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Amid the Crowd of Stars
This innovative sci-fi novel explores the potential impact of alien infection on humankind as they traverse the stars and find themselves stranded on new and strange planets.
Amid the Crowd of Stars is a grand scale science fiction novel examining the ethical implications of interstellar travel, a topic rarely addressed in science fiction novels. What responsibilities do we have to isolate ourselves from the bacteria, viruses, and other life of another world, and to prevent any of that alien biome from being brought back to Earth?
What happens when a group of humans are stranded for centuries on another world with no choice but to expose themselves to that world? After such long exposure, are they still Homo sapiens or have they become another species entirely?
These questions are at the heart of this intriguing novel, explored through the complicated lives and the viewpoints of the people who have come to rescue the stranded colony, the members of that colony, and the sentient alien life that dwells on the planet. Difficult life and death choices will be made by all involved.
Amid the Crowd of Stars is a grand scale science fiction novel examining the ethical implications of interstellar travel, a topic rarely addressed in science fiction novels. What responsibilities do we have to isolate ourselves from the bacteria, viruses, and other life of another world, and to prevent any of that alien biome from being brought back to Earth?
What happens when a group of humans are stranded for centuries on another world with no choice but to expose themselves to that world? After such long exposure, are they still Homo sapiens or have they become another species entirely?
These questions are at the heart of this intriguing novel, explored through the complicated lives and the viewpoints of the people who have come to rescue the stranded colony, the members of that colony, and the sentient alien life that dwells on the planet. Difficult life and death choices will be made by all involved.
338 pages, Hardcover
First published February 9, 2021
17 people are currently reading
633 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Leigh
86 books59 followersStephen Leigh has been writing science fiction since he was in grade school. He sold his first story in 1975 and has been publishing regularly ever since then.
He has been nominated for and won several awards for his fiction over the years. He has written and published the occasional poems and non-fiction pieces, as well.
Steve teaches Creative Writing at Northern Kentucky University in the Greater Cincinnati area. He also plays music, and studies the Japanese martial art Aikido, in which he holds the rank of Sandan.
Stephen Leigh also writes as S.L. Farrell and Matthew Farrell.
He has been nominated for and won several awards for his fiction over the years. He has written and published the occasional poems and non-fiction pieces, as well.
Steve teaches Creative Writing at Northern Kentucky University in the Greater Cincinnati area. He also plays music, and studies the Japanese martial art Aikido, in which he holds the rank of Sandan.
Stephen Leigh also writes as S.L. Farrell and Matthew Farrell.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
December 6, 2020
3.5 stars. This is my favorite kind of Sci-Fi, one that considers the practical intricacies most of these stories skip over. It reminded me of SEMIOSIS by Sue Burke, one of my recent favorites, that way.
The not-so-little detail that this story stretches out is the idea that getting to a new planet to form a colony isn't just about breathable air. It's about all the invisible things that can kill you, the microbes and viruses, and how that would impact interplanetary relations.
Ichiko is on a ship from Earth sent to reestablish contact with a colony that has been on its own for a few centuries. They need to see if the planet is suitable for them and likewise if the people on this planet would be safe coming back to Earth. As an additional complication, this planet was colonized by a relatively homogenous group of Irish people, and the technology they landed with has died out, making them a drastically different culture. Saoirse lives in a subculture of the planet, on an isolated island that mostly keeps to itself. Ichiko wants to learn more about this group and Saoirse serves as her guide and liaison.
To make this work, you have to have an interesting element to the planet's microbial offerings, and Leigh mostly succeeds at this. Eventually we learn about the way life on this planet is different than anything seen elsewhere, but the wait to get there is quite long. There are early hints, but at first I thought this was going to be one of those robots-gain-sentience books and that bored me, happily it was something else entirely, but you do have to stick with it for a while to get there. The worldbuilding is slow, in part, because even Saoirse doesn't know all the intricacies of her world at the beginning of the book. But it means you just have to trust for the entire first third that things will get more interesting. They definitely do! But that's a long wait.
I also have some quibbles with the end, where everything unfolds way too quickly and seems pretty inconsistent with everything else we know about the mission. Though I realized that we do not know all that much. I did find it odd that Ichiko seems to be the only member of the crew out studying the inhabitants, that she is back and forth with the ship so much. The parts of the story set on the ship tend to lose momentum, and if I'd read an early draft I probably would have suggested setting more of these interactions on the on-planet base.
I liked Ichiko and Saoirse, enjoyed spending time with them, and that's critical for a story like this to work for me. They don't feel like cardboard characters, especially Saoirse. But they both feel like they're at a remove from the worlds around them, I would have liked to understand their daily lives more.
The not-so-little detail that this story stretches out is the idea that getting to a new planet to form a colony isn't just about breathable air. It's about all the invisible things that can kill you, the microbes and viruses, and how that would impact interplanetary relations.
Ichiko is on a ship from Earth sent to reestablish contact with a colony that has been on its own for a few centuries. They need to see if the planet is suitable for them and likewise if the people on this planet would be safe coming back to Earth. As an additional complication, this planet was colonized by a relatively homogenous group of Irish people, and the technology they landed with has died out, making them a drastically different culture. Saoirse lives in a subculture of the planet, on an isolated island that mostly keeps to itself. Ichiko wants to learn more about this group and Saoirse serves as her guide and liaison.
To make this work, you have to have an interesting element to the planet's microbial offerings, and Leigh mostly succeeds at this. Eventually we learn about the way life on this planet is different than anything seen elsewhere, but the wait to get there is quite long. There are early hints, but at first I thought this was going to be one of those robots-gain-sentience books and that bored me, happily it was something else entirely, but you do have to stick with it for a while to get there. The worldbuilding is slow, in part, because even Saoirse doesn't know all the intricacies of her world at the beginning of the book. But it means you just have to trust for the entire first third that things will get more interesting. They definitely do! But that's a long wait.
