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shawniebooks's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book and can't wait to start the next. I enjoyed how Stanton is not the typical hunky smooth talker. My favorite line in the book was Stanton admitting that he saw Emily's skyclad spell dance! "It was an appalling spectacle," he said. "I enjoyed it tremendously. "
katyanaish's review against another edition
3.0
This book is really tough for me to review.
Let's start with this: the world was fabulous. It was unique and fascinating. Flavors of steampunk, and the varieties of magic were cool. So this author gets an A for world-building.
Now let's chat about everything else. First and foremost:
What the fuck is going on in this book?
It is strange to reach the end of a book and feel like you understand less about what is going on than you did in the first couple of chapters. I think that the combination of the fact that this is the author's first book AND that this plot seems to have complicated, tangled layers where no one is really what they seem... it just adds up to too much. The ending was, for me anyway, a hot mess filled with "What just happened?" "What are they doing with it?" "Wait, am I supposed to know these people / that organization?" and then at the end, some big powerhouse Dude steps out of ... I don't know, a closet or something, leaving me baffled and wondering who the hell that guy is supposed to be. The world Hobson built is intricate and detailed, and there are organizations vying for power, but the lines between them (or lack of lines, or in some cases lines that turned out to not be lines at all) were confusing.
The characters
Emily Edwards, the heroine, was cool. She was smart, brave, quick on her feet and generally able to handle herself. She was pretty solid as a heroine. But she made a mistake in the very beginning - a mistake that is a tangent to the story, by the way, and has nothing to do with the overall plot - and it feels like she spent the entire rest of the book paying for it. It got tedious. But that aside, I liked Emily.
Dreadnought Stanton, the hero, was... an asshole. Sorry, but he did not impress me in any way. From his smug condescension early in the book (which, despite everything - including Emily saving his life on several occasions - he NEVER got over... he was still keeping vital things from her so she wouldn't worry her pretty little head over it, all the way at the very end of the book), to his bossy know-it-all attitude, to his refusal to share any info without having it pried from his smug face (and even then, he would only utter as little as he could manage before he changed the subject), he really really grated on me. He did the WRONG thing CONSTANTLY, whether it was his attitude towards Emily or his trust for IDIOTS, or just his stupid plan in the first place, and yet was always insisting that he knew best.
Their romance - if you can even call it that - didn't work for me. Because he's a douchebag. And because he never at any point actually indicated any real interest in her. I didn't buy it. And having Emily virtually throw herself at him in the end, to beg him to be with her, was appalling to me, and did a lot to undermine her character. He in no way deserves her, and hell, he hasn't even really expressed an interest. Fuck that guy.
The secondary cast. Here's where I feel like it got really painful. It felt like they were all uniformly villains. And hell, it still feels that way - we were treated to an epilogue of supposed allies talking trash about them as they plotted secretly. And this brings me to my final point of criticism:
Clearly, it is time for the human race to just die off.
The entire world is populated with assholes. That must be the case, because it has become constant in every book I have read lately. Is anyone else tired of this trend in books? We have some Big Apocalyptic Thing (henceforth to be called BAT) about to occur, and the h/h are racing desperately to save the world. Said world is throwing up obstacles in their path at every opportunity, and most people they run across are trying to stab them in the back. What here is worth saving? I know all my friends have heard this rant from me before, so I won't go into all the detail again here, but really. Authors: you are taking the "Us Against the World" thing too far. If the world is really so shitty, I have a hard time justifying all the effort to save it. Maybe that's just me.
But in that same line, one thing this book did really take too far, for me, is the women-hating. Look, I know that women weren't exactly valued members of society in these historicals, but in this book, 99.999999999999999999% of the men treated all women (but Emily in particular) as if they were whores, idiots, slaves, or usually some combination of the three. It got tiresome. I can only handle the whore references (I have grown to loathe the world skycladdish) or the "don't worry your pretty little head" comments for so long. Having every male in the book utter one or both of these things makes me hate every male in the book. Please refer to the previous paragraph.
So. I am having a tough time with the review, because despite how things sound above, I didn't hate it. I liked the mythology the author was creating - I thought it was new and interesting. I liked the mesh of magic and science (reminds me quite a bit of the Blades of the Rose series, actually). But I feel like the story being told is a hot mess. I literally have no idea what the fuck is going on. And I am tired of a heroine that I like quite a bit being constantly belittled by not just the ENTIRE WORLD but also by the HERO.
