The Native Star

by M. K. Hobson

Other authorsDavid Stevenson
Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

PS3608.O25 N38

Publication

Spectra (New York, 2010). 1st edition, 1st printing. 400 pages. $7.99.

Description

In 1876, witch Emily Edwards is forced to run for her life when an enchanted artifact falls into her possession, and she teams up with a warlock from New York City to unlock the secret of the mysterious artifact.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ronincats
Set in 1876, starting out in a settlement in the Sierra Nevadas, and ending up in New York City, this book has a lot going for it in terms of the settings (from Lost Pine, San Francisco, across the country to NY) and the complex systems of magic. The viewpoint character is a young woman/witch who
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acquires suddenly and unexpectedly a "native star" stone embedded in her hand that absorbs all magic in the vicinity and ends up journeying to NY to find from the magician institute there how to get rid of it.

The cover says "this brilliant first novel fuses history, fantasy, and romance." Emily is almost a great character--but the demands of the romance tropes prevent her, I think, from achieving greatness--that and the lack of maturity of the writer. Hobson has great ideas, almost too many as they are crammed in on top of each other so tightly that there is no room to appreciate them. The basic plot itself is fairly formulaic, even as the settings and magic structure are original. The writing can be very pedestrian at times. However, it is a GOOD first novel, and I think this will be an author to keep an eye out for in the future. If she is able to polish her writing craft to match her imagination, she will produce some very good books.
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LibraryThing member devilwrites
The premise: ganked from BN.com: The year is 1876. In the small Sierra Nevada settlement of Lost Pine, the town witch, Emily Edwards, is being run out of business by an influx of mail-order patent magics. Attempting to solve her problem with a love spell, Emily only makes things worse. But before
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she can undo the damage, an enchanted artifact falls into her possession—and suddenly Emily must flee for her life, pursued by evil warlocks who want the object for themselves. 



Dreadnought Stanton, a warlock from New York City whose personality is as pompous and abrasive as his name, has been exiled to Lost Pine for mysterious reasons. Now he finds himself involuntarily allied with Emily in a race against time—and across the United States by horse, train, and biomechanical flying machine—in quest of the great Professor Mirabilis, who alone can unlock the secret of the coveted artifact. But along the way, Emily and Stanton will be forced to contend with the most powerful and unpredictable magic of all—the magic of the human heart.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: I'll admit, I started this book while in the hospital, doped up on painkillers, and I was a little worried at first that I wouldn't make it through. However, I set it aside and tried again later when painkillers weren't quite the issue, and I was very pleased at how quickly the pages turned and how enjoyable the world-building was. Hobson interjects the right amount of all her genre-ific elements to keep me on my toes and keep me guessing as to just how the nature of the story will work out. Emily, for the most part, is a heroine to cheer for too because she's so resourceful and determined to get what she wants, even though her motivations can lead her to make mistakes. I'll admit it wasn't until I finished with the book and re-read the prologue that I realized how said prologue related to the rest of the book, but that's a me-on-painkillers issue rather than a writer not working the prologue in well. In fact, in retrospect, the prologue might be a wee bit obvious, but others who read this book with a clear head are better fit to comment on that than I.

As for me, Hobson is promising a sequel slated for next year called The Hidden Goddess, and while I was a bit scared of The Native Star because I was afraid the romance would overwhelm the rest of the story, I'll show no such hesitation for the sequel. This book was fun, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what further adventures await our heroine in this magic-infused alternate history. The Native Star is a happy hybrid of Emma Bull's Territory and Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series (and for giggles, let's add a splash of Cherie Priest's Boneshaker too), and if you enjoyed two or more of these books, you should have fun with this one too.

Review style: Because this review is mirrored over at Dreams & Speculation, I'm going to keep it short (okay, maybe not THAT short) and sweet by discussing what I think are the roots of this book in terms of what's come before (publication-wise), and then talk about what this book adds and why it stands out. No spoilers, because that would be mean. The full review is at my journal, for those of you interested. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: M.K. Hobson's THE NATIVE STAR

Happy Reading!
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LibraryThing member ladycato
In 1876, the Old West has been strengthened by the use of magic, steampower, and zombie mine laborers. Small-town mountain witch Emily Edwards is worried about maintaining her disabled adopted father's charms business against the threat of mail-order magic. Those worries turn out to be petty when a
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mine accident ends up with a magical stone embedded in her hand--the famed Native Star. The haughty local warlock, Dreadnought Stanton, believes he has connections who can help remove the stone. Backstabbings and ambushes lead the two to trust no one as they flee across the country to find the secrets of the Native Star.