I also have some quibbles with the end, where everything unfolds way too quickly and seems pretty inconsistent with everything else we know about the mission. Though I realized that we do not know all that much. I did find it odd that Ichiko seems to be the only member of the crew out studying the inhabitants, that she is back and forth with the ship so much. The parts of the story set on the ship tend to lose momentum, and if I'd read an early draft I probably would have suggested setting more of these interactions on the on-planet base.
I liked Ichiko and Saoirse, enjoyed spending time with them, and that's critical for a story like this to work for me. They don't feel like cardboard characters, especially Saoirse. But they both feel like they're at a remove from the worlds around them, I would have liked to understand their daily lives more.
October 20, 2022
I kept shifting trough the book from really enjoying it to not so much. So between a 3 stars and 3.5
February 12, 2021
Went into this book with no expectations and was still somehow disappointed. The beginning was promising but the story quickly became dull and repetitive. I even had to skim some paragraphs towards the end because I just wouldn't be able to finish the book otherwise.
Both protagonists were fine, I guess, but I didn't feel anything for them. Ichiko just kept going back and forth from the ship to the planet with not much happening, and also had some strange reluctant relationship with her commander. I liked Saoirse a bit more for having at least some spunk and personality but after some time she started annoying me by constantly thinking of touching and bedding Ichiko (it's not really a spoiler because their relationship was too obvious from the beginning). She completely lost me when her first thought about anyone else from the ship was "is Ichiko sleeping with them?". Like, seriously?
The worldbuilding was also just okay and learning about this other sentient alien life never made an impact and didn't seem to be explored enough. There were interesting ideas and concepts but their execution just didn't work and didn't make for an exciting or compelling story.
Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for my eARC.
Both protagonists were fine, I guess, but I didn't feel anything for them. Ichiko just kept going back and forth from the ship to the planet with not much happening, and also had some strange reluctant relationship with her commander. I liked Saoirse a bit more for having at least some spunk and personality but after some time she started annoying me by constantly thinking of touching and bedding Ichiko (it's not really a spoiler because their relationship was too obvious from the beginning). She completely lost me when her first thought about anyone else from the ship was "is Ichiko sleeping with them?". Like, seriously?
The worldbuilding was also just okay and learning about this other sentient alien life never made an impact and didn't seem to be explored enough. There were interesting ideas and concepts but their execution just didn't work and didn't make for an exciting or compelling story.
Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for my eARC.
July 18, 2022
Read this review and other Science Fiction/Fantasy book reviews at The Quill to Live
Over the past few years I've moved away from the idea that science fiction is the genre of “big ideas.” It can be a good descriptor, but unless a specific topic is discussed within a specific book, I find it unhelpful. “It’s a book about big ideas” has become a meaningless phrase to me, and I’m a better reviewer for it. That being said, if a book is marketed or said to explore a distinct idea, well, it’s extremely hard for me to say no to that book. It’s partially why my TBR is just an unending pit and I just need a book that shows me why it’s okay to die with tasks unfinished (now that’s a BIG IDEA). So when I stumbled about the description for this next book, I just had to read it. Amid The Crowd of Stars, by Stephen Leigh, is a tightly focused novel about the ethics and implications of interstellar travel and colonization that rarely goes beyond its central concepts both to its benefit and detriment.
The novel follows Ichiko Aguilar, a Japanese scientist sent to investigate an established colony, called Lupus, cut off from Earth for centuries. Once there, she takes it upon herself to research and record the societies that have developed in response to the environment they live in. Through her short trips she meets Saoirse Mullin, a member of the Mullin clan on the Inish isles, and daughter of the clan’s matriarch. Now that the colony has contact with people from Earth, Saoirse dreams of returning to humanity’s home. Unfortunately, the centuries upon the colonized planets have not been kind to the people there, and they may harbor diseases that could ruin life on Earth. Tests need to be completed and research to be done in order to ensure that both the people of Earth and those on Lupus will not harm each other.
Firstly, Leigh’s exploration of the subject at hand is pretty thorough from a psychological and biological perspective. He wastes no time in setting up the stakes, diving right into the issues from the get go. Some readers might find it a bit jarring, especially with the minimal worldbuilding outside the colony, but it pulled me right in and focused on the smaller aspects of the story. The conversations surrounding the ethics of being exposed to alien biomes and becoming a part of them feel natural, even in their thought experiment format. Leigh mostly succeeds in making the central thesis a part of the story, and allows the characters and events to dictate the debate. Rarely did I ever feel like Leigh was building to a point, allowing the situation to play out instead of feeling like a lecture on why it should be done a specific way. Leigh, without succumbing to a dooming perspective, also did not limit his imagination when it came to implications and consequences. It was an intricate dance of grounded realism and fantastical “what ifs.” Leigh wrote a far more curious book than I was expecting and that warmed my critical heart.
However, while it was a great exploration of “should we colonize alien biomes and forever change the internal makeup of some humans,” it’s hard to say it’s an excellent story. It’s not bad by any means, and often Leigh manages to make it compelling, but on it’s own it isn’t much to write home about. There is a lot of slow revealing of information over the course of the book, but rarely does it feel overtly impactful. The fact that the story is limited to two points of view when there are easily more than four different perspectives lessens the stakes in some ways. I realize that the goal was more the exploration of “exposure to alien DNA and its ramifications,” but at the same time I felt the focus was a little too narrow. There were definitely moments that could have thrown a wrench into the proceedings, but the story seemed to stop outside of the character’s perspectives at some points. If there had been a little more discussion outside earshot of Ichiko and Saoirse from the people on and off Lupus, the grander story would have been more intriguing to me.
