Defy The Stars by Claudia Gray Series: Constellation #1
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on 2017 April 04
Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera
Pages: 528
Format: E-book
Source: Purchased
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She's a soldier - Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she's a rebel.
He's a machine - Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel's advanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he's an abomination.
Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they're not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they're forced to question everything they'd been taught was true.
Fast-paced, romantic, and captivating, Defy The Stars is a story about what it means to be human, about deciding what you truly believe in, and about finding your place in a dangerous world.
I wish I could defy my feelings after reading Defy The Stars… wish I could fool myself that the actual story is as awesome as the premise. Unfortunately, I’ve spent countless of days just staring at the screen of my Kobo, never really absorbing what the words meant. I guess this is a case of “it’s not the book, it’s me” problem. The whole time that I was reading Defy the Stars, I was just bored. I was expecting a humorous and full of bloopers storytelling (particularly that our male protag is a mech/robot who’s becoming more and more sentient) but I was instead treated to a journey that felt painfully long.
I don’t know but I really wished to be emotionally invested with this book considering the circumstances our characters are in. A mech and a human falling inlove with each other. But I didn’t feel the struggle that should be there. There were times that I felt so detached. I have a hard time relating to Noemi. It was like knowing a person on a superficial level. And I even have a hard time believing that she’s feisty, brave, and compassionate. Abel was more relatable. As for the supporting characters, it’s lucky that I have a good memory for names. Otherwise, I could’ve sworn that Ephraim, Virginia, Zayan, Harriet, and Riko were just products of my dizziness from too much space traveling.
The book also feels too religiony that it made me uncomfortable. At one point, I found myself praying for Claudia Gray not to go all-out preaching. Thankfully, she didn’t go down that path. But still…
All in all, Defy the Stars has all the potential to be a really good book but it just never reached that level. I might still read the sequel since, with a tweak here and there, things could still turn around for the better. And of course, I’m really hoping that the series would evolve into a space opera which would be amazing. I’ve heard that Claudia Gray has written Star Wars novels and that they’re pretty good.