This fun historical frolic has a definite urban fantasy vibe even with the Old West setting. Some aspects reminded me of Cherie Priest's Boneshaker even though the authors do very different things using the same steampunk-tinged Reconstruction period. In some spots the book felt uneven--such as the very beginning and the end--but once Emily steps into the story, her situation immediately grabbed me. The romance with her and Dreadnought felt predictable, but the story had enough twists and turns to keep everything fun even if it felt like too many fantasy elements were crammed in sometimes. I enjoyed the book and would like to read the sequel (it seems to come out today) but I'm not in a rush.
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LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
This is the second of the 2010 Nebula Nominees for best novel that I've read and I found it to be a romping fun ride. Think Will Smith in The Wild, Wild West and you'll get a taste of what this novel is about. Add spaceships to it and you might even find yourself thinking of Joss Whedon's Firefly.
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There's just something about the wild west, corsets and magic to get this fantasy lovers imagination going.

Before I talk about the story I have to gush a little over the cover. I ended up having to order this book on my Kindle because our library didn't have it and I wanted to read it quickly - so I'm missing out on displaying that gorgeous cover and that is a bit disappointing. That said, isn't it beautiful? And it does a great job of portraying the spirit of this novel.

Emily Edwards is a spunky, back-town witch involved in charms and various remedies and she was doing just fine until a warlock named Dreadnought Stanton arrived on the scene. This isn't the wild west that is portrayed in John Wayne movies - no, this wild west has magic and several factions of magic users along with an incredibly unique way of looking at the system of belief and magic as being connected to one another.

While I thought the book was fun, I also have to say there were parts of it that were a little too slow and bogged down to fully enjoy. But those parts were few and far between and I thought the pace of the book was, overall, well done. Fantastic addition to the list for Nebula nominees!
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LibraryThing member patrickgarson
The Native star is a fun, "pioneer" fantasy with a somewhat romancey bent. Hobson is a competent writer and she knows how to craft an enjoyable romp that succesfully avoids either insulting the reader's intelligence, or taxing them unduly with bloated mythology on incoherent prose.

Emily Edwards is
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a timber camp witch who gets thrown into a mess of trouble one day after some ill-advised spell casting. The only person who can help her, it seems, is the insufferable warlock Dreadnought Stanton. As the two careen across the country with a passel of malevolent magicians chasing them, Emily will learn more about magic, and the human heart, than she anticipates.

Make no mistake, this book is workmanlike in some regards, but I'm of the opinion that competence is wildly under-rated these days. Hobson has built a solid novel that shows evidence of careful plotting, thoughtful characterisation and a mythology that stimulates rather than sedates.

The over-arching plot and character arcs are not exactly unpredictable, but she throws in enough right turns to keep the reader engaged and interested in finding out more about this world. There's a prosaic directness to The Native Star that I found quite refreshing - the book takes itself exactly as seriously as it needs to: a bit, but not too much - and things are explained without fuss.

This no-nonense approach extends to the characterisation, not the weakest part of the book, but perhaps the least dynamic. Emily and Dreadnought, and every other character, are pretty much exactly as they appear to be. That's fine - there's nothing wrong with getting what you order at the restaurant - but don't expect any surprises in this regard.

Thankfully the helter skelter plot doesn't leave too much time to focus on it. The Native Star sets a brisk pace that is successfully maintained until its suitably grand climax, replete with time-tested narrative devices that readers should appreciate.

The prose is likewise pragmatic, limpid, and easy-on-the-eyes. Hobson is no great stylist, per se, but she successfully evades the lure of showing off. The text doesn't draw attention to itself, letting you concentrate on the story and characters instead, who are in the main likable and frequently amusing.