I'll read the next, because I would like to see if this can actually pull together into something... but... for this one, I am going to give it:
***2.5***
Let's start with this: the world was fabulous. It was unique and fascinating. Flavors of steampunk, and the varieties of magic were cool. So this author gets an A for world-building.
Now let's chat about everything else. First and foremost:
What the fuck is going on in this book?
It is strange to reach the end of a book and feel like you understand less about what is going on than you did in the first couple of chapters. I think that the combination of the fact that this is the author's first book AND that this plot seems to have complicated, tangled layers where no one is really what they seem... it just adds up to too much. The ending was, for me anyway, a hot mess filled with "What just happened?" "What are they doing with it?" "Wait, am I supposed to know these people / that organization?" and then at the end, some big powerhouse Dude steps out of ... I don't know, a closet or something, leaving me baffled and wondering who the hell that guy is supposed to be. The world Hobson built is intricate and detailed, and there are organizations vying for power, but the lines between them (or lack of lines, or in some cases lines that turned out to not be lines at all) were confusing.
The characters
Emily Edwards, the heroine, was cool. She was smart, brave, quick on her feet and generally able to handle herself. She was pretty solid as a heroine. But she made a mistake in the very beginning - a mistake that is a tangent to the story, by the way, and has nothing to do with the overall plot - and it feels like she spent the entire rest of the book paying for it. It got tedious. But that aside, I liked Emily.
Dreadnought Stanton, the hero, was... an asshole. Sorry, but he did not impress me in any way. From his smug condescension early in the book (which, despite everything - including Emily saving his life on several occasions - he NEVER got over... he was still keeping vital things from her so she wouldn't worry her pretty little head over it, all the way at the very end of the book), to his bossy know-it-all attitude, to his refusal to share any info without having it pried from his smug face (and even then, he would only utter as little as he could manage before he changed the subject), he really really grated on me. He did the WRONG thing CONSTANTLY, whether it was his attitude towards Emily or his trust for IDIOTS, or just his stupid plan in the first place, and yet was always insisting that he knew best.
Their romance - if you can even call it that - didn't work for me. Because he's a douchebag. And because he never at any point actually indicated any real interest in her. I didn't buy it. And having Emily virtually throw herself at him in the end, to beg him to be with her, was appalling to me, and did a lot to undermine her character. He in no way deserves her, and hell, he hasn't even really expressed an interest.
Spoiler
At that point in the story, he hadn't even spoken to her in a month! Didn't visit her, didn't answer her letters, didn't give 2 craps about how she was doing.The secondary cast. Here's where I feel like it got really painful. It felt like they were all uniformly villains. And hell, it still feels that way - we were treated to an epilogue of supposed allies talking trash about them as they plotted secretly. And this brings me to my final point of criticism:
Clearly, it is time for the human race to just die off.
The entire world is populated with assholes. That must be the case, because it has become constant in every book I have read lately. Is anyone else tired of this trend in books? We have some Big Apocalyptic Thing (henceforth to be called BAT) about to occur, and the h/h are racing desperately to save the world. Said world is throwing up obstacles in their path at every opportunity, and most people they run across are trying to stab them in the back. What here is worth saving? I know all my friends have heard this rant from me before, so I won't go into all the detail again here, but really. Authors: you are taking the "Us Against the World" thing too far. If the world is really so shitty, I have a hard time justifying all the effort to save it. Maybe that's just me.
But in that same line, one thing this book did really take too far, for me, is the women-hating. Look, I know that women weren't exactly valued members of society in these historicals, but in this book, 99.999999999999999999% of the men treated all women (but Emily in particular) as if they were whores, idiots, slaves, or usually some combination of the three. It got tiresome. I can only handle the whore references (I have grown to loathe the world skycladdish) or the "don't worry your pretty little head" comments for so long. Having every male in the book utter one or both of these things makes me hate every male in the book. Please refer to the previous paragraph.
So. I am having a tough time with the review, because despite how things sound above, I didn't hate it. I liked the mythology the author was creating - I thought it was new and interesting. I liked the mesh of magic and science (reminds me quite a bit of the Blades of the Rose series, actually). But I feel like the story being told is a hot mess. I literally have no idea what the fuck is going on. And I am tired of a heroine that I like quite a bit being constantly belittled by not just the ENTIRE WORLD but also by the HERO.
