History holds many secrets. The frontier holds many shadows. One ship may damn all mankind. One ship may save them.
In a bold and brazen act of treachery, the Royal Martian Navy exploratory cruiser Rose was stolen and is now in the hands of the conspiracy group known as Nemesis. Guilty of a thousand crimes, Nemesis and its leader, Kent Riley, are determined to find proof of the alien threat they have secretly been preparing humanity to face.
Set in pursuit by the Mage-Queen of Mars herself, Mage-Captain Roslyn Chambers commands Rose ’s sister ship, Thorn , in a chase that brings her to the far reaches of the galaxy. Her orders are bringing Nemesis to justice and, if at all possible, prevent them from waking a sleeping beast.
Riley will find the enemy at any cost. Chambers will stop him. Among lost worlds and ancient crimes, the secrets of the past both seek may mean nothing—or everything .
Glynn Stewart is the author of over 60 books, including Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible–but only because of magic.
Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.
Chimera’s Star is the fourteenth installment of Starship’s Mage and the start of the new Frontier Magic arc. This setup alone foreshadows whether Chambers will chase down and bring Riley to justice, and the story will play out those predictable beats with depressing accuracy. The only bright side is the introduction of an antagonist viewpoint, lending characterization to the shadowy omnipotent conspiracy that’s dogged the Protectorate of Mars for half the series.
Kent Riley’s narrative accounts for half of Chimera’s Star, and readers take a behind-the-scenes look at the leadership of an organization that excelled at backstabbing and conspiracies. The result is disappointing. Nemesis lost all their superpowered toys and struggled to pull off a smash-and-grab. Worse, their views are presented in a light that makes it obvious they’re delusional and factually wrong. The author can be subtle. A dozen minor details illustrate the difference between the pirates and a professional Naval crew. Yet he keeps bashing us over the head with twisted reasoning, and even the antagonists seem self-aware.
In the other corner is our protagonist, and Mage-Captain Chambers returns to Hornblower-esque stories and the operation of a magic-powered spaceship far from home. Her role has a distinct flavour rather than being a watered-down mimicry of Montgomery’s warrior-judge, trading investigations for exploration. Large chunks of the novel are wholly exposition for the future. It’s a fine story, but Chambers is the B-Plot in her own novel. Riley is the star. His introduction gave me hopes that we would get a refined villain that would elevate the continuation of Starship’s Mage with morally grey actions but sympathetic beliefs. Chimera’s Star has none of that. It’s the start of a new series with a new cast and setting. But the script feels by the numbers as the plot steamrolls toward the obligatory, unsurprising ending.
Recommended as a new series, but a poor continuation of the previous.
I've been a fan of this series for ages, but I'm done with it. When every single sentence has at least ten italicized words or phrases, it not only loses its impact, it starts to lose all meaning as well.
My above mangled sentence is almost unreadable, and it's toned down compared to how many sentences like this I found in the opening chapter. The second chapter had even more.
The author has always over-relied on them, but it's gone beyond an unfortunate crutch, sped past weird parody, and gleefully accelerated into literary fetish territory. Glynn, I'm begging you. Release a version of your books where only the ship names are italicized. There is not a single sentence in the first two chapters I managed to slog through that wouldn't have been improved by their absence. Not one.
On a whole, I like the wholesome noblebright atmosphere of the setting, the genuine good hearts of the heroes, and the hopeful spirits in the face of horror. I just wish it were still readable.
First book for 2026 and we have first contact with aliens. The author makes an interesting decision by dividing the book into two separate sub-lines. In one, we get Nemesis's POV on the stolen exploration ship and their quest to look for the Reejit alien enemy. In the other, we have Roslyn's POV on the sister ship chasing after Nemesis and hoping to catch them before they make contact.
In their quest to discover the aliens, Nemesis found a planet where both humans and Reejits appeared to be living in harmony. But Nemesis believes it's an illusion that needed to be exposed and did something that made Roslyn's job that much harder.
This instalment has expanded the universe exponentially and brings the Mars Protectorate and humanity into dangerous territory. I'm looking forward to what happens next.
Not sure why you feel like torturing your readers. It is confusing and annoying when the author uses they/them pronouns. Especially when the same they/them character refers to they/them as I. Stop this nonsense please.
This is one of my favorite series, though I have started to absolutely loathe how the author use italics almost every other line to emphasize something characters said.
The series has become a little stale, but I think the new arc is taking it into a good direction. I am aware that it will probably take a few new books for the author to actually advance the new storyline. These digressions will be made more tolerable by well written action scenes, of the sort we have not been getting since the focus moved to Chambers, who is a naval officer and does most of the pow-pow in space. Montgomery's rampages were a lot more entertaining for being close up.
