Really smart, stylish SFF which benefits from brushing up on your Roman history first - there are better sentences and more ideas in here than in the vast, vast majority of its peers.

i sadly DNFed this at 33%. i was excited by the idea of a sci-fi retelling but it was very boring. the relationship formed really quickly and i didn't like the way the unreliable narration was executed.

Thank you netgalley!

This left me feeling somewhat indifferent. On one hand, the world-building is good. The vivid setting draws readers into a realm of adventure and danger. However, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing. The pacing of the story felt uneven, with moments of excitement interspersed with slower, more contemplative scenes. Additionally, I struggled to connect with the characters on a deeper level, which made it difficult for me to fully invest in their journey.
Overall, this may appeal to fans of fantasy literature. While it didn't quite captivate me as much as I had hoped, it still offers an entertaining escape into a world of magic and adventure for those willing to give it a chance.

I would have rated this book even higher if it was a little bit shorter, there is a lot packed into this brutal book. I do not use the word brutal lightly.
Some books begin in a manner that gives you a broader approach to the World and the way things work. This is not one of those books. Any information that we glean, we have to work for it. The complex political system between the planets and the way that they have managed to survive, the different clans of people and their backgrounds, everything takes its own time to sink in.
When we first enter this World, a princess is on her way to leave her home planet as she is being hunted by her sister. All is complex, and slowly, with flashes into the past, the truth is revealed. This extravagant space opera (I think I am using the terminology right) feels like part of a larger narrative, but it is actually quite self-sufficient in its moral and the established status quo towards the end.
The political machinations result in a lot of bloodshed, most of which are well documented to the extent that I may have skipped a couple of paragraphs to avoid getting too clear an image.
The author is skilled in setting the scene, and the reader can feel like they are physically present in the centre of all the action. There is a romance in the middle of everything, one that the story sort of revolves around beyond a point. I may not have come away with the exact understanding of how relationships work in this World, but I found it to be a very complex affair.
I would recommend this to fans of the sci-fi genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I ended up DNFing this book. It just was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

4 Stars - Very confident, but not an easy read

When I heard about the release of this Sci-Fi retelling of the life of Cleopatra and her political and private entanglements with Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony I was immediately intrigued to find out how Emery Robin would transport and transform this story into a future setting. And I was not disappointed!

While the events do take place on a star system far, far away, the narration is clearly staying rather close to the ancient political and cultural landscape. The names differ, but it is very obvious that Ceiao is Rome, Sintia is Greece and Szayet is Egypt. Even the descriptions of the cities, palaces, art and decorations feel like they come more or less straight out of a historical novel - which is not to say that they they feel in any way at odds with the futuristic setting. In that way the world building reminded me strongly of the Dune universe and its seemingly effortless amalgamation of futuristic and feudal elements.

Robin does also take some liberties in the details - Altagracia has a twin sister and there is a copy of the "Soul" of the founder of the dynasty in a Pearl (which is a powerful computer) that serves as legitimization for the ruler and also as an advisor. But the political machinations, Altagracias struggle to maintain sovereignty while facing an ever hungry empire is very much true to the historical inspiration.

The most impressive part of The Stars Undying is the writing though, which is incredibly strong and confident. Especially considering that this is a debut I was really, really impressed!
Emery Robin also does not hold your hand whatsoever and dares to leave the narration to highly unreliable narrators - particularly Altagracia keeps quite a few very pertinent parts of the story to herself for a long time. So as a reader you do have to pay attention, piece together the politics between the lines, the insinuations, threats and and implications couched in seemingly innocuous dialogue.

This does lead me to my one gripe though - I felt a lot of the time that I actually did not get the insinuations and there were quite a few dialogues that absolutely went over my head. Still, I absolutely do appreciate the confidence in the reader.

Highly recommended to readers who appreciate Science Fiction with a bit more meat to it and some literary appeal. If you like Dune you are going to like this one as well!

