Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray | YA Sci-fi Book Review
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray Book Review
Hi hello yes I love space if you couldn’t tell. I loved Defy the Stars and I’m ashamed it took me so long to pick it up to be honest! Admittedly I accidentally started Defy the Worlds first and didn’t realise for a fair few pages which spoiled a few things for me…
Thankfully this didn’t ruin my enjoyment of it! 5 stars to Defy the Stars! Or is it.. De-FIVE STARS? No? Hah…
Defy the Stars had it all, an epic sci-fi adventure with romance and out of this universe world-building!
“Please stop sniffing the robot boy, Noemi tells herself, jerking out of the trance.”
― Claudia Gray, Defy the Stars
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray Series: Constellation #1
on April 4th 2017
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 503
Goodreads
She's a soldier - Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, 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's advanced programming has 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.
Defy the Stars is set in a futuristic universe where humans have decimated Earth to a point where they’ve had to seek refuge on other planets. Each of these planets have their faults and are unable to sustain human life sufficiently, all except genesis which is the closest to Earth. This is where our main character, Noemi, hails from. Only genesis has forsaken earth, who want to overrun their planet and do what they did to Earth. Which brings us to the current war between Earth and Genesis.
Noemi is a soldier in the war, a war against Mechs. Now without spoiling anything she meets Abel, a mech with a difference. We get to follow them as they journey through the system, exploring different planets and meeting people as they go, as they head toward their ultimate fate.
There is a budding romance and I LOVE IT!
The world building is flawless and draws you in so well! Honestly it was believeable and I felt pulled into their dramas. I like how each planet had their own cultures and adapted to the different environments they lived on. I also really liked the religion of Genesis, where there is no one religion but they’re all kind of expected to believe.
The novel is told from both Noemi’s and Abel’s POV and it interchanges. I really loved this aspect as we got to see how they both were intepreting situations, which, understandably, was often remarkably different.
Noemi was brilliant. She clearly put others before her self all the time, even willing to die for them (which I always find admirable because I mean, death terrifies me). I loved how she didn’t quite conform to the religious expectations of her planet and kind of held her self agnostic as she tried to figure it out. She was very pragmatic, and I loved her as a character. She develops as the story goes on, clearly adjusting what she believes she knew as she goes on.
Abel. Wow. I mean. He’s technically artificial intelligence so you wouldn’t expect him to grow as a character, but oh he does! I love how we get to see his POV and how he comes to make his decisions. He starts off purely following his core directives but develops as he goes on into concours choices.
I really really loved this book and you need to read it, if you have what did you think?
If you love spacey sci-fi, be sure to check out my review of A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet!
Question of the day is this: what planet would you most like to visit? For me it’d be one we’ve undiscovered!
Follow Jenniely on WordPress.com
14 Comments
I’m not overly into sci-fi books, but I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt! I love this cover and it definitely sounds interesting. Great review!
I’ve owned Claudia Gray’s books for years but still haven’t read any of them for some unknown reason! I should pick them up next time I’m in the mood for a YA sci-fi book 😀
YES you need to!
I need to recommend this to my friend! I’m pretty sure that she will love it 😀
I hope you did!
I LOVE SCI-FI. They have this at my local library, so I’ll have to read it!
great review, personally this one fell a bit flat for me unfortunately.
Glad you enjoyed it, really want to read it!
Yes! I love space so much and I have had my eye on this one! Nice review!
Lovely review! This sounds like a wonderful sci-fi read! I’m definitely going to keep it in mind the next time I’m looking for something space themed! 🙂
id most like to visit a planet i could survive on i guess haha.
this book has such lovely covers- you seen the German one? v pretty
Great review Jenn! I definitely need to read more space books so I’ll add this to my TBR!
I massively need to get to reading this, I feel like it’s been on my ‘if I see it I’ll pick up a copy’ list forever!
Oh my gosh honestly you won’t regret it