This novel was so enjoyable and even better than first expected. You may know Maria V Snyder for her Poison Study series, well this complex YA sci-fi knocks it out of the ball park.
World Building & Plot
I personally love a good sci-fi read and as a bit of science nerd who knows probably 2% about science and space, this book was truly a fun learning experience even though the science was heavily intertwined with fiction. One of the things that can be quite confusing in this novel is the concept of time in space and it forms a huge aspect of the story. While it can be a little confusing to fully understand it at the start, the concept in this novel is ingenious.
Basically, when you’re going to a planet, it takes, let’s say, 60 days to get there, so once you get there it’s been 60 days and you’re 60 days older. However, because they haven’t invented the technology for it yet, even though it might’ve taken you 60 days to get there, 40 years have actually lapsed in the planet you just left. Therefore, once you arrive at this new planet, everyone you knew at your old planet is 40 years older. It’s not just a little crazy, it’s crazy crazy!
The way Maria wrote this concept might’ve been confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty amazing. Her world building and the plot is very solid as we are introduced to Lyra, the protagonist whom we already read the point of view from throughout the whole book. She’s been travelling from planet to planet numerous times because her parents are archaeologists researching terracotta warriors that have somehow appeared across a lot of various planets, even though they’re from an ancient Chinese dynasty (like the warriors that protect that famous Emperor in real life). The big mystery of their work is to find out what brought these warriors there and how did they do it?
Since Lyra has travelled so many times, she understands and grasps the concept of living on a ship and at a research base for a long time (especially the whole leaving friends behind kind of thing), and Maria’s descriptions of life there is so interesting. Especially soc-time; the mandatory 2-hour socialisation session all kids up to the age of 18 must have. I won’t say anymore to avoid spoilers but I personally really enjoyed how she set the world-building and the story and it was just so succinct.
The plot was great overall. Many times the action was bewildering and it felt so real and had me on edge. It reminded me a lot of Illuminae in how the action was depicted and it gave me goosebumps at times. Another thing that was very enjoyable was the huge Asian representation. The main character, Lyra, is mixed Asian and because of those cool Chinese terracotta warriors, all the planets where they were found have Chinese names. Yes, I may have skimmed them all because I cannot read Chinese or Pinying but points for effort. This hit so close to home because as an Asian girl, it’s cool to read more about Asian things sometimes in YA books. I’ve never felt this connected and grateful to diversity in YA.
Characters
Lyra was a likeable character, she had a funny kind of snark and was pretty sarcastic. It was great reading the way her relationships with the other characters including her parents were described and developed. Her worming ability is another cool similarity to Kady’s hacking in Illuminae, and the introduction of worming and the Q-net was well written as well. The love interest, whatshisname, was also an interesting character that was originally the stereotypical brooding boy but turned into quite a realistic character. It was so great seeing them as they started to like each other cause I’m a sucker for the hate to love trope.
This book also featured some great parents. Although they spend so much of their time working (and what other readers might say it another trope of the absent parents in YA), they were sweet and so caring. The other side characters were also pretty great, amusing and had more depth than expected.
Writing
While most of the book was very well written, the writing is unfortunately the only minor downfall. The copy I was provided was an advanced one so it’s less likely that there would’ve been any major changes in certain written parts which in unfortunate since there were some parts of the book that had me cringe a little. Not because of what was happening but because sometimes, the anecdotal writing style just didn’t fit.
Reading Lyra’s point of view was fine for most of the book but when she sometimes seems to be talking to the reader specifically or to her “diary” as you might call this writing style, it didn’t always fit so well for the context of the situation. It’s evident what Maria was going for in creating a connection with the reader and getting some more humour in there, but personally, I didn’t particularly enjoy those tiny bits. Other than that, the writing was awesome. The dialogue and the flow of the writing was lovely and it honestly leaves you wanting to read more and more.
Overall
This was a great read that was super enjoyable. It had action, romance, science-y stuff, and Asian representation to its core. We’re definitely excited for the next book because that ending will leave you wanting more. The plot twists, the action, the suspense, this book is highly recommended to any YA sci-fi lovers.
A big thank you to HarperCollins Australia and Harlequin Teen Australia for kindly sending The Nerd Daily the review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Navigating The Stars is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Have you read Navigating The Stars? Or will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Navigating the Stars is the first book in a new science fiction series.
Terra Cotta Warriors have been discovered on other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. And Lyra Daniels’ parents are the archaeological Experts (yes with a capital E) on the Warriors and have dragged her to the various planets to study them despite the time dilation causing havoc with her social life.
When one of the many Warrior planets goes silent, and looters attack her research base, Lyra becomes involved in discovering why the Warriors were placed on these planets. And, more importantly, by who.
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