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The Girl and the Stars

Book of the Ice, Book 1

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The Girl and the Stars

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Helen Duff
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From the critically acclaimed author of Prince of Thorns and Red Sister comes a chilling new epic fantasy series.

Only when it's darkest can you see the stars.

East of the Black Rock, out on the ice, lies a hole down which broken children are thrown.

On the vastness of the ice there is no room for individuals. No one survives alone.

To resist the cold, to endure the months of night when even the air itself begins to freeze, requires a special breed. Variation is dangerous, difference is fatal. And Yaz is different.

Torn from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her life with, Yaz has to carve a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of danger.

Beneath the ice, Yaz will learn that Abeth is older and stranger than she had ever imagined. 

She will learn that her weaknesses are another kind of strength. And she will learn to challenge the cruel arithmetic of survival that has always governed her people.

©2020 Mark Lawrence (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction
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Critic reviews

"An excellent writer." (Number one New York Times best-selling author George R.R. Martin)

"Dark, passionate, tense, with a female hero anyone could relate to - I was utterly fascinated! This is no pretty, flowery tale, but one of vastly different people struggling to survive when a hostile government comes to power." (Number one New York Times best-selling author Tamora Pierce)

"If you like dark you will love Mark Lawrence. And when the light breaks through and it all makes sense, the contrast is gorgeous." (Number one New York Times best-selling author Robin Hobb)
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Most relevant
I have enjoyed every one of Mark Lawrence's series and I had thought that he was getting better with every series he writes but this is a real dip in quality (this is written before any other books in the series so it might redeem itself later but at present it's his worst one).

The book was a slog and towards the end I was just waiting for the book to end. Yaz is sort of unlikable, unrelatable and uninteresting and her motivations seem a bit weird and her decisions seem to make little sense most of the time. I could see the ending coming quite a way off too.

I was also utterly fed up of the "fake-out" deaths that the author seems really fond of (i.e. where a character seems dead but, surprise, they're not). I find them to be a really cheap narrative device especially when utterly overused like in this book. It was annoying enough when he used it in his previous series but, in those cases, it was used sparingly.

I have liked Lawrence's work enough that I'll probably buy book 2 when it comes out in the hope it gets better but if you're new to Lawrence's work then try one of his other series of books first.

A Bit Disappointing

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If you enjoyed the book of the ancestor series, you'll enjoy this book. Written in Lawrence's engaging style, with likeable characters in a cool universe.
On top of that the narration is brilliant! The narrator has made the characters Welsh, which was an unusual take but it's a pleasant accent to listen too.

Great continuation of the universe

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I like the concept of the story, but unfortunately it feels lacking to me. It jumps from one crisis to the next and even though the storyteller says 3 weeks has past, you feel like it happened mere moments ago. There is a tiny bit of character development but only for the main character, and extreme exhaustion is suddenly turned into feats of strength and endurance that would be close to impossible even for the most well trained athletes, let alone an untrained girl unable to access her powers.

lacking character building and embellishment

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I was disappointed in this book as I like Mark Lawrence but this dragged on, was repetitive and confusing. I won’t finish this series, it’s not compelling enough.
First time I’ve listened to an audio book narrated by Helen Duff and in thought she did as good job of the different voices as they were recognisable as different individuals.

Not compelling

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very slow narration, very nice voice and character voices but very slow. i had to speed it up and I've never felt the need to before
Unfortunately I didn't particularly like the world or story but there is no accounting for taste.

very slow narration

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