Fortunately, Leigh is good at writing characters. Ichiko and Saoirse are both interesting and have internal lives that make their actions and concerns tangible and natural. Their individual stories made the book feel like a drama for the most part, instead of a thought experiment. The debate has a real effect on both their lives, and they each do their part to solve the problem. Saoirse especially feels daring and bold when it comes to increasing her chances at leaving the world of Lupus. Ichiko feels curious, and views the situation as an opportunity to learn while at times forgetting that the people of Lupus exist on their own. Their relationship to each other is dynamic, and Leigh does a great job of making it feel tense between them when there are secrets and implications. The author rightly makes this relationship the focal point of the debate, but as I said before sometimes it has a penchant for feeling like the only part that matters.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Amid the Crowd of Stars, but it also didn’t surpass my expectations. It’s a powerful thought experiment with a narrative window dressing, not a thrilling tale with a cleverly nested discourse. The two main characters feel alive, as do aspects of the world in the center of the book. The book also feels ripe for metaphors if you want to aggressively read into some of the subtler themes, particularly in relation to a sense of place within nature, but they also don’t feel purposeful. There is a lot to like about this book, and if you’re at all the kind of person who reads science fiction to better conceive of a future, it should be on your list.
Rating: Amid the Crowd of Stars - 7.0/10
-Alex
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
Over the past few years I've moved away from the idea that science fiction is the genre of “big ideas.” It can be a good descriptor, but unless a specific topic is discussed within a specific book, I find it unhelpful. “It’s a book about big ideas” has become a meaningless phrase to me, and I’m a better reviewer for it. That being said, if a book is marketed or said to explore a distinct idea, well, it’s extremely hard for me to say no to that book. It’s partially why my TBR is just an unending pit and I just need a book that shows me why it’s okay to die with tasks unfinished (now that’s a BIG IDEA). So when I stumbled about the description for this next book, I just had to read it. Amid The Crowd of Stars, by Stephen Leigh, is a tightly focused novel about the ethics and implications of interstellar travel and colonization that rarely goes beyond its central concepts both to its benefit and detriment.
The novel follows Ichiko Aguilar, a Japanese scientist sent to investigate an established colony, called Lupus, cut off from Earth for centuries. Once there, she takes it upon herself to research and record the societies that have developed in response to the environment they live in. Through her short trips she meets Saoirse Mullin, a member of the Mullin clan on the Inish isles, and daughter of the clan’s matriarch. Now that the colony has contact with people from Earth, Saoirse dreams of returning to humanity’s home. Unfortunately, the centuries upon the colonized planets have not been kind to the people there, and they may harbor diseases that could ruin life on Earth. Tests need to be completed and research to be done in order to ensure that both the people of Earth and those on Lupus will not harm each other.
Firstly, Leigh’s exploration of the subject at hand is pretty thorough from a psychological and biological perspective. He wastes no time in setting up the stakes, diving right into the issues from the get go. Some readers might find it a bit jarring, especially with the minimal worldbuilding outside the colony, but it pulled me right in and focused on the smaller aspects of the story. The conversations surrounding the ethics of being exposed to alien biomes and becoming a part of them feel natural, even in their thought experiment format. Leigh mostly succeeds in making the central thesis a part of the story, and allows the characters and events to dictate the debate. Rarely did I ever feel like Leigh was building to a point, allowing the situation to play out instead of feeling like a lecture on why it should be done a specific way. Leigh, without succumbing to a dooming perspective, also did not limit his imagination when it came to implications and consequences. It was an intricate dance of grounded realism and fantastical “what ifs.” Leigh wrote a far more curious book than I was expecting and that warmed my critical heart.
However, while it was a great exploration of “should we colonize alien biomes and forever change the internal makeup of some humans,” it’s hard to say it’s an excellent story. It’s not bad by any means, and often Leigh manages to make it compelling, but on it’s own it isn’t much to write home about. There is a lot of slow revealing of information over the course of the book, but rarely does it feel overtly impactful. The fact that the story is limited to two points of view when there are easily more than four different perspectives lessens the stakes in some ways. I realize that the goal was more the exploration of “exposure to alien DNA and its ramifications,” but at the same time I felt the focus was a little too narrow. There were definitely moments that could have thrown a wrench into the proceedings, but the story seemed to stop outside of the character’s perspectives at some points. If there had been a little more discussion outside earshot of Ichiko and Saoirse from the people on and off Lupus, the grander story would have been more intriguing to me.
Fortunately, Leigh is good at writing characters. Ichiko and Saoirse are both interesting and have internal lives that make their actions and concerns tangible and natural. Their individual stories made the book feel like a drama for the most part, instead of a thought experiment. The debate has a real effect on both their lives, and they each do their part to solve the problem. Saoirse especially feels daring and bold when it comes to increasing her chances at leaving the world of Lupus. Ichiko feels curious, and views the situation as an opportunity to learn while at times forgetting that the people of Lupus exist on their own. Their relationship to each other is dynamic, and Leigh does a great job of making it feel tense between them when there are secrets and implications. The author rightly makes this relationship the focal point of the debate, but as I said before sometimes it has a penchant for feeling like the only part that matters.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Amid the Crowd of Stars, but it also didn’t surpass my expectations. It’s a powerful thought experiment with a narrative window dressing, not a thrilling tale with a cleverly nested discourse. The two main characters feel alive, as do aspects of the world in the center of the book. The book also feels ripe for metaphors if you want to aggressively read into some of the subtler themes, particularly in relation to a sense of place within nature, but they also don’t feel purposeful. There is a lot to like about this book, and if you’re at all the kind of person who reads science fiction to better conceive of a future, it should be on your list.
