Defy the Stars

By: Claudia Gray

Narrated by: Nate Begle

Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of Star Wars: Lost Stars and Bloodline comes a thrilling sci-fi adventure that Kass Morgan, best-selling author of The 100 series, calls "startlingly original and achingly romantic...nothing short of masterful".

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.

An epic and romantic adventure, perfect for fans of The Lunar Chronicles and Illuminae.

©2017 Claudia Gray (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The story plays with themes of destiny, honor, and faith, while ultimately asking readers to consider what makes one human. Recommend to fans of The Lunar Chronicles and The Illuminae Files, or to romance readers wanting a sci-fi entry point." ( School Library Connection)

"Poignant and profound...a tale that examines the ethics of war and tackles questions of consciousness, love, and free will. Gray's characters are nuanced, her worldbuilding is intelligent, and the book's conclusion thrills and satisfies while defying expectations." ( Publishers Weekly)

"This first-rate STEM-packed adventure explores what it means to be human and whether people are truly their brothers' keepers." ( Booklist)

Great book but religion is a main theme

I liked the book, the handling of trauma, the world building, and the characterization. My only issue, and I acknowledge this is a me thing, is there was a lot of religious and morality talk. I'm fine with morality, I think philosophy is interesting. I disagree with a lot of the characters opinions on things but there's nothing wrong with that. I am mainly writing this review for people like me who have hard pasts with religion. Had I known going in that catholicism would be a main part of one of the characters convictions I would have skipped and read something else.

Great book terrible reading.

So this book is super good, addictive and creative. The male reader has some sort of sound effect on his voice to make him sound like a robot. This is painful and terrible to be forced to listen to. On top of that, it’s very conflicting to the story! Adam is a high tech mech that is so realistic, you can’t tell he’s not human. Don’t you think if you met someone that sounded like a robot you would be like “Hey man, why do you sound like a robot?” It just really ruins the story and makes it hard to focus on the story itself.

Just the perfect story

My words are not rich enough to describe how much l loved and enjoyed this story. There are so many references to a movie that I loved which is A. I. by Steven Spielberg... so many quests about the meaning of life, love and faith... I love the way the author fleshed out this story and its MCs. The conclusion is heartbreaking and naturally I want more and I'll be waiting for more books. The narrators' performance was just the right one for this story that I hopeit will be the first of a series...

Much more than C-3PO/Katniss Fan Fiction

For anyone who found this book through Claudia Gray's very excellent Star Wars novels, I suggest picking this up immediately. I was originally worried this would be the awkward romance between characters that were essentially C-3PO and Katniss, but great pains have been taken to make sure this book is just not that simple, and so much more compelling because of it.

I think one of the author's greatest strengths has always been her ability to seamlessly weave parallels from the real world into the story, and that skill is put to good use here, creating a new, original universe worth exploring. With the aid of advanced robotics, humanity has reached the stars, settling a ring of new habitable worlds linked by hyperspace gates. These new colony worlds are ruled with an iron first by an overpopulated and dying Earth, with the exception of a newly discovered paradise, which is in open revolt.

The ideas and writing are both easy to follow and challenging in the issues they present, another hallmark of the author. I also want to add that this is almost first and foremost an adventure novel. The characters have their own goals motivations which drive the plot. Character development is developed naturally as the story unfolds, rather than through agonizing over their odd attractions to the enemy they're stuck with.

Finally, I want to give props to the audible narration. POV changes chapter to chapter (meaning this book works at being targeted for everyone), and the dual narrators are fantastic at emphasizing the differences between the characters in a way that really adds something. Noemi's narrator is soft and emotional, and a little vulnerable. Able is straightforward, and just a little bit (not enough to grate) robotic, while still just a bit human. It really added something for me.

Not a fan.

This book was not for me. I found the plot interesting but could not connect with the characters. It almost read like a bad anime. I do not recommend.

Can’t wait for the next book!!

I read this book for my sci-fi book club and I loved it! I can’t wait to read the next book. I loved the world building that the author did.

I did .. not expect to like this as much as I did

This book has been sitting in my wish list for about a year, and I finally got it on a whim. I'm so happy I did. The building of the relationship of Noemi and Abel was a thing of beauty.

Great, complete story

I'm always looking for sci-fi with no violence, gore. This totally delivered. It's a great story with strong characters that ties together well enough to stand alone, even though it's first in a series. Loved it.

Sooo formulaic

Random crisis. Philosophical inner monologue. Random crisis. The same philosophical inner monologue. That’s the whole book. Happens like 20 times. Suspense is never properly built and solutions are easy and quick. It seems as the author wrote a book solely on this so-so concept and then didn’t have any other ideas. I don’t know how anyone would find themselves invested in the “story”. Dialogue is canned, the characters are flat with the protagonists only being marginally more 3-D. Every moment that was obviously written to be emotional comes off as just that- cliche in a way that seems like someone tried to make something emotional but didn’t have patience. The main character’s parents literally froze to death and her best friend bleeds out and it seems to barely affect the mental state of the main character. The narration is fine, but the woman’s voice is hoarse, and the man’s voice lacks depth entirely. Maybe it’s the faux-philosophical writing maybe it’s his weirdly always cheerful cadence- but nothing seems dimensional at all. If you like any kind of humor or realism in your literature, don’t buy this book.

just loved it.

I absolutely loved this book. I am a huge SiFi gooroo. The story was quick moving, and very engaging. I would reccomend it to anyone.