Space opera followers, rejoice! Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Blighted Stars delivers futuristic know-how, a power-hungry ruling class, a bit of thriller, a sprinkle of the macabre and a compelling, sophisticated relationship between its two leads.
In the distant future, the Mercator household maintains a good management over humanity’s life among the many stars. The Mercators mine “cradle worlds,” planets which can be lush and unspoiled, for sources, however the facet impact is a fungal bloom that ultimately kills the planet.
Idealistic, passionate Naira Sharp is a member of the Conservators, a resistance group that tries to save lots of these cradle worlds by way of sabotage and guerilla warfare. Tarquin Mercator is the inheritor to his household’s empire, however he’s a scientist at coronary heart, and he wonders the place the planet-killing fungus comes from. Their worlds collide when Naira poses as Tarquin’s bodyguard as a way to infiltrate and destroy the Mercators from inside. But when their ship crashes onto the most recent cradle world, Naira and Tarquin are confronted with the supposedly unimaginable: The planet has already been devoured by the fungus. Together with the opposite survivors of the crash, they need to work collectively to outlive and uncover the reality.
O’Keefe is a grasp world builder, and The Blighted Stars has one of probably the most fascinating sci-fi ideas of the 12 months. In her universe, individuals can load their consciousnesses into new our bodies. Get killed out within the far reaches of area? No drawback, your neural map could be beamed again to civilization and positioned into a brand new 3D-printed physique straight away. (Though typically neural maps don’t load correctly, leading to grotesque and zombielike monsters.) Before starting her mission, Naira uploads her consciousness right into a printed physique of Tarquin’s bodyguard with out anybody on the doomed ship understanding. O’Keefe finds a number of methods to have enjoyable with this plot machine, and the payoffs of Naira’s secret identification are effectively earned.
The Blighted Stars can be a terrific place to begin for anybody inquisitive about dipping a toe into the area opera subgenre. O’Keefe largely restricts herself to Naira’s and Tarquin’s factors of view, which brings an immediacy and focus to the story that’s echoed by the relative simplicity of the plot. The advanced and engrossing relationship between Tarquin and Naira holds all the pieces collectively; the recent world constructing and interstellar intrigue wouldn’t be practically as satisfying if not for the plausible relationship on the guide’s core.
If future entries in O’Keefe’s Devoured Worlds saga are as thrilling as this guide, sci-fi followers will probably be thanking their fortunate stars for years to come back.
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