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A review by lizshayne
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So I'm just not going to talk about the Space Jews because I've already listened to the always thoughtful and trenchant critiques emerging from WizLes (the Wizards versus Lesbians podcast, for those of you who don't read all my reviews,) and I'd basically just end up repeating what they have already said.
The thing that bothered me the most was actually not the #SpaceJews part of the religion, but the frustrating experience of encountering a complex and carefully constructed mythology and the people who are beholden to it WITHOUT ANY SENSE OF IT AS A LIVING THEOLOGY. Where did it come from? What is the Godfire and how did it manifest? Why do people believe these things? What DOES Chono believe that is her strong faith that gives her strength? How did this become everyone's religion? Why does the sectarian natur eonly matter in some case? I've gotten spoiled by authors that either make their gods manifest or are just extremely thoughtful about what belief looks like and this book has so much god adjacent content, but the absence of like any meaningful engagement with it as religion frustrated me so much.
Unfortunately the story of an absolute monster destroying herself was super compelling and I enjoyed a lot of the rest of it. But not quite enough to mask my ongoing irrituation.
The thing that bothered me the most was actually not the #SpaceJews part of the religion, but the frustrating experience of encountering a complex and carefully constructed mythology and the people who are beholden to it WITHOUT ANY SENSE OF IT AS A LIVING THEOLOGY. Where did it come from? What is the Godfire and how did it manifest? Why do people believe these things? What DOES Chono believe that is her strong faith that gives her strength? How did this become everyone's religion? Why does the sectarian natur eonly matter in some case? I've gotten spoiled by authors that either make their gods manifest or are just extremely thoughtful about what belief looks like and this book has so much god adjacent content, but the absence of like any meaningful engagement with it as religion frustrated me so much.
Unfortunately the story of an absolute monster destroying herself was super compelling and I enjoyed a lot of the rest of it. But not quite enough to mask my ongoing irrituation.