Although the beginning was a little slow and very heavy with world building, this book ended up being the best SF book I have ever read.

For any and all SF lovers, this is a must read with high stakes, brutality, and shocking twists. It’s such a riveting multi-facet cat and mouse chase and I loved the world and conflicts spun up by Bethany Jacobs.

The way she weaves multiple threads together to create this incredible story was so fun to read. It flowed so fluidly and was very easy to follow.

There has been no other plot twist that has made me gasp like the one in this book. I was so caught off guard that it made me want to start all over and read the book again. I’m so impressed.

What an incredible debut novel. 👏🏻

4.5 stars

If I had to describe this book in two words they would be: beautifully complex.

This applies to both the world and the plot; intricately woven threads of religion, politics, violence, and a taunting cat and mouse game through space. A memory coin that implicates one of the most powerful families in the Treble in a genocide that happened decades earlier is stolen and sets off a hunt through space. But there is another game being played and more secrets waiting to come to light. We bounce between the story as it’s currently unfolding and flashbacks to the events that have led up to it. I love that no one knows quite as much as they think they do.

On its own that would be enough to have a thoroughly enjoyable read but ‘beautifully complex’ also applies to our cast of characters. These Burning Stars has some really fascinating characters. There are morally grey characters, flawed characters, but they’re all interesting. And the relationships between the characters was another layer to the wrting that I really enjoyed. There isn’t a romance plot/subplot per se but there is a beautiful Sapphic relationship that tugged at my heartstrings. I also really love when books tell us people are good at things and then back it up! This book does competent characters that aren’t overpowered really well. I am very excited to see where the series goes from here. It has the potential to be a new favourite series for me!

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eARC. This is my honest review.

This took me a long time to really get into it, and even then, it wasn't until the last 30% of the book before I felt truly invested. The ending definitely turned it around for me because I was not expecting it to go that way at all.

I think the problem for me was that there was so much terminology for this world that I had a hard time keeping track of what meant what. It's a very complex story that I got the hang of by the end, but I kept getting pulled out of the story trying to remember what certain things meant, especially since a lot of the terms sounded very similar. I found it hard to get invested because of that.

I also wasn't a big fan of some of the main characters. Esek was horrible and despite the fact that she was intentionally written to be unlikable, I found I didn't enjoy her POV at all. I found Chono to be a bit boring and her POV also did not captivate me. Jun was by far my favourite character and I looked forward to her POV the most. Liis and Masar were also really good side characters in that plotline and I would have enjoyed the whole book from their perspective.

It's a very well written book though, especially for a debut novel. I spent a good chunk of the book not thinking I would continue the series, but I got hooked by the end and am curious to see where it goes. The story itself was interesting once we really got into and now that the set up has been done in this book, I'm interested to see if the next installment hooks me from the start.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

So here's the thing: I really enjoyed the characters, loved the plot, and the world-building was very cool. So on the whole, that is pretty great, yeah? And it was! But my one issue with the book (and this may be a personal thing and maybe you'll have no trouble with it) is that it seemed a little overly descriptive at times, which lead it to feel longer than it needed to be. I am all for description... until I'm not, you know?

But other than that, this book is quite exciting, and full of all kinds of intrigue and excitement and messy characters who I loved reading about. Don't get me wrong, some of them were absolute sociopaths, but it's still fun all the same. And even the less... outwardly awful members of humanity still had to make some questionable decisions, and we all know I love gray morality.

I also really liked how we got some info from the past via some "then" and "now" chapters. Gave a lot of insight into not only how the world and situation came to the point where it's at, but it shed a lot of light on how the characters became who they are, too. I definitely enjoyed the story, I just think I would have enjoyed it more if it were a bit tighter? The pacing wasn't bad or anything either, and there was lots of action, I just would have liked a little less on the descriptive bits.

Bottom Line: Solid series start, with great (messy) characters and a very thrilling plot. Maybe a little overly descriptive for my tastes, but also definitely not a dealbreaker.

