Book Review: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Cover Image taken from Goodreads 

Defy the Stars, by Claudia Gray 

Rating: 5/5 

Acquisition: Uppercase subscription. 

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I'm not sure if I've ever been more skeptical about a book before I read even a single line, and yet still picked it up anyway. But Claudia Gray's Defy the Stars came with about as high a recommendation as is physically possible: being included in an Uppercase box. (If you don't know what Uppercase is, check out the link above. You'll thank me.) And since I never once have failed to complete an Uppercase book before the month in which it was sent ended, I took the plunge. Just couldn't break that streak, I guess. 
Boy, am I glad I did. 
Defy the Stars tells the story of Noemi and Abel. Noemi is from the planet Genesis, one of the few Earthen colony planets whose environment hasn't been royally screwed by pollution and other human nastiness. The simple lifestyle the people of Genesis lead has kept their planet pure, for the most part. But Genesis and Earth are at war, and the people of Genesis fear for the future of their people. Abel, on the other hand, is a mech -- the widely-used term for a humanoid robot in this book. There are 25 standard mech models, and Abel is none of them. In fact, he's superior to all of them. When he first meets Noemi, he's been stranded on a spaceship for 30 years, giving him plenty of time to think. And all that thinking time has left him with thoughts and feelings that are damn near human. 

This is the part that I was leery about. I knew from the get-go that the relationship between Noemi and Abel was going to try to get all romantic on me. And I don't care how advanced or human-like the robot is, human - robot romance is weird as heck to me. Just ask my husband how I feel about the implied Vision/Scarlet Witch weirdness in Age of Ultron. Short version: not a fan. And, without spoiling anything, there's a little romance between Noemi and Abel in this book, but I was okay with it because it's very, very slooooooooow burn and doesn't take up too much of the plot. Hopefully that stays true for later books. 

But what I really LOVED about this book was, well, everything else. This one is really heavy on the sci-fi, so if that's your gig, definitely pick this one up. (Looking at you, fellow Whovians.) Space, adventure, all that jazz. Beautiful. The themes that are explored in this novel are also really fantastic. Noemi struggles with issues of faith and belief, Abel's character makes the reader question the morality of creating a conciousness that's almost human (a la Frankenstein). Also, Abel's self-discovery can be viewed as a very interesting metaphor for growing up, so if you like a good coming-of-age story, maybe look a little under the surface in this one, and you'll find a goldmine. There's some really deep stuff going on in this writing, I'm telling you. 

So, short version, I'm so glad I read this one! I still have some concerns about where the story may go in later books, but the adventure in this book got me hooked!