The Stars Are Legion

Zan awakes—with no memory—on a bizarre semi-organic ship drifting ‘at the outer rim of the universe’. The ship is part of an armada, called ‘Legion’, that has clearly seen better days: most of the ships are now just slowly rotting from the inside. Without much ado, Zan is thrown into an almost suicidal attack on another of the ships, the Mokshi, which is thought key in controlling the armada. The attack fails, and Zan barely survives after another warring faction, the Bhavajas, attack them from behind.

This is not Zan's first attack on the Mokshi—she has tried to conquer the ship hundreds of times and has failed in every single one of them. Every time she is spat back with her memory wiped clean, then gets recycled and is thrown back against it. As the story moves along, the plan for conquering the Mokshi is slowly revealed to be a decoy for something else, orchestrated by one of Zan's sisters, Jayd, to whom Zan feels an unnaturally strong (let's say ‘unsisterly’) attraction. Pages keep turning, yet neither we, nor Zan get much more clarity than that. Questions keep bubbling without any answer: what is the Legion, what are the ships made of, who made them, why are there only women there, why is there no metal, where is the armada, what is the connection to our world/time??!

The story takes a decisive turn after the Bhajavas conquer Zan’s world and recycle her, while Jayd is married off to the their leader. This is where I expected that my lingering questions will start getting their answers and we'll get some big ‘reveal’ where I'll say, “Ahaa, so that's what it was!!!”.

Fat chance for that. As Zan sets off exploring the increasingly bizarre inner levels of the ship, women start birthing monstrosities and cannibalising their dead, the story devolves from an alluring mystery into a cheap, gory body horror a la the early David Cronenberg. The novel stops making any sense whatsoever. Instead of answering any of the questions, it just keep generating new ones—until you just accept that this is nothing more than a weird biopunk fantasy with no connections to real life whatsoever.

Well, perhaps with one exception: Of note is the repeated grumble throughout the latter third of the novel that “women are slaves to their wombs”—usually after someone gives birth to yet another monstrosity. Whether this is Hurley’s actual take on motherhood or just another random facet of the overall bizarreness of the novel, I leave to you to decide.

Considering that I am a fan of Hurley's earlier work and I had been waiting for this novel with a lot of anticipation, The Stars are Legion has—needless to say—fallen very short of my expectations. The spellbinding world-building of the Bel Dame Apocrypha, with its intricate connections to contemporary religions and its fully-rounded characters, is replaced by a lukewarm porridge of sleazy biopunk, replete with completely unrelatable characters with motivations that add a whole new dimension to the world ‘outlandish’.

Kameron Hurley writes a column in Locus, and when I saw that she had a forthcoming "science fiction" novel, I pre-ordered her new book.
Well, I'm giving it only 3 stars because it is hardly science fiction at all. It is well written, and the two main characters are interesting and complex, but this is basically a fantasy novel. Nothing in it really involves science or technology in the least. If you were to use the "Replace" function in MS Word to change the names for some of the minor objects (cephalopod guns, transport vehicles), with about 15 minutes of work you would have a standard fantasy novel.
I almost feel that marketing this as space opera is blatantly false advertising. That said, it is well written and has intriguing characters, but don't pick this if you are looking for hard SF or even swashbuckling space opera.

A fantasy about murderous space lesbians in gigantic biological generation ships. A fantasy because there is no science in this fiction. Features love, betrayals, killings and a journey. Could be set in a galaxy far, far away in a time long past, or maybe the future, or maybe now; you just don't know. And at the conclusion, I just did not care.

nauseating - I read poorly written science fiction for the new and interesting ideas that can be found there . This has a few , the skin suits and organic vehicles and re-cycling methods , BUT the writer should have had a little restraint in her love of icky , moist , mucous page after page. There is a great book inside this but it needs control and lots of editing . I would NOT recommend it to anyone when there are books like The Children of Time out there - with ideas and good writing. This is grossness gone wild with no restraint and makes itself a big steaming , smelly mess

I've mostly stuck to indie sci fi, mainly because its been giving me stories and characters I want to read about.

World building is interesting but if the characters don't pull me in I just zone out. I wish the characters had been as engaging as the world setting/building.

As it stands, based on my own preferences, I need the plot, characters and world building to be on the same page.

A good example for this was Newsflesh Trilogy. Maybe one day Ill find a Hurley book I can get all the way thru.

Kameron Hurley first came to my attention when God's War was nominated for the 2012 Nebula Award for best novel. I instantly fell in love with that book, and the same goes for the two sequels, Infidel and Rapture. Dark, violent, complex, touching, compelling, populated with flawed but endearing and unforgettable characters, I felt that the Bel Dame Apocrypha could well be the very best science fiction series of the new millennium. And a few years down the line, I still believe this. At the top of her game, I claimed that Kameron Hurley ranked among the best SFF writers out there. I couldn't wait to see what the future had in store for her. I went so far as to say that Hurley had now joined my short list of speculative fiction "must read" authors.

