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Available
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Publication
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (2013), Hardcover, 448 pages
Description
For all of her sixteen years, Terra has lived on a city within a spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago seeking refuge, but as they finally approach the chosen planet, she is drawn into a secret rebellion that could change the fate of her people.
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LibraryThing member samaside
Starglass
Title: Starglass
Author: Phoebe North
Release Date: July 23, 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Source: Edelweiss DRC
Genre(s): Young Adult, YA Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Jewish Fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review Spoilers: High
I have very mixed feelings about
Starglass starts off with a lot of promise. It follows the life of a teenager named Terra Feinberg who has lived her entire life on a ship called the Asherah. For hundreds of years it has traveled quietly through space searching for a new planet that they have called Zehava. Everyone’s lives are essentially run by the Council, a group which seems to be generally benevolent despite the strict control they keep over their community. Terra, who loves art and wants to be an artist despite the lowly position in their society, instead winds up with a specialist position as a botanist trainee which could afford her certain privileges and powers and a way to take care of herself. She has to deal with her ornery training specialist, the affection of her father’s new trainee, troubles with boys and her best friend, among other things. Like, you know, seeing someone murdered and discovering that there’s a rebellion against the Council. (Because, of course, no young adult book can really be complete these days without a rebellion.)
It’s a fairly slow paced book which was actually a nice change. Some books move too fast, others too slow. I think this one found hit it’s stride and knew how to keep it for the most part. Though, at some points – especially at the end – it just got to a point where it felt like we were just getting twist after twist after twist. I get that there is some crazy stuff going on but man. A lot of the stuff just came out of left field and you have to sit there and sort of be like, “Really? That’s the direction we’re going with this?” I appreciate twists as much as the next person but at some point I just need a minute.
Still, the bulk of the book was pretty good.
The backstory behind the Asherah was pretty cool and definitely unique. The entire ship is essentially a special cultural preservation project established by a Jewish group to preserve their culture and heritage after Earth was finally destroyed. I actually really liked that idea because I could see that in the advent of the end of the world a lot of people would probably do things like that and bond together to make sure their cultures survived. Hebrew and Yiddish words are common (though I suppose we assume that they speak English otherwise) in Terra’s world and if you’re not familiar with them you might get confused. But it’s an interesting way of making something seem alien and foreign to readers without making them actually alien or foreign.
I actually really enjoyed the whole social system that was established fairly early on. The world building was interesting and believable to a point. So, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what the deal with rebelling against the Council was. They seemed fairly reasonable. They let people clone and breed pets when they realized how much they helped with morale. They regulated population because they needed to. They changed the seasons and the length of days artificially to help people adjust to what they thought the conditions would be on Zehava as the got closer and could send out more probes. They really didn’t do the best job of demonizing the Council in my opinion and the rebellion actually seemed to be kind of douches.
Maybe that was more the characterization and development of the different people in the story, though. Terra herself is hard to like sometimes. I’m not entirely sure what was going on with her but I felt that she was kind of unsympathetic at times. She was mean to her brother when he left to get married (disregarding the fact that he had to get married and start a family at some point under their laws) and I didn’t really get the whole abusive father thing from what I was shown. Yeah, he was kind of a dick and he took her mother’s death hard but still. She didn’t listen to her brother when he came to talk about their father and well… you’ll find out how that goes.
I did appreciate the development of her training specialist though in the botany labs. For whatever reason I have forgotten her name but I really liked her. A tough woman who never wanted children, goes along with things because she has to, and doesn’t take shit from anyone if she can avoid it. I like it. I felt bad for her kids but hey. I actually kind of liked Coen, the boy working for Terra’s father, too, and thought their who relationship arch was probably one of the more interesting things in the book. We get a bit of a after school special on LGBT bullying thrown into the story but I didn’t mind it; it certainly raised some questions and I felt bad about how things went there, too. I just felt bad a lot when it came to these people and their relationships. Nothing seemed to work out for anyone. Which was actually a relief because the whole love at first sight thing that most young adult novels suffer from has been getting super old. I liked the reality that people had to face in this story.
Starglass is a lot about facing reality and growing up. Making hard choices – especially under pressure. I think that it really sort of knew what it was doing when those were the big elements. But then things really changed up at the end and I’m interested to see how it all gets pulled back together in the next book. There’s at least one more book coming out called Starbreak and the expected publication date seems to be July 2014. I’m just saying, there are forgivable cliffhangers and then there are ones like this that just completely and totally change the story at the last minute and leave you floored for a full year! Not cool, bro.