Rating: Amid the Crowd of Stars - 7.0/10
-Alex
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
September 10, 2021
I am going with a 4.5 for this fast-paced and immersive read. Earth sends scientists to an alien planet. A ship leaves 400 of them there, but in the meantime earth experiences a disaster that sets back technology making it impossible to return. This book mainly follows Ichiko as she meets the settlers of the planet while her ship is trying to determine how whether life between the two planets is possible. I loved the tie in of Irish culture and the note at the end about the Blasket Islands as I have always been fascinated by them. I am finding that I am loving pure sci fi more than I expected to these days.
June 30, 2021
DNF @ 18% There was sooooo much banter, and I couldn’t get over the seeming lack of technology that far into our future, the over the top Irish influences. It seems unrealistic to me that after generations, the colonists would have maintained their language and culture so well, especially when it was difficult for them to survive there at first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2021
Returning to a colony that had been abandoned centuries ago after a planetary disaster on Earth, Ichiko Aguilar, a scientist from Japan on the ship Odysseus is tasked with investigating the cultures that have evolved on Lupus in the absence of Earth's influence. Key to the investigation is the influence of Lupus' native bacteria, viruses, and other environmental conditions on the people left there and how that might have affected their genome and ultimately, their ability to return to earth.
One of the more intriguing developments Ichiko investigates is the people of the Inish islands who have separated themselves from the people of the Mainland (the people of Lupus have developed into 28 main clans across the habitable zone, though the book focuses primarily on the settlements of Dulcia and Inish) after a war over the harvesting of a native species called the arracht. The Inish have developed a close relationship with the arracht and Ichiko, after befriending Saoirse Mullin, is allowed onto the Inish islands, a very rare occurrence, which leads to growing tension between the Mainlanders - who still harbor ill will towards the Inish - and the crew of Odysseus.
The main thrust of the novel is the danger of colonization of truly alien worlds, not just to the flora and fauna we see with the naked eye, but what we cannot see. The danger not just to ourselves, of course, but to the other worlds as well. This novel reminded me greatly of Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" and "Xenocide" with these themes.
The novel is spent primarily exploring the relationships between Icikco and Saoirse and their other relationships. One of the limitations of this narrative is that we see the events of the novel from Icikco's and Saoirse's perspectives. While Icikco is part of a scientific expedition, she is sent out alone, and we only really hear her consult with one other scientist. The perspective of the Inish has a bit more of a diverse representation, yet still more voices would have made for a more interesting story.
On the balance, this was an interesting take on the theme of interstellar exploration and colonization. I would have loved to hear more from some of the other characters, and it also seemed like the main action was crammed in at the end (and not well-explained).
Sidenote: The inclusion of a glossary, timeline, and character roll was a little off-putting for a 300+ page novel. I don't why this bothered me, but that and the chapter titles nearly made me put it back on the shelf.
"Amid the Crowd of Stars" can be found in Science Fiction at Eastern and Fairmount under SF LEIGH STE
One of the more intriguing developments Ichiko investigates is the people of the Inish islands who have separated themselves from the people of the Mainland (the people of Lupus have developed into 28 main clans across the habitable zone, though the book focuses primarily on the settlements of Dulcia and Inish) after a war over the harvesting of a native species called the arracht. The Inish have developed a close relationship with the arracht and Ichiko, after befriending Saoirse Mullin, is allowed onto the Inish islands, a very rare occurrence, which leads to growing tension between the Mainlanders - who still harbor ill will towards the Inish - and the crew of Odysseus.
The main thrust of the novel is the danger of colonization of truly alien worlds, not just to the flora and fauna we see with the naked eye, but what we cannot see. The danger not just to ourselves, of course, but to the other worlds as well. This novel reminded me greatly of Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" and "Xenocide" with these themes.
The novel is spent primarily exploring the relationships between Icikco and Saoirse and their other relationships. One of the limitations of this narrative is that we see the events of the novel from Icikco's and Saoirse's perspectives. While Icikco is part of a scientific expedition, she is sent out alone, and we only really hear her consult with one other scientist. The perspective of the Inish has a bit more of a diverse representation, yet still more voices would have made for a more interesting story.
On the balance, this was an interesting take on the theme of interstellar exploration and colonization. I would have loved to hear more from some of the other characters, and it also seemed like the main action was crammed in at the end (and not well-explained).
Sidenote: The inclusion of a glossary, timeline, and character roll was a little off-putting for a 300+ page novel. I don't why this bothered me, but that and the chapter titles nearly made me put it back on the shelf.
"Amid the Crowd of Stars" can be found in Science Fiction at Eastern and Fairmount under SF LEIGH STE
May 21, 2022
This book was not quite what I expected. I will be honest and share I only read half of the synopsis, that how intriguing I found the premise. ‘Amid the Crowd of Stars’ follows Dr. Ichiko Aguilar, who is tasked to learn about the culture of developed society of humans who were accidentally separated from Earth on the planet Canis Lupus 300 years prior. Additionally, the crew of the Odysseus are present to determine if the inhabitants of Canis Lupus can return to Earth safely.
January 28, 2023
It got off to a slow start, but Ichiko and Saoirse were engaging enough characters to keep me involved until the story picked up in the back half. The type of sci-fi book where the story is a framework to explore ethical conundrums – what it means to introduce ourselves into an alien biome (both for the aliens and for us), the tension between personal autonomy and collective responsibility, the purposes and limits of authority. Leigh doesn't try to answer any of those as though they were simple questions, but he does a good job making the reader consider them.
A minor annoyance: the title feels wrong to me. Seems more like the kind of title you'd give to a book where the action takes place on a wider scale, rather than one where almost all of the incident is confined to a relatively small region on one planet, and an orbiting spaceship.
A minor annoyance: the title feels wrong to me. Seems more like the kind of title you'd give to a book where the action takes place on a wider scale, rather than one where almost all of the incident is confined to a relatively small region on one planet, and an orbiting spaceship.
May 26, 2022
Smart world- and character-building in this clever, insightful, poignant, and real story.