This book was a slow burn for me! I found the beginning very hard to get into, the pacing was slow, there was a lot of dense worldbuilding & info dumps. I’m also not very familiar with the history of Caesar/Cleopatra/Anthony, so there was probably context that I completely missed! But once I got into it, I loved it, all that slow burn set up in the first half paid off in the best way! The politics were complex and intriguing, the main characters were well fleshed out and honestly some of the most unreliable narration I’ve come across. I found myself looking up the history the book is based on after finishing as I found myself needing more! Can’t wait for the next book!

I really struggled with this - as evidenced by the fact it took me over five months to finally write a review.

I'll start with the things I did enjoy. The world building was fantastic, I loved the detailed descriptions Robin and could really envisage the worlds and settings. I was also drawn in by the premise of the book, a Cleopatra retelling in space? It sounded so good!

But the plot just lost me. There were so many characters, the timeline was all over the place and my attention just drifted so many times whilst reading. It took me a while but I did manage to get to the end which left me with the conclusion this book was just not for me. The pace was too slow and it was just too dense for my mood at the time.

Thank you so much to Orbit and Netgalley for the ARC.

The Stars Undying by Emery Robin is a stunning science fiction novel that cleverly weaves themes of love, loss, and the human condition into a story based on the relationship between Cleopatra and Caesar. The novel is a compelling exploration of the consequences of power and the importance of connection and empathy in a society ruled by technology. Robin's skillful writing captures the essence of the historical figures while immersing them in a futuristic setting, creating a unique and thought-provoking experience for readers. The novel is a must-read for fans of science fiction and historical fiction alike, showcasing the author's talent for blending genres and creating unforgettable characters.

dnfed at 25%.

probably just not a book for me or i haven't been in the right headspace for it. i was really excited reading the summary. reimagined lives of cleopatra, mark antony, and julius caesar in a cool scfi space opera? but this was not a book i was excited to get back into and could only manage a few pages at a time even though it felt like i had been reading for hours. i've been reading it on and off since around october and finally decided i really didn't want to nor care to continue, unfortunately.

the start is very info dumpy with a lot of names that were difficult for me to keep track of. the writing style was also hard to get into though i do think it fits the book. it just isn't something i gelled with. i still don't actually remember anyone's name or who most people are other than their historical counterparts.

i think people who like slow, pov-jumping space operas and have a good memory for names and places would enjoy this more than i could manage.

The Stars Undying was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, and ultimately, I think it suffered a little bit for my high expectations.

This is obviously a great book - Anthony & Cleopatra, reimagined in space, starting with the romance between Cleopatra and Cesar, with Alexander the Great being a tiny pearl/god in her ear? Super creative setting, I love it. I also had a blast with Altagracia, who proved to be a delightfully unreliable narrator, which is something I always love seeing in books.

Since I wasn't too familiar with the history and play this was based on, the plot did never feel predictable, but I feel that even if I were much more well-versed in the inspiration, the original spin Robin put on this would still have made for a super fun reading experience.

Ultimately, the biggest and pretty much only issue I had with this book was just that it dragged at times. The writing style was quite flowery and beautiful, but it sometimes felt like that was to the detriment of the plot. Even when things were moving, sometimes the writing simply felt too convoluted for the scenes to work, and it kind of took me out of the experience. Reading it felt a little bit like a chore at times, the flowery prose then felt forced rather than organic, but that's a totally subjective thing.

All things considered, I really enjoyed reading this and I am very excited to read the next book in the Empire Without End series.

Some debut novels have modest ambitions. Tell a story, explore some themes, draw some characters, let it out into the world and hope it flies.

Then there are some debuts like The Stars Undying. Emery Robin takes inspiration from the history of the Roman Empire, Egypt’s Ptolemaic era, Shakespeare’s plays, and weaves an epic space opera with interstellar avatars of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and Caesar Augustus. Robin may not quite reach Shakespearean prose, but the sweeping arc and tragic rise and fall of the characters certainly show that the homework was done.

Princess Altagracia has lost everything. Her father dead, her sister claiming the throne of Szayet, her army decimated, her funds lost, she bets everything on the longest of long shots.

Matheus Ceirran is the Ceian commander who leads the military. Although Szayet is a backwater planet in a distant region with a decrepit capital city long past its glory days and dominated by a strange religion, Ceirran has followed a fugitive and former lover to the capital city of Alectelo where he debarks to remind the locals of the power of the empire.