In the subsequent months, something unexpected happened. Kameron Hurley gradually became known more for her blog posts, genre-related articles, or essays, and not necessarily for her novels. Nothing wrong with that, of course. She also became somewhat of a poster girl for the online SJW SFF clique. Which is why, in the end, I was so reticent to read The Mirror Empire, the first installment in The Worldbreaker Saga. Yes, I am aware that I've just said that Hurley was now part of my "must read" authors and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into whatever she would publish next. Problem is, I didn't get an ARC for that one and the advance praise scared me. You see, all those reviews went on and on about what Kameron Hurley was trying to do. Not much was being said about the story itself. It was nice to learn that she's not just subverting all those fantasy tropes and clichés. She kicked them in the balls, kicked them while they were down, set fire to them, and then pissed all over them. Good for her. But I'm a plot kind of guy. Always have been and always will be. I wanted to know just how good the story was. But all I was reading about had to do with gender role reversal and gender non-conformity, yada yada yada. Kameron Hurley was being applauded for coming up with something totally different. But not, as far as I could tell, for writing an awesome and compelling story. Understandably, The Mirror Empire was an extremely divisive work among readers when it was released. Still is to this day. And although I've bought both the first volume and Empire Ascendant, I'm still quite reticent to read these books. I'll get to them at some point, no doubt about it, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

Then the announcement came that Hurley's The Stars Are Legion, a space opera stand-alone novel featuring a female-only cast, would be published in 2017. Again, this was acclaimed by the SJW clique and the book, more than a year prior to its release, received a lot of coverage from those sources. I had the same reservations about this forthcoming work, yet I resolved to give it a shot. This was a single, self-contained science fiction tale, and I wanted to review it. Thanks to the folks at Saga Press, I was able to get my hands on a review copy, which would allow me to read and review it before being "contaminated" by advance praise.

When all is said and done, I'm pleased to report that The Stars Are Legion is a good read. However, it suffers from too many shortcomings to even come close to the greatness that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha such an amazing series. The violence, the anger, the general badass vibe; it's all there. Unfortunately, the depth, the originality, and the superior characterization are absent, and The Stars Are Legion is a much weaker work for that.

Here's the blurb:

Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.

Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation - the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan's new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion's gravity well to the very belly of the world.

Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion's destruction - and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?

In the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune, The Stars are Legion is an epic and thrilling tale about tragic love, revenge, and war as imagined by one of the genre's most celebrated new writers.

The worldbuilding was my favorite facet of all three Bel Dame Apocrypha titles. Hurley's vision remained unique and the universe she created came alive as the story progressed over the course of the entire trilogy. Her narrative created a vivid imagery that made the ravaged world of Umayma and its characters leap off the pages. But that was then and this is now. True, a stand-alone book of relatively small size precludes the sort of depth that made Hurley's first series such a memorable read. And yet, by taking so many shortcuts, it appears that the author did not even attempt to imbue this one with as much depth as the story required to make total sense. Personally, I had no problem with an all female cast of characters. The Stars Are Legion doesn't suffer from the absence of men. Not at all. But why are there no men? Whatever happened to them, even if it took place generations ago? No explanation is offered. What are those world-ships and where does the Legion come from? Why do they orbit around the Core and what are they doing on the Outer Rim of the universe? How is it that each woman possesses a womb that can give birth to something in particular the ship/world needs to function? Why are the world-ships decaying? Why is it that each level is completely unaware of what transpires on the other levels? It's not that the backdrop and the premise for this tale are a bucket that doesn't hold any water. It's more a question that there is no bucket whatsoever. One of the best feelings one gets when reading a science fiction novel/series is when the author provides answers to the what, how, why, when questions that are at the heart of the plot. Kameron Hurley, who is not known to take the path of least resistance, doesn't even try to come up with answers, and that's major disappointment.

This being a blend of space opera and New Weird, with The Stars Are Legion Hurley is competing against authors such as Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, Iain M. Banks, Richard K. Morgan, and James S. A. Corey. And I have a feeling that they would be crucified by critics and readers alike if they ever elected to take such shortcuts. To a certain extent, it's almost as though this book was written for the members of the aforementioned online SJW clique, those men and women who hold Hurley in such high esteem, and perhaps the more hardcore feminist genre aficionados out there, who would gladly overlook its inherent flaws because it furthers their own political and social agenda. I am at a loss as to why the worldbuilding aspect can be so poor an inadequate. It's not that the answers to those questions are half-assed, lame, or some kind of cop-out. There are simply no answers to speak of. The only people who could have provided them are the witches and seers found on the different world-ships, but they have all conveniently gone mad. In addition, Zan's journey through the various levels of the Katazyrna world-ship raises yet more questions to which absolutely no answers are forthcoming. Hence, to enjoy this one as much as possible, one needs to buckle up and try to enjoy the ride without questioning anything that takes place. It's odd. Very odd, to say the least.

I don't know if that's the case in the Worldbreaker Saga, but like in her first trilogy Hurley has a fixation on bugs and such in The Stars Are Legion. Once again, this one features strange insectile and organic technology. The evocative imagery that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha books such a great read is present in every chapter, and it's safe to say that Hurley will continue to wow us with her creativity or inventiveness for years to come. Visually, each level of the Katazyrna world-ship comes alive, and the same can be said of the other ships and the space in between. In that regard at least, in this novel Hurley is as impressive as ever.