December 14, 2023
Very cool premise! It was an enjoyable read that lagged a bit at some parts but was overall entertaining.
December 29, 2022
Very strange…
April 12, 2021
Just ok. The story was slow and repetitive, and we spent way more time on regular human problems than with the supposedly-innovative first-contact.
I was turned off early by some pretty basic errors. With mistakes this simple, I am left to doubt every aspect of the writing (see getting the county wrong in Obscura). In this case, the more straightforward error is when a science staff member is talking about a fungus that some settlers have, and how it isn't responding to any of their space-age antibiotics. As someone with stupid-dumb skin, I have had a lot of infections. You can't treat fungus with antibiotics, you treat them with antifungals. "Antibiotics" is not synonymous with "medicine," nor are they magical drugs that kill all pathogens.
Second, the main Terran character is supposed to be a researcher and anthropologist, but she wanders around as if she has no training. It doesn't seem like other researchers are documenting the "mainlanders" but she spends the majority of her time with a smaller off-shoot group.
Maybe suggested for sci-fi readers who like a slower pace, but this doesn't pose a lot of philosophical questions social sci-fi readers may be looking for. Not recommended.
I was turned off early by some pretty basic errors. With mistakes this simple, I am left to doubt every aspect of the writing (see getting the county wrong in Obscura). In this case, the more straightforward error is when a science staff member is talking about a fungus that some settlers have, and how it isn't responding to any of their space-age antibiotics. As someone with stupid-dumb skin, I have had a lot of infections. You can't treat fungus with antibiotics, you treat them with antifungals. "Antibiotics" is not synonymous with "medicine," nor are they magical drugs that kill all pathogens.
Second, the main Terran character is supposed to be a researcher and anthropologist, but she wanders around as if she has no training. It doesn't seem like other researchers are documenting the "mainlanders" but she spends the majority of her time with a smaller off-shoot group.
Maybe suggested for sci-fi readers who like a slower pace, but this doesn't pose a lot of philosophical questions social sci-fi readers may be looking for. Not recommended.
March 15, 2024
I liked the world-building in this book, but overall Amid the Crowd of Stars was very disappointing and poorly written.
One major issue was that the main character Ichiko was not very well developed. What were her goals and desires besides doing her job? It was annoying having her go back and forth about her feelings for Luciano, especially when that relationship has literally nothing going for it, no chemistry, and from the start it was clear they did NOT click or have anything in common and all their interactions were just Luciano being a dick and trying to get laid. I get that was the point - to show it was a bad relationship but you have to gives us at least SOMETHING to show why they started developing feelings in the first place and to make us invested in Ichiko's feelings about him. It also was kind of cringe how she would drop these random tidbits about Japanese culture that felt copied and pasted from Wikipedia. The ending when she was completely predictable but also didn't feel earned and didn't make sense. Like
THEN don't get me started on the, again, extremely predictable but unearned . There was absolutely no chemistry between them whatsoever, no reason to suggest they would have feelings for each other.
The other primary character, Saoirse, was a little more interesting but still fell flat. Especially since it became very obvious early on that her major goal of getting to leave her planet to go to Earth was not going to happen. So either A) The author would have to pull some ridiculous situation to let her go to Earth, which would feel phony and cheap because it was established that this was virtually impossible or B) She doesn't end up going to Earth but for 9/10 of the novel that's her primary goal and drive so then what was the point of any of it?
The whole thing with the AMI's felt undercooked and uninteresting. Also the Arracht. The story fell into tired tropes about humans interacting with a new intelligent species, and while they might be realistic we've all read and seen this story thousands of times and know where it's going, and Amid the Crowd of Stars doesn't add anything new.
I could go on and on but I feel like this review is getting too long. Final comment - I found the "poetic" chapter titles (it was revealed in the author's notes that these were taken from Yeats' poems) to be gimmicky and pointless. Would definitely not recommend this book.
One major issue was that the main character Ichiko was not very well developed. What were her goals and desires besides doing her job? It was annoying having her go back and forth about her feelings for Luciano, especially when that relationship has literally nothing going for it, no chemistry, and from the start it was clear they did NOT click or have anything in common and all their interactions were just Luciano being a dick and trying to get laid. I get that was the point - to show it was a bad relationship but you have to gives us at least SOMETHING to show why they started developing feelings in the first place and to make us invested in Ichiko's feelings about him. It also was kind of cringe how she would drop these random tidbits about Japanese culture that felt copied and pasted from Wikipedia. The ending when she was completely predictable but also didn't feel earned and didn't make sense. Like
THEN don't get me started on the, again, extremely predictable but unearned . There was absolutely no chemistry between them whatsoever, no reason to suggest they would have feelings for each other.
The other primary character, Saoirse, was a little more interesting but still fell flat. Especially since it became very obvious early on that her major goal of getting to leave her planet to go to Earth was not going to happen. So either A) The author would have to pull some ridiculous situation to let her go to Earth, which would feel phony and cheap because it was established that this was virtually impossible or B) She doesn't end up going to Earth but for 9/10 of the novel that's her primary goal and drive so then what was the point of any of it?
The whole thing with the AMI's felt undercooked and uninteresting. Also the Arracht. The story fell into tired tropes about humans interacting with a new intelligent species, and while they might be realistic we've all read and seen this story thousands of times and know where it's going, and Amid the Crowd of Stars doesn't add anything new.
I could go on and on but I feel like this review is getting too long. Final comment - I found the "poetic" chapter titles (it was revealed in the author's notes that these were taken from Yeats' poems) to be gimmicky and pointless. Would definitely not recommend this book.
February 13, 2021
After a colony has long lost contact with Earth, Ichiko is sent to investigate their planet to determine if their planet is habitable, and likewise, if any of them may return to Earth.