In Alectelo, Ceirran is first surprised when the reigning queen greets him with a box containing the severed head of his fugitive. Later he is surprised at another present. A box of rugs arrives at his office, a box of rugs that also contains the Princess Altagracia. In a move driven by her desperation, she smuggles herself into the office and snuggles herself into the affections of the most powerful military man in the galaxy.

Rulers of Szayet wear a specific pearl in their ear. This pearl, a biogenetic computer engineered by a forgotten process, supposedly contains the life and spirit of Alekso the Undying, the greatest ruler of Szayet. Alekso consults with the rulers, offering his brilliance and insight, his experience and his strategic genius, and raises the rulers to the level of prophets.

Young women presenting themselves in the office of a conquering military commander, regardless of how willing they are to play upon his desires, have little beyond the obvious to offer. That is not enough for the commander to back their cause. However, Princess Altagracia offers something new, something that every conquering commander angling to rule an empire might want.

Godhood. Immortality. The opportunity to be undying.

A reimagining of the bloody, messy, tragic and epic lives of people whose legends have long outlived their empires. Robin opens a career with a debut novel that promises the stars. For at least this reader, it delivered them.

This debut space opera is full of beautiful, lush descriptions of the various planets and their people, along with political intrigue, double-crossing, bloody battles, decadent party scenes, sarcasm and wit, and clever dialogue. Riffing off the ancient history of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, and setting it in a faraway galaxy, this fantastic novel twists and turns and strikes like a deadly snake, and will keep you guessing until the final page.

I’ll be honest and say that this one took a couple of attempts for me to get into, but once I did and the story began to develop, I was pulled in and really enjoyed this. I loved the reimagining of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar in spaces and I enjoyed the slow burn political drama. There isn’t much in the way of big actions in this - instead, this is a novel that takes its time to build up the world and characters. While moments sometimes felt a bit philosophical and deep, the didn’t bother me too much - I felt that they provided more insight into the characters, rather than detracting from the story.

This is one I think I will be re-reading and I feel like there will be more to uncover second time round. I’m also really hoping there is a sequel to this - if this follows Cleopatra’s life (in a way), I’m intrigued to see what happens next with Marc Anthony’s (or at least the character inspired by Marc Anthony) influence.

I have always been interested in Roman history, particularly Julius Caesar, since I had a picture book on Roman legions as a child. I studied Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at O-level and Antony and Cleopatra at A-level, have read multiple biographies of Caesar, histories of the Roman Republic and Empire, even struggled through a few fictionalised versions of the dictator’s life. But I have rarely, if ever, before come across a book which adds so much perspective to this period of history, and the protagonists, by taking the characters and themes and dropping them into a completely different time, and space, adding depth and making the story brand new.

It is difficult to comprehend that THE STARS UNDYING is a debut novel, so assured is Emery Robin in drawing realistic, flawed characters an giving them a voice different from any of the histories and biographies. The story of Gracia and Ceirran, and of Ana, can be read as a standalone space opera, full of political intrigue and empire-building, and would, I imagine, be thoroughly satisfying; but if the reader knows that Gracia is Cleopatra, Ceirran is Caesar, Ana is Mark Antony, and so on, it adds a deeper understanding of both the novel and its characters and of the historical figures on which they are based. It is not perfect, the alternating view points of Gracia and Ceirran can be a little overwhelming, and it might have benefited from a glossary, such are the number of characters; but it is a hugely entertaining, moving, and impressive debut.

Robin knows the history and many of the expected events, and some of the myths, are present - the carpet, the dictator’s triumph, a stunning echo of Pompey’s treatment by the Egyptians which takes the breath away - but there are also little touches which make the initiated smile, without ever detracting from the flow of the novel, such as ‘Ceiao’s greatest speaker’, Cachoerian, being so susceptible to flattery that ‘the same flattery worked every time’ just as was Rome’s greatest speaker, Cicero.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is the new light is sheds on Cleopatra. The previous books I have read, great though many of them are, are dominated by the male protagonists, Cleopatra being very much relegated to supporting character. Here, Gracia is as strong, stronger, than her male counterparts, she really drives the political manoeuvring in the plot. She is, by her own admission, a liar, an unreliable novel, but she is strong and assured, ruthless, and, even at the end of the book, I am still unsure what to make of her. But I look forward to finding out.

