I am arriving late to the Mark Lawrence party, and understand that this book is set on a world that he created in previous novels, I really enjoyed the mythology of tribes forced to live on the ice and the idea of a cavernous world beneath. I have seen some reviews from fans of the author who really enjoyed some teeny references that they discovered.

The story is led by Yaz, who spends most of the book trying to recover her lost brother. Her stubbornness and refusing to give him up is rooted in the loss of another sibling which she feels accountable for. While this motive is understandable - it makes for frustrating reading as she charges from one dangerous situation to the next. All the while we are enticed with a hidden city below the ice that barely goes explored and a bunch of interesting characters we want to get to know. Once I got deeper into the story I realised that we probably were not going to get a good look at much apart from the "main rescue quest", as Yaz just wants to find her bro and return to the ice.

The action is relentless, lots of running, hiding and chasing and climbing ropes and people being attacked. This is exciting at first but it does seem to dominate much of the book and I got a bit bored.

I discovered that this was written to be part of a larger series as the book ends on a cliffhanger - this is a bugbear of mine! It has worked though! I'm interested to find out what happens and curious about the world of I am however, hooked so will be looking out for the next book. I also have One Word Kill on my To Read list and I'll definitely explore more of his The Broken Empire series.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it seemed like there was a lot of action filler and then I found myself at the end of the book feeling unsatisfied, BUT! I'm interested to stick around and find out all the things!

Thanks so much to NetGalley, @fictionpubteam and @harperfictionpr for the ebook copy for review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book to review. This was a hard review to write as I enjoyed the book but it didn't blow me away. This is the first book I have read by Mark Lawrence and I think I will try another of his books.

This book is a lot. It has monsters, twists, darkness, civil war, betrayal, possessions, friendships and sibling love plus so much more. I have no idea where the next book will go but I will read it.

The plot was good and I did enjoy it. I won't say much about the plot because of spoilers but certain parts had me on edge. I found that I read this quickly when I picked it up. The writing and descriptions really made you feel what the characters were feeling. There was action which was fun to read and I could see how the action scenes would play out in my head.
The book is written in a one person perspective and the perspective in this is of the main character Yaz. I liked this, although I didn't connect to Yaz. I'll admit at points it felt a little like a YA fantasy than an adult but that that didn't bother me.

The worldbuilding was a lot. There were places where I felt a little bogged down with the worldbuilding and history of the world. The world this book is set is Abeth which I think is the setting of one of his other books but I'm not sure. It is a world of ice and it was really thought out how the ice would affect everything even relationships. There is a tribal culture, different types of magic, priests, hunters and gods among other things. There are monsters that poses and hunters who will try to kidnap and other horrors that are in the pit. One of these horrors is the tainted that are creatures that possess people. There is also civil war and betrayal in the book which I wasn't expecting but enjoyed.


The characters
There are a lot of characters in this book and it would be so hard to list them all. The characters were well built and I enjoyed some more than others. The side characters are also developed well.
Yaz of the Ictha - The main character has powers she didn't really know about. She can make the stars burn brighter and she masters her power quickly.
Zeen - Yaz little brother. He gets thrown into the pit and Yaz jumps after him. He becomes one of the tainted.
Maya - a side character from the Axit tribe. She was my favourite character and I hope she's in the next book. She is sent into the pit to spy and discover the priests secrets.
Theus - leader of the tainted who wants to regather the parts of himself and I found him to be and I found him really interesting.

There isn't much romance in the book but the love interest is Yaz and she has maybe three people interested in her or you could read it that way. There was some diversity with the characters and there's a mention of a gay couple. Personally I couldn't connect to Yaz but I still liked her character.

I won't say much about the ending but what a way to end the book. I was kind of angry with the way it ended in a why would you do that to me and give me the next book now kind of way. So I think you know I will read the next book which I will have to patiently wait for.

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley so massive thanks to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to write this review.

I’ve been a Mark Lawrence fan for a number of years and it was with a smug sense of satisfaction I devoured his latest offering. However, I did approach it with slight trepidation because I found it difficult to get into The Book of the Ancestor series (even though on paper it is right up my street). And whilst TGATS is set in the same world as BotA, I did not struggle in the slightest to make sense of what was going on.

The book takes place in a cruel, ice-covered world where small tribes make their living in the blistering cold and weakness of any sort usually means death. Every few years, the clans gather at the mouth of a gaping pit and any children perceived to be ‘broken’ are mercilessly tossed away. Yaz has lived her past few years knowing she will be thrown aside but when the unspeakable happens, she will do whatever it takes to save the people she holds dear. Even if it means destroying her own future in the process.

However, things in the darkness are not what they seem. A war has been brewing beneath the ice, and Yaz has the power to make everything shatter.

Firstly, I absolutely LOVED this book. I seriously could not stop thinking about it once I’d finished. Secondly, it was not what I expected. Given the title and the blurb my initial thought was this might not be adult fantasy. I mean, it’s a girl from a grim world who has a special power that can change everything and has no fewer than three love interests. So far, so YA. But oh, is that a severed head?

TGATS definitely reads like a grown-up fantasy, and honestly that is one of my favourite things about it. Stylistically, the book is a work of art and each chapter is crafted with so many overlapping layers of suspense you will be ‘one more chaptering’ until you’ve finished the story. And oh my God, THE END OF THE BOOK. I had to sit quietly for a while just to get over it.

The characters are unique and interesting and I found myself really caring for some of them amongst the peril (so, so much peril). I was a big fan of Thurin in particular given his past, which I won’t spoil here given this is a review of an ARC. Suffice it to say, in the whole love...quadrangle? TGATS has going for it, I know who I want to win.

The world-building, as always, is beyond reproach. Mark should do one of those Masterclasses on Youtube about painting a realistic setting. Having recently read a very poor example of this in another 2020 release, it has never been more prevalent in my mind the importance of surrounding and, honestly, a bit of common sense.

There is almost like an algorithmic trend in fantasy at the moment, where one thing does well and a catalogue of increasingly dull clones floods the shelves for the next three years. I understand this is speculative fiction, and that we are reading about magic or space or underdog heroes over and over. And yet, every time I read Mark Lawrence I am reminded that wondrously unique stories exist. That we needn’t even subvert tropes to create something enjoyable and new.

So on that note (and before I put a bounty on anyone who dares give The Girl and the Stars anything less than five glowing stars), do yourself a favour and get it pre-ordered.

This is the type of book that goes straight to the top of the reading pile.

Well Mark show us once again that he’s still on top of his game at writing wonderful characters, great worlds and well everything else and it comes to books.

Set in the same world as the wonderful book of the ancestor series, this time we are taken north to the land of snow and ice, complete with buried cities of the Missing.

Highly recommended to all on here.

Oh my giddy aunt... I feel a like a tornado just swept through my mind! My heart is trying to thump out of my body! "The Girl and the Stars" is outstandingly well-crafted... a tormenting, twisting journey, and so, so, so good. There are characters I love (special mention for "Maya"), characters I hated, and characters I wanted to pick up and shake until their heads wobbled. This is my first Mark Lawrence book, and though I've heard nothing but good things about his writing I'm hugely impressed! I hope book 2 is released soon... I want more!

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Mark Lawrence is outstanding at building a world and inhabiting it with characters you invest in fully, that make you care and want to see develop and progress and that you don’t want to see in danger (not too often anyway) he has done it again with this superlative tale