United By Pop received a free copy of The Glow of Fallen Stars in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are our own.
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Title: The Glow of Fallen Stars
Author: Kate Ling
Purchase: Available in the UK and the US
Overall rating: 4/5
Great for: Fans of Beth Revis, Amy Kathleen Ryan, and Patrick Ness
Themes: Young adult, science fiction, futuristic and dystopian
Review: Cover buy alert! Without having even read the first book in the Ventura Saga, ‘The Lonliness of Distant Stars‘ I was compelled to read the second instalment, ‘The Glow of Fallen Stars’ due to nothing more than aesthetic value alone. But with intriguing titles and covers of such sublime and eye-catching beauty, would the stories inside match my early expectations? The answer is unequivocally yes!
‘The Glow of Fallen Stars’ begins on a nameless planet. The foursome who fled their spaceship home, the Ventura, are now faced with the formidable project of making this beautiful yet seemingly uninhabited planet their new residence. For Seren, Dom, Mariana, and Ezra this is truly a make-or-break task. And with no-one to rely on but each other, this may be an undertaking too vast for their fracturing relationships to take.
If the first book is created to encourage the reader to dream of distant stars and unexplored galaxies, ‘The Glow of Fallen Stars’ heightened this focus, with the revealing of a new planet, Huxley-3. This is a vastly different and unpredictable environment to any of the characters or myself has experienced before, so it was interesting to venture into a new place together. With danger lurking around every corner and with no clue of what to expect, this was a richly atmospheric journey that beautifully captured the essence of exactly what an adventure quest should incorporate.
Despite the sci-fi setting, Seren and Dom also have to face some more relatable issues. Concerns over prior relationships begin to undo their already fraught connection and this helped me to find a bond I could identify between characters and myself. No matter the climate, situation, or locale, love hurts no matter who you are or where you are situated!
This mixture of the known and unknown created a satisfying continuation of this series and made me eager to adventure along with the cast on journeys to places and experiences new.
