The Blighted Stars wasn't an easy book for me to start, but it was an easy one to finish.

I loved the characters and I do think it was because I was rooting for them that I managed to finish this in such a quick time. I love Tarquin, and his story was definitely my favorite to read. Him slowly realizing the fucked up ways of his dad and the Mercators, and him always wanting to be better by always listening to his crew and Naira even though maybe some of his decisions wasn't the best one. I love Naira - she's headstrong and determined, and not afraid to talk shit to Tarquin about his mistakes. I love that despite her knowing that she isn't supposed to trust Tarquin as he is a Mercator, she has her own judgements and knows that Tarquin isn't the same. This book isn't a romance at any means, but it definitely exists and definitely one of the aspects I loved about this book as we see Naira and Tarquin work together despite their once different ideals (that ending though.... ouch)

The world building is interesting, but it was definitely rough to read in the beginning. I felt like we were pushed right into the plot without any warming up so it took me a bit to finally understand how the world works. The reprinting is such an interesting concept and also honestly... a really terrifying one at that. Definitely will be checking out the sequel (there's going to be a sequel right???!) because I definitely finished this book with more questions than answers.

What's not to love in a book featuring a couple of enemy stranded of dead planet and discovering a conspirancy?
I'm asking because I had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed this story: characters, world building, humour, and plot.
Can't wait to read the next one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I’ve had to DNF this around 20-25%. It’s just a very slow moving book and isn’t giving me much reason to pick it up.

I think this will definitely appeal to other readers though who enjoy a slow burn. Thank you for the arc, it is appreciated!

This is one of those books where I feel a bit mean only giving 4 stars but I reserve the 5 star rating for those books which blew my socks off and where I know I'll definitely be going back to read them again in the future - as much as I enjoyed The Blighted Stars (and I did), it didn't quite manage to hit those dizzy heights.

The basic premise of the book is that it's set in a universe where humanity has expanded massively and is looking for new planets to terraform. There's a particular mineral that supports that expansion and the family of one of our protagonists, the Mercators, have made a literal fortune mining it. They have, however, also discovered or unleashed (depending on who you talk to) a devastating blight that destroys those promised new planets as quickly as they're seeded.

Our other protagonist is his bodyguard, except it's a bit more complicated than that - we have a technology that lets people's consciousnesses be transplanted into new bodies, though not always successfully if they died with any kind of trauma, and she isn't the person he thinks she is. Instead, she's someone who carries a major grudge against the Mercators and blames them for the blight - as a result, her consciousness had been put on ice and this is her only chance for revenge.

There is a lot to like about this book. It's got a lot of really strong world building and some good character building, though the romance sub-plot comes on a bit too quickly for my liking. This element doesn't quite work for me given the premise, with plenty of misconceptions and misunderstandings on both side. It's all a bit too glossed over for the purposes of the romantic element of the story, especially given that this isn't a standalone where you really need to tie up all the loose ends. There's also a pretty high body count all told, both among those who may well be back at some point via the cloning system but also those 'misprints' who aren't so lucky, with that latter element possibly leaving some readers really uncomfortable.

All in all, I suspect I will try and pick up the sequel but I can't say I'm desperate for it - to be honest, if the protagonists hadn't got together by the end of this book, I might actually have been more interested. *shrugs*

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

Join Tarquin Mercator and Naira Sharp in a spine-tingling adventure through a dystopian future in Megan O'Keefe's "The Blighted Stars". With Earth-like planets, known as cradles, being destroyed by a mysterious lichen called the Shroud, the heir to one of the powerful families who rule the remnants of humanity and his family's accuser must survive on a dead planet. With political intrigue and class commentary woven in, the book also explores unique concepts such as humanity's reprinting and the moral implications of an easy death.

Overall O'Keefe's vivid characters and the thrilling action will keep you hooked and leave you eagerly anticipating the next installment of the trilogy.

4 stars.

My thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book for my unbaised review

Megan O’Keefe burst onto the science fiction scene with the lore-heavy but character driven Velocity Weapon – first book in her Protectorate trilogy. There was a lot to get across in that series but O’Keefve managed to bring readers along through a wide cast of engaging characters and some riverting and well written action scenes. In the first book of her new series, The Blighted Stars, O’Keefe has created a very different but equally complex universe but again manages to engage readers mainly through two very relatable, flawed characters.
The Blighted Stars opens with an extended action sequence. The mining vessel Amaranth has been attacked by its sister vessel and is going down. Tarquin Mercator, scion of one of the five great families, disobeys his father and helps a group of survivors get on board a shuttle a crash land on the planet below. With him a renowned terrorist Naira only he does not know this as her consciousness is in a different body to her own. Once on the planet, along with trying to survive, the two start to discover that everything they thought they knew about pretty much everything was wrong. And what is more, there is a hidden threat to humanity that they need to stop.
There is so much to unpack in this story on the world building side. First there is the ability to print bodies and transfer consciousness (which has rules of its own). Second there is humanity’s reliance on a new mineral called relkatite, the process of mining which has significant impacts on planetary environments. There are the five great families, Naira’s group of terrorists trying to stop the mining and much much more. O’Keefe skilfully deploys this information so that when the penny finally drops for the characters, it will make sense to the reader. So as the pressure increases and the threat emerges, readers know why.
The Blighted Stars is fairly dark and more than a little bleak. But O’Keefe has established two winning characters in Tarquin and Naira and given them a seemingly impossible quest going into Book 2 of this series. So impossible it is hard to see how this series will get to a planned third book but it promises to be fun (and tense) finding out.

An unexpected disaster finds the heir to a powerful family stranded on a dying planet with a spy who hates his last name.

I loved the characters and their interactions, and so much of the technology introduced in this book was fascinating. The plot was none stop right from the opening and had me gripped. A wild ride (in space)!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Having looked forward to reading this book ever since Orbit’s acquisition of this new trilogy was announced last summer, I had sky-high expectations for it. A brand-new sci-fi series featuring a revolutionary spy and the son of a powerful ruling family stranded on a dead planet? I was immediately on board.

The book delivered all of the above and more. To begin with, the multiple POVs were a brilliant choice on the part of the author, as there were not too many to keep track of, and the focus always remained primarily on the two leads, Tarquin Mercator and Naira Sharp (in the body of Ex Lockhart). The world-building was also excellently done, introducing us from the get-go to the futuristic society the protagonists live in, including its ruling MERIT families and their roles within this world. The author additionally did a great job of explaining complex terms and concepts to us in an accessible and organic way, avoiding the dreaded info-dump.

The mining activities carried out by the Mercator family were also (intentionally, I am sure) reminiscent of our own exploitation of fossil fuels and the irreparable damage it is doing to our planet, making it feel relevant and topical. This also made it easy to empathise with Naira, who, as a Conspirator, has made it her mission to prevent the Mercator family from reaching other worlds to exploit and kill.

In fact, the characters were also a strong point in the novel, as both protagonists were portrayed as nuanced, complex individuals despite coming from vastly different backgrounds and having opposing ideologies. This character focus also went hand-in-hand with an action-packed, fast-moving plot, making for a perfect balance between character and plot development. The romance that emerged between Naira and Tarquin was also superbly executed, never overshadowing the plot but instead complementing both characters’ emotional journeys. I also appreciated the discussions of consent surrounding Naira’s hidden identity - as much as I love this trope, I think it’s helpful to discuss what issues might arise from it.

Another big highlight was the queernormative world: Tarquin is trans and bisexual, and there is non-binary rep as well, none of which felt tokenised. The reveals were clever, well-explained and made sense, building up suspense throughout the course of the novel, and the ending left me wanting more without frustrating me. I will absolutely be picking up the sequel!

This has made it to my Top 3 favorite books of all time.

If 'The Last of Us' and 'The Expanse' had a baby and you’d sprinkle it with hi.la.ri.ous banter, this would be it.

I don’t know how to begin this review. Mass Effect introduced me to sci-fi - space operas, specifically - in a new way and 'The Expanse' series by James S.A. Corey quickly took over my personality only to leave a big hole in my life when it was all gone. No more books, no more TV shows. Megan E. O’Keefe’s 'The Protectorate' series was a blessing for me and I’ve been looking forward to reading her again since I finished that. To be quite honest, I’ve been checking NetGalley weekly to see if the book was up or not.

