Defy the Stars (Constellation, #1)
by Claudia Gray
Series: Constellation #1
Pages: 503
Published on April 4th 2017
by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genres: Action & Adventure, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Nate Begle
Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
Source: Audible
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Also by this author: Defy the Stars
She’s a soldier.
Noemi Vidal is seventeen years old and sworn to protect her planet, Genesis. She’s willing to risk anything—including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she’s a rebel.
He’s a machine.
Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel has advanced programming that’s begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he’s an abomination.
Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.
So, I have to start with a confession: The only book I’ve every read by Claudia Gray is Evernight and I didn’t love it. Therefore, I have been very reluctant to read anything by her before, but I do like sci-fi AND there has been so many amazing reviews for Defy the Stars that I just had to try it. I’m glad I did because I loved it!
The world building and the plot, together with the characters were the best part of the book. The story is a mix of the movie I Am Robot with a bit of The Martian thrown in. In case you haven’t seen the movies, the basic plot is that Earth is dying. As humans new this was coming, they started settling in different planets that they thought could support life. The idea is to abandon Earth and move to these planets. The more promising one is Genesis. The problem is that after so many years living in the planet and as new generations were born in the planets, they don’t want to give Earth the power to do they same thing they did to the planet. Earth created mechs (a robot with human tissue?) to serve them and fight their battles. With me so far?
Noemi is a warrior of Genesis that discovers an abandoned ship in an attempt to save her best friend from a mech attack. Abel has been stuck in the ship for 30 years and has begin to evolve. They form an unlikely alliance. Abel’s programming mandates that he obeys Noemi as his commander. Noemi cannot trust a mech. Slowly, they start to know each other, to understand each other and later to become friends. It’s a great character development and adored them both. Together, they are stronger. Together they go on a race throughout the universe to find a way to stop Earth’s attacks on Genesis.
Noemi is brave, selfless, smart, curious. Abel is the ultimate mech, life-like and he grows to have a lot of human-like characteristics. On their travels, they also meet other characters that form a great addition to their group.
The ending is adequate for a series but a bit unsatisfying too. Gray’s writing is beautiful, it conveys so much feeling, it describes this amazing world so perfectly that you can almost see the stars. I loved it!
Overall?
I really liked Defy the Stars. It’s a story were the lines between fighting for one’s believes blurs the more that those believes affect others. Is a story of possibility, of evolution, growth, adventure, friendship and love. I cannot wait for Defy the Worlds.
The audiobook of Defy the Stars was amazing. The narrators did a great job. We have two of them, Kasey Lee Huizinga is Noemi and Nate Begle is Abel. It’s my first book by Kasey and she did an amazing job with the voices of all the characters. It was also my first book narrated by Nate and although his narration was more mechanical, I think he was able to convey the ‘machine’ part that is Abel.
Are you a fan of sci-fi? Have you read Defy the Stars? What did you think?
About Claudia Gray
Claudia Gray is a pseudonym. I would like to say that I chose another name so that no one would ever learn the links between my shadowy, dramatic past and the explosive secrets revealed through my characters. This would be a lie. In truth, I took a pseudonym simply because I thought it would be fun to choose my own name. (And it is.)
I write novels full-time, absolutely love it, and hope to be able to do this forever. My home is in New Orleans, is more than 100 years old, and is painted purple. In my free time I read, travel, hike, cook and listen to music.
Born in Puerto Rico, hola :), military wife for 22-years, and mother of three boys.I work full time doing something else that I love (sadly I don't get paid for reading!)
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Dong Nai. Regards
Twitter: Rachel
Awesome review! I’ll have to check it out. I was not a fan of Evernight either but her other series, A Thousand Pieces of You, is pretty good.
Twitter: Liza
I’ve been afraid after Evernight, but no more! I hope you try Defy the Stars
Twitter: DReadsBooks
I haven’t gotten to this one yet, but I love Claudia Gray so I’m pretty excited for this. She wrote two of the new star wars canon books and I just want LucasFilms to continue to hire her for books, so I have high hopes for this one. Nice review!
Twitter: Liza
Oh,my! I’ll have to read those too!
Twitter: corrallingbooks
I liked Evernight, from memory…but found subsequent books to be boring. I also liked Claudia Gray’s series A Million Worlds With You (I think thasts the name at least). In both series though, I found that the world/concept got a bit boring after a while, even though the writing was really fluid. I might give this one a go…because the concept sounds really good 😀
Twitter: Liza
I think the concept is pretty new to YA, at least.
Twitter: Alyssa Susanna
I’ve heard mixed things about this book, which is why I haven’t read it! On the one hand, I love YA sci-fi. On the other hand, I have struggled with Gray’s books in the past. But maybe I’ll check out the series when it is complete. You definitely make it sound like something I might enjoy!
Wonderful review, Liza! Have a great day. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Twitter: Liza
Maybe wait until I read the series then… I can be the guinea pig 🙂