These Broken Stars

Kaufman, Amie & Meagan Spooner. . These Broken Stars. Book 1 of Starbound series. 2013. 379p. ISBN 1-42317102-0. FIC KAU on the library shelves.

Major Tarver Merendsen is a hero of the galaxy, having managed to save an entire platoon singlehandedly on a remote planet. At eighteen, he has seen more action in the last two years of colonial wars than many of the vanity guards currently stationed on the Icarus, an intergalactic cruise ship. He is on board the ship to act as a promotional material for the military among the rich and powerful.

At another yet boring evening event, he encounters a pretty girl, and he sits and talks with her for a while following a strange incident with a disheveled man who had accosted her. When her friends arrive, he takes leave, ignoring the snickers.

What Tarver doesn’t know is that he has been talking to Lilac LaRoux, daughter of the most powerful man in the galaxy. LaRoux Industries builds starships and terraform planets, and the Icarus is its proud flagship. Lilac knows that she can’t entertain the thought of seeing the major again, as her father has ruthlessly eliminated anyone who has ever shown an interest in her.

But when the Icarus is wrenched out of hyperspace and crashes to the ground of an unknown planet, Lilac and Tarver find themselves the only survivors on a strange world, obviously terraformed and occupied by humans at some point, but now utterly abandoned.

With the fiery wreck in the distance, can they survive the harsh conditions of the planet until rescuers arrive? More importantly, can they survive each other’s presence? And is whatever scared the colonists off the planet still here?

This is a great science-fiction story of two individuals trying to find themselves and how they relate to each other as they fight the elements and the planet’s mysteries. The story continues in This Shattered World.

Fans of the dystopian novel will like this book, and might also enjoy the following: Arena 1, Starters, Maze Runner, Ship Breaker, Reboot, Not a Drop to Drink, Birthmarked and Divergent.