I'll read the next, because I would like to see if this can actually pull together into something... but... for this one, I am going to give it:
***2.5***
stephxsu's review against another edition
3.0
THE NATIVE STAR, M.K. Hobson’s debut novel, is an original blend of witchery and the Wild, Wild West. It didn’t leave a particularly long-lasting impression on me, but was definitely an enjoyable and well-written romp of a read.
For me, the strength of THE NATIVE STAR lay in its inventiveness. Just when I thought I had Emily and Stanton’s world figured out, Hobson throws in another twist and element that takes me by surprise and forces me to reorganize my thoughts about the story’s world. The book combines steampunk and magic with the post-Civil War American West, resulting in an exciting new subgenre for magic and steampunk lovers.
And yet these surprises also contributed to my slight skepticism of the story. Oftentimes, new elements were introduced with seemingly little forethought: the characters are just walking along when all of a sudden—BAM!—oh, hey, interlude while we describe this new twist to the world. This just didn’t agree with me in this book, perhaps because I wanted more of a setup of the foundations of the world at the beginning of the novel.
Furthermore, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Emily and Stanton. She gave me the impression of being one of those pinch-faced ladies who look and act older than they really are, and he was standoffish the entire time. Their romance still seemed to come out of nowhere for me, despite how much the back-cover summary pimps it. They—the book summary and tagline—set me up to expect a great, life-changing romance, but I didn’t quite get it here.
Overall, THE NATIVE STAR is a good and interesting mix of magic, steampunk, and the Wild, Wild West. If that sounds even half as intriguing to you, then I definitely recommend that you check it out!
For me, the strength of THE NATIVE STAR lay in its inventiveness. Just when I thought I had Emily and Stanton’s world figured out, Hobson throws in another twist and element that takes me by surprise and forces me to reorganize my thoughts about the story’s world. The book combines steampunk and magic with the post-Civil War American West, resulting in an exciting new subgenre for magic and steampunk lovers.
And yet these surprises also contributed to my slight skepticism of the story. Oftentimes, new elements were introduced with seemingly little forethought: the characters are just walking along when all of a sudden—BAM!—oh, hey, interlude while we describe this new twist to the world. This just didn’t agree with me in this book, perhaps because I wanted more of a setup of the foundations of the world at the beginning of the novel.
Furthermore, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Emily and Stanton. She gave me the impression of being one of those pinch-faced ladies who look and act older than they really are, and he was standoffish the entire time. Their romance still seemed to come out of nowhere for me, despite how much the back-cover summary pimps it. They—the book summary and tagline—set me up to expect a great, life-changing romance, but I didn’t quite get it here.
Overall, THE NATIVE STAR is a good and interesting mix of magic, steampunk, and the Wild, Wild West. If that sounds even half as intriguing to you, then I definitely recommend that you check it out!
callmeren's review against another edition
1.0
I read up to the beginning of the plot's Journey but quickly lost interest because I didn't like the main male character, a review spoiled me he would stay that way, and things felt like they kept getting introduced when convenient. I didn't feel a particular flow to pull me along.
embereye's review against another edition
3.0
This was ok. I think it worked as the romantic elements could be removed and the story would've stayed interesting. I actually thought the romance angle took away a bit from the story. Also? The violet eyes of the main character. I'm glad that I was halfway through the book when I found out about that as it might've dissuaded me from reading it. This was all balanced out by zombies, magic, steampunk-ishness, debate about the power of belief, and industrial revolution west coast setting.
Things I took away from this book. Interesting world building and back story without it being too info-dumpy. Main character image building without using mirror, water reflection, whatever.
Things I took away from this book. Interesting world building and back story without it being too info-dumpy. Main character image building without using mirror, water reflection, whatever.
kleonard's review against another edition
1.0
This was about as ok as a book can be considering how much of it is incredibly derivative of Lois McMaster Bujold's Legacy Knife series and how much astonishing and appalling ableism there is in the book. Oh yes, and it has magic Indians who sacrifice their lives for the white folk.
whatsmacksaid's review against another edition
4.0
"The Native Star" is a fun, relatively lightweight read that I enjoyed far more than I expected to. (I'd read somewhere that it was awful and a friend told me she hadn't liked it, but by that point I'd already bought my copy, so...) The relationship arcs are subtle and intriguing, as is the idea of credomancy (where popular belief literally affects who is possible of what and by what means).
