Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris for this ARC.

I felt like Redsight was written specifically for me. A fast-paced space fantasy, full of queer relationships, and characters who prefer to take action instead of wallowing in their emotions.

Korinna, the main character is a creature created by magic, and she herself is a magic wielder too. In this universe magic users are divided into three sects: the smart White priests, the destructive Black witches, and the most devotedly religious group, the Redseers. An old, legend-like conflict between them led to the eradication of the black witches, until a space pirate, Aster Haran reveals that she has been working on reinstating their order for a thousand years.

I enjoyed learning about the cultural background of these factions, as well as the brief introduction to their political involvement. While most of the book was written by Korinna's point of view, there were a couple of chapters that followed Aster, revealing the true nature of the Black witches and their magic, and a few chapters showing Sahar, a white witch's journey. None of the characters were particularly loveable but it was easy to understand their motivations, and to feel supportive of their goals.

In general, this book had a strong YA feel to it. I never felt like the main characters were in impossible situations, or that the conflicts were unresolvable.

What I liked best about Redsight was that the characters did not stop to sit down to think and have their emotions sorted out in the middle of a very unsuitable situation. This is a fairly common thing in other books, and drives me crazy every time.

I can't wait to read more from this author. I hope her unfortunate involvement with Cait Corrain didn't cost her her career.

Redsight is an action-packed, sapphic sci-fi following three women who belong to three different orders. The priestesses of each order have different abilities and can manipulate tactus, this power or element they can draw on, differently. Our main protagonist Korinna is blind and can use tactus to manipulate space and time, navigating ships across the galaxy. There is a lot of blood in this story, both from the violence of war, but also because Korinna's order believe in blood sacrifice, and they bleed from their eyes when they use their power.

There is a lot happening in this story, and overall it's a fun read, but one I struggled to fully immerse in. I enjoy the main characters and their relationships, but I also found them frustrating at times due to their naviety, confused motivations and poor communication with each other!

Recommended to sci fi fans who would like a character-driven story with deep world building.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm going to have to not finish this one, so a DNF. I'm just not invested in what's going on. There's a lot of cool elements, but I don't care about the characters. I am only writing a review and rating because I don't want to hurt my profile ratio, and it makes me give a rating.

Thank you so much Rebellion, Solaris and NetGalley for the arc of Redsight by Meredith Mooring in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. If you’re looking at my review of this book on Goodreads or similar review sites, my rating will show as 4 stars, for accuracy please note that if decimal places were available it would be 3.75 stars but, it truly could have been a 4.5 stars if it hadn’t been limited to just one book.
There’s a lot to love about Redsight, including the sapphic, science fantasy themes, the truly stunning FMCs from whose perspectives the story is told – 3 x PoVs and the overarching plot and themes of the book however, I do think this story has been somewhat short changed by being condensed into one book and would have benefited from being a duology, which would have allowed for greater exploration of key scenes within the plot, greater exploration of the world and magic system, and more depth into the science behind the story…and yes, I’m no scientist but, I think it would have benefited.
If you loved Gideon the Ninth, Dune and space operas, Redsight will be a fun read that will take you away for a few hours but, please don’t expect the maturity and depth of Dune, this is a debut book and that does come through in a number of aspects, including ‘tell rather than show’, which is a little grating at times.
On to a more positive note, the FMCs I referred to are primarily Korinna, a Redseer or Redwitch, who like those of her religion who worship the goddess Vermicular, has the ability to navigate and transport through space. There is a cost to this, Redseers are blind and performing their magic taxes them physically at a cost of blood and body, they must be allowed time to regenerate after performing their magic – definitely the costliest physical toll for magic in this story! Korinna has spent her life being done to and used as a tool for her religion, and has been told she is the least talented and capable. I’m sure you can guess the plot but, I liked Korinna, she does seem to be a bit of a wet rag at times but, her growth arc throughout the book is interesting, albeit there were opportunities to explore this that weren’t taken but, again I think this has a lot to do with trying to cram a world and plot into just one book rather than a duology or even trilogy.
A key secondary character Litia plays a pivotal role in Korinna’s arc and whilst I’d love to tell you more about her, that would be a total spoiler. What I will say is that her characterisation is done well, there is a definite essence of fallibility and humanity in her, she has flaws and isn’t perfect but, again this could have been explored more. There’s a key opportunity here for a prequel story that I really would love Mooring to take up.
And finally Sahar, a priestess of the goddess Radiosa worshipping religion. Sahar was taken away from her original life where she wanted to be a scientist and explore the world to become a priestess of Radiosa, controlling a magic in the form of white light that can control others and allow her to see if people are lying or telling the truth. Unfortunately, Sahar’s arc throughout this story felt a little harsh and concise, I would have loved to have known more about what happened and the influence of her religion but, again brevity impacted on this.

