I kept putting off reading this but I shouldn’t have because it was AMAZING! I loved it so much! It is fast paced and full of suspense and has such great world building without being info dumpy. I absolutely adore the characters and their dynamics. The slow burn and the angst and tension was so good. The plot and the characters had me hooked and after that ending I will be reading the sequel asap!

I started this book a long time after I acquired it on my virtual shelf. This basically means that I did not have a chance to get the next two books in my hand when I could have. I might find my way to them at some point, but it’s not any time soon.

There are space adventures that make sense to me, while others usually pass me by. I liked the unique concept brought forth here. The surprising twist as well as the overall logic of printable bodies made for interesting reading. It is not a small volume by any measure and it is only the first of three. Even with just reading this book I feel like I’ve experienced a somewhat complete narrative.

The space travelling humans have moved beyond the human body in the version we know it now. The printing of the bodies and special ‘pathways’ help this new world travel through space and unfriendly terrain. What they don’t realise is their biggest issue might be travelling with them.

The action is tight and so is the plot. I would love to finish the series at some point, and recommend it to fans of the genre.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

There are a lot of good things in this book, and for a good while, I was totally captivated by the story and the world. The tech in there is fascinating, and there are some cool things with strong moral implications, as you can expect from a good sci-fi book, and I was there for it. And for some time I also enjoyed the characters. Our MCs are Tarquin, the scion of one of the most powerful families in the universe, and Naira, a rebel who is pretending to be Tarquin's bodyguard (it is a bit more complicated than this, and it is made possible thanks to the complicated tech that they have, but still, it is pretty accurate and it gives you an idea of who we are following around. Discovering how Naira is there is a mystery that intrigued me a lot, and it is the only thing that made me doubt my DNF of this one, but in the end, it wasn't enough).
Anyway, Tarquind and Naira are interesting characters but... but their interactions are constantly shaded by the fact that there are things that they don't know about each other, and in the beginning wasn't so bad, but I became frustrated very quickly with it. And what's more, Naira is impossible to please when we talk about Tarquin and... I get her, sure, but it became too much pretty soon. I was just so irked by this! It was so annoying for me that slowly poisoned my reading experience and I wasn't keen on going on.
He does a thing, and she hates him for it because he is the pampered scion and he doesn't understand life. Then he does something that contradicts this point of view, and she hates him for it all the same. There is simply not winning with her, and it is so annoying because she is just so set on hating him that she contradicts herself time and again in the things she hates him for.
It was sooooooooo annoying, and at one point it was just too much for me.

This was such a compelling and utterly engrossing book and I loved it. I thought the world building was excellent and the concept of re-printing bodies was fascinating. I particularly appreciated the detail about 'cracking' which I thought ensured a healthy dose of fear of dying despite the ability to re-print. The characters were great and although some of them were a little bit stereotypical at times, the growth and depth was well done. The plot was interesting and just kept expanding, which I really appreciated and I thought the overall concept of the Shroud and Canus was pretty horrifying. Overall, an excellent first book in a series that has me eagerly anticipating the next installment.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I decided to give this a go a little while after binge reading a load of the Murderbot books, and it definitely met my space opera with action requirement. The sci-fi wasn't too heavy and I think there was a good balance of all the good things; great characters, action, plot, banter, a little romance, intrigue and it was quite dark in places with moments of horror. I'll be reading the next one and checking out the author's previous series soon.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

I can only apologise for it taking me almost a year to get round to reading this but WOW! I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, it takes me a while to get my head around the new worlds and the science involved in it, but with the characters in this book were really strong and well developed and I got pulled into the story easily. In a world where most humans live on protected stations due to the planets being destroyed by a fungal shroud released due to mining practices by one of the five leading families, humans minds are stored as data and printed into new bodies. A former security agent for the Mercator family has been frozen so her consciousness cannot be printed into a body - until she is used to take the blame for a sabotage that itself goes wrong. Naira and Tarquin (the son and heir of the Mercator family) end up stranded on one of the destroyed planets and have to fight against a biological conspiracy that goes much deeper than anybody was aware of. I absolutely demolished this book and the only benefit to my lack of speed getting to this book is I can dive straight into book two!

Thank you publisher for the advance copy! Looking forward to the next sequel! O'Keefe's space opera and sci-fi stories are captivating and engaging.

