The Stars Have Eyes

by Exterminatus

The universe was a vast, empty, dark, and uncaring place. Then life happened, and the universe was changed forever. Only a teeny-tiny bit, but definitely different. Then again, the universe changes a teeny-tiny bit every second of every day. For instance, if someone were to get off the couch and randomly drink a glass of milk? Bam! One less glass of milk in the universe. Changed forever. Well, excluding any time-travel shenanigans, but anyone who puts a big old hole in the time-space continuum just to un-drink a glass of milk should really reevaluate their priorities. Unless, of course, they were attempting to prevent some massive catastrophe vis-a-vis said glass of milk. Such a scenario is by no means impossible, as one should never underestimate the importance of calcium.

Another important tip for any life forms out there is to keep things in perspective. Some look at the vastness of creation in relation to themselves and go, ‘Man, this sucks!’ These people really need to narrow their focus. Sure, they will never affect anything happening on the other end of the galaxy, but so what? That’s way the heck over there, where it doesn’t matter. Therefore, in order to maintain a healthy mindset, it is important to narrow one’s perspective to the things and people that affect them, and that they can affect in turn.

But what happens if one is an unfathomable cosmic being from beyond the veil of reality? What happens when such an existence is capable of influencing entire swathes of the universe just by its presence? A creature such as Magh'rathlak the Observer? That particular entity is only about average as far as reality-warping creatures from the dawn of time go, so its influence over the fabric of reality is rather limited. And it still struggles to keep things in perspective. That, among other things, is why it decided to narrow its worldview a bit by compressing the maddening vastness of its being into a single corporeal form. Magh'rathlak had never tried such a feat, but that wasn't about to stop it.

After all, how hard could being human possibly be?

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Romance, Comedy

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Matt Riddell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute romance with plenty of explosions. Manganges to avoid/subvert a lot of the cliche romance tropes through conversation. Still takes advantage of them when possible. a fun read.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It is so very different to Everybody Loves Large Chests and yet has so much personality. Mags and Jo are such amazingly aware and dense people at the same time the chaos of her coming to his realm was enthralling. A romance story of a very different nature but the social commentary and English nature really had me enjoying every minute.
Soundbooth Theatre did an amazing job bringing it to life for audio. I am so glad that it is available to more people who may not know of Royal Road.

[Melissa Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not quite sure what was so fascinating with this story, but I just kept reading it. For the first half of the book almost nothing happened. I honestly believe that the eldritch horror and her genuinely curiosity about humans and their emotions is what makes the story so unique. With little to no action until late in the book, if it's something that won't bother you, this book is quite interesting.

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid comedy on RoyalRoad.com about an eldritch abomination deciding a good way to study our universe is to pretend to be mostly human and live with their new object of study/significant other.

[Mr. J · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely lovely story. I am so glad I took the chance to check it out. Wholesome and happiness.

[Monty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was honestly enjoying this book to a tune of more than 3/5 stars prior to the point that the Eldritch Entity has a sit down with a governmental bigwig to iron out some things and..

I just couldn't stand how daft that part of the story was. Honestly I nearly dropped the whole story down to a 2/5 because of it.

The story got better and the overall book improved to my mind after I was able to repress above mentioned aspect and I'd give it a 4.2/5 for its very nice handling of relationships and characters as a whole.

Great stuff really.

I have to further mention that SBT Soundbooth Theater really did a great job with the audio version. Top-notch!!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great love story for men. Incel loser who lives in a pod and eats Soylent from a tube accidentally gets put into a slice of life romcom with a curious cosmic entity.
Not for the folks who want action.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a charming, if slight little love story along the lines of Douglas Adams meets H.P. Lovecraft. I listened to the Soundbooth Audio production and quite enjoyed it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eldritch Horror learns to love

[Jonathan Grothe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read.

[literaryaura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read. It's like a sweet, cozy litrpg. The MC was a lovable doofus. There really wasn't much to the story, and it's a light read. Still enjoyable though.

The production by Soundbooth Theatre was great. There was a song near the end, and it was quite haunting. Lovely addition to the book.

Given that the story was set in UK, it was a bit odd to have some characters with an American accent, while others had very strong UK accents (I don't know different UK accents, so I won't take a guess on them).