Bethany Jacobs created an interesting new universe full of intrigue, new gods, new governments, but with all of the same issues that we as humans still have. There's new technology, but it builds on what is already available now. I think this book is a reflection on who we are as humans.

The characters are memorable but not particularly likeable, but given the themes of the book, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There is quite a bit of world building, along with jumping back and forth with years (not separate timelines, just background events). The main characters all have POVs but it's a challenge to keep track of the characters at first.

Recommend for science fiction enthusiasts, this is not an entry level sci-fi book.
Content warnings: this does discuss a genocide that occurred in the past and the characters involvement in the genocide and persecution of those who survived. Also there is some significant violence and death of characters (side).

This series shows a lot of potential and is thoroughly entertaining. I love the concept of a space sci Fi that is female-led as it's long overdue. Thoroughly enjoyed!

i love being pleasantly surprised!!! not bad at all! very engaging with good characters i actually cared about. very nice

These Burning Stars is an exciting novel with a complex plot and several surprising twists. It centers around the characters Jun, Chono, Esek, and Six. The narrative switches between the characters and takes place in the present and the past in this story of revenge, betrayal, and redemption.

The planets of this space opera are ruled by the Kindom, a sometimes brutal three-branched church, with industries controlled by several powerful families. The story has a fair amount of violence but it all fits with the characters and world that Bethany Jacobs has created. While the beginning was a bit confusing, I quickly got drawn into the well-rounded characters and their complex game of cat and mouse.

Filled with complex political scheming, deep-rooted corruption, morally grey women, and a manhunt across a galactic empire, this book immediately captured my attention.

This book delivers an incredible cast of morally grey, ambitious, scheming women. Each character is so fascinating and complex. It was so interesting to watch the toxic, obsessive relationship between these characters play out. Every chapter slowly reveals how one choice has shaped the empire. Esek is a particularly fascinating character. She is cruel, brutal, and evil, and yet she is charming and beloved. Many try to write characters like Esek Nightfoot, but These Burning Stars absolutely nails it.

With a high-stakes galactic manhunt and rich politics, there is not a single dull moment in These Burning Stars. Jacobs expertly weaves together past and present timelines, slowly revealing the intricate cat-and-mouse hunt that has haunted these characters for decades. It was so satisfying to see how all of the threads came together. I was so impressed by how Jacobs used the two timelines to create a subtle sense of uncertainty and unease. The plot reveals when all of the pieces fall together will blow you away.

I'm glad I pushed through what I was thinking would be a DNF.

This twisty-turny sci-fi political thriller is real good. Lots of First Sister types of twists and turns and political machinations, and I think I will stick around to book 2 to see where the hell it's going to go from here.

Now THIS is how you write a fantasy book! Where to even start? The premise and setting of the book had me interested from the start. It takes place within an alternate solar system that is so expansive and lush that it is easy to immerse yourself in it completely. It is teeming with everything that one would expect from an expertly woven cat and mouse revenge story… and some things that you would never even think to expect.

The characters are all morally ambiguous, but most of them have redeeming qualities. Jacobs lets the reader get to know the characters, while still leaving space to continue discovering them throughout what I suspect may be a series. She also does a great job of connecting the characters the characters in a way that makes sense and allows for conflict and resolution. The love story that is threaded throughout is beautiful, fierce a d tragic, but not in the way that most romances are depicted in a story like this. It added such a refreshing twist to an already layered plot.

The plot was doing a lot, in all the best ways. There are political machinations and intrigue, as well as family wars, racial/ethnic tensions, and in-fighting within the various branches of government. It makes for an edge of your seat story that is unpredictable, but not all over the place. The twist that Jacobs reveals is incredible and the way she unfolds it will make most readers go back and reread, just to see if they could have figured it out.

The book wasn’t perfect, but it was close. Phenomenal read.

My only regret about Bethany Jacobs’ debut novel These Burning Stars is that it has taken me months to get around to singing its praises. This has to be one of my favourite sci-fi debuts (and a favourite read of 2023) in a long, long time.

This novel follows Jun, Chono, and Esek on an adrenaline-fueled space opera full of political intrigue and high stakes. Jun, a scoundrel of a hacker, scores a prize that threatens the power and influence of the Nightfoot family. The Kindom, the religious ruling faction of the universe, needs the Nightfoot family to stay in power and in control, so they send two clerics, Chono and Esek, on a chase through the systems to find Jun and retrieve the offending contraband. Except a mysterious entity known as Six seems to influence the chase at every turn, their goals enigmatic but their purpose clear: the change the stakes of the game.