I hate doing this bur after I struggled with trying to continue this for almost a month I've decided to dnf this book for now (read: 34%).
The beginning was really interesting, fast paced and with intricate worldbuilding. I was really invested and both characters perspectives were captivating.
And than it was like I just hit a wall. A part of it was that I just couldn't understand why Ceirran changes sides that quickly. Just because he slept with Gracia once? She didn't offer him any deal or anything and her sister had already offered him everything he wanted so why? My asexual self was just more than a little confused. That itself wouldn't have made me dnf this (maybe it gets cleared up later) but at around this time the plot also becomes a total slog. Continuing felt like a fight.
So I decided to dnf this. For now. I might return to this book another time and if I do I will update this review.

I do want to like this book but there are some moments that didn't stick the landing for me and sometimes when I put down the book, it is not memorable. It is heavily political like the City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett but The Stars Undying is quite dragging and slow.

First of all, I wanted to say that the world-building was very good, I loved the settings and the vivid descriptions of the worlds, I also enjoyed the premise of the plot, which was what intrigued me about the book in the first place. The characters were also good and believe me when I say that there are A LOT of characters, but I think that’s where my praise ends. This was a slog of a book, it jumps wildly all over the place, in time, and in places so much that I had to continuously go back paragraphs to make sure I had not missed anything. I did finish the book, but it offered no revelations and honestly, I was relieved when I was finished.

"The Stars Undying" has one of the most intriguing premises a book can have for me: a space opera version of Caesar and Cleopatra, with a woman taking Marcus Antonius's role? Perfection. I did enjoy Robin's debut in a lot of ways, but ultimately it was a rather forgettable affair, unlike the book's source of inspiration.

It's a well-written book and I enjoyed the world-building with lots of sci-fi words - that are confusing at first, admittedly, but you get used to them quickly. Now, the world-building isn't all too complex, and you don't actually learn much about all these planets and systems our Caesar, Ceirran, is happily conquering. But there's enough to keep the reader interested, and the main focus is not what happens on these planets anyway. It's a book about clever characters manouvering politically, it's about court intrigue.
I liked both our pov characters, Ceirran and Gracia, though my favourite character is easily Ana, our Marcus Antonius. It took me a while to warm up to them all, and other than Ana there are no actual likeable characters in there and their characterization is often a little inconsistent, but they're complex and interesting.
As expected, there's a lot of political manouvering, and while I very much enjoy that, it also got a little repetitive after a while. The rather slow pace of, especially, the middle part of the book made the most fascinating aspects of the story - Gracia's relationship with her God (an AI type being based on, I'd wager, Alexander the Great) and her plans to turn Ceirran into an immortal God as well - get dragged down a bit. Maybe the book was just too long for its contents. There are a loooot of people and places and events happening in the background, a lot of concepts and themes woven throughout, but because of the slow pacing and the way the story is constructed, none of them really matter too much in the end.

"The Stars Undying" is an impressive debut, a challenging read due to its pacing and sheer density both of content and form. I recommend it for people interested in a new take on Cleopatra's story, but most of all politics-focused, slow space operas with epic battles that only ever take place in the background of the story.
3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this title, in exchange for this honest review.

I’d also like to apologize for how late this review is, as this book released quite a while ago. Luckily I managed to finish it a few days ago and I really loved it. It’s definitely what I mean when I say I want more sci-fi and fantasy based off of the ancient Mediterranean. It’s absolutely packed with references and inspirations of the ancient world, yet still strong enough a story to stand on its own. I especially loved the amount of political intrigue, which took up most of this book. It also has an unreliable narrator, which is a thing I absolutely loved!

I was lucky enough to receive both an e- and an audiobook arc of this, so I read it though a mix of both. Though it was mainly the audiobook. I mostly enjoyed the narrators, but the female one’s voice was slightly annoying from time to time and the male sometimes a bit too slow for my liking.

This review will be up on my Instagram, @Kratist0, sometime between now and mid January.