There’s no question at all that the author worked hard to develop the world building but, again it was limited by the length of the book, with only certain facets being focused on and implied assumptions being made that left things a little flat e.g. the Imperium, I made assumptions that it was like the Galactic Republic in Star Wars…I felt the same about the source of magic – Tactus, it was the equivalent of the Force i.e. an energy field that created all living things and binds the galaxy together. I’m definitely no scientist but, this helped me to organise and place things.
I know that I sound really negative about this book, in reality I’m really not. I actually really enjoyed the writing, the development of the plot, the characters and it truly kept me up way beyond my bedtime – it was a ‘just one more chapter book’ that I didn’t put down until I finished it at 2am this morning. I truly loved the sapphic love affair between Korinna and her lover in this book, particularly how it contributed to the development of Korinna’s character and self-worth.
I was intrigued by how well the author addressed how Korinna managed practically, physically navigating her world, reading using ‘tactile’ books, something that I understood more by the end of the book and then reading the author’s note. Truly there is a lot to love about this book and I really think that the author has been done a disservice in not being able to tell this story across multiple books (duology minimum,) which would have provided greater opportunity to expand on a truly captivating and immense plotline and world.
And if you love sapphic themes, Sci Fi, space operas, pirates, definitely pick this book up, you won’t regret it.

Described as an imaginative space opera for fans of Dune and Gideon the Ninth, Redsight by Meredith Mooring sounded like a book that I would love but sadly that was not my experience while reading.
Korinna is a Redseer, an Imperium priestess who navigates vast ships through space and time in the service of the Order that raised her and their Goddess. When the ship she is navigating is captured by the pirate Aster, Korinna's future plans change dramatically and she becomes involved not just with her captor, but with her plan to destroy the Imperium. Hot on their heels is Sahar, a justice seeking servant of the Imperium , her mission to destroy them both before they destroy the Imperium and everything it holds dear.
I can see the potential in this book, there are the seeds of some good ideas and some interesting world building but I really struggled with the pacing and character development. The pacing in particular is all over the place, with quite a slow opening to allow for some world building and exposition, which I do not mind, though there was quite a bit of repetition, then events that should have been thrilling just glossed over or happening off page, before a conclusion that was both rushed and messy, making it less clear and certainly less impactful than it could have been. There was very little development of any character other than Korinna , and even with her it was quite minimal.
I liked the concept of the Goddesses and the various quasi religious orders etc, but I wish there had been more of an effort to explain their origins and powers in a more cohesive way. Also this felt much more like fantasy than the science fiction a description like "space opera" suggests, so perhaps I had unfair expectations going in that this book just could not meet but in all honesty I think the author just tried to pack too much into one book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

REDSIGHT is a space opera debut full of battles and sacrifice and secrets.

This is a tale that kept me on my toes constantly. So much happens, the story twisting and turning off the expected direction. I wanted to know what happened (and so had to keep forcing myself to put it down and wait until I was less sleep deprived so I could fully appreciate and engage with the story as I didn't want to miss anything.)

It is a tale of angry, vengeful women who have been used and spat out (obviously or not) by the religious orders they have devoted themselves too. It is a battle cry of rage that leads to a galaxy reformed. I loved following along with these complex women who are very very morally grey at times (Aster in particular.) But it's also a book about the bonds between women that can shatter worlds. (There are also very few men in this book. Maybe six in all?)