Final Thoughts:
If you’ve ever wanted to answer someone’s question when they ask, “Hey, what’s that book about?” and answer seriously, “Jews in space!” then this is the book for you. Joking aside, it’s a slow paced and easy read that I think most fans of the genre would enjoy. It certainly isn’t for everyone but you should be good so long as you’re a young adult fan who enjoys hard science fiction and female narrators. Be prepared for some big twists and turns towards the end, though, and know that you’re not going to get much in the way of answers until the second book is released. If you’re impatient, maybe wait until it’s closer to the second book’s release date to tackle this one.
Title: Starglass
Author: Phoebe North
Release Date: July 23, 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Source: Edelweiss DRC
Genre(s): Young Adult, YA Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Jewish Fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review Spoilers: High
I have very mixed feelings about
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Starglass. For the most part I think I can say that I liked it. At no point did I ever struggle to finish the book or feel like I needed to take a break from it. But I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I was hoping I would. The idea of generation ships and space travel are fascinating to me and I loved reading through Beth Revis’s Across the Universe (though I admit to not having read the sequel yet) so I was expecting to really like this one as well. So, I’m not sure if my desire to give this a two-and-a-half star rating is more about my expectations or the book itself. I rounded up to there stars to give the book the benefit of the doubt.Starglass starts off with a lot of promise. It follows the life of a teenager named Terra Feinberg who has lived her entire life on a ship called the Asherah. For hundreds of years it has traveled quietly through space searching for a new planet that they have called Zehava. Everyone’s lives are essentially run by the Council, a group which seems to be generally benevolent despite the strict control they keep over their community. Terra, who loves art and wants to be an artist despite the lowly position in their society, instead winds up with a specialist position as a botanist trainee which could afford her certain privileges and powers and a way to take care of herself. She has to deal with her ornery training specialist, the affection of her father’s new trainee, troubles with boys and her best friend, among other things. Like, you know, seeing someone murdered and discovering that there’s a rebellion against the Council. (Because, of course, no young adult book can really be complete these days without a rebellion.)
It’s a fairly slow paced book which was actually a nice change. Some books move too fast, others too slow. I think this one found hit it’s stride and knew how to keep it for the most part. Though, at some points – especially at the end – it just got to a point where it felt like we were just getting twist after twist after twist. I get that there is some crazy stuff going on but man. A lot of the stuff just came out of left field and you have to sit there and sort of be like, “Really? That’s the direction we’re going with this?” I appreciate twists as much as the next person but at some point I just need a minute.
Still, the bulk of the book was pretty good.
The backstory behind the Asherah was pretty cool and definitely unique. The entire ship is essentially a special cultural preservation project established by a Jewish group to preserve their culture and heritage after Earth was finally destroyed. I actually really liked that idea because I could see that in the advent of the end of the world a lot of people would probably do things like that and bond together to make sure their cultures survived. Hebrew and Yiddish words are common (though I suppose we assume that they speak English otherwise) in Terra’s world and if you’re not familiar with them you might get confused. But it’s an interesting way of making something seem alien and foreign to readers without making them actually alien or foreign.
I actually really enjoyed the whole social system that was established fairly early on. The world building was interesting and believable to a point. So, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what the deal with rebelling against the Council was. They seemed fairly reasonable. They let people clone and breed pets when they realized how much they helped with morale. They regulated population because they needed to. They changed the seasons and the length of days artificially to help people adjust to what they thought the conditions would be on Zehava as the got closer and could send out more probes. They really didn’t do the best job of demonizing the Council in my opinion and the rebellion actually seemed to be kind of douches.
Maybe that was more the characterization and development of the different people in the story, though. Terra herself is hard to like sometimes. I’m not entirely sure what was going on with her but I felt that she was kind of unsympathetic at times. She was mean to her brother when he left to get married (disregarding the fact that he had to get married and start a family at some point under their laws) and I didn’t really get the whole abusive father thing from what I was shown. Yeah, he was kind of a dick and he took her mother’s death hard but still. She didn’t listen to her brother when he came to talk about their father and well… you’ll find out how that goes.
I did appreciate the development of her training specialist though in the botany labs. For whatever reason I have forgotten her name but I really liked her. A tough woman who never wanted children, goes along with things because she has to, and doesn’t take shit from anyone if she can avoid it. I like it. I felt bad for her kids but hey. I actually kind of liked Coen, the boy working for Terra’s father, too, and thought their who relationship arch was probably one of the more interesting things in the book. We get a bit of a after school special on LGBT bullying thrown into the story but I didn’t mind it; it certainly raised some questions and I felt bad about how things went there, too. I just felt bad a lot when it came to these people and their relationships. Nothing seemed to work out for anyone. Which was actually a relief because the whole love at first sight thing that most young adult novels suffer from has been getting super old. I liked the reality that people had to face in this story.