These Burning Stars just checked every box for me. For once (and this is rare), I agree with the marketing comps. If Arkady Martine’s intricate political intrigue mixed with the visceral, often violent works of Kameron Hurley, you’d get the unique experience that is These Burning Stars. The characters are utterly compelling; juggling several POVs in a novel with a scope this broad is no small feat, but Jacobs pulls it off with aplomb. In particular, the contentious relationship between Chono and Esek sent me (though I also have a thing for the blending of the sacred and the violent, which is pretty much the Kindom’s whole thing), though every character was brilliant. The worldbuilding was seamless and immersive. I felt at times I was watching a movie in my head, which is how you know you’re in deep. It is, of course, queer.

I cannot wait to see where this trilogy goes and cannot recommend it enough. If you’re a fan of queer, action-packed space opera with vivid characters and a three-dimensional world, you should absolutely pick up These Burning Stars posthaste. I can’t wait to see where the second book in the series goes.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

This story is a captivating space opera that introduces readers to a compelling universe filled with political intrigue, revenge, and the ever-present threat of a carefully concealed secret. It marks the debut of a powerful new voice in science fiction, promising an exhilarating ride for fans of the genre.

I'm sorry for being late on this one. Blame me being a mood reader and being busy with work. Hopefully no one from Orbit will hunt me down over it. Like some of the characters in "These Burning Stars" are hunting each other across a space kingdom.

Bethany Jacobs' story follows women's POVs across the stars. Jun Iron way, a thief out to besmirch the Nightfoot family (because they did a genocide of a planet) and control the fuel for interplanetary travel. So that's rough. Chono and Esek are clerics, tasked with hunting Jun down because of her possible connection to a wildcard named only as Six. Because the foes we make are the worst we face. A brutal space opera and cover up story. Looking forward to to more.

I might have also been a tiny bit delayed because after a bit of the way in I wanted to hear Natalie Naudus narrate a few of the scenes of Esek being a bit...stabby.

Reasons to read:
-It's nice when bad things happen to bad people
-A secret that is competently held
-Did not see THAT coming
-Oh yea people would do that for money
-I really enjoy the self made threat
-Love a good cat and mouse, just across now

Cons:
-It is frustrating when it takes a while for bad things to happen to bad people

Thanks to Orbit Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

Secrets. Murder. Treason. Revenge.
A multi-planet spanning government on the verge of war willing to do whatever is required to remain in power. Characters pushed to the limit and willing to make any sacrifice for change.
SIGN ME UP!!!
I love a story full of morally grey characters, intrigue, betrayal, twists and turns that you don't even see coming. My only suggestion is to pay careful attention to the year designation on the chapter headers as they do help you follow the story a little better. The weaving of the different stories that take place in different times allows you glimpses of each character and the events that shaped them and then you see how they come back around into each other's spheres and the ramifications that engulph so many lives. Bethany does a wonderful job of pulling on your emotions in regard to specific characters back and forth as you learn more about them. As the different political factions and their conflicts begin to boil over, the tension builds and builds to a startling reveal. This book is a terrific start to the series and the ending sets up what should be another excellent entry in book 2!!

The Kindom is a galaxy-spanning Empire, run by a religious order. They enforce laws, rules and piety with violence, often arbitrarily doled out. The clerics in the order are educated at an Academy where they are taught how to be good little psychopaths for this unsurprisingly repellent theocracy. Author Bethany Jacobs uses four characters to show the values and injustices of the Kindom, while setting the stakes for the story's conflict:

-Genius programmer, known as a caster in this world, and thief Jun Ironway gets her hands on information that could bring down the Kindom
-Incredibly calm, stoic and deadly cleric Chono, who has a long association with two other characters critical to the narrative: Esek and Six. Chono is accompanying Esek as she chases after Ironway, and is full of confusion about her former mentor Esek, and what is really the reason for they have been assigned to this chase.
-Esek is a newly head of her incredibly wealthy and influential family, who are inextricably linked to the power and financial health of the Kindom. Esek is volatile and vicious, and unrepentantly, gleefully, monstrous.
-Six trained alongside Chono, and the two became friends, or at least as friendly as was possible in the brutal environment of the academy. Six was challenged by Esek to impress the cleric while Six was still an adolescent at the school, and has spent years confounding and thwarting various of Esek's schemes.