There are three narrators in this book. Korinna takes up the bulk of the page count, but Sahar and Aster also get chapters. I really enjoyed seeing their perspectives on what was happening, as well as the deeper understanding they gave to the different magics.

There is a slight element of almost body horror to this book in the way the magic systems manifest, particularly the Redseers'. There's the blood pouring from Korinna's eyes when she uses her magic, skin being flayed by too much magic. It reflects the mythology of a constantly breaking and reforging world, and the cost to doing so.

What a debut. Honestly - wow.

As always, my favourite thing about this book is absolute stunning worldbuilding. The absolute scale of the detail included in these books is close to overwhelming, but I would gladly read a book that is just Mooring's notes on the world because it's incredible. There is so much going on, and it feels so well thought out.

Beyond that, the book is incredibly unique. It's a science fiction, with a heavy heaping of fantasy, with an incredibly nuanced magic system, and three different but interlinked religions, and politics - and a strong sapphic love story. There is so much going on, and the book is long, but it never FEELS long. The pacing is excellent, the plot points well spaced out and the action keeps the book moving. The characters are all incredibly morally grey, even the MCs.

It's truly fascinating, and well worth a read, but definitely the kind of book you need to keep an open mind to. There's a lot going on, but all the threads get tidied up - you just need to trust in the author! I honestly can't think of a single bad thing to say about this book - it was wonderful.

(But, content warning for a bit of gore. It's not graphic, but it's there with a decent bit of frequency).

This sounded great, but did not deliver in my opinion. I felt that it was repetitive, lots of tell instead of show.
I didn't connect with the characters at all. The only standout thing about this book is the representation. Also, the ending was decent.
Overall, not for me.

If there's any book Redsight reminded me of, it's Gideon the Ninth. The two are not exactly the same, and Redsight focuses much more on space travel aspects, but it has the same gritty, gory religion within a larger empire, magic in a science fiction universe, and disaster sapphic characters at the center of it.

Redsight is written from three POVs, though the majority of the story is written from Korinna's point of view. She is a Redseer, a priestess with the ability to move things through space. Though not always entirely clear to me, I thought the magic system was fascinating. There are three magical orders of priests, all dedicated to a different goddess, and each have their own way of using tactus, this world's form of magic.

This book is quite bloody (literally, a significant aspect of Korinna's powers is that using them makes her bleed) and gory, and it really creates a haunted atmosphere in the beginning while Korinna is still with her order. This religion is messed up, with blood sacrifices and the like, and Korinna is stuck between going along with it and taking action to change things.

There were a couple of twists in this book that surprised me, and I won't give too much away about Aster and the romance, because I think the blurb of the book already summarizes the events quite far into the book and gives more away than I think the reader should start with.

Would recommend this book to the Locked Tomb fans in particular

Thank you netgalley for providing this arc.

Didn’t finish it. I really just couldn’t get into this book. Sometimes I struggle with scifi. Nothing was hooking me, and I didn’t want to read the whole book if I wasn’t enjoying it.

More like 3.5 stars.

Literally nothing made logical sense and the ending was a giant deus ex machina, but the story was pretty creative and it was such a fun ride!

This is definitely more fantasy with a touch of sci-fi, so sci-fi purists, you've been warned. Not to mention that the science doesn't really make any sense. So, those looking for a logical story, you've also been warned. (And I'm saying this as someone who's definitely not a science person.)

Anyway...

I loved the concept of magic in space! The red/black/white witches gave me major Nightsisters vibes from Star Wars. Red witches can control humongous warships. Black witches swallow stars/energy. And white witches/lightbenders are in charge of law and order.

While the magic system was executed really well, the worldbuilding was pretty lacking. 99% of the book takes place in giant spaceships, so there's no planet exploration or anything classic sci-fi. There's a planetary setting near the end of the book, but the details are pretty sparse.

I did really like the interpersonal relationships between the main characters, Korinna, Sahar, and Aster. Some of their decisions don't really make sense logically, but they do read as real people who mess up now and then (or often).

The ending was really rushed though. It felt like the author wanted to quickly wrap things up, so it was done in a more metaphorical way. This didn't really work for me because it felt like a totally different tone than the rest of the novel.

