by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Starbound, book one
It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.
Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they're worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. (Description from Amazon.com)
This book is beautifully written.
I found myself savoring the actual words and phrases used to describe characters' emotions and motivations. I would find myself repeating the final sentence in a chapter, or rolling a story that either character revealed to the other around in my brain, just enjoying the way that the words evoked certain emotions. Each chapter brought new insight into the characters and their world.
Lilac and Tarver were both multifaceted, intriguing characters that behaved in remarkable and yet realistically imagined ways. Reading their interactions, the way that each struggled to be independent, and yet, eventually they had no choice but to rely upon one another helped to enhance the sense tension within the story. I felt like I was on the knife's edge from almost the first page!
I also truly loved the science fiction aspect of this book. Though the original premise reads as Titanic in space, each scene reveals new info about the science and technology of this world. The space exploration reads as a wholly possible near future for our culture and each bit about the tech they used seemed viable and well researched. I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing where the next book in this series goes. I'd love to explore some of the other terraformed planets in their universe!
I loved this book enough that I decided to give it a GOLD STAR review.
Full disclosure: eARC received from Netgalley
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