08/21/2023
Jacobs debuts with a solid, plot-driven space opera, the first in a series. The three Hands of the Kindom control the star system of Treble: Clerics, responsible for religion; Secretaries, responsible for law; and Cloaksaan, responsible for enforcement. Ruthless Cleric Esek Nightfoot has left many enemies in her wake, including Jun Ironway, whose family Esek exterminated to cover up the Nightfoot family’s involvement in a past genocide. Since then, Jun has grown into an expert hacker, and she’s determined to exact her revenge by exposing Esek’s crimes. As Esek and fellow Cleric Chono hunt Jun down, their mission is complicated by a figure from their mutual past: the enigmatic Six, a promising former classmate of Chono’s who caught Esek’s attention as a potential future Novitiate—until it all went horribly and mysteriously wrong. Since then, Esek has repeatedly tried and failed to kill Six, and as Chono becomes convinced that Six is somehow involved in Jun’s revenge quest, Chono’s loyalties are tested. The resulting multiplayer cat-and-mouse game is intricately plotted and tightly paced with a satisfying ending that sets the stage nicely for the next installment. Space opera fans will eat this up. Agent: Bridget Smith, JABberwocky. (Oct.)
"Interesting and ambitious ... Fans of Elizabeth Bear or Ann Leckie may find much to entertain themselves here ... a fast-moving novel of action and intrigue, which Jacobs pulls off with vivid energy, bringing her threads together in an explosive conclusion."—Locus Kirkus (Starred Review) Booklist (Starred Review) BookPage (Starred Review) Publishers Weekly These Burning Stars is a superb work of space opera science fiction by any measure, but the fact that it’s a debut makes it that much more impressive."—Autostraddle A Memory Called Empire and Too Like the Lightning .”—Kameron Hurley, author of The Light Brigade These Burning Stars is baroque, intense, inventive, vivid, violent, and visceral. An impressive debut.” —Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun J. S. Dewes, author of The Last Watch Essa Hansen, author of Nophek Gloss K. Eason, author of How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse These Burning Stars blew me away.”—Marina Lostetter, author of The Helm of Midnight Michael Mammay, author of Planetside Ren Hutchings, author of Under Fortunate Stars Rebecca Fraimow, author of The Iron Children
★ 09/01/2023
DEBUT In another time and galaxy, there is the Treble, ruled by the Kindom and the first families who settled on the planets after arriving on their generation ships. The Kindom asserts its rule through its righteous clerics, clever secretaries, and brutal cloaksaan. The capricious Esek Nightfoot is both a cleric and a member of a powerful first family that manufactures fuel for spaceships and jump gates. The Nightfoots developed synthetic fuel after exhausting the original jevite mines on the Jeveni moon, which was eventually destroyed, along with many of its residents. Now the Kindom sends Esek and her former novitiate Chono on a mission to retrieve a memory coin that may implicate the Nightfoots in the Jeveni genocide. This leads Esek and Chono to a ship of space pirates and a brilliant hacker, and all the while Esek is hunting the mysterious Six, who also threatens the Nightfoot empire. The protagonists are carefully crafted, with their layers slowly built to impressive complexity. This buildup pays off as the chase escalates across planets and comes to a stunning conclusion on one of the original generation ships. VERDICT Full of political intrigue and impressive worldbuilding, Jacobs's superb debut launches this space opera trilogy.—Melissa DeWild
★ 2023-08-26
The planets of the Treble are ruled by the Kindom, a religious order, and the wealthy First Families. Esek Nightfoot, a cruel, vicious, and sociopathically self-interested Cleric and First Family scion, cut off all career opportunities for a brilliant student called Six, challenging them to do something “extraordinary ” to impress her into taking them as a novitiate. Six’s “extraordinary” act was to leave school before graduation and begin collecting evidence that exposes the Nightfoots’ complicity in a genocide. Esek has pursued Six for years, often with the uneasy assistance of Cleric Chono, a far more pious person who feels loyalty both to Six, a former schoolmate, and to Esek, who once pulled Chono out of a sexually abusive situation. Their quest eventually leads to Jun Ironway, a gifted hacker who holds a piece of the data implicating the Nightfoots and also has her own dark history with both Esek and Six. Does Esek want to kill Six, as her family’s matriarch demands, or make good on her promise to make them one of her novitiates? Or does she have something else entirely in mind? As the political situation of the Treble becomes more unstable, the chase careens toward a violent and shocking endgame. The narrative jumps around in time, fully filling in past events that are initially referenced in the present-day story. At first this seems unnecessary and confusing, but as several staggering twists emerge, it becomes clear that the choice is utterly necessary and the confusion might actually be the author’s method of obscuring a key revelation. The reader may figure out that revelation before it explodes in the text but will likely be surprised by a good part of what follows. The author also does an excellent job of applying what are typically high fantasy or historical fiction tropes (the tension between religious and secular entities, the unrest over the hereditary passage of power, and the fraught relationship between mentor and student) to high-tech science fiction (perhaps Dune was an influence?).
An exciting start from a fresh talent, offering emotional and political complexity plus plenty of interplanetary action.
Like every good revenge story,These Burning Stars is baroque, intense, inventive, vivid, violent, and visceral. An impressive debut.
author of Unconquerable Sun Kate Elliott
The vivid characters and ratcheting plot tension kept me racing through the book. And as soon as I hit the last page, I immediately wanted to turn right back and read it all over again just to savor the elegance with which it builds to its explosive conclusion. Jacobs' trilogy is destined to be the space opera of the decade and I can't wait to have the next one in my hands!
author of The Iron Children Rebecca Fraimow
With a cast of deliciously dangerous characters and a gloriously executed plot that twists like a knife, this propulsive debut heralds the start of a sweeping space opera saga in the vein of Ann Leckie and Alastair Reynolds. Bethany Jacobs is an ingenious worldbuilder and a stunning new voice to look out for in sci-fi.
author of Under Fortunate Stars Ren Hutchings
I love a book that makes me pay attention and rewards me for it. I love even more a book with complicated, messy politics. But really, I'm here for the characters, and Jacobs ' are compelling, flawed, tragic and hopeful at the same time. What's that? There's a sequel? I can't wait.
author of Nightwatch Over Windscar K. Eason
A sizzling political space opera exploring the borders of passion and monstrosity, hunter and hunted, obsession and devotion. Jacobs is an exciting new author to watch.
author of Nophek Gloss Essa Hansen
If I were to say that this was the best debut novel I've read in a long time, I would be doing it a disservice. It's more than that—it's one of the best SF books I've read period. It has it all: jump off the page action, wild twists, superb world building. And the characters! It's rare that an author can make you care about so many different characters the way that Jacobs does. Go ahead and pencil her in for your Astounding Award ballot for best new author.
author of Planetside Michael Mammay
A richly imagined space opera packed with intricate worldbuilding, compelling prose, and twisty politics, artfully woven together and delivered through a cast of fallible, endearing characters. An incredible debut perfect for fans of Ann Leckie, Kate Elliott, and Scalzi’s Interdependency series.
author of The Last Watch J. S. Dewes