This review will be very unstructured and wordy because I’m a mess but it’s like 1) the premise; 2) general feelings; 3) is this better than 'The Protectorate'?; and 4) a very wordy ‘what I liked’ because I’m writing this for my own fangirl pleasure (but no spoilers).

The Blighted Stars is set in a world where humans can ‘snap pictures’ of their neural map and, when they die, their maps can be reprinted in prints (empty bodies printed to match how their original bodies were like). Prints have enhancements (pathways) made with a mineral that is extracted by one of the richest families in the galaxy, the Mercators.

The book starts with a punch - you’re on board a Mercator ship. The head of the family, Acaelus, is there; his son, Tarquin, is there too. They’re going to the Sixth Cradle, a planet that has Earth-like qualities. The Cradles have been dying and, other than Sixth, there are only two others left. Earth is dead. And, as they approach the Cradle, their ship is fired upon. And, to make matters worse, the printers they have on board are starting to print misprints - prints that are disfigured and have no maps inside. They are violent and have a bit of a cannibalistic side to them.

Someone else is printed while this is happening, someone who can take care of the situation. Ex. Lockhart. Only that… while her print is Lockhart, the map inside isn’t, it’s Ex. Naira Sharp - the woman who tried to destroy the Mercators and ended up being tortured (by Acaelus) because of Tarquin.

Ok, so this is the premise. It’s a bit long but I think I didn’t read the synopsis before I jumped in and man, the first 25 pages were SO confusing. I didn’t know what prints were, I didn’t get what an ansile (?) was, or how Sharp was inside of Lockhart, or what an E-X was. I couldn’t tell left from right. And, somehow, it all clicked on page 26, and then the story just kept going and getting better and better.

--General thoughts before I start fangirling and rambling--
It’s a very complex story told in a very simple way. As always, O’Keefe has an arsenal of twists and turns that will have you hooked. And, in case you’re like me, there’s incredibly fun banter in here and very, very, amazingly developed characters. She could’ve written a dialogue without stating who was talking, and I’d be able to tell in a heartbeat, I felt they were so fleshed out.

This book has romance and fun banter, but it’s a very dark book. It gets very sad, very dark at different points. It doesn’t shy away from violence or just very awful things, so do with the info what you may.

--Is this better than The Protectorate?--
I think so. I felt The Protectorate was very tangled and it lost me at times. The story was very complex and I just couldn’t see the path moving forward. This? Is complex, dark, and awful, but it’s so well structured. There are no plot-holes, nothing is convenient. There are real risks in every step and sacrifices are made; yet it still has a lot of funny scenes and a lot of light-hearted moments.
I thought this was perfect. It’s not as space-opera-ish as Sanda’s journey (at least atm), but every single issue I had with The Protectorate has been fixed here. I don’t have a single complaint, not one (other than Tomas not being in it, I need my Nazca).