Jun's theft sets off a planet hopping search for her, while Esek has a dual purpose in trailing after Jun, as Esek is tasked by Kindom higher ups to capture the thief, and Esek convinced Six is linked into the situation somehow. Chono is deeply conflicted while aiding Esek in the pursuit of both individuals; how do they feel about Six, and what will they do if they and Esek ever come face-to-face with Six?

The pacing is swift, and there is plenty of action and sudden violence. The Kindom is awful, full of nastiness and corruption. And I totally loved Esek, whose exuberant use of violence was so excessive and terrible, and yet I found her magnetic. Chono is wonderful also, with all their inner conflict and desire to do the right thing, but also knowing that they are complicit in countless atrocities by virtue of working with Esek for years.

I just wish I had enjoyed this book more. I wish I could put my finger on what didn't work for me, aside from Jun Ironway, who irritated me every time she appeared on page. The story is enjoyable otherwise, moving fast and giving readers a complex society and several morally ambiguous and compromised characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Folks, we love a strong science fiction debut, and I’m here to tell you These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs is that very thing. It’s a dark space opera filled with intrigue, deception, villainy, violence, and good old-fashioned chase scenes. It also takes its subject matter seriously and digs into its own world with an infectious hunger.

After a recent pirate raid on the Nightfoot’s domain, a disc containing a secret history of the Nightfoot’s control over the fuel industry is on the market. Esek Nightfoot, a cleric of the Kindom, and heir apparent to the Nightfoot name, is on a quest for vengeance in finding the disc. But despite pulling in her close confidant, Chono, no one knows Esek’s plan after retrieving the information. But there are other interesting parties, be they part of the Kindom or not. And one in particular may be pulling more of the strings than Esek or Chono care to like. And as a system-wide strike in the fuel industry cripples travel between the three system of the Kindom, the race to find and maybe bury the secrets is on. Who will be the one to reveal them, and why?

The novel is a solid tale of revenge that spans decades, featuring a devilishly good cast of protagonists and a world full of various factions vying for power within an ossified space empire. The story is evenly paced, with chapters that flip back and forth between the present “Year of the Crux,” and years leading up to the events of the present. Jacobs used this storytelling to not only reveal some pretty interesting plot developments but give herself room to expose the reader to her world. Sharp and easy-to-understand elements line up in the front of the book, while the nuances and cracks are allowed to be exposed and ruminated upon by the reader before Jacobs pulls the trigger on her scattered guns. It can get a little confusing in the beginning if you aren’t paying close attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter, but once you start following the timeline, the world and characters come into a sharper focus.

The world is a particularly brutal one, ruled by the Kindom, and maintained by its three hands, The Clerisy, The Cloaksaan, and The Secretaries. Each hand has its particular role to play within the management of the empire and prides itself on particular skill sets. Jacobs adds a lot of flavor to the branches that clue the reader in on how weird the protagonists are within their own occupations. While the settings are not fanciful, the world is vivid because its characters so delightfully inhabit it. Esek, despite her penchant for cruelty and arrogance, is a joy to follow. She is hotheaded and dares everyone to pick a fight with her because she knows she will win. Chono, a previous novitiate of Esek’s, is the opposite. Stoic and deliberate, she moves through her scenes with righteous care even as she second-guesses herself. And Ironway feels like someone on the run, manifesting her next big score. Their interactions with the world give the Kindom a very lived-in feeling. It immediately comes off as a dystopia, but these characters highlight the cracks in its veneer. Yes, it is a large and overbearing structure, but its foundations are rotting from within.

The plot is ferocious, with its back-and-forth narrative forcing you to pull yourself into the story. While I enjoyed my time reading it in the first half, it wasn’t until the second half of the story that I began thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it. It’s a cat-and-mouse story, set amongst a worker’s strike, and a shifting of power within a major family. Secrets are being revealed, and factions are making their moves. I think my favorite bit that fully invested me was how Jacobs handled the characters and the plot that they get thrust into. The rebellion isn’t something waiting for a new face. Instead, it’s a slow-rolling maelstrom that pulls the characters into it. It has its own agency, making the protagonists a part of a larger whole, instead of the main leaders who showed up at the right time. This also plays into so many other twists and turns through the story, most of which have a cinematic air to them, it’s hard not to appreciate them.

