I really wished I liked this more. It sounded great on paper but it was so slow moving it was hard to keep focus on the story.

DNF at 33%.

The book felt convoluted and many of the characters spoke with the same voice. It was hard to remember who was who. Overall I was just bored, I may try to read it again later.

If you are looking for a new scifi to dive into then look no farther, this is a queer, space opera debut inspired by the rise and fall of ancient Rome and Egypt—and reinvents the lives of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. You know how sometimes you read the synopsis for a book and immediately want to read it, that’s what this book did to me. I love Egyptian based stories, assassins creed origins is in my top 3 assassins creed games for that reason. The author intertwines that history we all know a little about and just throws it into a space setting. I just didn't know what to expect and was so surprised!

The queen. The carpet. The conqueror. It’s an indelible image, even if it was fixed in the collective unconscious by a mistranslation of Plutarch combined with a desire for a salacious story rather than anything that might have happened in history. Several sumptuous movies cemented that image.

So it’s not exactly a surprise that this science fictionalized reimagining of the romance of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, while it doesn’t start with that scene, features it prominently. And makes it every bit as captivating and unforgettable in this story of two towering giants at the center of the rise and fall of an intergalactic empire as it was in the same circumstances of the world-spanning empire.

At first, and on the surface, The Stars Undying reads as a grand romance. And it definitely is that – even if neither of the protagonists begin their relationship thinking that’s where they are heading and what it’s all going to be about.

Altagracia is a disgraced princess leading a rebellion against her twin sister – who has just become the Queen of Szayet and the Oracle of their god, Alekso the Undying. We experience her side of this space opera from her first-person perspective so we begin the story thinking that we’re inside her head – even as she admits that she’s lying both to us and to herself as she sets out to overthrow her sister’s divine rule and take the crown for herself.

Which is where Matheus Cierran, the Commander of all the fleets and armies of the vast Empire of Ceiao, enters the picture. And Gracia enters his quarters rolled into a rug. Gracia conquers the conqueror – not so much with her beauty as with her wit and charisma – and he conquers her sister on her behalf.

As their romance spans the galaxy between Szayet and Ceiao, we see their universe from their alternating, first-person viewpoints, never quite sure who truly conquered whom, who is lying to whom, and whose intentions are the most righteous. While we watch them fall deeper in love with each other, and while both fail to recognize who their true enemies are – and fatally underestimate those enemies and each other.

Escape Rating A++: Because The Stars Undying is, most definitely, a reimagining of the relationship, both personal and absolutely political, between Cleopatra of Egypt and Julius Caesar, we do go into this story thinking that we know how it ends and even a bit of how it gets there. And just like Friday’s book, The Cleaving, that bit of foreknowledge does not keep the reader from frantically turning pages to see how it gets there.

In addition to the epic romance, and more important than that romance in the long run, The Stars Undying is also the story of the decline and fall of empire. As it begins, as it began, when Cleopatra rolled out of that rug – or more likely rose out of a sack – Rome was at the peak of its power. Just as Ceiao is when Gracia emerges from her carpet at Ceirran’s feet.

The thing about being at the peak of something is that from that highest point there is only one direction to go. Down. So this story is not about the crest of the peak but about the tip over it and into the decline that will inevitably follow – even if the principals can’t see it. Not yet anyway.

So the romance is how we get into this story, but that beginning takes us deeply into what one writer called “the romance of political agency” as we watch Gracia and Cierran jockey for power within their relationship and attempt to maneuver their way through and around the pitfalls of the densely factional political climate of Ceiao. An empire where the backstabbing never seems to end and Ceirran is always the target whether he recognizes it or not.

One of the fascinating things about the way that this story unfolds is just how tightly it gets wrapped around religion. Not any particular religion as we know it today, but religion and its seeming antithesis nevertheless. The Empire of Ceiao was founded on the basis of the disestablishment of ALL religions, which is carried to the point of being a religion unto itself.

Szayet, very much on the other hand, is not just a religiously backed monarchy but their religion is based on the idea that their god, Alekso Undying, lives on in an oracular artifact that is worn by each of his descendants as a symbol of their holiness and his godhood. It’s not even a myth. Gracia wears the Pearl and the spirit of Alekso within it does communicate with her frequently, often and always with disappointment in her and her actions. The only question in both the reader’s mind and Ceirran’s is whether the being she is communicating with is truly Alekso’s soul or merely his mind locked in a sophisticated machine.

That question, and both Ceirran’s and Ceiao’s reaction to any and all possible answers to it, turns out to hold the key both to his downfall and Gracia’s future in a way that surprises the reader and manages to seem inevitable at the same time. But then, all great leaders sow the seeds of their own destruction – at least in fiction.

The story in The Stars Undying reads like an unlikely amalgam of the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough, The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Elizabeth George, Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and Engines of Empire by R.S. Ford. As a stew it shouldn’t work but most definitely does, combining the first-person perspective of the Memoirs with the deep dive into Roman history and politics of the McCullough series with the variations of the great empire not able to see or admit that it is past its prime in all three of the space opera series.