Some people might find the above amounts to a wan recommendation, but honestly it's not intended that way. I enjoyed this book, and I'm of a mind to read the next in the series. This was Hobson's debut novel, and it's very rare to read a debut where the author so clearly understands the nuts and bolts of novel-writing, and possesses a respect for the reader and the reading experience - over their own need to get a story out or some such. Certainly, this means the book may not scale the dizzying heights of more personal and particular books, but it avoids the crevices they frequently plunge into as well. An enjoyable romp.
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
I ended up rather disappointed in Native Star. It at first seemed to be kind of a Hogwarts of the American West with the pedant Hermione being replaced by the warlock Dreadnought Stanton whose appetite is as big as Ron's, and Harry replaced by Emily Edwards a camp witch who only wants to make life
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better for her foster father. Hobson was able to create an alternate US west in which magic plays a great part, then she fully imports the custom of 2nd class women: wizards hold most of the power and respect, witches are rather disdained as dabblers, shrill, or whores. Why would she do that? Perhaps the follow up book The Hidden Goddess is less misogynistic since it's about a goddess, but what's the point of worshiping a goddess if regular women are still thought to be lesser beings than men?
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LibraryThing member cecilypk
The Native Star was a book that kept me up until 5
in the morning. I think that it was predictable and I felt like it was a love hate relationship drama with action to fuel it along that I have read many tines before and yet I found myself giggling at some of the Witty dialogue that Stanton and
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Emily supply, it was nicely paced maybe a bit slow and redundant plot wise and I felt like he author even in four hundred pages managed to make it feel like they were rushing to wrap the story up but didn't know quite where to go, it tied most of the knots up though but left us with an expectation for a sequel with what happens in the last chapter. it was charming and fun to read I enjoyed this book.
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LibraryThing member stephxsu
Emily Edwards is an old-fashioned witch in the small town of Lost Pine in the Sierra Nevadas. Her modest living is about to be run out of town with the introduction of Baugh’s Magic, mass-produced, commercially savvy, mail-order products. But when Emily unexpectedly “inherits” a valuable
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artifact, she is forced to team up with Dreadnought Stanton, an unpleasantly stuffy East-educated warlock, and run for their lives. The only person who can help remove the mysterious magical gem that has embedded itself into her palm is Stanton’s mentor back East, and so Emily and Stanton embark on a cross-country journey while trying to avoid the various unpleasant folks who have taken an interest in the stone in Emily’s hand.

THE NATIVE STAR, M.K. Hobson’s debut novel, is an original blend of witchery and the Wild, Wild West. It didn’t leave a particularly long-lasting impression on me, but was definitely an enjoyable and well-written romp of a read.

For me, the strength of THE NATIVE STAR lay in its inventiveness. Just when I thought I had Emily and Stanton’s world figured out, Hobson throws in another twist and element that takes me by surprise and forces me to reorganize my thoughts about the story’s world. The book combines steampunk and magic with the post-Civil War American West, resulting in an exciting new subgenre for magic and steampunk lovers.

And yet these surprises also contributed to my slight skepticism of the story. Oftentimes, new elements were introduced with seemingly little forethought: the characters are just walking along when all of a sudden—BAM!—oh, hey, interlude while we describe this new twist to the world. This just didn’t agree with me in this book, perhaps because I wanted more of a setup of the foundations of the world at the beginning of the novel.

Furthermore, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Emily and Stanton. She gave me the impression of being one of those pinch-faced ladies who look and act older than they really are, and he was standoffish the entire time. Their romance still seemed to come out of nowhere for me, despite how much the back-cover summary pimps it. They—the book summary and tagline—set me up to expect a great, life-changing romance, but I didn’t quite get it here.

