Starless

587 pages

English language

Published Sept. 22, 2018

ISBN:
978-0-7653-8682-3
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OCLC Number:
1007499218

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4 stars (8 reviews)

Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert. In a world where exiled gods live among mortals, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction. To keep Zariya alive, Khai's only hope lies with an unlikely crew of prophecy-seekers, on a journey that will take them farther beneath the starless skies than anyone can imagine. And Khai is unaware there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him....-- adapted from jacket.

1 edition

Review of 'Starless' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Kind of disappointing, to be honest. I love Carey's Kushiel's Dart series and I was expecting another story with the same sort of epic impact. I think that this story could have been easily stretched out into a trilogy, and I think that's the reason that I found it so difficult to be invested in it. The true action of the story didn't even start until 300-400 pages in. For so much time spent with Khai going through his education and training process, it didn't really seem to have much of an impact on the end of the story. He was a good fighter and he killed a lot :shrug:

This story was missing the same depth that the Kushiel's Dart series has. Everything was too easy. Every step was laid out before the characters and they followed the plan. By the time Khai and Zariya met up with the …

Review of 'Starless' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I've had a bit of a reading slump. I've tried to read several books in the past 4 months and just could not get very far into them. Either they weren't well formatted on Kindle or the stories and writing were okay just not engaging me. This story was exactly what I needed!

This is Carey at her best. I enjoyed this book almost as much as I enjoyed the Kushiel's Legacy series, which is my favorite series. While it appears to be a stand-alone, I'd be right at the front of the pre-orders for a sequel.

The world-building is amazing and Carey creates a world unlike any other. Her characters are engaging and diverse. I really can't do a review of this story justice; this is a highly recommend, go get it now and read it!

Review of 'Starless' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This has some kind of weird pacing problems that you're probably familiar with if you've read Carey before: the first two-thirds are the hero growing up and meeting their soulmate: the last third is a breakneck saving-the-world adventure with a company of heroes.

I dunno who to recommend this to, either. In some ways it feels like you should read this if you liked David Eddings or Raymond Feist, but it has a genderqueer protagonist, which I do not believe is a thing either of those authors would be likely to do. I dunno, man, read it if you're nostalgic for nineties fantasy but want to avoid the suck fairy.

Khai has been raised to be the 'shadow' to the princess Zariya, a kind of warrior/bodyguard/companion. (He's also been raised as a boy without being informed that most boys do not have his anatomy, and is pretty upset when he …

Review of 'Starless' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A wonderful story about two persons born in the same moment destined to be "soul twins" and finding their destiny amidst a dire prophecy coming to pass. While I generally do not like a lot of prophetic fore-shadowing JC has never disappointed in her ability to weave this seamlessly into the story. However, this book is dominated so much by prophecy that even with her ability to make it palatable I was a little over it by the end.

The story Khai and Zariya is wonderfully told and I enjoyed every second of it.

Khai raised by desert monks to be a bodyguard to the princess born in the same moment in the shadow of the moon only gets to meet her charge when they are both 16 years old. While Khai is an accomplished fighter by that time the princess has been raised solely in the palace's women's quarters. …

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Subjects

  • Bodyguards
  • Gods
  • Quests (Expeditions)
  • Fiction