All in all, I'd love to read a sequel or another book set in this world! It was very immersive and I ended up caring about the main characters. (Minus Sahar because she didn't really seem to have a personality.)

Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for this arc.

Thank you to Rebellion and NetGalley for this arc.

Everything about this Sci-Fi novel sounded right up my ally. Sadly, I couldn’t finish it.
The biggest problem with this book in my opinion is the pacing. Things happen very quickly and we immediately move on to the next thing. The action holds no weight because there's no time to think about what happened because we have to keep going.
This affects the characters as well. It's difficult to connect with the characters when we're not given the time to sit with their difficult choices. Things that are supposed to have emotional weight just fall flat.
After almost 100 pages, I realized I didn't care about any aspect of this book and decided to DNF.

Thank you Netgalley, Publisher and author Meredith Mooring for providing this eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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I thank you, sincerely, for providing this eARC. I didn't like this book and honestly am having a hard time finding constructive criticism or anything that others might like, even if I didn't personally like it. I left a barebones review on Goodreads, and no review on Instagram. The Instagram link included in this feedback is for a post I made about Redsight, but is not a review about Redsight.

The following is completely riddled with spoilers.

I felt like the pacing was all over the place. For example, a temple is raided and it takes just one page to describe that. That could have been a whole chapter, filled with exposition and worldbuilding and culture and lore, immersing the reader into this universe. Adept training for Korinna, post-magical-bloody-power-up, happens over several pages, but nothing really happens other than eat, sleep, practice navigating, hide in the greenhouse, repeat.

Characters come out of nowhere, too, like Therese and Johnathan, and I think we're expected to understand the emotional significance of these characters, but honestly I'd forgotten all about Johnathan until Sahar was upset he was dead. I think we met him on page only once prior to his death, so, unfortunately, his death was kind of meaningless to me as a reader, which made it hard to understand why Sahar did anything she did in the last half of the book.

I felt like the worldbuilding was missing entirely. So many things are never explained, or are just explained in an anecdotal comment like "They are lovers" regarding the three goddesses. That probably should have been a mic-dropping moment, a full-on plot twist, but... to what end? Did I just miss on-page where they do something lover-ish? Are all three lovers? Do we have queer polyamorous goddesses? And why does it matter if they're lovers or friends or sisters? They all choose to give up their divinity and crumble into dust anyway, so what does it matter? There's no weight behind this revelation at all. Same situation with the birthing (or I guess, growing?) of Redseers. It's just casually mentioned that Redseer babies are piles of nasty bloody goo until they grow up into human-like bodies. It's also just casually mentioned that Redseer kids/teens/adepts are regularly tortured and have bits of them cut off to teach their bodies how to regenerate. That also probably should have been a nice big fat exposition dump and probably should have been a wow moment, but it was just mentioned in passing and then the characters just move on like it's nothing.

Tactus is also poorly explained, and it's certainly never explained why Redseers bleed when they use it, to the point they can bleed out and die. Radiosa's and Furia's adepts don't bleed out and die when using tactus, so why do Vermicula's followers get the short end of the stick? The tactus-based abilities feel kind of weird, too. You have space navigators that can basically feel The Force, you have star-eaters that can apparently eat stars (did you know Sol has a radius of 432,690 miles? I wonder how big a stomach would need to be...) (also more on this in a moment), and then you have... lie-detectors. I know who I'd bet against, I'm just saying. Feels like Radiosa got screwed talent-wise, and Vermicula got screwed survivability-wise, and Furia just kinda wins with the only downside being that she's hungry all the time.

So speaking of star-eating. How exactly does star-eating work? I had to reread that first scene multiple times. Aster is suddenly in her birthday suit, jumping out an airlock, and then is suddenly a giant space-snake-lady and is eating a star. Does this universe consider scale? Stars are big. Really big. "You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." (and yes that's a Hitchhiker's Guide quote) So how big, exactly, is space-snake-Aster? If stars have gravitational fields, does space-snake-Aster have a gravitational field? She'd have to be nearly as big, or bigger than, a star to eat it, right? There's gotta be some kind of astrophysical consequence to this, right? Like disrupting planetary systems or asteroid trajectories (hey, has Aster ever been pinged by a stray asteriod while she's in space-snake-lady form?). But seemingly, there isn't any consequence. Aster just magically transforms back into a human-sized lady, and goes about her day with a full belly.