The protagonists are the product of a war-torn, unforgiving, and decaying environment. Hurley's characterization is usually similar to that of gritty SFF authors such as Abercrombie, Morgan, and GRRM. Not for the faint-hearted, true, but oh so satisfying once more. One of the shortcomings of The Stars Are Legion may be the fact that Kameron Hurley was a bit too ambitious with her choice of POV protagonists and what links them together. Zan, suffering from amnesia, doesn't remember anything regarding who she used to be and why she keeps being sent on suicide missions to try to take control of the Mokshi world-ship. With basically no recollections whatsoever as to her identity and why she keeps being sent out there to fail every time, Zan's perspective reveals very little for the better part of the novel. To all intents and purposes, she is often as clueless as the reader. Jayd, the second point of view character, is the polar opposite. She knows everything, but shame and regrets prevent her from revealing too much. As a result, the reader remains in the dark for more than half of this book, and for more than two hundred pages you keep going forward without any idea as to what this story is supposed to be about. I say that perhaps it was a bit too ambitious to limit the narrative to only these two perspectives because one has to take a lot on faith and hope that everything will make sense later on. And that doesn't always work as well as Hurley intended. Thankfully, at some point the author has no choice but to have Jayd disclose what she and Zan, who still remembers nothing, have been planning for years. That's when the story picks up and things get interesting. The politics and betrayals up the game a few notches and Jayd's storyline is elevated to a new level. Sadly, during that time Zan is on a journey to get back from the belly of the world and that quest, though visually stunning, is nowhere near as captivating as what goes on elsewhere. The endgame ultimately brings the two plotlines together and offers an rousing finale. The only problem is that you can easily puzzle out Zan's true identity way before the revelation is made, which kills whatever punch that secret was supposed to have on the tale. Also, it would have been nice if the supporting cast had played a more important role in the greater scheme of things, and if they had had an occasional POV of their own. Sabita, Das Muni, Casamir, and Arankadash all had potential, but it was seldom exploited.

In terms of pace, my past experiences with Kameron Hurley have often been balls-to-the-wall and fast-moving sequences with never a dull moment. The Stars Are Legion is much more slow-moving as far as the rhythm is concerned, especially the chapters focusing on Zan's journey. The fact that the reader spends more than half of the book not really understanding what this story is supposed to be about doesn't help matters. Still, other than a few rough sections here and there, for the most part, even though the pace is not fast-moving, things remain intriguing enough to keep the reader turning those pages to discover what happens next.

What it comes down to is, if you can stop yourself from asking questions and try to enjoy the story as it moves forward, then chances are that you'll enjoy The Stars Are Legion. But forget what the blurb says. It is not a work in the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune. Far from that. Hurley's latest doesn't have enough substance to ever be compared to Frank Herbert and Dan Simmons' classics.

Can this novel be a good opportunity to discover Kameron Hurley for readers who are not yet familiar with the author, what with it being a self-contained stand-alone book? Maybe. For some, sure. And yet, since it is the weakest work I've read from Hurley, I feel that readers eager to find out what all the noise is all about should start by giving God's War a shot. Brutal, uncompromising, brilliant, enthralling: That's the Bel Dame Apocrypha in a nutshell. If The Stars Are Legion is someone's first exposure to Kameron Hurley, I feel that they would miss out on just how awesome an author she can be.

The premise seems wonderful; giant meat-planets, space opera, weird-fic craziness with recycling beasts, spray-on spacesuits, and women birthing monstrosities and machine parts while their own lives are repeated over and over as the planet re-births them.

That's why it was so disappointing when halfway through the book, it turns into a meat-themed sword-and-sorcery story, with a treatise about abusive relationships in alternating chapters. From an epic where characters are to decide the fate of the world, the dual protagonists are put into two very different stories. One making her way up, reverse-Inferno style, through successive layers of the world, the other struggling with whether she loves her abusive wife, a wife who recently attempted to genocide the protagonist's people and eat their world. Neither character is likeable or compelling enough to really make the reader care much about what happens to them, Inferno-wariorress has plot-convenient amnesia that allows for her to have met half the characters in the book before and given them oh-so-cryptic hints about what her real plan is, and Abused Wife is a self-professed liar and schemer, who has a Secret Plan that doesn't seem to have been well thought-out, as she fails to plan for her abuser being almost a carbon copy of her abusive mother and literally hamstringing her.

There's some of the much-talked-about gore, but if you're a Weird Fiction or Body Horror afficionado, there's not a lot here that will even register on the meter. Not much body-horror related affects the protagonists (they have parts cut out on the regular and seem to do okay), and it feels like the author remembered that meatpunk was a thing every five pages or so, and threw something in to make sure it continued.

Then there's some of the odd choices for the sake of sending a message that don't really mesh well with the story. Everyone's a woman. Why? Dunno, cuz. Half of them act like a misandrist's idea of the Strong Male stereotype, but they're all women because. This could have been an interesting story point, but it doesn't seem to have been done for any plot-relevant reason. There's also a subtext of Civil Rights with Mutants (odd in a place that has meat trees, bug lamps, and giant human-monsters) and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas but hamfisted (Mutants must work the fields to provide for the Golden Ones), again, these could have been interesting points, but they feel out of place in a story about mountains made of bone where people are thrown, still living, into a recycling hole to be consumed by giant monsters.

I'm maybe 2/3 of the way through, and I can't sustain interest. I'm pretty sure I can see most of the big plot points coming, and I just don't care enough to see them through. I know this was delayed, but I think it's a case where delaying it a little longer and using that time to work on it would have been better than making sure it got out on deadline.

When I had my embarrassing epiphany this spring that my CBR reading list and library were unacceptably skewed toward male authors, I spent a number of hours googling female authors, particularly those in genres with which I’m less familiar. One of the best sources I found was a list called “27 Female Authors Who Rule Sci-Fi and Fantasy Right Now”, several of which I’ve purchased already and even more that are high on my wishlist.

My most recent read from those recommendations was The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley, probably the most fitting read for me this year in that it takes place in a remote star system populated only by women. The book begins with a dedication from Hurley that I used as the title to this review, and I can’t think of a more fitting opening. Brutal women, indeed.