What a debut! This story hit all the marks; pacing, plot, world building, and character development. It was immersive from the very first chapter and had me racking my brain to figure out what was going to happen next. I loved the dual timelines and seeing these characters develop throughout the years. Esek is so wonderfully terrible and ruthless. I enjoyed her pov’s very much. Chono’s inner battle with herself was another highlight of the story, and then the mysterious six. Such a good character! I will definitely be recommending this book! From one Buffalo native to another, Congratulations Bethany Jacobs on a fantastic story!

I love a good sci-fi space opera and I especially like finding new authors in the genre. With These Burning Stars, the first in a planned trilogy, I have found both.

The Hand, the governing body of the Kindom consists of three branches: Clerics, Secretaries, and Cloaks When Esek Nightfoot, a prominent Cleric and member of a powerful First Family, discovers two students at a school, she ends up mentoring one, Chono, and challenging the other, Six, to "...do something extraordinary". Little does Esek know what she has unleashed on the Kindom with her challenge.

Meanwhile, con artist Jun Ironway has come into possession of evidence that threatens the very existence of The Hand and the Nightfoot family empire. As Esek and Chono search for Jun, Six is playing her own game of cat-and-mouse with them--always one step ahead and taunting Esek.

This is a complex world-building novel with subplots and twists that form a tapestry of a star system fraught with political intrigue. The characters are well-developed with excellent writing and pacing that moves the story forward. However, I had a problem with the gender-neutral pronouns used for Six. It was confusing when the word "they" would be used for both Six and multiple characters in the same sentence. I understand why the author chose this for the character, it was just hard to follow sometimes. This is an excellent debut novel from Bethany Jacobs and I look forward to the next installment in the series.

Thank you, NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is October 17, 2023.

This is such an impressive debut!!! It’s been a while since I have been so completely absorbed in a science fiction novel, and this one certainly delivered.

To start, the world building is really fascinating here. Jacobs created a society spanning an entire solar system, with unique cultures on each planet. She seems to have put a lot of thought into how the languages of each culture are constructed, as there are so many moments comparing translations between languages and the different way in which concepts are communicated. The Je language is especially interesting and reminds me of that Star Trek TNG episode, “Darmok,” but it actually made more sense here. In addition, the world feels fully realized as the book explores the relationships between the different cultures and how they interact with each other. Jacobs did a great job at explaining the world so seamlessly, as there are never any info dumps and the reader learns info only as needed.

The characters are just as fascinating. Esek is such a complicated character that had me constantly doubting her intentions and alternating between rooting for her and wanting to strangle her. Chono is interesting in a very different way, as I loved her stoicism and seemingly strong moral character, and her conflicts with her situation as well as other characters were so multi-faceted. Six is interesting as well, and their storyline is wild, as I’m sure anyone who has read this would agree. Jun felt a little underdeveloped, so I hope we get more time with her in future books, but her backstory and resulting trauma felt devastatingly real. I also loved Liis cause I’m always looking for more buff badass female characters in fiction, and I hope we learn more about her in future books as well cause her backstory is wild.

The pacing here is absolutely perfect. I kept turning the pages, desperate to find out what was going to happen next. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily fast-paced though; more like it’s steady and only describes the scenes that are needed to share the story that Jacobs wanted to tell. There’s an event that happened just before the climax that completely blew my mind and turned the entire story upside down. It made me want to start the entire book over and read it again with that information in mind. The ending was satisfying but also left plenty of room for the sequels, and I am dying to get my hands on them ASAP!!

This book does alternate between the present and the past, which sometimes turns off readers, but I think all the separate plot points came together so well in the end that that choice really paid off. One thing I thought was interesting was that the present chapters are written in present tense whereas the past chapters (and any flashbacks described in the present) are written in past tense. So it’s quite easy to distinguish the timeline of events.

