Why must books go out of print? Why can’t we have some kind of deal with publishers that they will continue printing some of their old works if requested, even if it would be pricier to do so? I held off on this book series for so long, and now you can only order pre-owned copies. But this two-part sci-fi epic is one of the most exciting works I’ve read in years, and I cannot recommend it enough.
This is the sequel to Empress of a Thousand Skies, where two individuals who don’t know each other and aren’t even thrust together – Rhiannon and Alyosha – are both forced to go on the run for different but similar purposes. Rhee is attacked and flees with brazen warrior Dahlen, and Alyosha, or Aly, is blamed for Rhee’s apparent murder. Aly ends up meeting up with a young scavenger named Kara who doesn’t remember anything from her past. And we find out at the end she is actually royalty; Rhee’s long-lost sister Josselyn. Rhee is declared undead and Aly is cleared of her killing…but the nightmare has only begun.
It was revealed there is a piece of tech unknown to the public out there, a single working prototype of an updater called “the overwriter”. It would allow whoever had it to manipulate innocent people, take away all that was them and turn them into zombies. After the first ruler Seotra was killed, a prodigy named Nero stepped into the fray, and he knows all about this overwriter. It’s just a matter of time before he gets his hands on it.
The basic structure of this book is it’s just plain fun as it zips chronologically between calamities. Every chapter in this series is an adventure of its own without coming across as too busy, or dismissive of character development.
I think Blood of a Thousand Stars is a little better than its predecessor, which I also gave a perfect score to, because this one does something the other didn’t; a very interesting and despicable bad guy. Empress kind of juggled its villains, killing off a fair few before settling on Nero, and by that time, the book was almost over. Here, Nero has the full spotlight as the war-monger pretty-boy homicidal psycho. He couldn’t have been more infuriating and terrifyingly recognizable in today’s world. There is a point where Rhee thinks about how she is underestimated and hated in comparison to Nero, for a few different reasons, but the biggest one, is she’s a girl. There’s an unfairness and heartbreak to that which cuts to the core.
Rhee, Aly and Kara resist against Nero and his army in various ways with various results. But the power Nero has gives this book the sense that it might not be a completely happy ending. Or even a happy ending at all. This is a world where people are brutally tortured and killed. Bad things happen to characters I grew to really like.
We need more books out there like this duology. It’s very rare to get a young adult book that is willing to look the cruelties of war, genocide, and high-up corruption right in the face, let alone do so with such excitement and accuracy. I hope one day Rhoda Belleza writes another book. It’s been seven years, and these two have been her only publication.
My grade: 5 stars out of 5
William J. McGinn 
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