Overall, THE NATIVE STAR is a good and interesting mix of magic, steampunk, and the Wild, Wild West. If that sounds even half as intriguing to you, then I definitely recommend that you check it out!
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LibraryThing member sbreiden
I enjoyed this book. It takes place in 1876 and I liked that the author's take on magic was so different from the paranormal fiction and worlds I've been reading.
LibraryThing member cnrivera
This book was a fantastic read. The pace is great, the characters are engaging, and the magical system is interesting. The romance between the two main characters doesn't overshadow the story, and there's action to spare. Emily Edwards is easily one of my favorite heroines. I enjoyed watching her
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get through a dozen different dilemmas as she makes her way from her little home town to New York City while in the company of Dreadnought Stanton. Their interaction can be quite funny at times--they definitely have chemistry. This is Hobson's first novel, so I can't wait to find out what she has for us next.
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LibraryThing member bonbonsandreveries
Take an old Western then add some magic, a pinch of paranormal, and a sprinkle of romance and you get The Native Star. This was one crazy steampunk adventure. The Native Star follows a 25 year old witch, Emily. She and her adoptive father, Pap, own a magic shop-mostly for home use; however, it is
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being run out of business by a larger company. In an effort to ease Pap's life, she casts a love spell on her friend for money hoping that after they get married she will grow to love him. However, her spell goes wrong and a poor drunk warlock, tells Emily about suspicious events occurring as well as accusing her of using dark magic. After going to check on his suspicions, Emily gets a native star stuck in her hand. With the help of Dreadnought Stanton, the most aggravating Warlock ever, she goes in search of removing it. Their journey across America is filled with problems. Almost every magical society is after them, including the government. Apparently the native star is much more valuable and deadly then Emily originally thought.
What an adventure! I felt like I was there. When Emily and Stanton were tired, I was tired. When they were scared, I was scared. It was so much fun. This novel takes place in 1876. Their journey takes them from California all the way to the east coast. It is an America where magic is used everywhere, even in the government. This magic is powered through faith and belief in it. You do get the occasional anti-magic religious town. This world is filled with secret societies, radicals, zombies, and flying machines. The story has an old western feel to it-so much so that I visualized some of it in sepia. No joke, it was almost like watching a blockbuster western film. Epic.
The characters were so well-written (the whole book was!) At the beginning of the novel, Emily made a choice. It was the wrong one and everything that happens to her after that is the consequence of one small decision. Hobson explores choices and their consequences throughout The Native Star, for almost every character. Emily is a very human character. She makes mistakes and she is not perfect in any way. But she tries to do the right thing. Emily gets stuck with the "insufferable" Stanton, who has made it his life mission to show off his magical knowledge. Stanton was a fascinating character. At the beginning, I agreed with Emily on his annoying and supercilious attitude and comments. I remember thinking "It's going to be a long ride." But over the course of the book, the reasons for his actions and personality are revealed and I (and Emily, of course) started to fall in love with him. The romance wasn't overpowering though. It started out as hate then turned to love over time-basically a growing attraction. Stanton reminded me of Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre. He's definitely the strong smart guy, but there is no doubt that he is tortured. These two are the central characters of the novel. There are a whole bunch of others including an Indian Holy Woman, an evil soul that possesses people, a radical warlock who happens to run the American military, and a paranoid feminist witch.
This is the first book in a series. The Native Star is an exhilarating adventure that will leave you wanting more.
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LibraryThing member AwesomeAud
I really liked this alternate history book, set in 19th century America.

Magic is real, and it is being paired with science to make it more effective. Stanton is a talented credomancer who has been exiled to the backwater of Lost Pine, California for mysterious reasons. Emily is the resident witch
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of Lost Pine who resents Stanton for his smug attitude at her 'primitive' methods. When they find a powerful artifact, Stanton convinces her that they must get it to the Institute of magic for further study. But as it becomes known that they have the artifact, the couple face more and more dangers and betrayals.

I really liked this book. Emily is the main POV, and she's very believable. Stanton is also believable, tho some of the other characters are a bit flat. But I will look for the sequel "The Hidden Goddess".
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LibraryThing member allureofbooks
I picked up this book after seeing it reviewed at The Book Smugglers. The historical fantasy/romance mix has always been one I enjoy - and this novel was certainly no exception. In fact, it might be my new favorite historical fantasy novel. The mixture of great characterization, world-building an
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plot make it practically perfect in every way.

I was intrigued from the beginning - the prologue threw me a little, but once the main storyline started with Emily in Lost Pine, I was hooked. She was a great character to get to know - not perfect and not fully formed. She had a lot of growth throughout the novel, and that is something I always enjoy reading. Actually, all the characters had layers, especially Dreadnought (unfortunate name that somehow fits him anyway). Although he gives you plenty of reasons to hate him at the beginning of the story, I could never quite pull it off. And as things progress, his background and personality come out and make him very complicated and real...I loved him by the end. He is not your typical hero.