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a proof copy! <3


i am not a scifi person. i find it quite difficult to parse what's actually going on, and the scientific discussions tend to leave me feeling a bit confused. something all my favourite scifis have in common though, is fantastic character work. they are distinct and interesting and multifaceted. you can imagine what they would do in a hypothetical situation, because you feel like you *know* them. with characters like that, i can be absolutely be on board the spaceship. the blighted stars is one of those books.

something i love about speculative stories is that the core of it, the true meat of the book, is applicable anywhere. maybe not the aliens or the parasitical mushrooms or the FTL travel, but the families reeling from loss and losing themselves to grief. the weight of needing to do something you know is right, even if it goes against what you have been taught to believe your entire life. the falling in love with someone, and it making you look at yourself and the world from a different perspective. i loved following these characters as they did all of these things, and the twists and reveals we got along the way ended up just being a bonus.

at times i find 'dude scifi' to be quite cold and unflinching, as if it's not a genre for me. but authors like megan e. o'keefe and becky chambers and aliette de bodard are proving that assumption wrong in every work they publish and i for one am along for the ride.

i have just downloaded this author's first series onto my kindle, and i can't wait to see what other worlds she imagines and other characters i will grow to love/hate.

I absolutely loved this book. I love the enemies to lovers trope as much as the next person and on that front this book did not disappoint. I am a fast reader and love to devour books in one or two sittings if they keep my attention and this one certainly did!

This novel is fast paced and action packed but for me was too long and could’ve easily lost the silly romance between the two main characters (perhaps I’m just an old grouch). There’s lots of interesting scifi ideas not least the mapping of peoples brains and printing them out on a new body with lots of enhanced pathways powered by a fancy mineral. There’s a threat by a fungus, the shroud destroying earth like planets where the fancy mineral is mined.
Most of the book takes place on the planet Sixth Cradle and moves between the points of view of Tarquin, a member of the rich family that mines the mineral and Naira, who has been printed into another persons body. There are other points of view and I would’ve preferred more of these to get a better overview of the civilisation. It’s a complicated setup and hard to explain. I found myself interested for at least the first half of the book and then just wishing it would get on with it as I got towards the end. There’s a lot of action in the last few chapters setting up the next book in the series. Not sure I’ll continue with it.

I’m a huge fan of Megan E. O’Keefe‘s Protectorate trilogy and couldn’t have been more excited about her new space opera. The expectations were high for sure, and while The Blighted Stars turned out to give off a very different kind of vibe, it was all that I hoped for and more. It’s “just” another typical space adventure as I know and love them from O’Keefe, full of amazing plots twists and easy to like characters.

The Blighted Stars probably came out at the perfect time, when everyone and their grandma is all over the hit show The Last Of Us. I would say if you like one, definitely try the other. While The Last of Us heavily leans into the zombie theme though, The Blighted Stars is quite different and also so, so much worse in its threat. The mind fuckery is strong in this one and I loved it, so damn much.

At the core of the world building is the technology to map yourself and print a body to load that map into which is both a cool concept but also somewhat scary in the sense what it can do if the map gets in the wrong hands. What I liked most about it though is how O’Keefe included what should be a given when body modification is so easily available: a trans (main) character and zero transphobia. I especially loved how casually it was included and not made a big deal because it really shouldn’t be.

An additional kind of mind fuck is reading a book that seems a little too close for comfort at times to our very own situation when depicting people in power destroying planets with their greed. While the threat turns out to be much bigger and quite different than one is to believed at first, you can’t help but think of certain real life parallels when reading this. Be prepared to get angry.

The Blighted Stars also comes with a bit of a romance and I loved the dynamic between the two characters. Not just that the “enemies to lovers” is done very well but my favorite part is how the immense power imbalance between the two was handled. This could have easily turned into super problematic territory but it never did.

Wild conspiracy theories, plot twists galore and unexpected twists and turns is what we know from Megan E. O’Keefe‘s previous scifi trilogy, and I was more than happy to see this series start to follow along the same lines.

I have to start off by saying that I had higher hopes for this. Sci-fi romance is one of my comfort genres, and I’m always looking for sci-fi romance that’s not too wild (looking at you, Ice Planet Barbarians). So when this was announced, I was really excited. Enemies to lovers, set against a race to save dying planets, sign me up.

Unfortunately, The Blighted Stars fell a little short for me. For one thing, it was way too long. The ending felt a bit clunky, like it should have been the start of the second book. I liked the characters enough, and I was invested in the romance, but somehow it also didn’t stand out for me.

Maybe I wasn’t in the right headspace to read this book. The worldbuilding and the storyline are compelling and the writing was fine, but I’ve already forgotten most of it.

I’ll definitely read the second book because I need to know what happens, but this one was mid.

Megan E. O'Keefe's novel, The Blighted Stars, kicks off The Devoured Worlds trilogy with a gripping tale of survival, betrayal, and conspiracy set in a galaxy where powerful families are destroying planets.