This book does a lot of telling, but no showing. We're told multiple times that the Imperium is bad. We're given the reason they're bad because they're claiming planets and using them for resources but like, why is this bad? Were those planets inhabited? It doesn't really seem like it, since they're supposed to be newly formed planets (although the galactic timetable is murky), so like.... fair game? It's your galaxy, why not stake your claim on uninhabited planets in your galaxy? This whole plot point, by the way, is never resolved. The Imperium's been around for centuries, and their existence is part of what fuels Aster's fury and thirst for revenge, but the book ends with senators squabbling around a conference table. (I'm oversimplifying, but that's the gist.) We're also told that the Sanatio is bad, but also... why is it bad? If Redseers are grown from the blood of their goddess plus a lil spacemagic, are they even human, do they have souls? If they get recycled, they can just get reborn at a later time, in theory. It's a holy ritual and yeah, it's grim and gruesome, but if that's what your goddess demands, well, she's a goddess. Not all goddesses have to be good. And, if the Sanatio is forbidden, then where will the blood come from to generate new Redseers? It seems pretty vital for the order's survival, if you ask me.

I had to force myself to finish this book. Around the 30% mark, I was ready to give up, but I felt like I was on the cusp of the story really taking off. So I kept at it. Then at the 50% mark, again, I felt like something really cool was going to happen soon. Then it was 70%... and then it was 93% and I was wondering why I'd spent two weeks on this book (and took breaks to read another book and a half during this one) and then figured I might as well suck it up and make the final push to finish it. I feel like this book really suffered from a lack of direction. It's like it didn't know if it wanted to be a sapphic romance (which woulda been great), a sci fi book (which woulda been great), a fantasy novel (which woulda been great), so it chose all three and instead of doing one thing really well, it did three things poorly. The romance is barely there, the sci fi is shaky at best, and the fantasy elements are not expanded on enough.

Speaking of romance, the romance wasn't working for me either. I didn't feel like Aster or Korinna had any connection, just a curiosity about each other, maybe coupled with the allure of something taboo, but I couldn't get into it. Their romance felt rushed, forced, and unsubstantiated. I couldn't feel a bond between them. I never found an explanation why Korinna, who is blind, could see Aster's face clearly, or why it was significant. They had sex once, then they fought, then feelings got hurt, and then they kissed and made up and Aster's ready to die for Korinna and Korinna is ready to die for Aster. It all felt a little YA dramatic.

The final nail in the coffin is, as I was talking to my husband about this book, as I so often talk to him about all my reads, he began asking questions earnestly. Really, really earnestly. I'm lucky enough that he generally takes an interest in my reads and I can discuss them with him, but on a more surface level. Instead, I told him about the blind navigator, and he starts asking questions about her religious order, and how she pilots ships, and asking about chaos and heresy and the Imperium and finally I had to stop and ask him how he could POSSIBLY know so much about this unpublished book! And he pointed to the shelves lining the wall in our gameroom, with little miniature soldiers in power armor lined up, and he answered "Because the God Emperor of Mankind is displeased you're reading 40k fanfiction." That's right, my husband is 90% confident this book is simply Warhammer fanfiction. Maybe, if that's true, Warhammer fans will read it and enjoy it and be less confused than I was, since they have a basis of knowledge to form opinions off of and I don't.

I absolutely loved this book! I dont usually read sci-fi but this was so engaging and unique.

The magic source is wonderfully unique and has vast possibilities in space. The goddesses added an element of religion that had bought about darkness and corruption.

Korinna was by far the best character in this book. Although originally quite sheltered and misunderstood she really grew in this book and was genuinely fantastic throughout.