The world that unfolds throughout the novel is an intriguing one, I loved every aspect of it. Same goes with the plot - there was a lot of action and a lot of intensity. The few breaks from the action give the characters a chance to interact - there was never any point where I was bored with the story.

Another thing I love is that things more or less wrap up at the end of the book. It is the beginning of the series, so a new conflict is referred to at the end...but the main plot of this story is wrapped up. If you aren't intrigued enough with the book to continue with the next one, you'll get a fulfilling ending. I, however, can't imagine reading this and not wanting to continue the series! I fell in love with the characters and their world, and am now anxiously awaiting the sequel, The Hidden Goddess.
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LibraryThing member thewalkinggirl
I stayed up way too late reading this.

You know those books that make you go "oh, that's how that happened!" about five minutes after you put it down? This is one of those. (Or, it could have been the whole staying up too late thing making me a little slow. Hard to tell sometimes.)

Well thought-out
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world-building and characters provided so many embedded twists and turns that I didn't realize how twisty everything was getting until about halfway through. (Which is fabulous! I hate being able to tell exactly what's going to happen 100 pages in advance.)

Both Emily and Stanton are flawed characters -- educable, but flawed. This shows up in terms of Emily's development within the first chapter, when she chooses an immoral act for very pragmatic reasons. Stanton's full character gets revealed later. Despite Emily's incredible naivety about life outside her small community, there were no real TSTL moments -- unless you count the scene where I mentally shouted "feed him!" at her for a good number of pages.

The supporting characters are vivid. It's well-paced. Occasional bits of humor mixed in with the angst. No sex, but Witches are open targets for sexual harassment, which made me want to punch a few characters.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the next one--where we'll hopefully learn more about Emily's birth parents
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LibraryThing member princess-starr
I think I’m going to have to give this another reread. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t seem to get into this book. I don’t hate it, but I didn’t completely love it either. And I really wanted to love it. Just…nothing was grabbing at me.

I do like Emily as Our Protagonist. She could
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very easily have been the shrieking damsel, but she manages to hold her own against the bad guys. I like that even with the stone embedded in her hand, Emily’s not ridiculously overpowered, and she and Dreadnaught have to come up with solutions to get around the lack of magic issues. And I like that she actually takes responsibility for her actions and deals with the consequences of them. Emily does have fairly good reasons for wanting to marry Dag, but wants to be absolutely sure that he’ll be hers. It’s not ethical, but once she’s called out on it, Emily does stand up and tries to set things right. Also, she’s hilariously inept at disguises, which I loved.

Dreadnaught Stanton (aside from his front-runner status for the best Awesome McCool name ever) didn’t really appeal to me. He’s…okay. There’s the whole deadpan snarker with a dark secret angle, but I didn’t really get anything new or different from Stanton as a character. He plays off of Emily well, but I didn’t see the chemistry between the two. And from what we do get of his backstory, I really wanted to delve more into that instead of “…Well, moving on!” Again, I don’t hate him, it’s just not doing anything for me.

The plot’s a little cluttered. There’s a couple good twists and turns, but it does get to the point where I was mixing up exactly who was chasing Emily at moments. Sometimes it works, as Dreadnaught and Emily’s escape plans boil down to hightailing out of whatever location they’re in at the moment, but with the frequency it happens, we never get to catch our breaths. (I do like that Stanton has a Bank Bag of Holding which he promptly loses. It’s a nice little detail used for a joke.) Plus, plot threads get dropped so quickly—again, due to the aforementioned hightailing—but we never get the full weight of the plot or what it means for our heroes. And I never got a sense of the world we’re reading about either. Yes, there’s witches and warlocks and they’re integrated into society and there’s fringe groups attacking them, but I never really got the impact magic has on this society. The magical organizations feel more like gentlemen’s clubs, and I really wanted to see magic being actually integrated into everyday life, especially once the setting moved toward the Eastern US. There’s a lot of potential to work with here, but it doesn’t feel realized. (But more of Penelope Pendennis and the Witches’ Friendly Society, because she was awesome. I loved her.)

My other issue with the book is the epilogue. I thought that the end with Emily proposing to Stanton was fine, and there’s enough dropped hints throughout the book to get me interested in the book. The epilogue just feels tacked on, as if the author wants to say “HEY REMEMBER ALL OF THIS STUFF WE’VE BEEN MENTIONING? LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT.” The epilogue’s not really a great set-up to the next book, as it pretty much gives away all of the mystery surrounding Emily’s past and a very real threat that was treated as a joke. And that doesn’t really make me interested in reading the next book because I already know what’s going to happen.

