“The answer is no, Lyra,” my mother utters her favorite—I swear—phrase.No means I have to travel with them to another planet—again.No means leaving all my friends fifty years in the past. Thanks, Einstein.Seventeen-year-old Lyra Daniels can’t truly blame Einstein or her parents for their impending move across the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s all due to the invention of the Q-net, which made traveling … the invention of the Q-net, which made traveling the vast distances in space possible—with one big caveat: the time dilation. But that never stopped Lyra’s ancestors from exploring the Milky Way, searching for resources and exoplanets to colonize. What they didn’t expect to find is life-sized terracotta Warriors buried on twenty-one different exoplanets.
… Make that twenty-two.
As the Galaxy’s leading experts on the Warriors, Lyra’s parents are thrilled by the new discovery, sending them—and her—fifty years into the future. Her social life in ruins, she fills her lonely days by illegally worming into the Q-net. The only person close to her age is the annoyingly irresistible security officer who threatens to throw her into the brig.
After the planet they just left goes silent—meaning no communications from them at all—security has bigger problems to deal with than Lyra, especially when vital data files go missing. But that’s just the beginning, because they’re not as alone as they thought on their new planet… and suddenly time isn’t the only thing working against them.
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I’ve heard a lot about this author in the past, and always meant to read them. But I never did get the chance. When the opportunity to read this one popped up, I jumped on the chance. The science fiction aspect was what really grabbed me. I can tell you that I was not disappointed at all! In fact, now I know I’ve got to read the other books, not to mention that since this is the first in a series, I need to have the next book now! While this doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are definitely things that we are waiting to see how they can be solved, and also so much more to find out about the Terra Cotta Warriors and what must be aliens that created them. We also of course need to know more about the person behind the looters, and how they are able to do what they do.
All of the characters were great. I was totally off on some of the things I suspected certain people of maybe having ulterior motives, and in the end, I didn’t catch on to suspect just who one of the bad guys was, at least not until right before we found out. Lyra was a great main character, and a great narrator for the whole story. The different traditions that her friends at the planet we meet her on had created were very interesting. But when she looked back at them at the end from how things had changed and her new friendships and relationships, that was such a neat way to look at it as well. Her parents were definitely realistic seeming for that type of a family, but I also liked the security and other scientists that they interacted with, and that made up the cast of characters in the story.
The other parts I really liked had to do with both the science theories of space exploration and travel and how that would affect the age of the people traveling as well as the people the left behind. Then there was the Terra Cotta soldier storyline which definitely kept me intrigued with all the different things they found out as they uncovered the armies on each of the new planets and the symbols and arrangement of them.
Highly recommend this one, and will be putting it on my list to buy for the library where I work!
Admittedly, not since Poison Study, have I so immediately fallen in love with one of Maria V. Snyder’s creative worlds.
The heroine, Lyra Tian Daniels, captivated me from the start. She’s sassy, strong and has a mischievous, quick-thinking mind that made me smile more than once. She’s also loyal, kind-hearted and courageous.
This book has much more than just a charming heroine to offer though – there’s space travelling and the complicated, confusing and emotionally painful concept of jumping through time. Not to mention, plenty of mysteries and puzzles to solve, along with pulse pounding danger to survive as well.
In other words, Navigating the Stars is a great first book in Maria V. Snyder’s sci-fi series, Sentinels of the Galaxy, and definitely sets the stage for future books to come.
I’m highly anticipating, the next book in this riveting series.
Hopefully, the next book will take me a little bit longer to read because truthfully, I read this book in one sitting. Once I was at least three chapters into this book, I was utterly hooked and could not put it down.
Definitely recommended.
I just raced through this book and loved every second of it. All I want to do is dive straight back into this world and be with these characters forever. This is YA with a strong romantic thread and HUGE adult crossover appeal. The banter is fantastic. Definitely recommend!
Confession time: I’ve never read the Poison Study books. I love a good fantasy and I’ve heard the most amazing things about them but I haven’t picked them up yet. That’s going to change ASAP because I’m officially a fan. Navigating the Stars has a fascinating mystery, unbelievably cool and plausible science, a slow-burn romance, and archaeology in space! I literally couldn’t ask for more of my favorite things in one book (well, maybe dinosaurs) and on top of that, the writing is excellent.
Loved this book! Looking forward to reading the other books in the series.
I really enjoyed this, more than I expected to. Especially since I loved Poison Study, I didn’t think I would enjoy another of Maria’s books as much. I did! Can’t wait for the rest of the series!
Once again Maria has proven that she’s not just fantastic at world building but also able to create characters that you want have as your best friend. I loved this second leap/crinkle threw space. Li-Li is a wonderful protagonist, I feel her pain in trying to figure out what she wants to do with her future, and root for her in figuring out the shadow blob mystery. I can’t wait until next December!!
Maria V. Snyder is one of my favorite authors. Her Study Series is one of my all-time faves. (I could reread those books over and over again and never tire of them.) Her characters are always so multi-dimensional, memorable, and, again, some of my favorites. (I mean, who could ever top Valek and Yelena?) So to say I was excited for a new book from her was a vast understatement.
Even though sci-fi isn’t a genre I normally gravitate towards, especially those set in space, I’ll read anything this author writes. And Navigating the Stars did not disappoint. It was everything I had hoped it’d be. It featured Snyder’s signature style, detailed setting, and a strong, independent leading lady.
Lyra was a great narrator. So relatable, funny, and sassy. And I really appreciated the fact that she actually had a ‘normal’ relationship with her parents. That’s rare to find these days. It was super refreshing.
I will say that it took a little bit of time for all the technical science things to make sense to me. Like time dilation. It was confusing at first, but there was a moment when it all clicked and I found it to be really fascinating.
This was a book I read slowly. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I absolutely loved it! I wanted to savor it, take my time, and linger there for as long as I could. I highly, highly recommend it! I’m anxious to get my hands on the sequel! The wait is gonna be torture!