--The fangirl--
As I did with The Protectorate series, I’m just going to talk about my favorite things:
- The characters. I won’t say who shows up because it can be a spoiler, but let’s just say that Tarquin is an idiot, but he’s a kind of idiot. Naira can step on me any time she wants, same with Paison. And that one friend Naira reminds me of Tomas from Velocity Weapon and I am in love with him.
- The twists and the explanations. This is such a complex story yet it is very easy to follow. However, Tarquin has two PhDs and he is the one coming up with a lot of explanations. I often understand like three words of what he says, but that’s when Naira comes and “dumbs it down” for dumb readers and it just was such a smart decision from O’Keefe to ‘chew down’ the information for us. I also felt that, as we learn more about the world, it feels like there are a lot of plot holes, and she has addressed every single question that I had while reading (every single one except how people shower and brush their teeth, but oh well).
- LGBTQIA+. Something I love about O’Keefe is how she represents so many LGBTIA+ communities and yet it doesn’t feel like she’s pushing it. One of the main characters is trans and that’s that. One is bisexual, and that’s that. I feel sci-fi has grown a lot with 'The Expanse' showing how ethnicity becomes irrelevant once we ‘conquer the stars’ and while James S.A. Corey did include LGBTQIA+, there was nothing to chew in there. O’Keefe presents being transgender as a normal thing, but emphasizes how in a galaxy that is so unfair, treatment is expensive. And I think that point of normalizing but addressing how that fits into that reality was such a cool thing, it added a lot of depth. (Oh wow, is this me saying someone did better than 'The Expanse' did? never thought i'd lived to see the day).
- The banter. Look, I’m a sucker for the found family trope, and you add banter and people being little hoes to each other? I’m here. I was LAUGHING at like 2AM because of silly shit these kids would say and I just adored it.
- The discussions. I’m not one to look for politics in my books, but The Blighted Stars makes a strong point about environmental sustainability, capitalism, and privilege. I thought it was very well put, and very well articulated in a way that was “all show” and not fed to the reader. It made me think of that line from 'The Expanse' TV show about how Earthers look beyond “their blue skies. They see the stars and they think mine.” It really does make you think about how we’ve destroyed Earth, and how many worlds can we destroy if we get out there.
- The badass woman. Like honestly, Tarquin’s a little shit. But Naira? Paison? The other ladies we meet as the story progresses? Everyone but Vake gets to step on me. That’s all I’ll say. (I had such a crush on Paison the first 20% of the book honestly and gosh, iykyk).
- The ‘villain.’ Look, there are a lot of villains in here. I won’t talk about them all, but just Acaelus. He seems like such a one-dimensional ass at the beginning. Little did I know that he’d end up being this fleshed-out character. A manipulative little bitch, sure, but damn, like I understood him to a degree.
- Just O’Keefe things. I mean, I’ve only read the Protectorate so I can’t say how much of that was easter eggs or just things she does, but we have an AI who “doesn’t want to cease” (I miss Bero every single day); a little robot that is not sentient but just a tiny helper (that’s got to be Grippy 2.0 if you ask me); a sexy dude that makes me crack up (Naira’s friend reminds me of Tomas what can I say); and let’s just say that Naira has an issue with her left leg at some point (the leg Sanda loses in the very first chapter of The Protectorate series); and yes, yes, the boner thing, I feel there’s always like a scene where someone notices someone has a boner?
- The ending. I felt like the book would end after “X” happened. And it didn’t, and I was a bit confused. But then I thought about it and I think it’d make for a better start for Book 2? More organic? This being said, what happened around 120 pages before the actual end of the book was just heartbreaking. And again, death isn’t death in this book. But still, it was just too much for me. A lot of the scenes were very sad and it was just tough to read.

Los libros de ciencia ficción de Megan E. O’Keefe son una apuesta segura en esta casa (los de fantasía todavía están en lista de espera). La autora estadounidense tiene una aproximación al género directa y entretenida, con cierta querencia al género de la space opera, así que es normal que triunfe en estos lares.


En The Blighted Stars la ciencia que toma preponderancia en el libro es la biología (algo más habitual) pero también la geología, lo que resulta bastante sorprendente. No recuerdo haber leído casi nada desde la trilogía de Marte de Kim Stanley Robinson que hiciera tanto hincapié en la composición de los planetas. Y es que O’Keefe hace hablar a las piedras.

Son muchos los temas que la autora ha utilizado en la novela para crear su mundo futuro. La posibilidad de transmitir la conciencia humana entre cuerpos creados ex profeso es sin duda uno de los más importantes, pero también nos encontraremos críticas al colonialismos y a las desigualdades sociales, primer contacto, escenas de terror… una combinación excelente, a mi entender.

No se puede hablar muy en profundidad sobre la premisa en la que se basa el desarrollo de la obra porque por desgracia sería desvelar demasiado, siendo uno de los principales intereses del libro el misterio científico que ha llevado a la humanidad a tener problemas con los mundos que desea colonizar, viéndose empujada poco a poco a una existencia limitada tan solo a las estaciones espaciales.

Me han encantado los personajes. Desde Tarquin, el joven heredero de una poderosa dinastía que prefiera sus estudios de geología a las conspiraciones políticas a Naira, la rebelde conservacionista dispuesta a todo con tal de detener la destrucción de los entornos naturales que cree provocada por la familia de Tarquin. Los demás personajes de la historia tampoco se quedan cortos, no creáis. Aunque The Blighted Stars no anda corta ni de ideas ni de acción, se trata de una novela principalmente de personajes, construida sobre las relaciones entre ellos.

