However, throughout the novel, natural phenomena feature as impediments at least as frequently as other humans do. Most clearly, this appears as the central Big Bad of the book: convincing other humans that this natural disaster will come to pass-and all of the politicking that goes along with that-and then deciding how to act in the face of impending doom. The question of humans' ability to understand and control nature is central to the book. One part of the Urth is eternally in shadow, the other eternally in light: as you may have guessed, the world is a tidally locked Earth-and, as we learn throughout the story, a planet that natural catastrophe is yet to truly strike. The signposts of the worldbuilding were certainly interesting the action takes place on a planet called Urth, whose denizens worship the Father Above (the Sun) the Mother Below (the Urth) and the Son and Daughter (the faces of the moon). There is death, violence, and betrayal anything that can go wrong, will, especially in the case of our mainest main character, Nyx.īecause of the combination of points of view and breakneck pace, I found it difficult to root myself in the book and feel like I was a part of the world. The story moves along with constant twists and turns there is no situation that can't possibly get worse. I hadn't heard of the author before, but his publications seem to tend to the thriller genre, and this influence is clear. The pacing of the novel is as rapidfire as its shifts between narrators. The author takes a page from Robert Jordan-whom he thanks in the acknowledgements-by adding in further, smaller POVs. The author chooses four primary point-of-view characters: a young, blind student named Nyx a thief who stumbles upon an alchemical secret while escaping the mines in which he has been imprisoned a wayward prince living in the shadow of his older and evermore talented twin brother and a knight who has broken his oaths. Part of this is the complexity of the tale. The Starless Crown by James Rollins is a long book by any count clocking in at about 560 pages, it felt longer in the reading. The spoilers are marked in the text and should be easy to skip. Please note: This review contains very mild spoilers (first ~15% of the book). The book's strength lies in its interest in humans' relationship with nature and is a good match for anyone looking for plot-heavy science fantasy.

You can find her on Twitter at The Starless Crown by James Rollins weaves together multiple storylines into a tapestry about family in all its forms, nature, and surviving foretold doom. She won the grand prize in the 2019 Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards and is currently pursuing an MFA in writing at The New School. Aleksandra (Ola) Hill is a Polish-Canadian writer and the founder and editor-in-chief of khōréō, a magazine of speculative fiction by immigrant and diaspora writers.

The starless crown review