It’s not the stew that anyone would have expected but it’s absolutely glorious in its execution and now that I’ve read it I can’t help but wonder why no one got quite all the way here sooner. That the audiobook version that I listened to gave the two central figures, Gracia and Ceirran, their own separate, distinct and extremely well-acted voices was just icing on a very tasty cake.

(I had to switch to text near the end because I couldn’t bear to hear Gracia’s perspective on learning that Ceirran was gone in “her” voice, told from her internal, intimate, point of view. It would have been just too painful.)

That ending was so inevitable, based on the source material, that saying it happened does not feel like a spoiler. Howsomever, speaking of that source material, it is equally clear that the ending of The Stars Undying cannot possibly be the ending of the entire saga. This book, unbelievably the author’s debut novel, is listed as the first book in the Empire Without End duology. The second book in the duology is tentatively titled The Sea Unbounded and I can’t wait to read it whenever it appears. I might, maybe, possibly, have gotten over the book hangover from this book by then!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchange for an honest opinion

The narrators were really good and brought the characters to life, but I just struggled a bit to get into this book.
Some of the world-building and characters felt a bit too flat and I often found myself wanting to speed up the narrators voice just so something would happen.
The only real bit that captivated me was the end 30%, other than that, it was just a bit 'meh' for me.

- narrators were fine and brought plenty of nuance to the characters

- Ok this is where I admit to being a dumbass. I knew very little about this book going in other than that it was a slow burn political space opera. I don't think I even really read the synopsis fully because I was sure it was my sort of thing. So, there I was listening away and regularly thinking 'this story is weirdly familiar'. It was only when I chanced to see another reviewer mention that the main plot was based on Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, that I had a lightbulb moment. And the plot really does follow the historical events of those two figures and by extension Marc Anthony (who has been gender swapped here with great success) with close accuracy.

This is an interesting concept with morally ambiguous characters, which combined with being slow burn political speculative fiction, should have bumped it to an automatic five stars for me. Objectively, I can see that this is a 4 or 5 star book - it's well plotted, intelligent, carefully characterised and ambitious as well as well written. But I just didn't have a great time reading it.

It's always tricky to transfer an empire situation which happened historically on Earth due to specific environmental, societal, political and historical pressures unique to that time to a larger 'space empire'. Especially if that transfer is so faithful to real life events. I don't feel enough changes were made in order for this 'space empire' to be convincing and since almost all the action takes place on a single planet (the space setting is clearly being saved for future books), it's a bit redundant in this story.

In addition, our two POV characters do most of their political negotiations whilst having sex. This may well have a degree of accuracy if you're talking Caesar and Cleopatra but it just didn't work for me when it came to reading this story. I can't entirely put my finger on why because I don't mind sex scenes, I don't think they always have to be about love or lust, they can absolutely be about power. Nor were they written in a way I would consider explicit or tasteless. It just got to a point where I was fed up of them and they all started to blend together.

I like huge worlds with slow burn intricate plots that come to fruition late in the story. However, I wasn't really invested in any of the characters so instead the story dragged for me personally.

In conclusion, I can see this being the perfect book for someone who does click with the MCs. I admire the skill apparent in creating this story. It didn't fully work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this title, in exchange for this honest review.

I’d also like to apologize for how late this review is, as this book released quite a while ago. Luckily I managed to finish it a few days ago and I really loved it. It’s definitely what I mean when I say I want more sci-fi and fantasy based off of the ancient Mediterranean. It’s absolutely packed with references and inspirations of the ancient world, yet still strong enough a story to stand on its own. I especially loved the amount of political intrigue, which took up most of this book. It also has an unreliable narrator, which is a thing I absolutely loved!

I was lucky enough to receive both an e- and an audiobook arc of this, so I read it though a mix of both. Though it was mainly the audiobook. I mostly enjoyed the narrators, but the female one’s voice was slightly annoying from time to time and the male sometimes a bit too slow for my liking.

This review will be up on my Instagram, @Kratist0, sometime between now and mid January.

DNF @ 40%

This book will definitely find an audience, but it's not me. I thought the Antony/Cleopatra/Rome stuff would be a boon to my enjoyment, but it didn't really help or hinder it. I found the characters dull and the story pretty slow. I did find the worldbuilding cool. Maybe if I liked the audiobook better, I could have finished it, but it wasn't working for me.

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.

A hard scifi featuring a love triangle between Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and Julius Caesar.
I found myself becoming quite overwhelmed with the world, as it contains plenty of the elements you would hope to find in an epic scifi such as political scheming and strategizing, and couldn't quite find an avenue back into the world after I found myself outside it. While many will absolutely adore this story, I found it just simply wasn't for me. We don't always match with the books we think we will and that's alright. It's very much a case of it's not you, it's me.

The Stars Undying by Emery Robin is a debut science-fiction novel modeled off the lives of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at sixteen and a half hours and is narrated by Esther Wayne and Tim Campbell. We follow our two main characters with alternating first-person points-of-view.

