These Burning Stars, Review

The Burning Stars from Bethany Jacobs is the start of a new trilogy full of excitement, intrigue, subterfuge and lots of death. Like with a lot of epic sci-fi series that leans hard into new worlds and technology, there can be some initial confusion as you make sense of everything new.

To fully immerse yourself in the story, it's important to understand the technology, factions, and historical context. However, the effort is worth it because the characters and ideas are so captivating that you'll forget it's the author's first book and will find yourself excited about what's to come.

In the first volume, we explore the Treble star systems, which were colonized in the distant past from an unknown origin. In this particular region, there are competing families and differing religious beliefs. The three neighbouring star systems are linked via jump gates that once relied on jevite, a mineral obtained from the moon Jeve. However, that moon is no more after being destroyed a century ago alongside the majority of its Jeveni inhabitants by the infamous Lucos Alayne. Nowadays, the jump gates are fueled by sevite, which is produced and managed by the Nightfoot clan. This grants them significant power in the Kindom.

After a pirate attack on a Jeveni ship, the nightgates were taken down. This incident has caused concern about a possible rebellion. To address the issue, Esek Nightfoot and kin cleric Chrono have been assigned the task of finding a memory coin. This coin is one of the few items stolen from Verdant that have been found. Esek and Chrono arrive too late to prevent a deal between the pirates possessing the coin and Sunstep, a criminal with expertise in illegal technologies. The memory coin is believed to have belonged to Lucos Alayne, who was responsible for the genocide on Jeve. What secrets might the coin reveal?

Throughout all this, Esek is putting a lot of effort into dealing with Six, a formidable cloaksaan warrior in training with the Hand whom Esek has rashly provoked and is now having to deal with the consequence. It's quite a distraction and is one of the real highlights of the book. Six wants to work with Esek. Esek tells Six to do something impressive, something that'll make her remembered in years to come when Esek has forgotten who Six even is and that will prevent Esek from killing her for daring to approach her at a later date. The opening chapter hints that there's a dark brutality in Six, and you get to see it in impressive terms.

There's a few time jumps between chapters, going forwards and backwards, which at first made some things a bit confusing but stick with it because at one point a single chapter brings it all together in a proper "holy shit" way. That turned this from a good book to this is actually incredible, and I want more!

It becomes an impressive debut book that has a lot of depth and richness to it. It's also brutal, with action scenes to thrill and high stakes throughout. There's a lot of history for the galaxy this is set in and there's so much more to be explored. I don't know where this is going to go, but I love that. The next instalment won't be the same thanks to one particular chapter spinning this novel on its head, but I'm here for the ride and I'm ready for more.

Rating: 5/5