Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell
Sky Without Stars (System Divine #1) by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell
Released: March 26, 2019
Pages: 582
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Overall: 4/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting & World-building 5/5
Emotional Investment: 3.5/5
"Anyone can be a saint until they're hungry enough"
Damn, this was a heavy book. Literally and figuratively. I originally only picked up this book because my library was shutting down for corona lockdown and I wanted to have enough books to keep me entertained. But luckily this book was totally worth it.
Quick Summary: So I've been told this is a retelling of Les Miserables, but I wouldn't know cause I've never read it or watched it. But basically, Laterre is a planet with a society made of three estates: the first being the ruler/king's family, the second being the nobles and police, and the third being the peasants, where three vastly different lives intersect. Chatien is a peasant who cons her way through life, with her biggest con being her true identity and spying on the grandson of the most important man, General Bonnefacon. Marcellus has spent his entire life training to one day become his grandfather and has unwavering loyalty to his government until he receives a message claiming everything he supported was actually a lie. Alouette is a girl living in a secretive underground fortress as a protector of books until she comes up to the surface for the first time in 12 years causing the lives of these three catastrophically different people to intermingle.
First of all this entire world is set in space, and I love space stories because the rules are so different in space. The limit between reality and fantasy in space is so thin because there are just so many options. Brody and Rendell used this to their advantage by creating an immersive world where there are three suns, technology able to control the weather, and a prison on the moon. It was honestly the most entertaining part of the book. With the immense detailing put into the setting, it provided an atmosphere that feels grimy, and messy just like the third estate. Also, people can't read or write English, it's actually called the Forgotten Word. That was fun to read how everybody, except the rebel group, can't read or write but it actually is a sign of superiority.
The characters all had their quirks and flaws, but I think Chatien was the most fun to read. Nobody knows the real her, not even her family because she pushes people away to survive. From the very first page, it's so clear she hates being a female because she understands the limits of being a woman in that society. Because of that, she changes her name to Theo (for the public only) and has to steal and play dirty to get enough money to leave Laterre. To make matters worse, her parents are probably the vilest people I've ever read about. Greed and power blind them to make some very bad decisions. Especially a horrific action that actually is the root of why Chatien is so lonely, comes forward as being committed by her parents and not by someone else.
Alouette was so sheltered and I am excited to read her character arc because right now she's a little confused and lacks a backbone but I want to believe that she will grow into a confident person. I lowkey feel bad for her though because imagine living underground, without sunlight, and around the same 10 people all your life. That's so isolating and I felt bad. There were a couple of times I felt like she was flat, like when she goes with Marcellous, a random stranger she met once. Like she would just agree with everything everybody said.
Marcellous was clueless but he had promise. He lived his entire life in pursuit of becoming his grandfather and not becoming his traitorous father. So he had heavy values embedded in him from his youth. If it wasn't for his governess Mabelle he would have brainwashed but luckily she gave him empathy. This was great because he finally started questioning the system. The horrific system where they kept the poor poor to make sure they would work harder to stop being poor. Kind of like systems still present in the world today.
The only reason I would knock a star off is that the beginning was an information dump. It was just so much to remember and that caused the beginning to actually be quite boring. After we got over that little hiccup and the characters met each other the story became very interesting.
If you are someone looking to read a good science fiction, fantasy retelling with really in-depth world-building that touches on actual societal issues like poverty and misuse of power I really recommend this book to you.
Quotes
"Technology is for the weak-minded. Those who cannot occupy their own thoughts turn to devices to do it for them."
"My head is soaked with rain. It's too heavy to float in clouds."
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