The book follows Naira Sharp, a spy determined to expose the Mercator family's secrets, and Tarquin Mercator, the reluctant heir to the family business who has a passion for geology. After a crash-landing on a barren planet, the two must pool their resources to survive and unravel the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It had a fast-paced and action-packed storyline with plenty of twists and turns. The author skillfully crafted a complex and captivating world with various factions, cultures, and technologies.

The characters were well-developed, and despite initially being enemies, they had great chemistry. I appreciated how they both had their own motivations and flaws and gradually learned to trust each other.

The plot was engaging and kept me guessing until the very end - particularly as I didn't realise it was the start of a trilogy going in, so it was a lovely surprise afterwards finding out that there'll be more.

The writing was smooth and descriptive, with some clever dialogue and humour. It also delved into various themes, such as environmentalism, loyalty, family, and power.

Overall, this was an outstanding space opera that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre. Absolutely cannot wait for book two! The Blighted Stars is one of the most captivating stories I've read this year. It's so well written that I'm going to go buy some of her previous books because I need more!

Rating: 5/5

This is a Sci-Fi/ Fantasy novel with a difference - one where people can be re-printed when they die - unfortunately sometimes the print cracks when you do it too many times , the results ???

Naira Sharp , a failed revolutionary , has been reprinted into the body of a bodyguard - the bodyguard to Tarquin Mercator . He has no idea that she is the former employee he betrayed and her memories are not quite as complete as she thinks .
When the ship they are on is fired upon they crash land onto Sixth Cradle , a supposedly dead planet , they soon discover the planet is not quite as dead as they thought and what is out their is coming for them .
Will they be able to survive ? will their secrets be revealed ? Can they work together despite their feelings ? These are all the questions that are answered in this enjoyable first book in the series - a series that I look forward to reading

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

WOW this was such a breathtaking novel!

I saw the concept of unlikely friendships paired with sci-fi and I knew I had to get my hands on this book. I loved Naira and Tarquin! This is also a story following Naira's role as his bodyguard and it had me hooked from start to finish! I loved dipping my toes into this world and the lore and history surrounding it. The banter between these characters was absolutely fantastic and the hints of romance made this story so wholesome and fun!

I can't wait for book 2!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Orbit for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: death, murder, body horror, body manipulation, injury, violence.

"The Blighted Stars" is the first part of a new space opera series and I adored all of it. This is an epic story, following Tarquin Mercator as he assists his father in the mining of a dead planet known as Sixth Cradle. He would've preferred to remain at university, out of his family's reach studying geology; however, he's decided to prove himself to be a true member of the family by accompanying the family business on this mission.

However, things go horrifically wrong when the ship with Tarquin on board is fired at by its own protector and his father is killed. This is a world where a person's death isn't permanent, they can be printed into a new body but there's always the risk of cracking, so he's left alone with his father's expectations hanging over him. As the ship begins to crash onto Sixth Cradle, Tarquin puts his trust into an EX who is supposed to protect his family blindly. This is a mistake. Printed into the wrong body after years of being held in mind prison, failed revolutionary Naira Sharp will do anything to be free from the Mercator empire. Having testified against them and lost, Naira goes undercover with the intention of destroying the ship; when they land, Tarquin, Naira and the survivors soon discover there is something much worse out on Sixth Cradle then the remnants of a dead planet, and its swarming towards them.


I loved this book and was completely absorbed by the storyline. The idea of rich people reprinting themselves into new bodies and holding death over their workers as permanent was excellently written, just as the developing friendship and then romance between Naira and Tarquin. The exploration of consent, accountability and bravery was incredible while the tension levels of their time on Sixth Cradle were so real I felt them. There's some terrifying body horror in this book, a kind I've not read before and I can't wait to see where it might go next in the series. How this book ended is incredibly original, and the sequel can't come soon enough.

A recipe for the Blighted Stars.
Take one planet-sized bowl. Add some geology and Mycology and mix with a large quantity of space opera. Once combined, toss in some useful tropes (enemies to lovers fits well here, as does tyrannical family owned mega-companies). Season with some intriguing ideas on memory and psychology. Bake for several hours, constantly rising the tension as you go. Read quickly and with anticipation. Once finished, rest sated and wait impatiently for the sequels.

This is a fantastic tale! It is jam-packed with action, big on ideas and full of great characters. The two main POV are conflicting characters but are sympathetically written, flaws and all. The worldbuilding is top notch. The science is plausible. This is a book that just works for me. Keeping it short, because I don't think I need to say any more, I loved it. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys space opera. I can't wait for the sequels.