If it wasn’t for the epilogue, I would have really liked this book a lot more. It’s still a decent read, and does give an interesting at alternate US history. But I think there’s a lot of wasted potential, and the expositional epilogue really knocked down my enjoyment of this.
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LibraryThing member snat
Take a pinch of the wild west, a dollop of whimsy, just a dash of romance, and a heaping helping of magic and you apparently get a helluva good time!

On the surface, The Native Star is fairly formulaic. There's the Austen-esque dynamic of the stubborn and headstrong (but always proper beneath it
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all) woman who finds herself at odds with a pompous and equally headstrong jerk (who remains, fundamentally, a gentleman beneath it all). I have to admit that I'm a sucker for this dynamic because nothing triggers my gag reflex quicker than a simpering and whiny heroine, unless it's the "here I come to save the day" uber-perfect hero. Circumstances arise that force these two into unwelcome proximity to one another for the duration of the novel and witty banter between crises ensues. This is pretty standard stuff and even the less sophisticated readers among us can probably make accurate predictions as to where this plot is headed, but . . .

. . . holy shit, was this fun! While the basic narrative is standard, the world building was delightful. Set in the west during the Reconstruction, the United States has always relied on magic to grease the wheels of commerce. There are three primary types of magic practitioners: sangrimancers (who rely on gruesome blood rituals to tap into their power), animancers ("earth" magicians who draw upon nature to heal), and credomancers (faith magicians who draw upon the beliefs of others to make the impossible, well, possible). There's much in-fighting amongst these magical traditions, as well as opposition to magic in the form of religious zealots and the increasing threat of science as a replacement for magic. Several reviews have labeled this as "steampunk," which is misleading as there are no gimmicky, steam-powered gizmos and gadgets. Everything is fueled by magic (as one reviewer said, this is "witchpunk"--a term that seems much more accurate). There are zombies, Native American holy women, murderous spirits, fantastic magical devices, as well as witches and warlocks of every stripe and color imaginable. There are quirky little details (my favorite being the idea of a "squink," a word created by the combination of the words "squid ink" and meaning to lessen the power of a credomancer by clouding his ability to believe in himself).

The Native Star is clever, witty, and intelligently written light reading when you just want to reconnect with the joy of a rollicking journey whose only destination is to enchantment. There are no deeper meanings, no pompous literary preening, no need to bust out the theory books to figure out what is up with the symbolism. It's just fun. And sometimes that's more than enough.
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LibraryThing member mbg0312
Good but not great, but left looking forward to the next one.
LibraryThing member TLMorganfield
I need to find more books like this, because 95% rocked. I'm a history buff and am particularly interested in the whole 1850's to 1900's America era (my latest project takes place in 1852, so naturally I've been reading quite a bit about it in the non-fiction arena. Note to folks: if you want to be
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able to use all the cool Old West trappings, set your story after 1860, because a lot of that stuff wasn't around in the 1850's) and while I think this still qualifies as Steampunk, it's distinctly American and I rather like that.

I loved Stanton from the moment walked on stage and was really glad to see that the things I enjoyed about him remained intact despite his character transformation over the course of the book. Emily took a little while for me to warm up to. She came off as a little whiny initially, but eventually I grew to like her a lot. Caul is appropriately sinister and mad, and I particularly enjoyed his savage stuttering. The underlying love story was satisfying as well.

