The Cruel Stars: A Novel by John Birmingham

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Strong language (lots of F words and the C word), Gruesome deaths


The galaxy was once terrorized by the Sturm, "species purists" intent on destroying any human with genetic or cybernetic enhancements. They cut a bloody swath across the stars, killing countless people before finally being defeated. Centuries later, this sect has returned, close to the brink of victory. Now five people must work together to stand against the invaders.

Going into this book there were a lot of characters and info thrown at the reader, so it took a while to get used to and to figure things out. I was immediately drawn to the first character that was introduced, Lucinda Hardy and continued to enjoy any chapter she was in. Other characters took a little while to grow on me, but they eventually all did. McClennan in particular was crass and I could have done without some of the profane things he said, but at the same time he could be amusing as well. I think less profane language in the book in general would have been a good thing. It was excessive for me. I do wish there was a bit more character development, but with this many characters that would be hard.

I liked the mix of drama and comic relief. I thought the book had a good balance of it. There were a couple of scenes that unexpectedly had me really laughing. One involved a hedge trimmer, but that's all I'm going to say. These scenes were needed because there were some rather gruesome scenes to get through as well. In the end this wasn't a favorite, but I liked it enough that I would probably read the next book in the trilogy (at least I think it's going to be a trilogy).


Some other things I liked about the book:

-Ships that are bigger on the inside, like the Tardis.
-Loading a persons consciousness into different bodies or even machines.
-The beautiful cover.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.