Redsight by Meredith Mooring is imaginative and, at times, crazy in plot twists. While the science/magic doesn’t always hold together, the book is interesting and I found it a fun read. I struggled with some of the dialogue, both inner and between characters, as it felt very stilted and info dumping at times. I also got whiplash from Korinna, the main character, and the number of times she changed her mind about things. It’s not something I’d seek out again, but it’s worth a borrow

2.5⭐

I’m always going to be down to check out a queernorm sci-fi with a disabled main character. I think this could be a good crossover for people who enjoy YA SFF but want to try adult SFF. (with the caveat that while the romance is a big part of character motivation, it’s not on the level of like, a romantasy)

Unfortunately, I like more meat on my sci-fi bones, so I kept finding myself wanting to know so much more about the culture and politics of the setting, and wishing we got to sit with the characters more to know what things were like before the ~life altering realizations~ start happening.

I don’t know if Mooring has plans for sequels, but I honestly think if the pace was less breakneck and there was more time spent on the larger worldbuilding, this book could have comfortably been a trilogy instead. (especially with how central the whole theme of ~threes~ is to the story, it would have worked very well, thematically, to break it up in a [spoiler] way)

There’s definitely some debut jank here, but there’s a lot of promise with the setting, and I’d be interested in seeing what happens next.

I am definetly buying this when it comes out! One thing that stood out to me the most was the setting, and how the setting was described. I felt it was unique but it also brought me so much nostalgia. I truly know this book is going to be a bestseller when it releases and I hope everyone gets a chance to experience Meredith Mooring in all their glory.

Thank you NetGalley for giving an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed it. The romance was believable and palpable and with a lot of chemistry. Both Korinna and Aster were well developed characters. I think my main complaints are that, while we do get a quite thorough exploration of why the religious orders are bad, I feel the construction of the Imperium as a threat was a little less solid and horrifying. Also, like, there's a lot of mutilation in this book, and that isn't a problem per se, but there's points where you go like "Oh okay then she's getting skinned again" and it sort of lost impact, I'm afraid. Overall, though, Meredith is a talented and promising author and I'll be keeping an eye on her future works!

The blurb and comparisons given for this book didn't quite suit the actual plot. The world building was the most intriguing aspect of this.

Korinna was a great character at the start. Being able to experience the world the way she does was something completely new for me, but other than that, she had minimal growth and while her attraction for Aster was believable, the relationship from Aster's perspective wasn't as convincing.

Sahar felt sidelined and only given pagetime when the plot called for it. She had immense potential to be a very good character, but simply not given the chance to grow.

The explanation of the magic system needs work. It didn't need to take over 100 pages to learn, somewhat, how tactus works given that Korinna spent her whole life using it.

All in all, is wasn't the worst debut, but could use some more editing.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the latest book that I get to go Full Nerd over! Red sight was a deeply enjoyable (and also at times disturbing) read perfect for fans of Star Wars, Aliette de Bodard, and Everina Maxwell. Korinna is a cleric dedicated to the order of Vermicula, one of the three primordial goddesses whose descendants are blessed with Redsight: the ability to manipulate space and time, allowing them to steer space vessels with perfect precision. All those with Redsight are blind, so when Korinna sees another person’s face with her eyes for the first time, she is immediately drawn to the stranger skulking in the library. This stranger is none other than Aster Haran, feared pirate and herself a priestess of Furia, the exiled third goddess, who hunts for starlight to devour on the fringes of the galaxy. Working within the confines of the Imperium is Sahar, a relatively new cleric of Radiosa, whose priestesses are capable of Lightbending. These three women each in their own way and time must learn to work outside the limits of the systems that made them in order to bring balance back to the universe.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. The worldbuilding was so fresh and creative. Was the system of magic a little hand-wavy? Sure, but I was having so much fun that I didn’t care (except for the blood typing issue which was fortunately cleared up - my med student brain couldn’t suspend disbelief on that). All of our characters are deeply flawed and at times downright evil, but I was rooting for them anyway. This is a great story of how systems that claim to be benevolent are often oppressive, and it was so satisfying to see Korinna in particular rise above and outside the Order and become a force to be reckoned with in her own right. Also, space serpents? Disability and LGBTQ rep? Space-time pirates? Yes to all of it.