Things I didn't particularly care for: I was really meh about the whole Aztec sangrimancers angle, with them wanting to destroy the world. I feel slightly less annoyed with it now that I've read the opening of The Hidden Goddess and see that it's more complicated than that, but on the whole I would like to see a more diversified portrayal of Aztec religion in fiction. They seem to be an easy boogy man to slap on things as mindless, border-line psychotic villians and paints Aztec religion with too broad a brush. The mass human sacrifices the Spanish saw when they arrived was the byproduct of the political philosophies of one particular Cihuacoatl that reigned in his position through 4 different Emperors, and these practices weren't widely popular with the people, even in the valley of Mexico itself. Otherwise Cortez and his band of conquistadors wouldn't have encountered so many tribes eager to aid him in overthrowing Tenochtitlan. I'm not entirely sure that the next book is going to go far enough to correct this stereotype, but I'm willing to see where Hobson takes it. I hope it's in a good, diversified and thoughtful direction.
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LibraryThing member theWallflower
This book had a wonderful beginning. It started with intriguing characters -- a good ol' country witch (the sticks and herbs and perfumes and potions kind) in the Dr. McCoy vein, a hearthrobby lumberjack, and the stuck-up city boy with horrible secrets. It was an intriguing universe too -- the old
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west with magic. It's a hero's journey story. The first half is great, but the second half feels paddy, where magic can "suddenly" do things just because it can. Just to provide obstacles for the heroes.

At a certain point the story feels more concerned with showing off what this universe can do and the "neat stuff" in it than it does on resolving the plot. It even needs a prologue to tie its beginning and ending together. And nothing in the prologue has any bearing on the plot in-between. I'm surprised this got past the editors -- it's one of the worst reasons for a prologue. It unmade the story for me from the best thing I read this span.
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LibraryThing member ragwaine
This was fun. I liked the first half better than the second. There's definitely some (yucky) romance involved that I'm not used to in the fantasy books I usually read.

Some of the dialogue was pretty witty and had us both laughing. Pretty cool world/faction setup but even with pretty dark bad guy
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it still seemed a little lite.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I enjoyed reading this book, but I felt like I was enjoying it in spite of myself.
It was so, so, so like Cherie Priest's Dreadnought (& Boneshaker) in tone, plot elements and setting that I could almost have believed it was a new book from Priest - except that I don't think she'd use such a trite
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romance as a driving plot device. (I really dislike the whole romance trope of "I hate you - but wait, that means I'm actually in love with you!" People just don't work like that.)
It also, several times, comes thiiiiis close to getting really preachy about its environmental and socially progressive messages. Not to a Sheri Tepper degree (although I was also reminded of Tepper at moments), and I can't say that I don't agree with the messages: industrialization is not actually progress (even when the industrial pollution is "magical"), but I found myself going, "oh come on, well that's just a bit OBVIOUS" about her metaphors at several junctures.
But yet, I kept reading. Quickly. It's a fast-moving, engaging, fun story. I very well might even go seek out the sequel.
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LibraryThing member Stewartry
In a lot of cases, it's incredibly helpful to be able to listen to a sample of a book on Audible before buying. It often makes all the difference in whether or not I'll commit to a book. Unfortunately in this case the sample was completely misleading. It was terrific – it was creepy and
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fascinating, and brought in the Civil War and my goodness what are these terrible men up to? So I bought it, and, still looking for a good fantasy set in the period, listened to it. The problem was that the sample was part of a prologue; the book proper skipped from South Carolina to California, from the mysterious happenings in a haunted barn to an unpleasant young woman casting a love spell. And it is with this young woman, Emily Edwards, that the story stays until the epilogue.

She is not a likeable character. It is excused as extreme pragmatism, the tendency to set aside everything else in favor of what is necessary. For example, though she does not want to do it, and in fact dreads the consequences, she determines to place a love charm on a young man of decent fortune in order to keep herself and her adopted father from the depths of starvation they have recently endured. She's snappish, stroppy, and closed-minded. She's racist, too.

Harassing her and her Pap is Dreadnought Stanton, a wizard who keeps trying to instruct them in how things ought to be. Now, it's a common enough trope that the hero and heroine bicker until they inevitably become lovers (and usually after). Sexual tension is shown through sparring, when an author can come up with no better way to do it. However, this guy is introduced so negatively, with so much apparent malice, that it's very, very difficult to stomach it when these two do, inevitably, become a couple. And, of course, bad as he is, she's even less pleasant. It's not believable.

The onomatopoeia was excessive. Every action in the book makes a sound, and every sound is conveyed.

There were holes in the story that were immediately obvious. How does a hick farmer in the nineteenth century Midwest know that glucose is sugar? How is Miss Magic-Negator Emily supposed to ride in a magic-driven biomechanical device? And if it's not magic-driven, what does keep it together? The bad guy – (with an incredibly awful accent – gives Our Heroes something to drink before they realize who he is, and then he brags about how he slipped in a compulsion potion. Everyone ends up with at least a mouthful, and it has obvious and bad effects on Stanton – and it seems to take forever for anyone to worry about what that sip might have done to Emily.