Zan awakes to find herself in recovery from some catastrophic event, unable to remember anything from her past. Her memory comes back in bits and pieces as she’s assisted in her recovery by Jayd, a woman who claims to be her sister. Jayd parses out pieces of information, rationing to keep from telling Zan too much too soon to upset her and spoil her recovery. It turns out that Zan has been here before, perhaps hundreds of times, having failed at the same mission over and over.

Zan soon learns conflicting pieces of information from others around her, most of whom hate Jayd and tell Zan not to trust her. Zan finds that her body and subconscious still remember how to fight even if her mind can’t recall why, and before long, she’s heading out on the same mission again. This time, however, it’s different. She avoids catastrophe and escapes with her memory intact, and Jayd uses the opportunity to convince the lord of their planet to let her try a new approach to dealing with their enemies.

I won’t go any further into the story, and I realize I’ve been really general with what I’ve shared, but I want to leave as much as possible for new readers to discover on their own. Kameron Hurley has written a novel that combines the character-driven space opera of Iain M. Banks and Becky Chambers with the weird fantasy of Jeff Vandermeer and the dystopian fever dreams of Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) into something wholly original. It’s at once expansive and claustrophobic, immediate and mythic, unpredictable and inevitable, and it will remain on my mind for a long time to come.

(This review was originally posted as part of Cannonball Read 10: Sticking It to Cancer, One Book at a Time.)

The Stars are Legion hits all the highlights a devoted space opera reader expects in their high quality books: compelling characters, a solid plot, wonderfully immersive world-building. It’s a little dismal and not for those who avoid violence in their fiction, but even that has a purpose in driving home the point of the book.

But its real strength is its implicit challenge to space opera’s acceptance of overwhelming masculinity and cardboard (or at least cookie-cutter) female characters. It must have challenged industry professionals to accept a book—a space opera novel!--with no men, and it surely challenges readers to come to grips with their own expectations.

Once you realize there will be no male characters—because a male character would be inherently more special than all the women by being the first or only—you realize what bad assumptions you have ingrained into yourself by your expectations of new characters introduced as women or by which characters you assume will be men. That makes it an introspective read.

It’s a fiction narrative that forces readers to accept women as experiencing the full breadth of human traits and emotions and that tosses aside and slaughters (recycles?) fiction stereotypes and archetypes of women.

It’s not fluffy reading but instead addresses the muck of human character and to what depths people will go for ideals—and how to recover from that.

It’s not a light read but is engaging, compelling, and action-packed.

I thought I’d do something a little different with this post. Most of what I’ve written so far has focused on the strengths – sometimes the weaknesses – of a single book and how that book affected me. Tonight I thought I’d take two relatively recent publications – both of which have received effusive praise – and put them side by side.

I have to start by saying both “Ancillary Justice” and “The Stars Are Legion” are amazingly creative stories and both deserve the praise they’ve received. Reviews for both have been pretty consistently over the top – chock full of superlatives. Both Authors have built radically differentiated worlds / societies and told unique and compelling stories which distinguish themselves from anything I’ve ever run across – always gratifying for someone who’s read as much science fiction as I have. It’s always a pleasant surprise when an Author brings something truly new. The writing in both of these books is exceptional – very few times with either when I felt the need to pause and edit as I read. Short to long – anyone who loves science fiction should experience both.

Having said all that, the two books left me in very different places. My last post was on “Ancillary Justice” and anyone who’s read that post knows how much I loved it. It worked for me on all levels – the writing, the characters, the world and the story. As I read, I kept finding things in the book that I could relate to – meaningful academic or personal interests and experiences. It was tight and, while complex, the complexity added to the experience. The early bits and pieces of plot and history and invented culture – initially dropped on the reader without context or explanation – all came together in an almost seamless way by the middle of the story and led to a very satisfying conclusion.

Leckie managed to make almost every character fascinating and understandable and relate-able to me. She occasionally found a way to introduce subtle humor into a very serious exploration of meaningful questions about the parameters of humanity and civilization. I’d refer back to the example I highlighted in my last post – about the two AIs who – while grappling with a situation that could lead to the death of billions – take the time to discuss mundane equipment maintenance protocols. Leckie somehow found a way to make that seem both amusing and perfectly normal to me.

All of that left me – by the end of the book – supremely satisfied. It was the kind of reading experience where I’ll close the book but don’t really want to put it down – just hold it for awhile and think back through what the Author was able to accomplish and what it meant to me. It also left me very hungry for more and extremely thankful that I had two more novels in the trilogy – the second of which I’m already more than halfway through.

“The Stars Are Legion” was different. It was unlike anything I’d ever read – unique in many ways – particularly the world and the characters Hurley created. It was extremely well written. It’s rightly been recognized as an important work and it has a place in every science fiction fan’s library.

Here’s the thing though – at least for me – by the end, it felt like one of those books you needed to read and not one you wound up being thankful you read. The world was unique – almost too unique. Hurley never stops throwing new concepts at you – living world ships, degraded passenger cultures, unprecedented social structures and systems – it never stops. It’s almost like Hurley decided to throw as much weird stuff as possible against the wall to see what would stick.

Just one small example to try and illustrate what I mean – you become aware of the fact – about halfway through the book – that the purpose of childbirth is actually to manufacture replacement parts for the living world ships. Fine Hurley – you surprised and shocked me again – but why – it’s wasn’t important to the plot – I don’t even know that it was thematically important. I just found it kind of throwaway weird.

