Star Eater

I received a paperback ARC of Star Eater, authored by Kerstin Hall, published by Tor Dot Com, for review consideration. What follows below is my honest review, freely given. I want to note the cover art is by Sam Weber, cover design by Christine Foltzer, with editing by Ruoxi Chen. I rated this novel 5 stars. I adore this cover! It also accomplished what covers set out to do; stopped my scrolling so that I would look at this title more closely. Being a June release and Pride month, I would like to mention that something I really enjoyed about this book; seeing a variety of relationship types represented without it seeming forced or a gimmick. The author’s voice brought the world alive with what I felt was the perfect blend of descriptive language and astute dispensing of backstory lore in very organic ways. And all the beautifully flawed people. I could write paragraphs praising the authors that write characters that breathe and bleed as we do, in Star Eater I can even name some of my favorites: Finn, Asan and Osan. In this case, none could be claimed MC’s, but they were just as vibrantly written and burning from the page, and to me these three spoke the loudest. History is written by the victors. This could easily be called a political read, even if it’s firmly in the fantasy genre. Power and how strongly one cleaves to it is a major theme. Now I am only just getting back into reading more fantasy after mainly straight horror for the last couple of years, so this may be the usual type of thing for it. So, sorry if you are reading this and thinking, “does she not read a lot of fantasy or something?” I do not, but am getting better. A city that floats usually is not an indicator of their overall goodness (looking at you Battle Angel), and I was absolutely floored by how everything ended up! This is a rich and complex novel, there are multiple times when I found myself caught in the moment of a scene. I am an emotional reader, no shame; there is laughter to be found here, as well as tears. Neither of these happened at the very last of the book, which I appreciated. I felt that there was a time for the reader to watch the characters after the BOOK happened, does that make sense? We get to say goodbye before closing the back cover, to let our heart calm. And it was very much a wonderful, terrifying and surreal ride at times, so I liked that I could say goodbye with my heart calm. And know that I can always pick it back up to say hello again, as well.