It didn't take long for me to recognize a sort of a pattern in the book: O no terrible danger what will they ever do … oh. Never mind. Not so much. O no Stanton's been injured again he's bleeding … oh. Never mind. Not so much. He's fine. O no … etc. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Unfortunately, a weak narrator did not help a weak book. Pronunciations were all over the place, and drove me crazy – everything from mispronunciation of common enough words like "vestibule" and "impudence" to a mangling of "trompe l'oiel" that made me, a former art student who took an entire course painting one trompe, grit my teeth. "Black Maria" is pronounced as though it had something to do with Natalie Wood's character in West Side Story. Some of the trouble is the usual misplacement of emphasis in sentences; it's as though narrators can't hear what they're saying, and "narration" overrides natural speaking patterns. And what a shockingly bad Italian accent for "Grimaldi". And an even worse Russian one.

One very brief bright moment in the narrative was a line which – unfortunately unintentionally – made me smile, because of its absurdity: "Get yer goldurn hands offa my cockatrice." Second place in unintentionally hysterical lines goes to: "Miss Edwards – will you bring out the nut?"

But about three quarters in I swore that if I had had to hear "carissima mia" one more time I would scream. And very shortly after I made a note:

AAAARRRRGH
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LibraryThing member dorie.craig
I wasn't sure what to expect with this novel, all I knew was that it was set in the old west and had a plot that involved magic and zombies. It was just quirky enough to catch my interest. It was getting some good reviews so I thought I'd give it a try and was very pleasantly surprised.

The
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protagonist is a young woman named Emily Edwards, an orphan girl who was adopted and trained by a kind man in Lone Pine who practices magic and casts charms for the small town. As the book opens, to help her adopted father Emily decides to cast a love spell and marry a childhood friend who is industrious, kind and strong. Emily can't stand Dreadnaught Stanton, an academically-trained warlock who has recently moved to town and is too free with his criticism of Emily and Pap's method of magic. While checking out a report of something wrong at the local mine, Emily ends up with a strange blue stone embedded into her hand. At this point in the plot I think I'll just say that Emily and Stanton go on the run trying to escape the many ruthless and dangerous people who plot to use the powers of the stone for themselves. There is a lot that happens in the book and although difficult to summarize, it is never confusing. The plot shifts pretty quickly and the characters are constantly on the move, so there were never any slow spots.

The two main characters of Emily and Stanton are colorful and interesting characters. The primary pleasure of the book was enjoying their bickering and watching their evolving relationship. Dreadnaught Stanton is a bit of an anti-hero. The author managed to make his character not only likeable but loveable, even though he starts off as a man a bit too outspoken, emotionally cool and a bit of a snob.

All in all this book was very clever and original, and it was fun to read. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more books from this author.
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LibraryThing member whatsmacksaid
"The Native Star" is a fun, relatively lightweight read that I enjoyed far more than I expected to. (I'd read somewhere that it was awful and a friend told me she hadn't liked it, but by that point I'd already bought my copy, so...) The relationship arcs are subtle and intriguing, as is the idea of
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credomancy (where popular belief literally affects who is possible of what and by what means).

There's a strong pro-environmental moral in here, but I rather liked how it was portrayed. Those who believed in TNS's "climate change" responded in the same dismissive way that many non-believers in our world do. That's another thing Hobson is really, really good at: showing us true reactions, motions and/or things I could point to and say, "Yes, I've seen someone say that about climate change," or "Yes, men have said that same thing to me before," etc. For all the magic and the far-away world of post-Civil War America, mostly everything was relateable.

All in all, I'm glad I bought it and its sequel, "The Hidden Goddess," at the same time. I have every intention of diving right into the second book as well as (at some point in the future) returning to reread TNS.
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LibraryThing member Chris.Bulin
A solid 3.5. The myth building was very interesting, but I found myself counting pages until the end about half way through.

Awards

Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 2010)
Locus Recommended Reading (First Novel — 2010)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2010

Physical description

6.89 inches

ISBN

9780553592658
Page: 1.1436 seconds