On top of that, it was so imaginative and unique that I found it hard to relate to the characters or the story or the world. I was following along but I never got to the point where I cared about much of anything or anyone in the story. I found myself disliking everyone in the book equally – plenty of characters – very little humanity.

Ultimately, I just felt like the story took itself too seriously. Hurley offered me nothing but bad options and bad endings. I felt like I was being constantly flogged with the themes and the emotions the author wanted me to feel. Everything was so painfully serious and tragic for all the participants involved. It was pretentious. Even worse – it was exhausting. By the end, I felt like I’d run a marathon and I couldn’t’ wait to put it down.

If you read the reviews, you’ll know that I’m in not with the majority when it comes to “The Stars Are Legion”. I see a lot of people describing this book as “brilliant” or “mind-blowing” or “profoundly moving”. I can appreciate so much of what others see in the book and it does deserve recognition. At the end of the day, however, I must just prefer spending my time with books and authors who don’t take themselves quite so seriously.

This is my first novel by Kameron Hurley and it’s a bit of a ripper. ‘The Stars are Legion’ is a mash-up of sci-fi, fantasy and even horror that worked on every level for The Grim Reader. Told through two main characters in Zan and Jayd, the story follows both as they travel different paths, both searching for answers to save their dying world.

If you have paid any attention to the hype surrounding this release then you will be aware that the novel is a man-free zone. Women rule the worlds and the stars and it proves to be an original and enthralling journey. ‘The Stars are Legion’ starts off with its feet firmly planted in science fiction, but as the story progresses and further worlds are explored, we move into epic fantasy territory with exceptional and spectacular world-building. The worlds Hurley has created are organic in matter-living, breathing, feeling things which host a wide variety of horrors and wonders that live on and in them. The world-building is superb in that it doesn’t info-dump, instead choosing to unravel and reveal as the story progresses giving it an epic and often unusual feel. There are some truly wonderful and original ideas at play; from spray-on space suits to living transport vehicles and characters that are capable of birthing whatever their planet needs, including new worlds and parts! It all might sound a bit bonkers but it really does work and each chapter opens your mind and imagination to something new and unusual.

‘The Stars are Legion’ definitely isn’t hard sci-fi. It has the drama of a space opera and the epic world-building of the fantasy genre. The politics between the warring worlds doesn’t side-track from the adventure, instead it plays as more of a background role, much to my delight. I often find a bit too much political manoeuvring in many fantasy reads so it is good to read something that is this entertaining whilst also being thoughtful and still has just enough political intrigue. The characters are excellent, unique, strong, fierce, caring, all well fleshed out and individual. The pacing is also good. There are a lot of questions early on in the book, but things quickly fall into place and the adventure hits full speed very quickly. There seems to be an overarching theme of looking after our own planet that is strong throughout making it an environmentally conscious space opera if you like!

A book featuring an all female cast has the possibility of alienating some readers, sadly. Not this reader. ‘The Stars are Legion’ is a refreshing, engaging and original reading experience. One I really, really enjoyed and fans of any of the above genres mentioned would be wise in checking out. Be warned, this book has some real gross out moments (which I love!) but entirely necessary in keeping with the harshness of some of the planets environments. Great cover art, great book. Go get some.

5/5 stars

Well, Kameron Hurley certainly doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules. The Stars Are Legion is a space opera with a flavor that’s all its own. The Legion is a group of worlds, or spaceships, (the word for both is the same) traveling through space and filled with warring groups.

The worlds are organic constructs, many of which are dying and cannibalizing each other for materials with which to regrow. The worlds are in fixed orbit, except for the Mokshi which is a world capable of independent movement. Zan awakes with no memory. Jayd tells her she is a great general and has a crucial role to play in a plan they both conceived which involves conquering Mokshi. Zan feels a powerful attraction for Jayd but also a great deal of mistrust. Jayd is promised to a rival and Zan ends up dropped in a “recycler” where she falls to the center of the world. Climbing back to the top she discovers new civilizations even as she struggles to regain her own memory. Zan questions if she truly wants to remember who she was previously yet remains determined to be reunited with Jayd and to complete their plan.

Hurley has fascinating world-building at work here. Organic ships, odd symbiotic relationships between world-ships and the people who live on them, and intriguing politics and relationships. Hurley’s books are filled with blood and guts, quite literally, and there is no shortage of that here. As brutal as some of the action is, there is also a hopefulness to it as well. The story is told through Zan and Jayd’s eyes, and while they are interesting, they are a little hard to get to know. They sometimes lie to themselves and they know themselves to be untrustworthy. Zan is more of a blank slate, even as some of her memories return.

Much is made about the fact that there are no men in this book, or this world or this universe. That’s perhaps a little overblown. There are plenty of books that are predominantly or exclusively populated by male characters and that are unremarkable for that fact. Much like I don’t need to see characters going to the bathroom on TV or in books to assume that they do. I can accept a civilization made up only of women that manages to continue to propagate the species, particularly in science fiction, without fretting about the how. That’s kind of the point here.

There is a lot to like here, even if it is all hard to digest, no pun intended. Complicated world-building, interesting relationships, and thought-provoking concepts. Hurley continues to push the boundaries of science fiction, and that’s a good thing. This book may not be for the squeamish, but it is for everyone who likes their science fiction to stretch their minds a little bit.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.

Hugo award winning author Kameron Hurley has written an unusual novel about what life might be like in another corner of space. What makes the novel unusual is that there not only is no male lead, there are no male characters.

This is a story about Zan and Jayd and their effort to save a world population. Is it a world or is it a ship?