One quite refreshing trend of sci-fi I have noticed in the last few years is a real attempt o try to integrate romance into otherwise very big picture stories. Its not that it hasn't always been there, but its often been secondary or character colour, whereas there are a few big examples where both sexual and platonic love end up driving the novels. The Blighted Stars initially doesn't look like that would be the case. An evil capitalist organisation is responsible for ecological disasters, and a resistance is fighting against them. But who can resist that tale as old as time, the naive son of the bad guys, and the freedom fighter. Of course here the freedom fighter has been printed into a different body, they are stranded on a planet that is not just hostile but is potentially mind-controlling everyone, and that's before the limping spaceship in orbit gets taken over by a something alien...

There's a mash-up of some recent trends here, subtly symbiotic alien organisms with the desire to spread, printing bodies of people as and when necessary in what boils down to a feudal system (and low key body horror when that ll goes wrong). O'Keefe paces her world-building though in favour of the personal stuff, we are in the heads of our lead characters so we know the subterfuge, we know why people disobey orders and crucially we get to watch the self-delusion as it is clear the lead couple are falling for each other. Of course a secret as big as the one here puts any minor lie in a Hallmark film to shame, and if the heart of the book is about trust, that comes in two different forms. How much do you trust the person who turned out to be lying to you about something else. And how much do you trust yourselves.

This is the start of a series, though with the exception of an open ending that could have been closed, it works very well as a stand-alone. It is paced perfectly and has the right kind of tragic plot turns that pushes it beyond just a solid bit of space opera / survival horror. I do think the well-built romance at the heart of it is the key, no matter how classic it is as a setup, it works really well here, and I am interested to see it develop again in the next book.

Unfortunately, this didn’t grab my attention enough to get invested, which is a shame for a book that markets itself as a character-driven SFF. If this is a polar opposite take on the genre to colder/harder idea-driven book, then I’d expect the characters need to grab me, hook line and sinker, and this didn’t really happen there. Unfortunate, as I love enemy mine tropes, and wanted to love this one.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Blighted Stars is a thrilling Sci-Fi adventure about an enemies to lovers romance on a dead planet. Naira is a revolutionary who works to stop planets from being killed, and Tarquin is a member of the family responsible for killing the planets. Naturally, the two hate each other, but when they find themselves having to work together to survive and then uncover a mystery, the hatred gradually evolves into something unexpected.

I don’t usually read books as exclusively Sci-Fi as this, but I really enjoyed The Blighted Stars and I’m glad I ventured outside my silly little fantasy/romcom comfort zone to read it. I wish I’d paid more attention in my science classes though, because it really puts the “Sci” in “Sci-Fi”; I often found myself nodding along and pretending to understand the technical details being explained (particularly regarding the rock stuff, which was quite embarrassing because I have a geography degree and really should know what the different types of rocks are at this point). I also found the plot, as well-paced and well-written as it was, a bit tricky to follow in parts, but I’m sure people with slightly more brain cells than me will find it much easier to understand!

I really liked the characters in The Blighted Stars. Often, characters in books will talk about how amazing and badass and skilled they are but rarely show it. Naira, however, put her money where her mouth is and was extremely badass and amazing throughout, fighting to keep herself and Tarquin alive despite the extremely difficult circumstances. I found Tarquin a little difficult to like at first, but warmed to him throughout the book, much like Naira did. I really liked his character development and he and Naira had really good chemistry; the banter was indeed witty, and their flirting was adorable.

Tarquin is a trans man and there are a few non-binary characters in the book, which I really loved! I like the idea that in years to come, people will be very chill and normal about gender nonconforming people; if the evil head of a predatory intergalactic corporation can gender you correctly, anyone can! The technology in the world of this book allows people to put their minds into different bodies and to print them exactly how they’d like, allowing Tarquin to physically transition. The impact of this technology on physically disabled people wasn’t explored in the book, but maybe the rest of the series will feature disabled characters. I did head-canon Tarquin as neurodivergent, though, and a lot of his experiences of social interactions were relatable to me as an autistic person. The phrase “me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic” cropped up a lot in my head when Naira was captivated by Tarquin infodumping about his special interest! This book could also have explored the mind-body dualism aspect a bit more, as I found it really interesting how the mind and body were completely separable, and imagine this, and the multiple deaths humans in this world experience, would have an impact on the mind itself.

The reason this book didn’t quite make it to five stars for me is that I would have liked a little more background on how humanity had fled Earth and come to live on ships, and more background on the main characters. There was also a lot of walking (or fleeing) from one site to another on the planet and it got a little bit repetitive in parts. Additionally, the action was good but I didn’t feel as gripped by it as I would have liked, and I wasn’t always sure what the stakes were (but again that could just be me being a bit thick). On the whole, I enjoyed this book and will be looking out for the sequels!