Lyrical and richly imagined, Amid the Crowd of Stars is a unique take on extrasolar planetary exploration. Where this story succeeds most is in its worldbuilding--focusing on the Lupusian’s society and the flora and fauna of the planet. Due to the nature of the story then, it’s definitely a slow burn. Don’t expect any large, hostile threats like giant worms from Dune or mutant bears like from Annihilation. Instead, the biggest threats are microbial ones and the fear of contamination. To me, this is a really interesting angle to take.
However, I have major unanswered questions about the story.
Overall, I find Amid the Crowd of Stars conceptually fascinating. However, some of its execution failed for me. Ultimately, the story succeeds more in exploring the culture of another planet than it does as a well-thought-out alien contagion story.
Thank you, DAW and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lyrical and richly imagined, Amid the Crowd of Stars is a unique take on extrasolar planetary exploration. Where this story succeeds most is in its worldbuilding--focusing on the Lupusian’s society and the flora and fauna of the planet. Due to the nature of the story then, it’s definitely a slow burn. Don’t expect any large, hostile threats like giant worms from Dune or mutant bears like from Annihilation. Instead, the biggest threats are microbial ones and the fear of contamination. To me, this is a really interesting angle to take.
However, I have major unanswered questions about the story.
Overall, I find Amid the Crowd of Stars conceptually fascinating. However, some of its execution failed for me. Ultimately, the story succeeds more in exploring the culture of another planet than it does as a well-thought-out alien contagion story.
Thank you, DAW and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 5, 2023
1.5 star read for me
This book has some really cool world building, including some really interesting speculative microbiology. Unfortunately, all those cool details took a backseat to the incredibly slow plot, which wasn't aided by the protagonist, Ichiko. She had the personality of wet paint, and a lot of the plot hinged on her being clueless, despite having degrees in both biology and anthropology. I liked Saoirse, the other POV character, a little better, but I felt like all her interpersonal conflicts with her family were resolved unrealistically quickly and/or brushed aside in favor of the (speaking frankly) more boring plot.
What bothered me most was the colonialist undertones of this book. Or maybe they were overtones. I haven't seen any other reviews of this book mention this, so I'm doubting my sanity a bit. Anyway, I question the premise that a group of people who had gone uncontacted for centuries and built a life that worked for them would immediately want to go to a more technologically advanced society just because it was there. There was also a heavy dose of noble savage trope regarding the Inish, who shunned technology and lived in harmony with the sentient sea creatures on Canes Lupus. The narrative unequivocally presented them as the "primitive good guys," a benevolent other. It all felt very off to me. If this book had been about uncontacted tribes instead of lost space colonists, it probably would have ruffled a few feathers, as it kind of portrays a similar situation. I’m white as wonder bread, so I’m probably not the best person to speak on this — I would be interested to see what BIPOC readers think of this book.
This book has some really cool world building, including some really interesting speculative microbiology. Unfortunately, all those cool details took a backseat to the incredibly slow plot, which wasn't aided by the protagonist, Ichiko. She had the personality of wet paint, and a lot of the plot hinged on her being clueless, despite having degrees in both biology and anthropology. I liked Saoirse, the other POV character, a little better, but I felt like all her interpersonal conflicts with her family were resolved unrealistically quickly and/or brushed aside in favor of the (speaking frankly) more boring plot.
What bothered me most was the colonialist undertones of this book. Or maybe they were overtones. I haven't seen any other reviews of this book mention this, so I'm doubting my sanity a bit. Anyway, I question the premise that a group of people who had gone uncontacted for centuries and built a life that worked for them would immediately want to go to a more technologically advanced society just because it was there. There was also a heavy dose of noble savage trope regarding the Inish, who shunned technology and lived in harmony with the sentient sea creatures on Canes Lupus. The narrative unequivocally presented them as the "primitive good guys," a benevolent other. It all felt very off to me. If this book had been about uncontacted tribes instead of lost space colonists, it probably would have ruffled a few feathers, as it kind of portrays a similar situation. I’m white as wonder bread, so I’m probably not the best person to speak on this — I would be interested to see what BIPOC readers think of this book.
June 29, 2021
A disaster on Earth cut off the colonists on Canis Lupus for generations. Left to their own devices, many died. Those that didn’t perish adapted to the new diseases, discovered what could be eaten and how to live a low-tech life, came to a symbiosis with the planet. But in so doing, did they stop being entirely human?
When an Earth ship finally arrives, the Lupusians hope they can return to Earth, if only for a visit – but the diseases to which they have adapted pose a threat to the home planet. As the doctors work on that problem, Saoirse, a woman from one of the island clans meets Ichiko, the ship’s anthropologist. As the two women become friends, Saoirse and Ichiko together discover the danger posed by the planet’s native intelligences.
This look at how an alien world and disease can rework what it means to be human reminds me of Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite. Readers would also enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population for its thoughtful feminist look at aliens and an alien world.
Check this book out from the Villa Park Public Library!
When an Earth ship finally arrives, the Lupusians hope they can return to Earth, if only for a visit – but the diseases to which they have adapted pose a threat to the home planet. As the doctors work on that problem, Saoirse, a woman from one of the island clans meets Ichiko, the ship’s anthropologist. As the two women become friends, Saoirse and Ichiko together discover the danger posed by the planet’s native intelligences.
This look at how an alien world and disease can rework what it means to be human reminds me of Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite. Readers would also enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population for its thoughtful feminist look at aliens and an alien world.
Check this book out from the Villa Park Public Library!
May 1, 2021
This was an AMAZING read!
From the first page I was totally immersed in the ambiance of this not-so-alien world. I could taste the salty, seaweedy aroma and smell the mossy air. I really liked the main characters, and wanted so much to race ahead to be with them again.
