The Two Lies of Faven Sythe

De: Megan E. O'Keefe

Narrado por: Zara Ramm

A search for a missing person uncovers a galaxy-spanning conspiracy in this thrilling standalone space opera from award-winning author Megan E. O'Keefe.

The Black Celeste is a ghost story. A once-legendary spaceship collecting dust in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Only famed pirate Bitter Amandine knows better, and she’ll do anything to never go near it again. No matter the cost.

Faven Sythe is crystborn, a member of the near-human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station. She’s trained to be a navigator her entire life. But when her mentor disappears, leaving behind a mysterious starpath terminating in the Clutch, she is determined to find the truth. And only Amandine has the answers.

What they will find is a conspiracy bigger than either of them. Their quest for the truth will uncover secrets Amandine has long fought to keep buried–secrets about how she survived her last encounter in the Clutch, and what’s really hidden out there amongst the stars...

©2025 Megan E. O'Keefe (P)2025 Orbit

Masterful Spin of Sci-Fi

I’m not easy to please with sci-fi, it’s just a genre I get bored with ~ but I LOVED this book! I sincerely hope it’ll turn into a series!! I think I only saw two twists coming, out of seriously .. so many 🤣 I could not be more pleased by how the story played out & how intriguing the stakes were!! Very fabulous!!

Unique world, fun space opera

I like this author’s creative worlds and the way she twists expectations. I do think we needed more time in universe before attempting to resolve the plot. We were like 90% through, mystery growing ever more shrouded, before any resolution starts happening and I felt a bit of whiplash, had to re listen to a few sections. I’m excited to continue reading more stories and I have to respect an author that doesn’t stretch a story like this into a trilogy book deal.

Huge twist

Huge unexpected plot twist. The narrator does an amazing job, great listen. It is a little hard to follow at times had to re listen a few times. Otherwise it was a good book.

Really enjoyed this!

Wow! This book was fast paced, action packed, and filled with all the twists and turns! I really enjoyed the differences in personality between the two main characters, and how those differences were what attracted them to each other. The world itself I found very intriguing and immersive. Especially how Navigators craft their paths, and the origins of the Cryst born.
This is definitely a world and a cast of characters that I will take two more books of! Zara Ramm was phenomenal as Bitter Amandine and Faven, I could not get enough of either. Even the side characters stood out and were memorable. Overall very intense and enjoyable!

Another great story and narration from O'Keefe

Cool story with a great narrator. O'Keefe's space sci-fi books are some of my favorites and I think she excels in creating great characters with very compelling personalities and motivations. This universe that she's built is interesting and unique, with a solid mystery/conspiracy. It was a tad confusing, but I think by the end's explanations I understand what it all means. I do feel like it was a little too short and maybe a bit rushed to tie up an ending. I would be very happy to explore more in this universe and learn more about the characters, or have had this book's story drawn out a bit into 2 or 3 books, but that could also be because I enjoy the author's other trilogies so much.

Fun story, but lacking world-building

The story was fun and the premise interesting, but there was so little world-building that I didn’t really have a sense of the original worlds that any of the characters came from. Similarly, I wasn’t attached to the characters enough to feel or care about their growth. Great idea, mediocre execution.

Boring

It’s a waste of credits. The story is boring, i couldn’t finish it. One of the main characters is clueless and really blaah.

I did not care enough about the characters or the story to even want to finish

This book felt like a jumble of stuff happening to characters that were almost cartoonish. It’s a bad sign when I find myself thinking that I hope a book will be finished soon. I started thinking that at about the 50% mark and continued for a bit longer.

Poorly written ‘Fabio’-esque novel

I was promised novel that is ‘expanse-like’ . I got poorly written pirate novel that reads worse than old Sabbatini’s writing. Slowly developing characters , questionable choices of actions , when something actually happens , attempt to have ‘steamy romance ‘ thrown in and constant tries to be trendy with pronounces made up for rather annoying time .