The Wrong Stars Review:

Reviewed By Steve Parkes

Bald Mage Rating 8.5/10

I would like to thank Angry Robot publishers and Netgalley for giving me a free copy to review. Release date for the book 7th November 2017

“Once we kill the Gods… We will become Gods ourselves”

I want to start this review by saying that I enjoyed the book, it has some really good ideas. The book starts with a spaceship called the White Raven investigating an old ship that was used over 500 years ago. The Captain of the White Raven Kalea Machedo, Callie for short, investigates this ancient husk of a ship and they discover a female in cryo sleep. Callie makes the decision to wake her up and Callie and her crew find themselves awakening all sorts of things they could never have imagined.

The author builds this story really well, as we read about Elena awakening from cryo sleep and explaining her first contact with aliens to the crew of the White Raven. The thing that interested me was the fact that Elena was from a different era and she has to learn quickly to adapt to the situations she finds herself in. On the flip side Callie, and her crew made first contact centuries ago so Elena’s story is pretty old news. It isn’t until one of Callie’s crew finds a black cube of unknown origin that things begin to deepen a little.

The Alien races in this book are really well thought out, I will begin with the Liars, yes you read right, an Alien race called the Liars; this is the human name for them and they are basically a squid like race that tell lies, sounds interesting don’t you think? I thought so! I really wanted to know more about this alien race and the author obliges by giving the reader a really interesting history which I won’t go into because it will ruin the story.

But there is another Alien race called the Axiom, an ancient power race that had a mighty empire. This species…. well how can I say this with giving too much away…. are supreme to read about and very different to any other alien race I’ve come across and their technology exceeds any human advances but their technology has an organic structure to it. The author again gives the reader a vast history on this race as well and their connection with other races including the Liars.

The interplay between the characters reminded me a little of the film Alien as they are all crammed in on a spaceship knowing each other inside out. Elena coming aboard does create some different dynamics to the crew and the author obliges yet again by giving us vast details of each crew member, even the AI of the White Raven has a really good background story and I found myself smiling after reading about it.

The book is a decent length but I didn’t find myself thinking ‘here we go, this is just to pad out the story a little’. The author keeps things ticking over at a good pace and you can’t go wrong with a little flirting between characters to keep the reader interested as well, some of the exchanges during my read did make me raise an eyebrow or two but in a good way.

Overall I found this to be a really good read that was intelligently written and skilfully put together. The Alien races were really interesting and I loved all the characters.

Now I have to decide which ship I would prefer, hmmm….. The White Raven or The Golden Spider? Read the novel and let me know which you would pick.