I’ve seen this book compared to A Memory Called Empire and The Traitor Baru Comorant, and I can see the similarities, but as someone who disliked both of those books, I still loved this. This book was like Memory with less complicated prose, and Baru with more likeable and nuanced characters. I would compare this more to Ninefox Gambit but within a society based on gods as opposed to mathematical magic (and easier to follow). I would 100% recommend this to anyone who liked The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis as the vibes are very similar.

Seriously, I absolutely adored this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a queernorm sci-fi with morally grey characters within a fully realized world that deals with themes of identity, solidarity vs loyalty, and justice for the oppressed.

I really liked this one! It was extremely well-written and immersive, with impressive space opera worldbuilding and interesting characters. The pacing trended a little slow at times--it took me a while to finish reading--but this wasn't enough to detract from my enjoyment.
I will also say that Esek, for me, was the standout POV. By a LOT. Without spoiling too much, there's just a lot more going on there than with the other POVs, whom I never found all that interesting.
I really REALLY hope publishing takes more chances on space operas like this in the near future.

Thanks to Orbit and Bethany Jacobs for making a free digital ARC of this book available via NetGalley. It's hard to describe, but to paraphrase The Princess Bride by William Goldman: it's got fighting, torture, true love, hate, revenge, hunters, bad people, good people, spiders, snakes, pain, death, brave people, cowardly people, strong people, chases, escapes, lies, truth, passion, obsession... And some kissing.

I wish there had been a flashback scene featuring Chono & Six as children. (And I sort of wish that Essex had suffered more. Otherwise it was, for me, a perfect blend of politics, social issues, action, and mystery. 4.5 stars.

Godfuckingdamn.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book! I’ve seen descriptions of it as Baru Cormorant, but I think A Memory Called Empire might be more accurate. Just. AMCE where people show their fangs more and genuinely do not want to work together. So maybe that’s the Baru part?

Pay attention to the years at the beginning of the chapters! Otherwise you’ll be me, wondering and confused and uncertain. I think that this book was a remarkable first to a series, though I am uncertain about how it will be continued to the same dizzying extent. Characters were bright, vicious, and edge-sharp, dazzling in their ambitions and making all the decisions that you, as a read, both do not want and do want them to make.

I absolutely look forward to the next book.

4.5 out of 5, rounded up!

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

This book has an interesting mixture of political intrigue, a mysterious character, and power dynamics.

A young individual at a school is told that they will never succeed even though they are the best and that the only thing they can hope to do is one day impress the cleric who ruined their life.

The "Righteous" Cleric reminds me of that individual who didn't quite fit and then is given a bit of power and becomes a domineering individual who thinks they border on the cusp of being a god. Yet, has relationships that contradict this.

The relationships is truly where this book thrived. The individual characters are robust and well constructed, but the way they interact with each other is what truly gives them depth.

Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC.

Absolutely outstanding new scifi book. I cannot recommend These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs enough. I loved every page. Fantastic job on this book.

This book did Not work for me (DNF@50%). The biggest reason for that is I just did not connect to any of the characters; in fact, I hated them all (because they are pure evil). There is an unhealthy focus on violence, death and sex in this story that seems to preclude any character redemption and/or growth, making the world building the only element that could possibly save this hot mess … and it did have a lot of potential (with a tripartite ruling class of brute, priest and spy along with some gender/pronoun games); but in the end that too falls flat as none of the concepts are really explained well nor explored. While I applaud the avoided of info dumping that seems to be common in the genre, the over reliance on made up words and redefined terms make it extremely difficult to get a bead on what is going on from the context. This is only exacerbated by the use of third person singular (present tense), which keeps the action moving but doesn’t allow much in the way of exposition.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheseBurningStars #NetGalley

Thank you to Orbit for the arc.

This seemed right up my alley from the premise, however I just didn’t enjoy the writing style.