There's a strong pro-environmental moral in here, but I rather liked how it was portrayed. Those who believed in TNS's "climate change" responded in the same dismissive way that many non-believers in our world do. That's another thing Hobson is really, really good at: showing us true reactions, motions and/or things I could point to and say, "Yes, I've seen someone say that about climate change," or "Yes, men have said that same thing to me before," etc. For all the magic and the far-away world of post-Civil War America, mostly everything was relateable.
All in all, I'm glad I bought it and its sequel, "The Hidden Goddess," at the same time. I have every intention of diving right into the second book as well as (at some point in the future) returning to reread TNS.
There's a strong pro-environmental moral in here, but I rather liked how it was portrayed. Those who believed in TNS's "climate change" responded in the same dismissive way that many non-believers in our world do. That's another thing Hobson is really, really good at: showing us true reactions, motions and/or things I could point to and say, "Yes, I've seen someone say that about climate change," or "Yes, men have said that same thing to me before," etc. For all the magic and the far-away world of post-Civil War America, mostly everything was relateable.
All in all, I'm glad I bought it and its sequel, "The Hidden Goddess," at the same time. I have every intention of diving right into the second book as well as (at some point in the future) returning to reread TNS.
carlacbarroso's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting magic concept, with sagrimancers, animancers and credomancers. Not enough steampunk though.
darkcrystal1839's review against another edition
4.0
This book was picked up on random during one of my browsing sessions at B&N – sessions that happen less and less now that I no longer live in close proximity to a B&N store. But I came across this one and thought the cover looked interesting, and the blurb on the back didn’t sound too bad. So I bought it, and it’s sat on my shelves for a month or two (not the longest a book has gone neglected on my shelves, sadly.)
Well, I finally got around to reading this, and I found it interesting and entertaining as hell. Great concept, good story, fun characters, and best of all, hints at more novels to come.
First off, the concept: set in the old west, not too terribly long after the Civil War. Twist? There’s magic all over the place. Entirely commonplace in this reality. In fact, that was one of the things I loved so much about the book, right from the start. Hobson doesn’t start out giving us the background of this world, doesn’t try and convince us that hey, it could happen. And here’s exactly how it could. No, we’re just thrown into the world as is and expected to roll with it. Give you an example, from the very beginning, in the prologue (bit of explanation, a man hears pounding at his door very late at night and is treated to the sight of several Union soldiers at his door, looking menacing.):
“Baugh clutched the edge of the door, knuckles white. Sherman’s bloody march was only a few months in the past. The ashes of Columbia had barely cooled, and the once-fertile fields of South Carolina were barren, ruined by the despoiling northern Warlock squadrons who had sown every field with black sorcerer’s salt. And since Lincoln’s assassination, the Yankee garrisons had been itching for blood.”
Now, if you’re just skimming through, you might think you’re about to get a simple Northern/Southern post-war sort of tale. But then, you read a bit closer and … wha? Did they say something about Warlocks? And sorcerer’s salt? wtf?
And if you can’t roll with this world that they throw you into, you’re going to have a hard time getting into the story. Now me personally, I love that sort of thing, so I was right there with where Hobson wanted to go. And the characters do a nice job of filling me in on the story of this world and how they all live in it without it seeming to overly explanatory. Which is saying something, because one of the characters is sort of a backwoods witch with a very sheltered life, and she falls into an adventure with a Warlock of the World, if you will, from New York, who loves to give lectures about his vast knowledge about everything magical.
These two characters were very fun to ride along with on their adventure. Granted, it’s quite obvious from the start that they’ll end up together, but I still enjoyed the journey, watching this relationship grow from mutual distaste and contempt to grudging friendship with the occasional bout of annoyance to (of course) love.
I enjoyed the ending, even if it was mildly confusing at times – there are hints at things that hopefully are explained better in future novels (an Aztec prophecy in particular). But I followed along easy enough and felt it resolved nice enough. There are definitely a few points that aren’t resolved with a nice enough bow on top, but since they most certainly hint that there’s more story to be told, I’m hoping for future sequels that can maybe tie up some of the looser ends I didn’t like, and give me more time with these fun characters in this fascinating world. (Yep, just found it on the author’s website, the next book in this series: The Hidden Goddess. Yay.)
