Navigating the Stars

Maria V. Snyder — 2018

“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 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.

Reviews

Sonja H@sonjah

Aug 12, 2022

Solala, dafür schreib ich keine Rezension.

Malin Alexander@malinreads

Nov 16, 2021

Loved this book, the idea was so original and I enjoyed the main character being such an amazing trouble maker!

Lysh (She/Her)@teachreadreview

Sep 2, 2021

Overall, a solid first instalment for the trilogy. A little slow to start, but good worldbuilding. The characters were varied and believable. Enjoyable amount and style of humour and the slow romance build was fab. The plot thickened slowly like jam on the stove top, becoming deliciously gelatinous and stickier with every chapter. Interested to learn more about some of the mysteries we got a glimpse at in this one. Could be improved with third person narrative instead of first (personal preference, I know, but at some points being in Lyra's head felt clunky?) and I wasn't keen on the final shock reveal. Although I didn't see it coming, I could think of 2 or 3 other twists that would be far more satisfying and gut-wrenching than the outcome we had (but maybe I was just hoping to have my old black, symbol-ised heart deteriorate to dust, because I love pain?). There was no real cliff hanger to pull me into the next book, but since it has solid reviews I'll be giving it a go.

Anyaconda@kaffeeklatschandbooks

Aug 29, 2021

This was absolutely fantastic! Interesting premise, great characters, funny dialogue - especially between Lyra and Niall, which made me laugh a lot. This is a fast-paced, adventure YA novel with the cutest romance in it. I didn't want this to end and I'm already planning on re-reading it. I tried to find out when the second book in the series will be published, but couldn't find any dates. I'll recommend this to anyone, especially if you liked the Illuminae trilogy. I already see this blow up the YA booktube community. Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with an eARC.

Lisa Beasley@carefulofbooks

Aug 18, 2021

I really really enjoyed this. I listened to the audiobook and it lent itself really well to that medium I think. I really liked Lyra as a main character, she was flawed but resilient and I definitely appreciated that. I also adored Niall, he was such a grumpy sweetheart. The plot was smart and I didn't actually guess the 'twist' towards the end, the bigger plot as it were is also super interesting and I am so looking forward to the next one.