This captivated me from the very beginning. I loved the world building and learning about the society.. I immediately wanted to know more about the school and what the chidren…. Who basically have their whole identities taken away and are referred to each as “it”.
As far as things go this is a great debut novel from Bethany Jacobs. She is definitely going to be one of my authors to watch. I really can’t wait to listen to it in audio book form especially before the next one releases.

It was heavily narrative and didn’t personally engage me due to the distance, so I stopped after chapter 1 (5%). However, it will likely be a solid three stars for the target audience, four to five for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC of These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs.

I think the book summary is a bit left of center in describing the plot. To me, the book was about a group of thieves/hackers who have acquired a disc of information that could alter their rulers in the galaxy, the Kindom, and the leading families. As they work to sell the information, the two main characters hunting Jun, Liis and Masar are Chono and Esek. Esek is the next in line to the matriarchy of her ruling family and she is a vicious fighter and strategic leader. Chono is a devoted cleric who had been a novitiate of Esek and is tasked with attempting to keep Esek in line and the Kindom informed of Esek's moves. The two groups move across the galaxy trying to outmaneuver each other against the backdrop of political machinations causing riots on the planets, and making the stolen disc more important than ever.

Six is learned about through multiple flashbacks, and there are some well crafted twists and turns surrounding their actions nd legacy and how they have impacted multiple character lives.

Jacobs has built a very elaborate world, and she has created a large web of backstory and character actions that enhance the plot well. Her writing style is easy to fall into, and she has made mutiple levels of plot that ripple out to affect the whole story.

I had three points of confusion when I began reading: 1) There is a lot of immediate info dumping to start the story, and with all of the very specific nuances of the kindom, clerics, and first families was a lot to take in at once. Leigh Bardugo does this as well - so if you can get through the first 30 pages or so it will make more sense. 2) At first I also wasn't sure this was a space opera because the opening chapters are land based / focused on the leading religion/clerics - it almost seemed like it was set farther into the past than future. I also am not sure I understand the layers of religion and how Esek, brutal as she is, could ve a religious leader. Also, TW: there are mentions of coerced sex and a brief mention of pedophilia revolving the religion and one of the main characters. 3) The different time periods of Esek's past and the present were a lot to take in with point #1. I know it was meant to teach us about Six, but I almost wish that had been better told in the present.

When I finished reading I actually felt pretty secure with the ending - I hadn't realized this would be a trilogy, and I didn't feel anxious over a cliffhanger. I can see the avenues Jacobs may use to extend the story and widen the scope.

Overall I enjoyed the story, and I think Jacobs has a strong voice and understanding of plot and worldbuilding.

"These Burning Stars" was a 3-star read for me. I really the complexity of the world it presented, the intricate political dynamics, and the exploration of religious themes. The cat and mouse chase throughout the story added an exciting element that kept me engaged.

However, I do have some reservations. I wished there was a clearer explanation of the differences among some cultures beyond their religious beliefs - how the gods they worshipped changed their traditions. Adding more depth to their culture and perspective would have enriched the story. It was there, just not as clear as I hoped it would be. I also felt that the narrative could have benefited from including chapters from a Jeveni character's perspective, even if it meant altering the plot and reveals, as it would have made me more in tune to their traditions.

One of the highlights for me was the intriguing relationship between Esek and Chono, as well as the dynamic with the character Six. These relationships added depth to the narrative and kept me intrigued. On the flip side, I found myself less invested in Jun and Liis, particularly because their meeting and past were not explored as thoroughly as I would have liked. More backstory on these characters could have enhanced my connection to their storyline.

Overall, "The Burning Stars" had its strengths with its world-building, politics, religious aspects, and character dynamics, but it also had some missed opportunities in terms of character development and perspective.

Wow. How to say that this is a space opera with the scope that entails, but with very personal, intense stakes? I can't even say that I LIKED one of the main characters, and yet I couldn't look away. The setting is unique but approachable and understandable, with a fast pace and a lot of good action. Highly recommended!