Overall, this particular book has been a return to form, at least after the slow start. Like many TV series, having a permanent arching plot which every book either dances around or advances is causing the quality to trend downward. Supernatural had it, Deep Space Nine had it, and now Starship Mage too.
Will continue reading! PS. Please, Glynn Stewart, lighten up on the italics and on the repeatsposition where you explain the same thing multiple times for a different in-world audience.
Waking a sleeping giant is never a good thing, right?
Now that Roslyn Chambers is Mage-Captain, with the new cruiser Thorn under her command, she’s chasing the stolen twin to her own ship, the Rose, under command of a man named Kay. It’s peopled by a group of baddies whose objective is to find the originators of the eugenics program that created the people of Mars, and bring them back.
The Mars Protectorate isn’t ready for that.
However, we readers are actually ahead of the Thorn, with the Rose as they achieve their objective and locate the Reezh. I’m not sure why Kay & Co is taking up so much bandwidth in the book, so far (one third finished) more time than Roslyn and her quest to find and stop the Rose. I’m not enjoying the chapters. Maybe because I feel a sense of loyalty to Roslyn and the Protectorate.
At the end of the book, in a see the reasoning, particularly in light of the last line of the book.
I can still say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the rest, but it was as well written, plotted and peopled as the rest of the series. Stewart is taking his saga in somewhat of a new direction, so I’m going to allow him leeway in how he wants to present it.
Starship's mage number 14 isn't the story I was expecting after reading the previous book in the series, but it's sure a darned good book anyway. :) We find out that Nemesis actually causes the problem they've been trying to get humanity to prepare for the whole time. (can't say much for their tactics though). How this occurs is a jam packed story that takes you to the far reaches of explored space, and beyond, as well as involving several characters we've already known in previous books. Sadly, our new chancelour only makes a token appearance in this one, but I'm sure he'll be back in future books in the series. If you've read any of the books in this series, and liked them, then you'll certainly want to add this one to your reading list. You won't want to miss this one to be sure.
The Chase is on, a catastrophe, that has the potential to affect the future of mankind, must be neutralised at all costs, as Mage-Captain Roslyn Chambers takes the crew of the RMN cruiser Thorn, into the unknown to attempt to head this off.
Her orders, from the Mage-Queen of Mars herself, “capture or destroy her sister ship Rose at all costs with extreme predudice”.
Rose is in the hands of the last known members of the extremist group known as Nemesis who are hell bent on locating a long-believed civilization of an enemy with the ability to threaten the existence of humanity.
A story of pursuit, into the unknown and potentially deadly confrontation, in the hands of Glynn Stewart, who took me along a page turning experience, compliments of his ability to continually weave his cast of diverse players in this race towards an end result…..
I really like the series and enjoyed the overall plot moving forwards in this book. However there a few things that make me rate this lower than I’d otherwise would that I hope the Author will consider moving forwards. My biggest complaint is the repeating of information from prior books. This is starting to make the books unreadable. I literally scroll past pages to skip information I already read. This is even worse for common story elements that are basic but get re-described every time they come up in the book. For example- the link communication system, trackers, etc. if you read any of the previous books, you know what these are by now. 2nd one is minor, but one of the charters is being referred to as They. This is super confusing when I read the book and makes little sense.
Fun to return to the Starship Mage universe. I don't know if I didn't like this book as much because it was a constant chase of "Don't kick the baby"... and they kicked the baby ordeal or not. Always a fan of Chambers and her development. This book is a setup, to what we'll have to find out. Read it, but be prepared to yell at the book. smh.
Also still I find editorially the odd usage of '!' in places. My brain spasms on some of the usages because as the past, they don't always feel like exclamations or high energy statements but statements with a certain solidity. I try to ignore how they make me feel but as soon as I get comfortable not seeing any.. they jump out at you! they jump out at you. they.. jump.. out.. at.. YOU! heheh.
I generally like all of the author's books, but this series is getting tired and I stopped at the 46% mark on my Kindle; this is the end of the line of this series for me.