These Burning Stars is a stellar debut. Jacobs has introduced truly compelling characters, in an exciting and dark world. They bounce off each other and the world in a complicated ballet of ideals and practicalities. The plot moves fast but forces you to take your time to take it all in. I had a fun time reading Jacob’s debut, and I eagerly await the sequel.

Rating: These Burning Stars – Seek out the light, and pick up this debut
-Alex

An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

It took a minute to get used to the terminology of the Kindom but once I got the flow of it with the clerics and gods this turned into a very interesting story. It took a few different characters, two who were very likable (Chono and Jun) and then a couple that were intriguing but definitely more morally grey (Esek and Six) and pitted them against each other until their stories were intertwined over the years (which were oddly named like year of the sleepwalk) with an inevitable confrontation that had very unexpected results but were nicely satisfying. Add in groups of people that were victims of a horrible genocide (that had been covered up and blame thrown at Alanye) with their own plans and a corrupt religious power that will do anything to keep their power over all the planets in the Kindom, plus some very talented casters (Sunstep is awesome!) and there is much bloodshed, mystery, and thrilling tales. I cannot wait to see what they will all do in the next book!

I’m a big sci-fi nerd so if a book has space opera in its blurb, it's likely going to end up on my TBR and I am so glad I took a shot with this one! There's a complex story and three MCs that Jacobs makes you care deeply for. Its got all the good stuff: intrigue, double-crossing, secrets, action, queerness, and strong women. A solid debut and I will be reading book 2!

https://lesbrary.com/these-burning-stars-by-bethany-jacobs/

If you’re looking for a queer space opera chock full of complex politics, smoldering obsession, and ever escalating revenge, These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs is a worthy entry into the field. Renowned hacker Jun “Sunstep” Ironway has gotten her hands on a piece of evidence that links one of the Kingdom’s premier families, the Nightfoots, to its most infamous genocide. The Nightfoots, sitting on top an empire built of the synthetic element needed to make space gates turn on, need to silence Jun before their rivals sense blood in the water and the Kingdom descends into war. They task Esek, a scion they sent to become a cleric, to find Jun, counting on Esek’s lack of morals and fierce cruelty to get the job done. Esek and her former novitiate Chono set off after Jun and family secrets. But they are also pursued themselves. Six, a shadowy figure from Esek’s past, brings a new definition to the idea of a long game as they seek always to escalate their game of cat and mouse with Esek. As more clues and layers to the relationship between all three groups come to light, who is controlling the information becomes less and less clear. Instead, they might all be caught in the resulting conflagration. These Burning Stars is a fast-paced, gripping read with interesting world building and even more interesting characters. I had such a great time unpicking the relationships and gaping at the carnage.

First off, Jacobs doesn’t spend too much time on flogging the overall details of the Kingdom. We are zoomed in on the Nightfoots and the specific events that brought them to power, as well as the corresponding actions by the Kingdom’s enforcement Hands of clerics, secretaries, and cloaksaans. But she does drop in enough fascinating hints to give everything some flavor. The generation ships that brought them to the system are treated like museum pieces. The different population groups with slightly different customs. And, my personal favorite, the custom of gendermarks. Different groups have different customs regarding children (the children in the religious schools being trained to go into the Hands are referred to as “it” and denied a gender until gradation for instance), but the general custom is that upon reaching maturity everyone gets to choose their own gender and you announce it with the mark you wear. And, going by some hints dropped in, you can change it as simply as changing your mark.

The implications are fascinating. The Nightfoots are seen as slightly weird for being aggressively matrilineal, meaning they need a female heir who can also pop out more female heirs herself, rather limiting their pool of choice. It also means that of the main characters, Jun, Esek, Chono, and Jun’s wife Liis saw no impediment to their lives, careers, or prospects by choosing to be women. In contrast Six, who disappeared from religious school and thus never officially chose a gender, aggressively refuses to reveal theirs, sowing confusion and mild bewilderment as people struggle about how to identify and talk about them.

