Title: A Conspiracy of Stars (Faloiv #1)
Author: Olivia A. Cole
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Released: 2018
Source: Library
Summary: Octavia lives on the planet of Faloiv, it is her home, the only planet she has ever known. Her ancestors came from another planet, escaping it as it died. Their ship crashed on Faloiv, they couldn't repair it, so they were stuck. Faloiv was never meant to be their home, they were looking for another planet to live on, another planet to call Home. The original settlers struck up an agreement with the Faloii residents to do no harm, and to leave the Faloii alone.
Science is the main pursuit of Octavia's people. Her mother and father are both scientists. Their mission is to study and learn everything they can about the planet of Faloiv. The plant life, the animal life, everything is studied and scrutinized so that Octavia's people can survive on this planet that they must call home.
Octavia is happy with her life, is on her way to becoming a scientist like her parents, but then she starts to discover things about her people and her home. Secrets that could upend everything.
My Thoughts: I was drawn to this by the beautiful cover, and I knew that it had been one of the selections for the Uppercase Subscription Box. I thought this had a really cool premise. I really enjoyed the world building. It did a good job of painting the picture of this planet Faloiv. I could see the wams they lived in, the jungle they lived by, it was really vivid to picture.
A Conspiracy of Stars kind of reminded me of Netflix's reboot of Lost in Space. It had a similar premise, they've both crash landed on an alien planet and have to work out how to survive. Plus, the characters of both expeditions were really smart and logical.
I just found the whole thing so dull, not really boring, just not very exciting. All the characters being so logical and scientific, just made them very dull people. They weren't that fun to read about. Everyone is so serious all the time. This also could be because there wasn't really any standout characters for me. None of them really had a personality that made them different from anybody else. There was maybe one character who had a personality, but we didn't get much from him. Our main character Octavia was okay, but she wasn't my favorite. She had her teenage tantrum moments.
There was also a romance in here that just felt out of place. It didn't do anything for me. I didn't feel the chemistry, I just felt friendship between them.
There was also a lot of info dumping in this, when it came to the plant and animal life of Faloiv. The author made up pretty much all the animal species and she spent a lot of time telling us about them in a textbook kind of way. It just wasn't very engaging to read about.
So this reminded me of reboot Lost in Space in that way too, in how I found so many of the characters so logical and scientific, that they bored me.
I wanted to love this one, but it was just too dull of a ride for me. The concept was really interesting, I liked the setting. I'm always up for a good science fiction adventure, this just wasn't it. It did end on an interesting kind of cliffhanger, so I'd be tempted to pick up the next book. It just wasn't as exciting a story as I wanted it to be.
BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3/5
SCIENCE IS... boring.
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