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)

Defy the Stars

I really loved this book! If you like Brandon Sanderson Skyward Series or Marisa Meyers Cinder series, this is similar. Great characters and storyline.

Unique Sci-Fi Romance

I have been a long-time fan of Claudia Gray, and the premise of this series was just too good to pass up. It lived up to expectations, too. This was a fantastic, interesting romance that was truly unlike anything I've read before. The characters absolutely won me over, and I was immediately caught up both in the slow-burn romance and the overarching plot outside of the romance.

I will definitely be picking up the second in the series!

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.

Quickly added to the top of Favorites List

Claudia Gray has definitely and easily become one of my top favorite authors. Her Firebird series has been one of my favorites so it baffles me it took me so long to discover her other works as well. The Firebird series had me thinking on and exploring the possibility of other dimensions while this book/series had me contemplating the possibilities and extent of artificial intelligence. She weaves in a bit of romance but does not allow it to warrant a glass of wine with any cheesiness and not letting the romance dictate the storyline. Having a female character who is human with strengths and weaknesses (not overpowering them) and not having every other character seemingly fall in love with them (looking at you Mass) is a welcome trait this book presents.

The performance of the two narrators was excellent as well. Nate Begle balanced a pace of tone that kept a mechanical feeling without being overbearing to help illustrate his character fantastically.

Solid story, bad performance

A good romantic SiFy novel with romance, machine awareness and interplanetary adventure. However, it's tedious to listen to, esp. the male reader. Fortunately, the reading doesn't ruin the story.

With a good reader(s) my opinion of the story may have improved enough to give it 5 stars.

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.

best ai/human romance ever!

I've been looking for a romance with an AI and a human, specifically where the AI is a male. The story stars a young girl, Noemi, and she is trying to sacrifice her life. When her friend Ester is critically wounded, she quickly hops to an abandoned ship for aid and meets Abel, an advanced mech.

The two actually hate each other for a while, until they begin to get along. The cuteness between them is so good, the main character is a POC, and the twists and turns make this story A+, I will definitely revisit it.

Not bad, but not great, might try it again

This was a hard one for me to follow and unfortunately I think it was due to at least one of the narrators. I just felt like I was listening to a biography when they were talking and it made me loose interest pretty quickly. I do remember enjoying some parts of the story, primarily when the second of the narrators were speaking, that I don't think the story overall is bad. I may give this one a try again, but not without a physical copy cause this audio version kinda killed it for me.

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.

Lovely Ride

"Defy the Stars" explores the relationship between Noemi Vidal (a human of the former Earth colony, Genesis) and the Earth android Abel. You may think that there’s a war going on between Earth and Genesis with rising tensions among Earth’s other colonized planets as resources dwindle and people are displaced, but really, it’s all about that romance.

"Defy the Stars" was awesome. I had a great time listening to it, especially whenever Nate Begle took over the narration as Abel. Kasey Lee Huizinga was…okay. Not my favorite narrator, but still good enough to enjoy the story.

There’s not too many YA novels that have a devout protagonist who uses her faith as a way to guide her. Noemi says that she’s unlikable, but she’s really just a ray of sunshine capsuled by a layer of cinnamon rolls and marshmallow fluff, and dusted with tasty pop rocks. I’m glad that she sticks close to her beliefs, but also has the capacity to grow. And then there’s Abel…yes. Please, protect the sweet boy. Can I please stick him in my pocket and keep him forever? He was a compelling character even before he went off on his journey with Noemi, and so seeing him grow even MORE was fantastic!

I like how in this novel, Earth is considered the enemy. There are so many novels where it’s Earth versus the entirety of space or aliens or anything, really. But this novel takes us off and away into the mindset of someone who lived her life on a completely different planet and only sees earth as an unwanted tether. It was cool to be placed into that perspective.

And now, because I really liked this novel, I want to talk about a few things that could have been done differently that would have bumped this baby up to a full five stars:

-This one is just personal. I rarely like novels that are in present tense and are in the 3rd person, especially if the narrator end up being unreliable (confirming to the character’s thoughts.) I’d much rather it be in 1st person to help with the urgency of the present tense and to avoid a passive narrator favoring one character from another. That just how it be for me.

-Needs aliens. I was just as disappointed as Noemi when she realized that the new things she’d see would just be more humans, haha.

-Slightly predictable plot, but nothing too predictable. It just would have been refreshing to switch a few elements up to catch the reader off guard.

All in all, I had a great time with this novel. I am surely going to read the next in the series. I gotta know what happens to sweet Abel!!! (And Noemi, she’s in there, too.)