Starglass is a lot about facing reality and growing up. Making hard choices – especially under pressure. I think that it really sort of knew what it was doing when those were the big elements. But then things really changed up at the end and I’m interested to see how it all gets pulled back together in the next book. There’s at least one more book coming out called Starbreak and the expected publication date seems to be July 2014. I’m just saying, there are forgivable cliffhangers and then there are ones like this that just completely and totally change the story at the last minute and leave you floored for a full year! Not cool, bro.
Final Thoughts:
If you’ve ever wanted to answer someone’s question when they ask, “Hey, what’s that book about?” and answer seriously, “Jews in space!” then this is the book for you. Joking aside, it’s a slow paced and easy read that I think most fans of the genre would enjoy. It certainly isn’t for everyone but you should be good so long as you’re a young adult fan who enjoys hard science fiction and female narrators. Be prepared for some big twists and turns towards the end, though, and know that you’re not going to get much in the way of answers until the second book is released. If you’re impatient, maybe wait until it’s closer to the second book’s release date to tackle this one.
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LibraryThing member A_Reader_of_Fictions
Phoebe North's Starglass has been on my radar ever since I learned that the author was once a prominent blogger. I've never read that blog and don't know too much about her, but I like supporting bloggers, so I wanted to read this book. I always expect big things from bloggers who publish, because
The plot on a basic level is highly reminiscent of Beth Revis' Across the Universe trilogy. However, in the course of one book, North takes the plot through what took two books in that series: the dissent on the ship and the approach to the planet towards which they've been heading. This is not to say that the two are identical by any means, because they're not. In fact, I think I rather like Starglass better, both for the abbreviated time on ship and for the more interesting characters.
As I mentioned already, North does a lot of those things bloggers regularly request. There's diversity in that everyone on board the Asherah is Jewish, this being one of many ships that departed Earth as its destruction neared the Asherah only accepted those of Jewish descent. One of Terra's ancestors, a non-practicing Jew and a lesbian (squee!) found a place on the ship. There are other gay characters as well, which is awesome, even if society does not approve, which is less awesome.
Another fantastic thing is how many of the authority figures on the Asherah are female. Women and men are in equal standing here. The current leader of the guard is an imposing female by the name of Captain Wolff. When the time comes for marrying (16 - if you have not chosen by 18, a mate will be chosen for you), girls can ask for a boy's hand in marriage just as the boys may ask. Plus, women don't have to bear the two mandated children (one male, one female), as they are hatched from eggs in a disturbing and haunting process.
As with Revis' series, the plot consists largely of a combined mystery and rebellion. North does a good job with it, and did surprise me with one of the twists there at the end. On the Asherah, it's really hard to know who to trust, and that's conveyed beautifully. The pace does move somewhat slow, without much action, but I really enjoyed the writing so I didn't mind.
So far as the characters go, they don't quite have the depth I would have wished for, but they are interesting. Terra's narration is intelligent, but lacks the scientific know-how to get too much into the nitty gritty science fiction details, but that worked out pretty well. For most of the book, Terra has a tendency to go along with what others want of her, even if she's not particularly happy with it. By the end, she's finally obtaining some agency of her own, perhaps due to the example of Mara Stone, to whom she's apprenticed, or to the craziness going down on board the Asherah.
My only other concern is the romance. Most of what went down with that in Starglass was walking the border of discomfiting. For example, I find her treatment of her first suitor rather hateful, but, then again, he did lie to her, so I suppose it's forgivable as long as she learns from the experience, which I think she has. Terra's second suitor also upsets me, because of what that did to her friend, whom she envies for being so pretty. Hopefully, the impending love interest will lay my concerns to rest, but things could really go either way at this point.
The ending leaves me very ready for book two, though Starglass does come to a nice ending of the main plot arc. Phoebe North's debut is a fun science fiction novel on the lighter side, and I look forward to her career; I expect good things!
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they know better than anyone what tropes to avoid, or so I assume. For the most part, that was very true in Starglass and I did very much enjoy North's debut.The plot on a basic level is highly reminiscent of Beth Revis' Across the Universe trilogy. However, in the course of one book, North takes the plot through what took two books in that series: the dissent on the ship and the approach to the planet towards which they've been heading. This is not to say that the two are identical by any means, because they're not. In fact, I think I rather like Starglass better, both for the abbreviated time on ship and for the more interesting characters.