"She was beautiful, of course; there was no use denying that. But what struck me about her then, and what had struck me since the first moment she had rolled out of the carpet and insulted me to my face, was not her beauty but her gaze. The way she looked at me--the way she looked at anything she took notice of--was like standing under a bright light, like jumping into a deep well."

I really like all of our main characters here. Obviously, Ceirran is the Julius Caesar and Gracia is the Cleopatra in this reimagining. I really like the author's choice to gender flip the Marc Anthony character here with Anita, Ceirran's second in command.

The casual queerness here is great. There are tons of same-sex relationships and side characters who appear to be non-binary as they/them pronouns are used to refer to them.

It was hard for me to get into the very beginning of the book, which tends to be common for me when it comes to science-fiction. But once I was about 12% in I was hooked! As is the case with most science fiction for me, I had to read this in "tiny" bites of about 20% each.

Overall, I really liked the author's writing style. This was a solid debut, and I'll definitely be reading more from them in the future.

Tropes in this book include: space opera, retelling

CW: violence, war, murder

Anytime a historical reimagining that has me jumping to internet to research the actual history, it is a win. This is a win. The cast for the audiobook did a fantastic job. The way that each voice is really able to bring the characters to life is incredible. This is an epic space opera; the scope is huge and wide ranging. Each world is well established and constructed. Robin gives each planet a culture that feels real and, pivotally, actually informs the plot, so the background information never feels like a waste to learn. You'll devour this with joy. Perfect for a series of rainy days.

DNF at 60%.

I'll start with the fact that I really like Altagracia, our main character. I love her entitlement to what she believes she is due and her tense relationship with her twin sister. I would have loved to see the latter explored more. Ceiran was an interesting morally grey and self-serving character. I feel like I might have enjoyed him even more if the author had further explored his personality. Instead, I feel like we were only acquainted with the political ally that Gracia knew him as, rather than as a well-rounded, believable character.

I wanted to love this. So much of it, however, reads like a textbook on the politics of Egypt and the Roman Empire, but transposed onto planets in space. There were many moments, despite my enjoying the world and culture that was being described, I was left wondering where the plot was going or what the point of the exposition was.

I went between the audiobook and the digital eARC of this, and I did find that the narrator who voiced Altagracia's chapters to be engaging and added to her characterization. Unfortunately, I found the male narrator's performance to be quite monotone and lackluster.

I'm disappointed to not finish this, but sadly I don't think the last third will change my experience of this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for the ARC/ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the world and unraveling of this story. The diversity and natural fluid woven through out was refreshing. Nothing ever felt forced. I however at times became confused and felt this story may have been better with only one pov.

Thank you so much for an ALC! I enjoyed this, although I struggled to get into it a bit. I don't read as much sci-fi as I used to, so I think that was most of it, but it didn't feel as accessible as some sci-fi. Still enjoyed, though! And great narrators.

DNF @ 62%

I am very fond of the story of Cleopatra / Julius Caesar / Marc Antony (I have a distinct memory of doing a translation for Latin class in high school where the translation for “to be rolled up in a carpet” was provided for me) but I feel like this book zooms through the interesting parts (the entire civil war is told in a kind of aside where our Cleopatra character just says “oh I lied it was a bit more gruesome than all that” and then we’re back to seducing Caesar) and then draaaaags out all the boring, petty, interpersonal drama/politics.

I was itching for the epic love story and sapphics in space but honestly didn’t even make it that far. Which is a crying shame because this story could have been so very good.

This review is strictly for the audiobook.

I did not enjoy this book in audio format. There are too many similar sounding names and places for my brain to process the storyline in an audio format. This when combined with the narrators both having accents and the prose that feels like it would be more akin to a classic or Shakespeare, made it very difficult to digest the meaning. I have since DNFd the audiobook and am continuing with the print version. I am liking it much more since I switched to print and will finish it that way.

I have not read a book that was described as a “space opera” so I looked it up and it was descried as a space adventure that has a emphasize on space warfare with use of melodramatic, risk taking adventure, relationships and chivalric romance. Did the book hit these points? Yes. Did it do it well? I don’t think so. I feel like that main focus for the author was the world building and thus we are left with characters that lack any character. I didn’t like or dislike them, they were just there. I think part of the problem was that they were based on Cleopatra and Caesar, thus the author already had the plot written for them so they just needed to focus on the world building. That being said, I do like a book with heavy world building rather than being like “op, we in space”. Although the main point was supposed to be the relationship between out two main characters, the relationships that they had with other characters was stronger. That being said, due to it being an audio book, it could have ether been just okay writing or the narrators lack of emotional reading.

Sadly couldn't finish this. I got 30% in and finally had to call quits on it. I was just having a hard time focusing and staying with the story.

I'm unsure on this one. I love the concept, the prose, and the path that the story takes. Space Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, with their alliance spanning a galaxy instead of a small corner of Earth. Toss in the Living God/just a machine plot line with the spice and its a great story. But there are parts it drags, if you aren't deep on the historical and cultural significance of ancient Rome and Egypt for those moments it does not land well.