Without having a spoiler, it's too much of Nemesis (and it's getting weird), random offshoots of different / old characters, and not much of a story or plot. What really captivated the series for me was the saga of Damien Montgomery as chief judge and executioner as the enforcer for the good guys. Even with his character things started getting bogged down with repetition of his injuries and using a cat for therapy. If you have enjoyed the series I would keep the memories and give this one a pass; luckily, I picked this up for "free" with my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Glynn Stewart’s 14th tale in a universe where magic allows ftl travel, sents the Thorn captained by Captain Roslyn Chambers after the stolen Rose hijacked by Nemesis, Nemesis was setup to prepare humanity for an attack against the Reezh who had helped magic human powers, intending to steal the human brains, and who are centuries ahead of human technology. The trail leads to Chimera's Star (ebook from Faolan's Pen Publishing) where humans and Reezh have a combined government. From there the trail leads to the Reezh home planet setting up the next war in the fun series. I really enjoy this long series.
A "logical" continuation of the last book, although I get the feeling the author is well on his way to just milk the series. I hated the Kay parts in this book, which consist of about half of the pages. The main thing that annoys me is that I just don't get what Nemesis is trying to do. Sure, prepare humanity for some enemy, but when they find remnants that started nemesis they're like "oh they are gone....let's find out where they are and annoy them". This series is getting somewhat tedious now; I loved the Damien arcs. The Chambers arcs were pretty nice as well, but this Nemesis arc is just terrible.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I found this book incredibly hard to read. The author did a truly amazing job delving into the mindset of fanatics - so amazing that the stark portrayal of Nemesis's motivations disturbed me enough that I could not read this book at one sitting. If you can handle the dark grittiness of fanaticism (which is not at all like the dark grittiness of combat), you are going to find this book well worth reading (even if you cannot read it in one sitting).
I received an ARC from the author and I voluntarily leaving a review.
I have pretty much lost interest in this series. It has become more episodic and no longer character driven. The author did the same thing re "Thing happens! Now what do we do now about the Thing! oh wait, next book..."
These are not exactly cliff hangers. It's just that there is no sense of completion at the end of each story.
In addition, there is no character development. In book 13 and this one, I found myself skimming though all the fights and battles and what not, because, who cares?
I have had an issue with this series where the book doesn't get good or even interesting until it hits about the halfway point. Then all the politics and setup pay off and the plot becomes enjoyable. This book finally breaks the streak and is interesting throughout the whole book. This book also answers a lot of mysteries that have been sorrounding the series.
This series seems to have a lot more books left in it or the potential for a whole lot more based on the ending of this book.
Number 14 in the series and still going strong. In this one, we have ship chase and dual POVs from each ship. We also get explanations and some resolution to the origin story of Mages of Mars. All in all good story and fits in well with the rest of the series.
Have you ever seen or read "The Hunt for Red October"? This is a lot like that. We do learn some interesting information but the books is for the most part pretty boring right up until the very end.
I can see how we needed this book for what comes next to make sense but I can't help but feel there must have been a better way to go about it.
As always, Stewart's writing is full of character and threaded through with an understanding of systems of power and governance. Kay is a phenomenal villain, a man who thinks himself an antihero, and the difference between him and Chambers is beautifully highlighted.
The story and antagonist had real potential, but was quickly squandered by predictability and a self-awareness that seemed at odds with action.
Chimera’s star proffers a well trod path, which sadly ends up being formulaic rather than innovative. Our protagonist becomes sidelined in her own story, leaving little to actually enjoy.
Yet another masterful Starship's Mage story! The interplay between the shifting POV of Rosalyn and Kay does an excellent job of making me root for Rosalyn and against Kay all the more. Can't wait for the next book!
One of the best long running SF series ever. Well written plots and stories and stories extended by changing the MC while maintaining a consistent world view. Only the best series like this one can remain fresh and entertaining while extending over 10+ volumes, Great job Glynn.
An excellent entry to this marvelous series. Moving away from old foes and upping the stakes for the survival of the human race. Stewart continues to amaze and enthrall.
This was a good book in the series. Continuing from the previous book, the main characters are dealing with the ramifications of the Nemesis group’s fanatical ideology. Looking forward to the next book.
Thank you narrators and Glynn Stewart for writing and telling me this phenomenal story. I truly enjoyed this. Oh Kay you underestimated the enemy and your heart. Roselyn Chambers good luck .
Ya Nemesis was the self fulfilling prophecy fanatic that fans knew they where do at last years of fans debating on the aliens got answered at least can’t wait for the really fighting to begin.
If you're hunting demons, don't be surprised when they hunt you
Absolutely brilliant sci-fi action and adventure. Great characters with realistic situations and lots of action. Nemesis will not die or go quietly into the night. I look forward to the next one.
Two separate factions of a race one good the other not. There's so many different things that went wrong. They chased the fanatics right to the door of the ones they were trying to avoid.