Noemi lives on the planet Genesis. Their enemy is on the attack and wants to take over their planet and ruin their peaceful, healthy way of life. In order to keep their enemy at bay, Noemi and many other fighters have volunteered for a suicide mission which will occur in twenty days. The kicker is that their enemy is Earth. It seems the people on Earth have ruined their planet and they are very overcrowded. They must seek other planets to take over so they have a place to go. Earth doesn't send people to do their fighting, they send robots called mechs.
I don't want to give away all the details, but Noemi eventually ends up on an old Earthen spaceship with Abel, a mech that has been stranded on this ship for years. Abel turns out to be a very sophisticated mech, so much so, that he seems to have feelings. So Noemi and Mech begin this quest across the universe to try to save Genesis and stop the war before the suicide mission takes place.
Defy the Stars is very exciting. The pacing is excellent, and each place they visit is different and offers unique challenges. They meet a host of good guys along the way. They must confront several moral dilemmas as they fight for survival. It kept my attention, and I was thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading.
I guess the whole "mech falling in love" premise is a bit unbelievable but Gray does a good job making you believe it. The ending leaves our characters in a safe place, but there are bigger issues that aren't resolved. I want to know! Defy the Stars is the beginning of a series, The Constellation Series, so I'm planning on continuing.
I'm excited to give this one to my teen science fiction fans!
Published by Little, Brown BFYR, April 4, 2017
eARC obtained from NetGalley
512 pages
Rating: 4.5/5
5 stars! I hope the students love it. I feel like the ones I've read recently that I thought were so fantastic might not appeal to students and that makes me sad. I hope I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually 4.5 stars, but close! I hope the kids give it a chance.
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