#These Burning Stars

[wizardsvslesbians]

In a move designed to frustrate this podcast specifically, a really good story has been hamstrung by the addition of boring lesbians and alarming philosemitism.

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

There are many reasons that more people should read These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs but the number one reason as far as I'm concerned is too get more fanart of Liis

[arnieb95]

For the ask meme: I'm pretty sure I know the answers, but I want to help you spread them to your followers: favorite book over 500 pages and favorite book under 300 pages?

You definitely know my current answer to both of these questions, but I'm definitely more than happy to spread the word. To anyone that follows me, I HIGHLY recommend reading both of these books and would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

My favorite book over 500 pages would be These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs, which I cannot recommend enough. Messy women with religious trauma committing war crimes in space on a quest for revenge and uncovering a dark secret from a powerful family.

My favorite book under 300 pages would by A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon. This novella is a masterclass in portraying emotion that's perfect for any millennial who grew up watching magical girl shows like I did. It also provides an excellent commentary on modern issues, especially the problems women face today.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

These Burning Stars

political space fantasy

follows an infamous heir to the Nightfoot empire and a stoic cleric who are hunting down a figure from their past - the cleric’s classmate who the heir challenged to impress her, or die trying

and a hacker/thief who’s gotten her hands on something that could implicate the Nightfoot family in a planet-wide genocide

sapphic & nonbinary characters

[victoreli]

reading these burning stars and never have i seen two characters who are so held back because they are not having gay sex i swear. esek and chono if they boned once would fix them

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

Shout out to toxic fvcked up mentor/mentee relationships that are 100% platonic and never ever turn out to be sexual or romantic in anyway.

I love you toxic fvcked up mentor/mentee relationships that are 100% platonic and never ever turn out to be sexual or romantic in anyway.

You are so tasty and delicious and tragic bonus points if in addition to mentoring there's a parental figure subtext as well. GOOD FOOD

This post is specifically in honour of Chono & Esek from These Burning Stars and Caiden & Threi from Nophek Gloss. Yall will always be famous!!!!

[mistwraiths]

5 stars

I loved every bit of this book!

The cat-and-mouse chase between Esek and Six, Chono and Jun's chapters were all so extremely interesting. Each reveal was expertly placed to give us new information and shine new light on something else or a new direction. The fact that each character's story is expertly woven together was just chef's kiss.

One of my complaints was that casting was described pretty vaguely so I don't understand it super well.

But I loved the worldbuilding and the characters and the plot. The ending!!!!! I can't wait to see how the story progresses.

[rhetoricandlogic]

DNF at 56%. I can't take it anymore. The structure of the book is divided in current day events and past in alternating chapters. Every chapter set in the past is detailing a psychopath given unquestioned leeway to murder her way across multiple starsystems. There's so much gore and rape, it's exhausting: particularly since the time difference between past and present is around 20 years and one of the MC's keeps obsessively mass murdering her way acrose the universe. No change, no growth, no resistance from society, the other MC or even the hidden protagonist. The technology level is highly fluctuating and frankly, more fantasy than SF. Hackers and other computer-savy people are "casters" like in spell casting and its description is exactly like that: lyrical with no glimpse of technology. Same goes for the medical procedures: regrowth of a limb and several cosmetic mods: no problem, but DNA tracking seems to be unknown. Same goes for the spaceships. We don't get any technical detail - it's all handwavey: the small Warbird where the distance from one protagonists cabin to the others is 30 yards - not so small at all then? The travel based on the substance the whole conflict is about: it burns. That's it. Wait no, it's black with red striations and on contact with oxygen it ages and loses its color in about 100 years. Like a pearl. Nothing more. Gender identity is dealt with in the form of gender-tags (no further information given on how that works), which can be switched at a moments notice and are of no further impact. As a non-native English speaker coming from a gendered language I'm always interested to see what authors do with this setting and I must say, if I compare Ancillary Justice to These Burning Stars Ann Leckie comes out the winner in terms of detail, precision and impact. The Jeveni genocide and Remembrance Day. By description of their language alone I'd say these are a stand-in for the Jewish people and - since I didn't finish the book - I can't say how this will play out, but it is certainly a dangerous path, putting them into a sci-fantasy. The author substitutes real world words with in-world words (champagne, for example) but keeps to real world idioms (takes to it like fish to water). I don't know. I'm out.

[secretly-a-trekkie]

gimme 5 seasons of murder mysteries in coruscant rn Disney. or else.

[may12324]

Astarion - Little Star

[venusbloo]

ARC Review: These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

Book: These Burning Stars Author: Bethany Jacobs Pages: 517 Source: Orbit Publisher: Orbit Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera Publication Date: October 17, 2023 Goodreads Summary: A dangerous cat-and-mouse quest for revenge. An empire that spans star systems, built on the bones of a genocide. A carefully hidden secret that could collapse worlds, hunted by three women with secrets of their own.…

[yennyinc]

Isn’t that worth holding on?

[arnieb95]

Review of On Vicious Worlds by Bethany Jacobs (contains spoilers below the cut for the end of These Burning Stars)

Thank you to Orbit Books and Bethany Jacobs for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bethany Jacobs did it once again, her debut These Burning Stars was one of the best books that I have ever read and it is safe to say that On Vicious Worlds did not disappoint in the slightest. I had signed up for NetGalley precisely so that I could read this book as soon as possible, and it is definitely the best book I've read all year. Legitimately, I cannot praise this series enough and I am constantly baffled that it is not more popular than it is.

Picking up where These Burning Stars left off, On Vicious Worlds follows Chono, Six, and Jun into the Treble, a space system controlled by the three branches of the Kindom, both church and government in one, in the wake of the Jevenis' escape from the hands of those who would wish to enslave them or complete their genocide begun a hundred years earlier. While the first book was more action-packed, this sequel focuses more on interpersonal issues: who can you trust, what does it mean to be intimate with someone else, how far would you go for someone you loved and defined your life around? This is, of course, not to say there aren't intense action scenes where the characters lives are on the line and Jacobs gets your heart pounding and hurting for them, since that definitely happens, in fact, these relationships and themes developed add even more weight to these moments, for you begin to truly feel for the characters, as messy and often terrible as they are.

This leads me to one of my absolute favorite parts of Jacobs' writing, namely that she doesn't shy away from writing messy complicated women who are no paragons of virtue, but would even burn down the universe and destroy entire planets, betraying countless innocents, to protect someone that they love or an ideal that they hold. This leads to a constant theme of complete and utter devotion, bordering on obsession, that drives the plot and characters forward.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the first book of the Kindom Trilogy, anyone who loves epic space operas full of characters that you love and hate in equal measure, morally grey women devoted to their causes, and anyone who is looking for the next best scifi series. I cannot say enough how much I love this book.

[tymp3st]

These Burning Stars

We are well into spooky season and I’m not even sure what to do with myself about it. Gotta make sure the decorations are up and the candy bowl is full. But I get to take a break from that to talk about books just now. And this is a book worth talking about even though I’m not sure I did it particularly well. This one is thanks to netGalley. Here’s Bethany Jacobs’ These Burning Stars.…

[miothle]

Like fyreflies to a flame...