I have two nitpicks that made it just shy of a perfect read (minor spoilers):
1. The climax was shockingly abrupt. It lasted just a couple of pages and was all over. (all the more curt since those few pages described the exact same scene from no less than four points of view.). It was only slightly less disconcerting than if I'd turned the page and found the rest of the book blank.
2. I could not divine the larger context of the mission. It was as if the whole crew made a ten year round-trip journey, with only a dozen weeks or so on-site - for the sole indulgence of the main character. I have no idea what the rest of the crew were up to during that time.
In both cases, a slightly longer story would have eliminated my concerns. And I would have gotten to spend ore time on the world with the characters!
From the first page I was totally immersed in the ambiance of this not-so-alien world. I could taste the salty, seaweedy aroma and smell the mossy air. I really liked the main characters, and wanted so much to race ahead to be with them again.
I have two nitpicks that made it just shy of a perfect read (minor spoilers):
1. The climax was shockingly abrupt. It lasted just a couple of pages and was all over. (all the more curt since those few pages described the exact same scene from no less than four points of view.). It was only slightly less disconcerting than if I'd turned the page and found the rest of the book blank.
2. I could not divine the larger context of the mission. It was as if the whole crew made a ten year round-trip journey, with only a dozen weeks or so on-site - for the sole indulgence of the main character. I have no idea what the rest of the crew were up to during that time.
In both cases, a slightly longer story would have eliminated my concerns. And I would have gotten to spend ore time on the world with the characters!
June 4, 2021
A disaster on Earth cut off the colonists on Canis Lupus for generations. Left to their own devices, many died. Those that didn’t perish adapted to the new diseases, discovered what could be eaten and how to live a low-tech life, came to a symbiosis with the planet. But in so doing, did they stop being entirely human?
When an Earth ship finally arrives, the Lupusians hope they can return to Earth, if only for a visit – but the diseases to which they have adapted pose a threat to the home planet. As the doctors work on that problem, Saoirse, a woman from one of the island clans meets Ichiko, the ship’s anthropologist. As the two women become friends, Saoirse and Ichiko together discover the greater danger posed by the planet’s native intelligences.
This look at how an alien world and disease can rework what it means to be human reminds me of Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite. Readers would also enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population for its thoughtful feminist look at aliens and an alien world.
When an Earth ship finally arrives, the Lupusians hope they can return to Earth, if only for a visit – but the diseases to which they have adapted pose a threat to the home planet. As the doctors work on that problem, Saoirse, a woman from one of the island clans meets Ichiko, the ship’s anthropologist. As the two women become friends, Saoirse and Ichiko together discover the greater danger posed by the planet’s native intelligences.
This look at how an alien world and disease can rework what it means to be human reminds me of Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite. Readers would also enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population for its thoughtful feminist look at aliens and an alien world.
May 11, 2022
"Amid the Crowd of Stars" is a scifi novel that questions the ethics of interstellar colonization. It explores this through the ways the human race would change when exposed to alien ecosystems and organisms.
This idea was already explored in "Ammonite" by Nicola Griffith. Although the focus of Griffith's book is somewhat different "Ammonite" explores the ethics and exposure concerns in a far more thorough and entertaining matter.
Leigh aims high and completely fails to deliver. His characters are flat and dull. The story is filled with pages and pages of expository dialogue that goes nowhere. The entire plot is dependent on Ichiko being incredibly incompetent and bad at her job.
On top of this we have decades old sci fi tropes trotted out with no attempt to breath new life into them. First contact with a collective intelligence, AI awakenings, scary alien viruses, and divergent species of humans are not new concepts.
This is a clunky, mediocre scifi story that doesn't do anything new, has boring characters, and a predictable plot.
This idea was already explored in "Ammonite" by Nicola Griffith. Although the focus of Griffith's book is somewhat different "Ammonite" explores the ethics and exposure concerns in a far more thorough and entertaining matter.
Leigh aims high and completely fails to deliver. His characters are flat and dull. The story is filled with pages and pages of expository dialogue that goes nowhere. The entire plot is dependent on Ichiko being incredibly incompetent and bad at her job.
On top of this we have decades old sci fi tropes trotted out with no attempt to breath new life into them. First contact with a collective intelligence, AI awakenings, scary alien viruses, and divergent species of humans are not new concepts.
This is a clunky, mediocre scifi story that doesn't do anything new, has boring characters, and a predictable plot.
June 13, 2022
Humans left on a marginally habitable planet for many generations are finally revisited by Earth's scientists. The people on Lupus still appear to be human. But the scientists from Earth debate over whether these people have actually evolved into something not quite human. There is also serious concern about letting any of Lupus's people return to Earth. The visiting humans are very worried about diseases they might receive or give to the people on Lupus, so they wear biosuits that keep them from breathing the planet's air or physically touching it's flora and fauna.
Included in the novel's themes are clashes between the planet's clans over using technology and killing the planet's other sentient species. Independent lives for AIs is another issue.
A few weak love stories emerge in the novel's plot. There is irritating angst over a tepid on-ship romance and the possibility of a future lesbian relationship between the ship's anthropologist and one of the planet's inhabitants. The repetitive angst with little resolution does not benefit the novel.
Included in the novel's themes are clashes between the planet's clans over using technology and killing the planet's other sentient species. Independent lives for AIs is another issue.
A few weak love stories emerge in the novel's plot. There is irritating angst over a tepid on-ship romance and the possibility of a future lesbian relationship between the ship's anthropologist and one of the planet's inhabitants. The repetitive angst with little resolution does not benefit the novel.
April 22, 2022
Excellent SF. After the planet Canes Lupes was settled, the ship that had delivered the settlers departed and never returned because of a major meteor strike on earth. The settlers were left to fend for themselves for 322 years. Over time most of the high tech equipment, and especially the bio-barriers that protect the colonists from the environment and microorganisms of the planet, fail. After much loss of life, the population stabilized and a civilization comparable to preindustrial England develops.