There is one official wlw relationship in Jun and Liis, who have lived life on the down low together for long enough to know each other in and out and develop their own couples shorthand. They both have their own skillsets and mesh them together to keep Jun’s hacker persona ahead of all attempts at capture, and when faced with tough decisions they may not always agree, but they always know how the other will want to decide. The lesbian spacer ideal. But the more page consuming relationship (although I would definitely not call it romantic) is between Esek and Chono (and Esek and Six and Chono and Six. The weird but intense energy here is off the charts). Esek literally trained Chono as her novitiate, fostered her brutal practicality, taught her to be ruthless, and in general wound herself into so much of Chono’s character that even after Chono becomes a full cleric in her own right, she can’t break free of Esek’s pull. Esek is everything to her, Esek is terrible to her, she will do terrible things for Esek, she is the one person Esek will hold back from maiming or killing on a whim. There’s a lot going on here and almost none of it is #relationshipgoals. I was hooked. And when you add in how neither of them can let the pursuit of Six go, it’s intoxicatingly dramatic.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for your next queer sci-fi read, add These Burning Stars to your list. The combination of space opera complexity and incredibly petty escalation and revenge is intoxicating. It’s the first in a trilogy, and I, for one, cannot wait for the next one to come out.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for the E-arc!
The premise of this is unbelievable! A dramatic space opera with revenge, quests, star systems and horrible secrets. The book definitely lives up to the hype of an explosive debut with incredible queer characters and clever world-building! Science fiction can be extremely difficult, but the author did a fantastic job of developing an intricate world with multifaceted characters. The multi-POV wasn't too complicated and ended up being very easy to follow. I saw someone say that this book had layers, and I cannot find a better way to describe the story! A lot of my expectations were blown out of the water!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

4.5/5 stars

This was truly excellent! Riveting from start to finish, I never knew what was coming next but was also never confused - a true feat with multiple POVs, timelines, and crossing plot points.

Bethany Jacobs constructs a fascinating world with rich plot, confused loyalties, conflicted characters, and intense history that will keep you hungry for more. The end is satisfying but successfully sets up the next book for an equally amazing journey - enough loose ends are tied up that I know the next book will be its own story but still enrich the existing structure.

I don’t even know where I’d if I were trying today describe these characters and plot - how do you describe generations of trauma and political savvy, ruthless leaders and go-getters, and an intense game of cat and mouse that will leave you breathless and shocked by the end? It’s deliciously complex and morally grey in several shades.

You’ll fall in love and hate with the characters, be amazed and disgusted by the revelations, and be hungry for more while also wanting it to all be resolved. Jacob’s masterfully creates a web that I am fully trapped in - highly recommend this one!

What an amazing debut novel! These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs is one of the best books I've read all year. Described as a cat-and-mouse quest for revenge, it involves the ruling class of an empire, one of its prominent families, and a thief who holds secrets that could threaten it all.

The characters are sharply drawn. A hacker/thief, Jun Ironway, two clerics, Chono and Esek Nightfoot, and a mysterious former student known only as Six are the main players in the cat-and-mouse game. Several other characters orbit these main players and all are compelling. Esek Nightfoot is the most fascinating character I've met since Hannibal Lecter. Esek is intelligent, ruthless, and compelling.
Jun Ironway has gotten her hands on an item that could devastate the empire, and Esek's family in particular. Esek is tasked with tracking her down and Chono is assigned to accompany her. Chono is the cool reason to Esek's fiery passion. Esek and Chono are also trying to track down Six, though their motivations differ. Six is orbiting all three, playing a game that is known only to them.

This story is scorching and it shows in the language Jacobs uses. Sentences like, "Her ship alighted on the tarmac with engines snarling, hot air billowing out from beneath the thrusters.", and "...the stench of the jump gate that had so recently spit her into Ma'Kess's orbit..." make you sit up and take notice from page one! While the chase moves from planet to planet, Jacobs jumps backward in time to fill in some history. What appears at first to be unrelated threads prove crucial by the end. The action moves forward, brutally and relentlessly, but it is the fascinating characters that will have you even more riveted. The pace of this novel keeps you racing forward while trying to simultaneously savor this immersive experience.

This is a debut novel that instantly puts you on notice that Jacobs is one to watch. It is one of the year's best novels. I can't wait to see where this trilogy goes next, but I'll be first in line to find out!

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

2.75 stars.

Thank you netgalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Soooo…. I really thought this was going to be good, but the more I read the more I lost interest. None of the characters were well written. I liked Jun, but where’s the backstory? They’re so hollow. The world building was obviously the focus, but I honestly didn’t even enjoy it. I feel like I see where this author was going, but at some point it went downhill. It wasn’t enjoyable.