoyed learning about the crystals, different planets, political parties, and other unique aspects of this universe. The characters were a bit two dimensional but they did show growth as the story progressed. I like the parallel of Jake to other characters who have felt the need to avenge a loved ones death. He was immediately likeable and showed honor and loyalty throughout the tale. Other characters like the president and some of the legion officials had interesting side stories that helped propel the narrative along. Romance was hinted at but not pervasive, making this a good read for teens and young YA readers.

The Brighter the Stars was narrated by Joel Simler, who did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. His voice for the characters and effects was the perfect mix of clear and rumbling which made you feel like you were watching an epic Sci-fi movie.

This audiobook got three stars for interesting world building and likeable characters with a satisfying ending.


#TheBrightertheStars #NetGalley #BryanProsek

The Brighter the Stars involves Jake, a young man in the space-traveling future whose life is defined by the girl he loves and the crime he witnessed as a child.

The Brighter the Stars cover design, title, and description, which promises a tale of love versus revenge, drew me in. I began listening to the audiobook knowing that this was a young adult science fiction adventure, and hoped for inspiring future tech, daring escapes and scenes of tumultuous emotional revelations.

After a preliminary setup featuring scenes that take place decades before the action that unfolds around the main character, the story finally gets going and reveals itself to be a straightforward science fiction adventure that takes place in a galaxy that promises space opera proportions.

However, I found the tale did not deliver on its promise. The amount of filtering words (“Jake felt,” “Jake thought”, etc.) put me at a distance from the characters, as did the overwhelmingly flat and minimal female characters that not only renders the story a fail at the Bechdel test, but highlights a plot that is eerily akin to another space adventure set in a galaxy far, far away.

Keeping in mind that the story was written for a younger audience did nothing to dispel my fears that the “love” and “revenge” were not earned to a deep enough degree to hit the heartstrings. A longer text would have helped develop not only the world building, but to add depth to all the characters’ motivations be that protagonist, antagonists, as well as secondary and background characters.

<b> I received an audio ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review</b>

The Brighter The Stars, is a YA sci-fi novel with an expansive intergalctic civilizations, and the political atmosphere regarding said civilizations.

The book stars with a clever infodump, but an infodump none the less. We receive information about the current atmosphere through an infodump and the quasimagical substances (crystals in this book) and the world building has been infodumped through the lens of a videogame. It is a clever way to provide an infodump but what would be cleverer is to avoid it altogether.

The Synopsis does a better job than I could do to summarize the book, so I am simply doing to defer to it, and just talk about my opinions on it.

After reading the book, I would say that the appropriate age range for the audience would be 12-15. Yes this book is "YA" but it's <i>younger</i> YA. This is a very clean book, and I'd say it would be a decent introduction to sci-fi, for younger audiences.

The plot line is very straight forward, and the dialogue is clean; bordering on cartoonish. As were the Political leaders. This sentiment of mine was amplified by the performance of the narrator, as he narrated the dialogues.

The villain is a bad guy and would threaten to kill, but unfortunately the book seems to have a plot armour bigger than the stars. Everything works out in short succession so it wasn't very entertaining for me tbh, but I really do hope it would be so, for younger readers.

None of these are any valid reasons for me to rate this book a 2 stars. I was simply not the intended audience, and I respect that. I would give this a 3 star and move on with my life, except for one small thing that irked me.

Diana faced a hostage situation. I dont really know if putting the only female member of the group and one of the most skilled at that, in a hostage situation would make for an appealing story for the current generation. Diane and Cal, the side characters would simply have made more sense and made for a more interesting story. We would see Jake sabotaging his captors from the inside and we could see the drama going on in Earth, through Cal and Diane's perspective.

I still rate this 2.5 stars and would've typically rounded it up if not for this plot decision.

Jake and Cal have been friends since childhood and are now soldiers for Earth United. Jake saw his uncle killed during an attack on earth to steal a crystal that can power weapons or cure cancer. That experience has shaped Jake into who he is now.

The book is fast paced, succinctly tells the backstory and introduces the main characters. Jake and Cal have a fun dynamic, easy banter, and established rapport. Lots of action sequences that are explained well without being overly drawn out.

My only complaint would be that the only female characters are kind of throw away characters. One is the love interest who almost seems like an afterthought. Beautiful and smart obviously but not a lot of depth and the relationship is rushed and unrealistic.

Otherwise a fun fast read with spaceships and best friends. Also fun for me we’re the references to John Wayne westerns that I watched with my dad.

Since gaining the ability to travel outside the solar system, Earth has found themselves behind many alien races. This caused humanity to unite, with one government and army/police force. After twelve-year-old Jake watches his beloved uncle get killed by the leader from another planet, he trains to become a Legion soldier while dreaming of getting revenge for his uncle’s death. When Jake and his best friend Cal are tasked with accompanying Cal’s older sister, Diane, on whom Jake has always had a crush, to an appointment as an ambassador on a faraway planet, they are asked to detour to the planet Jake’s uncle’s murderer lives on, Jake is torn between the desire to protect Diane and the desire to get revenge.

It was an interesting plot, but I felt like there was a lot of telling rather than showing within the story. Despite the fact that I generally love stories with romantic storylines, whether as the main plot or a sideline, I felt this story gained nothing by adding Jake’s crush on Diane. It seemed like it was there just to check “the guy gets the girl” off at the end of the story. This is a YA sci-fi novel. I think that it would be a good book for younger teens who enjoy sci-fi; I just don’t think it will have the crossover appeal for adults. The youth of Jake and Cal came through clearly in Joel Simler’s narration of the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

The Brighter the stars is a good sci-fi story. It was rather slow to start for me, but about halfway through, I began to enjoy the story. There was a little too much politics for my taste, but the world building and characters were great. I enjoyed the action scenes, and the romance between Jake and Diane. I also enjoyed the narration and it was a fun listen for me.

I knew that this was going to be an exciting audiobook from the moment I read the synopsis.
From the authors immersive plotline and twists, to the narrators creative way of making you feel like you were right there I was hooked.

Overall, I liked the book. The beginning was really slow. I felt that the beginning needs more work. I was confused by how long it took to get to the good part. Maybe the part about him growing up and losing his uncle could of been worked in a smaller version of what it was. The ending was good with lots of action. I liked the fighting of the alien in the pit the most.

I enjoyed this story, it was fast paced and different. I really liked the narrator, I could clearly tell the difference in the characters and it fun to listen to.

Overall the story was good and I liked it, but felt it was missing something to make me love it. I however, have no idea what I needed to bump it up into the love category.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook. This is my honest voluntary review.

Extremely valuable alien plants that are coveted by thieves, weaponized by the military, and regulated as medicinal by the government lead to the death of Jake Saunder's uncle. Driven by pain and the need for revenge Jake joins the legion dreaming of the day when he can again meet his uncle’s killer. Years after his uncle’s death, Jake and his fellow legionnaires leave on a simple transport mission not knowing that the fate of the earth will soon rest in their hands and he might actually get his chance.

I enjoyed this sci-fi story. It moved at a quick pace, had exciting action scenes, space travel, and scary aliens. The main characters had some depth and heart to them making me root for their mission’s success and the lover’s happiness. There was some political mystery and intrigue that kept me guessing at the bad guy’s identity. The narrator did a decent job, but some of the voices he used made the story skew young which may or may not be the intention. Overall it was a fun read.

Thank you NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was a passable space adventure, a good introduction to science fiction. There wasn't a lot of world building and I feel like it need 100 to 200 pages more to help me get more interested in the characters and locations.