Now a new ship from Earth has arrived. Ichiko Aguilar is a non-military crewman on the ship and is tasked with learning about the culture of the now thriving settlers. She is also the point person for dealing with the settlers demands that some of them be taken back to Earth, but fears of the settlers bringing alien germs and potentially lethal microflora has become a major issue.
Oh, and there are intelligent beings other than humans on the planet.
Now a new ship from Earth has arrived. Ichiko Aguilar is a non-military crewman on the ship and is tasked with learning about the culture of the now thriving settlers. She is also the point person for dealing with the settlers demands that some of them be taken back to Earth, but fears of the settlers bringing alien germs and potentially lethal microflora has become a major issue.
Oh, and there are intelligent beings other than humans on the planet.
October 19, 2021
A very creative and original idea for a story, centered around the need/desire not to contaminate nor to be contaminated by an alien environment. Another complication in the story is the descendants of the humans abandoned centuries ago on the planet and how they have changed in response to micro-organisms, pollens, flora, fauna etc. in their new ``home.'' A powerful Gaian (or Pandoran-?) presence unifying many living creatures on the planet makes for some interesting interactions.
I was not crazy about the ending...would have like a more peaceful resolution the the conflict. I did enjoy the authors afternotes discussing the motivations and development of this excellent story.
Another strong aspect of the book was the interesting and well developed cast of characters...in particular Ichiko and Saoirse.
I was not crazy about the ending...would have like a more peaceful resolution the the conflict. I did enjoy the authors afternotes discussing the motivations and development of this excellent story.
Another strong aspect of the book was the interesting and well developed cast of characters...in particular Ichiko and Saoirse.
January 20, 2023
I enjoyed this science fiction tale that could almost have been an episode of Star Trek (the original series) which is both a positive and negative assessment on my part. I enjoyed the story, but there was a certain lack of sophistication in the character development reminiscent of a sixties television series. The descriptions of the planet/world featured in the book were informative and entertaining for lovers of the genre, but I found the relational details to be more immature in nature and out of place at times. To the author's credit, things were not wrapped up with a tidy bow at the end, which I usually prefer, but in this case, handling it that way added believability to the tale. I consider this a solid 3.5-star read that almost any science fiction fan should enjoy, as I did.
February 24, 2025
I quite enjoyed this book. It’s a thoughtful exploration of societal conflict, familial bonds, the responsibilities of civilization and civic officers, and the nature of sentience and self-awareness. It’s also steeped in Irish culture, which I very much enjoyed, and the worldbuilding is exceptional for what is at heart a character drama.
While there weren’t very many outright villains, there are definitely a few characters that I really came to despise for the selfishness of their choices; that was effective, because it provided a clear contrast to the characters I did like, whose choices were also often selfish but at least had a more compassionate moral underpinning.
All in all, this was a nice environmental/anthropological science fiction tale that made me think!
While there weren’t very many outright villains, there are definitely a few characters that I really came to despise for the selfishness of their choices; that was effective, because it provided a clear contrast to the characters I did like, whose choices were also often selfish but at least had a more compassionate moral underpinning.
All in all, this was a nice environmental/anthropological science fiction tale that made me think!
August 12, 2024
*dnf*
I don't know what happened here but for me, this wasn't it. I genuinely tried so hard to keep going with this book but there was a point where I was stuck in the waiting room of an ER for 6 hours and I could only read it for chunks of time here and there before choosing to instead stare at the ground to pass the time by.
This book is definitely for some people and I hope they find it and adore it. Its not a bad book (predictable and it plods along at a molasses pace but not bad) but it just wasn't for me.
I don't know what happened here but for me, this wasn't it. I genuinely tried so hard to keep going with this book but there was a point where I was stuck in the waiting room of an ER for 6 hours and I could only read it for chunks of time here and there before choosing to instead stare at the ground to pass the time by.
This book is definitely for some people and I hope they find it and adore it. Its not a bad book (predictable and it plods along at a molasses pace but not bad) but it just wasn't for me.
November 2, 2024
2.75/5 honestly the blurb for this book sells it more than what I think we actually got. The premise of ethical implications of space exploration and no longer being able to artificially create earth-like conditions in new planetary systems is huge and honestly what drew me in, but the back and forth travel, pacing, and blandish characters just didn't land with me.
I wanted way more of the arracht culture and society building like Mountain In the Sea vibes but just ended up with "let's talk more, I've got to go back, I'll be back, I'm back let's chat".
I wanted way more of the arracht culture and society building like Mountain In the Sea vibes but just ended up with "let's talk more, I've got to go back, I'll be back, I'm back let's chat".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2021
A book which started off with a good premise but then somewhere in the middle got ready to finish the story very quickly. Two civilization borne from the original earth dwellers who travelled across the sky and made their home on this planet. The early buildup was very well executed and I would have been happy if the author had persisted and added more rich history to the life and culture of the people residing in the planet.
Overall a decent read
Overall a decent read
February 2, 2022
Amid the Crowd of Stars promises a new take on a familiar sci-fi premise: two groups of humans, the survivors on Earth and a colony they lost touch with centuries ago, now reestablish contact. The flap copy offers up a vision of an ethical and existential exploration of what it means to be human.
See full review at: https://anyajosephs.wordpress.com/202...
See full review at: https://anyajosephs.wordpress.com/202...
March 25, 2021
A very interesting novel about the ethics of interstellar travel. It pictures the responsibilities of bringing bacteria and virus from this world to another. And the danger of returning to earth with the dangers from the visited world.
It’s a well done story with good writing. If you like sci-fi please try this one. It’s very unusual but quite good.
It’s a well done story with good writing. If you like sci-fi please try this one. It’s very unusual but quite good.
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