For her part, Jayd needs to keep Zan alive and out of trouble with their Lord Anat, and at the same time send her on a mission that she has already failed many times. Jayd knows what is needed to save her people, but everything needs to fall perfectly into place.

Lord Anat enters an alliance with Lord Rasida of the Bhavaja, the enemy, in an attempt to conquer the Mokshi world but the alliance fails when one of the Lords breaks the promise.

Zan has lost her memory during one of the raids but trusts Jayd, so she continues to try to get through the defenses of the Mokshi and Bhavaja.

Zan is captured and “Recycled” to the lower levels but is befriended and saved by another victim, a Mokshi. Zan gains allies on her climb back up as she attempts to get back to Jayd.

This novel has more twists and turns than a Rocky Mountain pass. Very well written and spell-binding. Loved it.

This was a really engaging read. I'm very pleased to get to see what's happening with the space opera genre these days. Between books like THE STARS ARE LEGION and, for example, Ann Leckie's IMPERIAL RADCH trilogy, it's just an exciting time for the genre, with lots of new takes and new spins on existing tropes. This one takes two elements we're familiar with--memory loss (some interesting parallels here with PLANESCAPE: TORMENT, I thought) and generation ships that have existed so long that the passengers have forgotten they're passengers (e.g. Heinlein's ORPHANS IN THE SKY or Wolfe's BOOK OF THE LONG SUN)--and combines it with the idea of living spaceships, giving us a story that feels very fresh. Great characters, engaging storyline, and, as is so typical of Hurley, amazing worldbuilding. Highly recommended.

World is actually a World-ship. Cool! And its not the stars but the word-ships that are legion. Also cool. And some are at war, or at least at severe politics, with each other. Nice set up.

The hero has amnesia! my favorite thing! The answers are on the world-ship she and her family are trying to conquer. Best opening ever. This is all so fresh and new.

General spoilers ahead, or possibly trope spoilers.
Then we have a woman given in marriage to seal a peace contract which, surprise, doesn't work.
The healer turns killer.
There are levels under the main level, which is -known- since garbage is thrown down, but there are also unknown levels and entire civilizations that never meet. How is this possible?

And, wait for it, in the mid-levels there are mutants. I hate when mutants are just monster-of-the-plot-device. Why mutants in middle? If there's damage from the core, shouldn't mutations start at the core? If the outer shielding is failing, shouldn't mutations start at the upper level? Nope. Mutations are in middle because that's where Our Hero needs a fight.

Kameron Hurley does not write pretty stories. But they are pretty darned amazing.

Her newest work, the space opera "The Stars Are Legion", is somewhat easy to summarize: in a system of decaying worldships known as the Legion, a struggle is underway to take control of the hostile world of Mokshi - the only ship to have broken away from the Legion in a failed bid for freedom. Warring families from the other powerful worldships of Katazyrna and Bhavaja strategize, bludgeon, betray and plot for supremacy, but it is only when warrior Zan and her motley collection of companions undergoes an epic journey through the stronghold of an ascendant world in order to save Jayd, the royal sister bartered to the opposition family, that we learn what really is at stake for the Katazyrna, the Bahavaja, and indeed, the entire Legion.

While that summary is completely true, it also is absolutely misleading. Well, not misleading, but incredibly inadequate for the tale that Ms. Hurley weaves.

As with Ms. Hurley's other novels - the Bel Dame Apocrypha ("God's War", "Infidel", "Rapture") and the Worldbreaker Saga ("The Mirror Empire", "Empire Ascendant", and the forthcoming "The Broken Heavens") - you cannot divest her stories from the powerful worlds that she creates. It is imperative that one grasp her characters' realms in order to have even a modicum of understanding of the perils they face and the obstacles they must overcome.

But these worlds which Ms. Hurley builds are not simple, nor are they easy to embrace. The basic framework may be familiar, but the environment, the creatures, the very trappings of her worlds are bizarre and often uncomfortable. (Bioluminescent bugs, anyone? Multi-headed, multi-limbed witches, perhaps? Oozing, fibrous walls? Tentacles and pustules and bloat, and gaseous bodies and leaking flesh?) Plus, the ethos of her worlds, and the cultural attitudes, can run counter to our standard beliefs and comfortable assumptions, but sans any kind of political agenda or moralizing framework against which we might gain purchase. Kameron Hurley is not making any statements in building her worlds as she does, but that these worlds exist is a statement in and of itself.

For instance, in "The Stars Are Legion", there are humans, but no men - this world is made up entirely of woman. Men simply do not exist, not in thought, word or deed. And yet, pregnancy is an expected condition, a part of their physiology that figures prominently in the world and in the novel. And those pregnancies (which can occur on a cycle, be delayed due to "treatments", or controlled for political maneuvering) do not always - in fact, do not often - involve birthing children. Not complete ones, anyway. And while this may sound absurd or even off-putting to a reader, it is such a natural and accepted part of this world that one cannot question it (although it's still possible - perhaps even expected - to find it off-putting).
There is no "anti-male" treatise being espoused in "The Stars Are Legion". Nor are pregnancies in the novel any kind of statement of female empowerment or judgment on biological issue. There does not need to be. That the story exists is statement enough, for as powerful as Ms. Hurley's worlds are, they merely mirror the dramatic impact of the stories that take place within them.

Listen, I can't even begin to describe it to you, really; I couldn't do it justice. But I can urge you to read this book, if you feel open to it.

No, it's not pretty. But yes, it is pretty darned amazing.

