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Amazon link: The Blighted Stars (The Devoured Worlds Book 1)
Author: Megan O’Keefe (@MeganEOKeefe)
Website: www.meganokeefe.com
Thumbnail sketch: Promising opener to sci-fi trilogy with elements of action, mystery, and horror. Some cleverly realized ideas including an unusual villain. Bring on the next book.
4 Stars
My take on The Blighted Stars
The opener to author Megan O’Keefe’s “Devoured Worlds” trilogy, The Blighted Stars sets the stage for a promising series with elements of sci-fi action, mystery and horror, as well as a star-crossed romance between the lead characters and an unusual and imaginatively realized villain hiding in plain sight until a reveal that upends a lot of what was thought to be true.
This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on May 23, 2023.
The story begins as two mining ships of the Mercator family arrive at a planet expected to be both a source of the essential element relkatite and a terrestrial refuge for humanity. In due course it’s revealed that Earth and other habitable planets have been blighted by an aggressive lichen known as the shroud, forcing humanity to relocate to space stations. Human society is dominated by five rich and powerful families, of which Mercator is the largest. Each family specializes in one essential area – farming, mining, banking, construction, and medical – which leads to an uneasy peace monitored by spies placed within each by the others.
The origin of shroud, which isn’t harmful to humans and can even be consumed for some nutritional value, is a mystery. But Naira Sharp, the highly skilled former personal bodyguard of the head of Mercator, is sure the family’s relkatite mining is the cause. Just as sure it isn’t is geologist Tarquin Mercator, second-born and only son of family head Acaelus Mercator. Naira paid a high price for betraying the family and it was Tarquin’s testimony that sealed her fate: having her mind put ‘on ice.’
One of the key concepts of the story is the ability of humans to transfer their consciousness, or ‘map,’ into new bodies created by 3D printers. While it seems to be a deus ex machina, the author smartly incorporates negative consequences into the process to keep it from becoming a cure-all. For example, multiple printing is a terrible idea and too many transfers or an especially violent death can result in an unrecoverable insanity known as ‘cracking.’ Of course, in a society dominated by a few powerful families, the process is also quite expensive and minds are left on ice for lack of ‘phoenix’ fees.
The story is lengthy and at times, particularly deep into the slow-burning romance, seems to drag a bit. The ending of The Blighted Stars is quite clever, eschewing a cliffhanger in favor of a general reset that leaves the characters a bit wiser but back at square one for the most part. I’m looking forward to what happens next.
Scott Whitmore, writer 