As I mentioned already, North does a lot of those things bloggers regularly request. There's diversity in that everyone on board the Asherah is Jewish, this being one of many ships that departed Earth as its destruction neared the Asherah only accepted those of Jewish descent. One of Terra's ancestors, a non-practicing Jew and a lesbian (squee!) found a place on the ship. There are other gay characters as well, which is awesome, even if society does not approve, which is less awesome.
Another fantastic thing is how many of the authority figures on the Asherah are female. Women and men are in equal standing here. The current leader of the guard is an imposing female by the name of Captain Wolff. When the time comes for marrying (16 - if you have not chosen by 18, a mate will be chosen for you), girls can ask for a boy's hand in marriage just as the boys may ask. Plus, women don't have to bear the two mandated children (one male, one female), as they are hatched from eggs in a disturbing and haunting process.
As with Revis' series, the plot consists largely of a combined mystery and rebellion. North does a good job with it, and did surprise me with one of the twists there at the end. On the Asherah, it's really hard to know who to trust, and that's conveyed beautifully. The pace does move somewhat slow, without much action, but I really enjoyed the writing so I didn't mind.
So far as the characters go, they don't quite have the depth I would have wished for, but they are interesting. Terra's narration is intelligent, but lacks the scientific know-how to get too much into the nitty gritty science fiction details, but that worked out pretty well. For most of the book, Terra has a tendency to go along with what others want of her, even if she's not particularly happy with it. By the end, she's finally obtaining some agency of her own, perhaps due to the example of Mara Stone, to whom she's apprenticed, or to the craziness going down on board the Asherah.
My only other concern is the romance. Most of what went down with that in Starglass was walking the border of discomfiting. For example, I find her treatment of her first suitor rather hateful, but, then again, he did lie to her, so I suppose it's forgivable as long as she learns from the experience, which I think she has. Terra's second suitor also upsets me, because of what that did to her friend, whom she envies for being so pretty. Hopefully, the impending love interest will lay my concerns to rest, but things could really go either way at this point.
The ending leaves me very ready for book two, though Starglass does come to a nice ending of the main plot arc. Phoebe North's debut is a fun science fiction novel on the lighter side, and I look forward to her career; I expect good things!
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LibraryThing member jeneaw
3.5 hearts
The blurb tells of secret rebellions, and takes place on a spaceship, sounds interesting right? Terra has live her entire life on Asherah, but this ship harbors some major secrets and so do the people on board.
Terra was pretty great character, she is looking for her “bashert”, her
The story take place in space on a ship named Asherah, they are stores, and and everyday building just like on here, but the government controls everything. Where you work, what job you get, who you are allowed to marry and even when you can and can not have children. The Jewish culture was entwined throughout the story, and their beliefs. It was a little too much for me at a few points, I’m not a very religious person and I don’t know much about the Jewish religion, so some of it was confusing for me. The ship is close to landing and the rebellion that Terra has found herself part of is putting plans into motion, so there isn’t really a dull moment. Things don’t always go as planned, and Terra does find herself in a dangerous situation. Some of what happened were events that I knew were bound to happen, which took away a little for me plot wise. On to the romance, it was between Terra, Koen Who is her, I guess you could call him her betrothed, and Silvan, but this really wasn’t the typical love triangle, there is a twist to it that I thought was done very well, so in no way did it bother me. The ending is definitely a cliffhanger, but sets the story up well for the next installment.
Starglass has government conspiracy’s and secrets rebellions, and some science fiction along the way. Overall, this turned out to be a pretty good one.
The blurb tells of secret rebellions, and takes place on a spaceship, sounds interesting right? Terra has live her entire life on Asherah, but this ship harbors some major secrets and so do the people on board.
Terra was pretty great character, she is looking for her “bashert”, her
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soul mate, and mostly everything she does is for this reason. She makes some dumb mistakes, and sometimes has an attitude, but she does what she believes in her heart so I can’t fault her for that. the love interest, or shall I say love interests. Yes there is a triangle, so we’ll just get that out of the way now. Koen is, well I guess you could call him her betrothed who just s a sweet guy all around and Silvan, who is mysterious to a degree and ot to mention hot. This really wasn’t the typical love triangle, there is a twist to it that I thought was done very well, so in no way did it bother me. Oh, I have to mention Rachel, who is Terra’s best friend, she was just amazing, I adored her.The story take place in space on a ship named Asherah, they are stores, and and everyday building just like on here, but the government controls everything. Where you work, what job you get, who you are allowed to marry and even when you can and can not have children. The Jewish culture was entwined throughout the story, and their beliefs. It was a little too much for me at a few points, I’m not a very religious person and I don’t know much about the Jewish religion, so some of it was confusing for me. The ship is close to landing and the rebellion that Terra has found herself part of is putting plans into motion, so there isn’t really a dull moment. Things don’t always go as planned, and Terra does find herself in a dangerous situation. Some of what happened were events that I knew were bound to happen, which took away a little for me plot wise. On to the romance, it was between Terra, Koen Who is her, I guess you could call him her betrothed, and Silvan, but this really wasn’t the typical love triangle, there is a twist to it that I thought was done very well, so in no way did it bother me. The ending is definitely a cliffhanger, but sets the story up well for the next installment.