~ Sharon Browning

I had a hard time getting into this book. Probably had to get nearly to the halfway point before I really connected with the story and couldn't put it down after that. So am really glad I stuck with it and finished it. Fascinating world. Part of my problem at the start was that stories where the point of view character hasn't a clue what's going on drive me up the wall if that goes on for to long and as the description for this book says Zan wakes with no memory. The way that played out became very interesting in a way that cluing Zan in earlier would not have.

(Reposted from Goodreads review)

In The Stars Are Legion, Zan wakes up with no memory in Katazyrna, a living world comprised of organic material. She gets hints of who she may have been from the people who once knew her, including Jayd, who was once Zan’s lover. But of course, things are not as they first seem.
Zan is told that her purpose is to penetrate the Mokshi - another world that has somehow broken free from the orbit of the Legion, the many dying worlds orbiting the sun. But the defenses of the Mokshi, and the forces of Katazyrna’s enemy, the Bhavajas, have destroyed Zan’s armies and thrown her back from the Mokshi again and again.
When the Lord of Katazyrna barters Jayd to the Bhavajas for peace, a violent betrayal throws Zan from the surface of the planet to the dark pit of its interior. Though all odds are against her survival, Zan must fight her way from the bottom of the world back to the top, literally. In the process, she and Jayd struggle to possess the two things needed to save the dying worlds of the Legion, and return to the Mokshi, where the ultimate truth of Zan’s identity may lie.

I loved this book. Kameron Hurley has an enormous talent for creating dark, brutal worlds with creative touches of world-building that I haven’t seen anywhere else.
There’s plenty of action and violence, and the stakes are high, as the control of entire worlds is at stake. I loved the way the truth of Zan’s identity and her history with Jayd was slowly revealed, giving hints of the relationship they once had and the plan they formed together, while holding enough back to culminate meaningfully in the final, bittersweet scenes of the conclusion.

Another interesting factor, in terms of world-building and character interaction, is that all the characters in this universe are female, which is an interesting counterbalance to the usually male-dominated nature of the science fiction genre. Hurley is really bringing something new and different to the genre, and I loved every minute of it.

I was looking for something different. On that score, at least, I cannot complain.

Numerous other reviewers have already mentioned the overly gross, biologically based world-ships, as well as the complete mystery of their genesis, which persists until the end despite thousands upon thousands of words dedicated to describing a wide variety of horrors in slimy detail. The emotional through line seems to be that we're all doomed to be eaten by the world, quite literally, and women (all characters are female) are fated to suffer tragically before that welcome relief comes. I'm not saying I can't get behind that, on occasion, but I really need to know why.

Unfortunately, when the aforementioned suffering winds up being the strongest, and most persistent, antagonist, that lack of 'why' becomes increasingly grating when the main plot mystery, the identity of one of the two POV characters (an amnesiac), is obvious early on and the other POV character intentionally fails to acknowledge it to the reader despite knowing the truth herself. From that point on, it's a gooey, bloody slog through piles of dead bodies and ship guts to an ending that holds absolutely no revelations.

The most frustrating part about it is that Kameron Hurley clearly has a creative mind that is capable of building a complex world, which she can describe in vivid detail. If the characters and their motivations had been equally complex, (more than simply "Who is Zan?") there could have been a really good story here.

An absolutely extraordinary book, though of course I immediately recognize it is not for everyone. The underlying puzzle around what are ships and worlds, what is the Legion, what is code, what are levels, what is recycling, etc., is beguiling and yet even without definitive answers, deeply satisfying -- one is simply aware that just like our universe, just like any real universe, this universe is essentially unknowable, frightening, incredibly complex, and brutally, randomly violent.

And yet, against this grotesque tapestry, splendid characters play out their parts -- hate, fight, plot, struggle, wonder, explore, betray, and most of all, LOVE. I found the story gripping and moving from start to finish, and often paused to marvel at Hurley's apparent fearlessness.

The overarching plot is shallow (if even existent), to say the characters are two-dimensional would be too good as anyone of them feel like they could perform any action/dialogue of any other character and it wouldn't make a difference. That and the actual dialogue and structure is god-awful- I'd expect this in a high schooler's fanfiction, not something that's being labled as "revolutionary".

The only "revolutionary" thing about it is the fact that it's a sci-fi novel (that's a strong word) where there are no men as characters, hell, no men even mentioned in the book. Hell, even in the afterward the author goes on to pat herself on the back about how "brave" the whole concept was, and it's getting acclaim for solely that reason alone: The plot wasn't there, the characters weren't there, the writing was middle-school at best, and at the end of the day this is the sloppiest thing I've read on a long time.

I enjoyed the adventures each of the main characters pursued, but I had real issues with some of the physics handwaving that had to happen to make any of the settings work.Traveling between artificial worlds that apparently have normal gravity, and yet escape velocity is trivial and managed with organic shuttle craft? Worlds that are mere minutes away from each other? The gaps in scientific plausibility pulled me out of the story.

This is a dark, bloody story about failing world-ships, and a struggle to control the one ship capable of escape... It's not exactly horror, but edges close at times, and definitely not for someone who might have difficulty with body-horror. (Even aside from what the characters do to each other, the ships themselves are squishy, living things, with all that might entail.) That said, I still really enjoyed this; it's very much a page-turner, and seeing the characters deal with layers of betrayal This is a dark, bloody story about failing world-ships, and a struggle to control the one ship capable of escape... It's not exactly horror, but edges close at times, and definitely not for someone who might have difficulty with body-horror. (Even aside from what the characters do to each other, the ships themselves are squishy, living things, with all that might entail.) That said, I still really enjoyed this; it's very much a page-turner, and seeing the characters deal with layers of betrayal on betrayal as they fought towards an escape that might not even exist ended up still feeling hopeful at the end. This is really worth taking a look at.