Aunque he disfrutado mucho con la lectura de The Blighted Stars, he de reconocer que me ha costado “creerme” cierta parte fundamental del desarrollo. Espero que conforme los demás vayáis leyendo el libro poder comentarlo con vosotros y con gente con más conocimientos de biología que yo, para ver si es probable o al menos posible lo que la autora especula, que es escalofriante.

The Blighted Stars was not without its faults, but I was just utterly charmed by this book.

The heart and soul of this novel is the relationship between its two main characters, Tarquin and Naira. Tarquin is the heir to Acaelus Mercator, the head of one of the big five galactic conglomerates (MERIT) in this world; Naira, on the other hand, is a rebel, someone who used to work for Mercator but who subsequently defected from them. The catch is that when Tarquin and Naira meet at the beginning of the book--stranded on a planet after the ship they're on crashes for mysterious reasons--Naira is in the guise of Lockhart, one of Acaelus's former bodyguards. The setup alone lays the ground for so much interesting and compelling character development, and the novel absolutely delivers on it and then some.

I loved the dynamic between Tarquin and Naira. Besides their current positions--he a prince, she an insurgent--they are also just vastly different people. Tarquin is a geologist and a scholar (I love that he's just a big nerd!!! more nerd characters in SFF please), having spent most of his time in university away from his family. In some ways he's the product of his ultra privileged upbringing, taught to adhere to decorum and to always be cognizant of the status inherent to his position. In other ways, though, he's separate from his family, having purposefully distanced himself from them by rooting his life in his academic work and, by extension, deflecting the discomfort he feels with having so much power and authority as heir. Naira, on the other hand, has led a completely different life: she's had to fend for herself since she was very young, and in the process has of course become attuned to the kind of exploitation that powers this book's world. She's a fighter in every sense of the word, having fought for everything she has and continuing to fight for this cause that she so strongly believes in.

When these two characters come together, then, there are so many ways in which their personalities and viewpoints and beliefs clash with--and then complement--each other. The Blighted Stars is 544 pages, and it really benefits from its length. O'Keefe develops the dynamic between Tarquin and Naira slowly and carefully, through scenes that gradually show us how compatible they are, despite their differences. And I am just such a big sucker for this kind of dynamic; I was moved and endeared by it in turns. Over the course of the novel, you get to see every facet that ends up forming this genuine, strong relationship between Tarquin and Naira: the suspicion, the tentative honesty, the frustration, the vulnerability, the trust, the distrust, the intimacy. And the fact that Naira cannot actually reveal who she is--the fact that she has to pretend to be this other person--adds an extra layer of tension to their dynamic that makes it all the more compelling. If an author can get me to care about their characters, then I am basically onboard for everything else in the novel. And this was absolutely the case with The Blighted Stars: I loved seeing Tarquin and Naira work together to try to answer questions that only got bigger as the novel went on. Plot and character work well in tandem here, the plot helping to bring these characters together and the characters helping to unravel the mysteries of the plot.

Could some scenes have been a bit less heavy-handed with the exposition? Sure. Could some parts of this book have been written with a bit more nuance? Yeah. But frankly I was so taken by this book's characters that I didn't really mind. The Blighted Stars won me over with its characters, and for that reason I loved it. It kept me fully engaged from start to finish--I was so absorbed reading this novel--and that's exactly what I'm looking for when I'm reading an SFF novel, and exactly why I love reading SFF in the first place.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an eARC of this via NetGalley!

This was amazing sci-fi/ space opera with fantastic world building. It follows humanity's destructive process as it strip mines its way across the universe, destroying habitable planets. It might be the fuure but over-consumption, the need to consume and the perils of technological progress are very much with us. Naira Sharp is trying to stop this intergalactic consumerism by bringing the Mercantor family - a huge monopoly holding power family - down from the inside. She's got her work cut out for her. An excellent start to a promising new series.

An astonishing space opera following the steps of great giants such as Isaac Asimov or Herber with his Dune. Packed with political intrigues, mystery, loads of action and deep and profound characters. I was in love with the two main protagonists since the first page, hooked by their magnetic personalities and their many flaws. This is my first book by O'Keefe and all the praise she has been receiving is not enough. What a masterpiece. I can't get this book out of my head.