All in all, I give this book a very high recommendation – anybody who enjoys Westerns and fantasy should give this a read. Or alternate history (of a sort). Or really just fantasy in general. Good stuff, all around.
Well, I finally got around to reading this, and I found it interesting and entertaining as hell. Great concept, good story, fun characters, and best of all, hints at more novels to come.
First off, the concept: set in the old west, not too terribly long after the Civil War. Twist? There’s magic all over the place. Entirely commonplace in this reality. In fact, that was one of the things I loved so much about the book, right from the start. Hobson doesn’t start out giving us the background of this world, doesn’t try and convince us that hey, it could happen. And here’s exactly how it could. No, we’re just thrown into the world as is and expected to roll with it. Give you an example, from the very beginning, in the prologue (bit of explanation, a man hears pounding at his door very late at night and is treated to the sight of several Union soldiers at his door, looking menacing.):
“Baugh clutched the edge of the door, knuckles white. Sherman’s bloody march was only a few months in the past. The ashes of Columbia had barely cooled, and the once-fertile fields of South Carolina were barren, ruined by the despoiling northern Warlock squadrons who had sown every field with black sorcerer’s salt. And since Lincoln’s assassination, the Yankee garrisons had been itching for blood.”
Now, if you’re just skimming through, you might think you’re about to get a simple Northern/Southern post-war sort of tale. But then, you read a bit closer and … wha? Did they say something about Warlocks? And sorcerer’s salt? wtf?
And if you can’t roll with this world that they throw you into, you’re going to have a hard time getting into the story. Now me personally, I love that sort of thing, so I was right there with where Hobson wanted to go. And the characters do a nice job of filling me in on the story of this world and how they all live in it without it seeming to overly explanatory. Which is saying something, because one of the characters is sort of a backwoods witch with a very sheltered life, and she falls into an adventure with a Warlock of the World, if you will, from New York, who loves to give lectures about his vast knowledge about everything magical.
These two characters were very fun to ride along with on their adventure. Granted, it’s quite obvious from the start that they’ll end up together, but I still enjoyed the journey, watching this relationship grow from mutual distaste and contempt to grudging friendship with the occasional bout of annoyance to (of course) love.
I enjoyed the ending, even if it was mildly confusing at times – there are hints at things that hopefully are explained better in future novels (an Aztec prophecy in particular). But I followed along easy enough and felt it resolved nice enough. There are definitely a few points that aren’t resolved with a nice enough bow on top, but since they most certainly hint that there’s more story to be told, I’m hoping for future sequels that can maybe tie up some of the looser ends I didn’t like, and give me more time with these fun characters in this fascinating world. (Yep, just found it on the author’s website, the next book in this series: The Hidden Goddess. Yay.)
All in all, I give this book a very high recommendation – anybody who enjoys Westerns and fantasy should give this a read. Or alternate history (of a sort). Or really just fantasy in general. Good stuff, all around.
thewallflower00's review against another edition
4.0
This book had a wonderful beginning. It started with intriguing characters -- a good ol' country witch (the sticks and herbs and perfumes and potions kind) in the Dr. McCoy vein, a hearthrobby lumberjack, and the stuck-up city boy with horrible secrets. It was an intriguing universe too -- the old west with magic. It's a hero's journey story. The first half is great, but the second half feels paddy, where magic can "suddenly" do things just because it can. Just to provide obstacles for the heroes.
At a certain point the story feels more concerned with showing off what this universe can do and the "neat stuff" in it than it does on resolving the plot. It even needs a prologue to tie its beginning and ending together. And nothing in the prologue has any bearing on the plot in-between. I'm surprised this got past the editors -- it's one of the worst reasons for a prologue. It unmade the story for me from the best thing I read this span.
At a certain point the story feels more concerned with showing off what this universe can do and the "neat stuff" in it than it does on resolving the plot. It even needs a prologue to tie its beginning and ending together. And nothing in the prologue has any bearing on the plot in-between. I'm surprised this got past the editors -- it's one of the worst reasons for a prologue. It unmade the story for me from the best thing I read this span.