Stars Are Legion actually reminds me of some of the odder sci-fi I noodled through as a kid. Sci-fi spawned in the late 50s, 60s, and early 70s. Books in which you're never are quite sure where you are and how you relate to the characters and story. In that way, it was a nostalgic trip back to the trippy heyday of odd sci-fi. Ms. Hurley's book shines there. Think Robert Silverburg and Stanley Kubrick.
It starts off in the space opera mode, but I'm not quite sure it finishes up there. The setting itself is quite creative, living (and decaying) world ships, an all-female cast and so on. While it is an engaging read with a lot of visceral impact, I was left wanting after turning the last page. Not wanting a sequel, but wishing the story itself had been more fulfilling. Stars Are Legion was not my cuppa, but it may be yours.

~ Kort

Very clever, ignores the typical space opera settings that are purely synthetic (e.g. metal hulls) in favor of an organic/bio-material-based future for spacecraft. Disgusting and brutal at times, it will make you think differently about what the future of humanity could look like (especially in terms of gender!).

Kameron Hurley has written some very imaginative novels with strong female characters, so I was happy to have the opportunity to review the Stars are Legion. Unfortunately, I didn't like this book as much as her previous work.

Kameron Hurley's creativity is apparent in this novel, but plot comes off as fractured. There's politics, there's gender issues and there is a repressive expansionist regime. These are all interesting elements, but they don't come together as a seamless whole. One reason may be that the novel may be structured as a "message" novel about gender issues and reproduction. Message novels often have the message overwhelm the plot.

Ms. Hurley is good a creating plot and I was able to get through the novel without problem. But I'm not looking forward to reading another novel set in this universe.

So strange and yet completely fascinating. I adore science fiction of all types and this caught my eye because of the author, who has also written a ton of other great stories including The Geek Feminist Revolution.

Trust no one when reading this book, not even those who appear to be innocent at first, or "cleansed" of their sins. Dive down deep into a universe with no men. (I'm not certain if men ever existed but they're not mentioned even in the old stories so I'm going with men just don't exist. At all. Ever.) Women are born with specific purposes, creating things that their world needs including other worlds, cogs, and other women. There are monsters and layers to the worlds -- worlds that seem to be more ship-like than like the worlds we are familiar with. No one lives on the surface of these worlds, they all live within them. And the worlds are all dying.

Really, it's hard to summarize this story in any simple, straightforward world because this novel isn't simple or straightforward. But it is worth a read.

This is an entertaining and worthwhile read from a gifted story-teller. The only negative was its categorization: it was billed as "Science Fiction" while I would have labelled it as "Science Fantasy". This story is more like "Game of Thrones" than "Foundation and Empire"

I enjoyed the fight scenes, the world building, and the the fact that it starred badass, battle-scarred women. The world building ideas here are unique and I wanted more in-depth info about them and the world in general. I liked the two viewpoints, but I didn’t connect strongly with Jayd.

My only complaint is that I felt there was more to explore in the world, I would have loved to dive into the nitty gritty details of the politics beyond the two main families.

An inventive sci-fi of world ships (actual whole planets!), and brutal women who have their own hidden agendas. Like the levels of Katazyrna, I know I'll have to re-read it two or three more times before I truly get all the details and intricacies built into it. If you like Hurley's other series, especially the Bel Dame Apocrypha books, you'll enjoy this!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s got fantastic surreal worlds, a powerful badass all women cast.
Kameron Hurley writes with great detail, while still leaving enough to the imagination to leave you pondering meanings, images, and possibilities for days afterward.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s got fantastic surreal worlds, a powerful badass all women cast.
Kameron Hurley writes with great detail, while still leaving enough to the imagination to leave you pondering meanings, images, and possibilities for days afterward.

I had such high hopes for this book.... world size star ships, battles for survival, a mystery in space.... what's not love? It sounds like classic, old school Science Fiction Space Opera with some creative twists like an entire cast of women, worlds that are bio-mechanical and a mysterious defection of the one world-ship Mokshi that involves the lead character's amnesia.

In reality, the first several chapters followed the description of the space opera that I thought I was settling in to enjoy. Yet, the plot and story devolved rather rapidly in a weird mish mash of horror, monster story, quest through lower "hell" levels for the lead, Zan (the amnesiac) and some sort of political machinations involving a secret plot and birth by the second main character, Jayd, on a different world ship. None of these things really worked well together or tied smoothly to each other. This a case of a book that is trying to be too many things all at once and doing none of them particularly well. I never felt like I could visualize the actual world ships or their interior design/layout and that made it nearly impossible to suspend belief and immerse into the book. "Stars are Legion" just wasn't for me.

Kameron Hurley just keeps getting better as this novel proves. Her biopunk theme meets space is exciting, novel, and sometimes gross, but this is a book that will keep you reading into the night. The characters are dark and morally ambiguous, further complicated by Zan having amnesia and many plots that are afoot, but I loved them.

I really didn't like this, sorry. The descriptions of the organic worlds they live on just made my stomach churn. I couldn't read the book after or while I was eating. It was really off-putting. It really wan't anything like what I was expecting from the blurb, and kinda wish I could unread it. At one stage I think it triggered flash backs to when I was still in my mothers womb, fighting to get out, surrounded by blood, the sound of a heavy heart beating in my head and veins twitching and pumping blood. I felt physically sick.