Starglass has government conspiracy’s and secrets rebellions, and some science fiction along the way. Overall, this turned out to be a pretty good one.
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LibraryThing member siquebella
It started off like a good book but I didn't like how the events happened and what caused them.
LibraryThing member Mirandalg14
I usually like space dystopia/post-apocalyptic stories, but this was a little stranger than I was expecting. Once I got more into it and changed my expectations I liked it a little better, but it was still rather strange.
LibraryThing member ReginaR
Very rarely, every so often – -but not very often — comes along a book that just takes hold of me. These are books that I remember years after I have read them. Starglass is one of those books. I am not sure why I was surprised by Starglass. Perhaps because I was thinking — what more could be
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done with young adult and science fiction. I should not doubt the capacity for invention among the creative — and author Phoebe North is definitely creative. This is a book I am sharing with my 13.5 year old and my husband. Starglass is fun, it is beautiful and it is important. There are so many big themes in this book but they are not done in an “in your face way”. The themes are background. Some readers have noted that religion plays a role int his book. But I disagree — I don’t think religion is a theme. The culture of a religion is definitely a theme, but religion as a way to worship or express faith in a higher being was not present. Does that make sense?The setting of this book is a spaceship, however it felt like a village yet it was still claustrophobic. The idea of people boarding a ship they would never leave and never ever set foot on the destination is amazing to me. Amazing in the sense that I cannot fathom it. Maybe because everything is so immediate for me in my current life style. The simple sacrifice given in hopes that generations later will benefit? Amazing.
Some themes in this book center on duty to society -- they play on religious culture and romanticism. But I see the governing power as using these themes to control the populace. For example, the young girls often talk about finding their soulmate/Bashert. I found the concept of soulmate/Bashert to be used by those running the ship to get people to buy into the idea of picking a mate of the opposite sex and staying with that person for the remainder of their lives. But full disclosure — I am not a sucker for soulmates. I just don’t believe in it, but then I a like romance novels without a happily ever after. ;) Another example is that reproduction does not happen in a woman's body any longer but in a hatchery. The concept of the hatchery seems to be done in many futuristic novels. But how it was done in Starglass — with the incorporation of joy and anticipation was new. I wonder though, is it really more energy to have babies the old fashioned way? It seems like a lot of energy is put into the hatchery. But the use of the hatchery does remove the self sustaining ability of each individual and transfers the power for everything to the government. I wonder if that was the purpose. Something as simple as creating one’s own family was removed from each individual.
Language and Terminology
The main character, Terra, is a great main character! She is appealing, but not perfect. I really appreciate having a main character with flaws, she is just more personable and more identifiable. Her shame and embarrassments in certain situations were so real. North does a great job at drawing out Terra’s insecurities and her differences from the other youth her age. Terra has that something that allows her to question things and be loyal — some people have it and others don’t. The friendships Terra has are so real and believable. One of the talents Ms. North has is to slowly draw relationships. By doing this, the build up in the story is well done and situations that happen are believable.
The novel works toward a certain climax. It makes sense where the people of the ship are going. In getting there, there is a great twist and an awesome reveal. No spoilers in this review — but the twist as to who was behind everything was great. Not surprising but great. The people in the story and on the ship have surrendered everything to the higher ups, they have bought into a caste system, they have no ability to full express themselves verbally, creatively or sexually. I can see the motivation for wanting something different, something more in tune with what was left behind 500 years ago.
“I thought about how our society had survived these five hundred years. By swallowing our lumps and doing what we were told. Even if it bored us — even if we hated it.”
I want the sequel now – -Phoebe did you read that? Do you need a beta reader? :D I am going to look into the other stories Ms. North has out. And we can always enjoy her very thoughtful reviews on Goodreads and where she blogs.
So who would enjoy this story? This is easy — fans of reading. I am serious. Fans of young adult books, fans of science fiction, speculative fiction, and dystopia will have love this book. But readers do not have to be into young adult or science fiction to like this novel. It is so well written and is a beautiful story. Starglass has broad base appeal.
For more reviews like this check out Badass Book Reviews
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ISBN
1442459530 / 9781442459533