Our Worlds Belong To Us: Claudia Gray’s Defy the Stars

Defy the Stars (2017)
Written by: Claudia Gray
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Pages: 503 (Hardcover)
Series: Book 1 of the Constellation Series
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Why I Chose It: I kept looking at it while at work. The cover caught me first, the summary second, and finally I decided I just had to read it.

The Premise:

She’s a soldier.

Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she’s a rebel.

He’s a machine.

Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel’s advanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he’s an abomination.

Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.

Fast-paced, romantic, and captivating, Defy the Stars is a story about what it means to be human, about deciding what you truly believe in, and about finding your place in a dangerous world.

No spoilers

Discussion:

It was that last little bit in the premise that sealed my fate in reading this book. Romantic? Really? While the word could have easily meant romantic in the sweeping sense, let’s be honest—this is a YA book that features a boy and a girl. Granted, he’s a machine, but we’ve been around werewolves and vampires and yes, even zombies, to know that nothing can stop true love. Given that I haven’t yet seen such a pairing, I was intensely curious to see how Claudia Gray went about handling it. And hey, if I was wrong and there was no romance between the two, I’m still down for a science fiction romp through the galaxy with a soldier and a self-aware android.

I’m going to start by saying I really liked the voices given to Abel and Noemi. I love it when characters are distinct, and that line is made very clear. Noemi is passionate, human, and thinks on the fly. Abel is thoughtful, calculating, and driven by primary objectives. When human-like sentiments and concepts appear in his brain, he considers them interesting, wonders how they got there, and puzzles over them when he has the time. It’s also great fun because you get to watch the two characters evolve (though I daresay Abel more than Noemi since he has much further to go). Noemi gets to discover things that challenge her in all ways, and both of them come out the better for it.

I also enjoyed the world building that the story presents us. In some ways the base concept is much like a lot of other dystopian novels; different classes performing specific functions are segregated out to certain planets: hard workers on Stronghold, high intelligence on Cray, the elite on Kismet. The rest of Earth is just on Earth, and the people restarting humanity (sort of), are on Genesis. I’m okay with all that since most of it makes sense and it also wouldn’t surprise me in the least because well, humans. Although Cray did confuse me since it was such a harsh planet that people were forced to live underground – yet that’s where you decide to send your best and brightest to develop technology? Just struck me as odd. It didn’t sound like the kind of place anyone would want to live. As technologically advanced underground as it was, you’re still underground. Pass.

There were a lot of elements in the book that reminded me of other things. Travel from one planet to the next was made possible by Gates—giant rings floating in space. They reminded me of Stargate. The ship Abel and Noemi travel on is called the Daedalus, which was a ship featured in the Stargate Atlantis series. The planet Genesis made me think of Star Trek: The Movie. And I couldn’t help it, but Kismet and all its flash and finery made me think of The Fifth Element and Fhloston Paradise. Abel reminded me of Sonny from I, Robot in that he’s a one-of-a-kind build and his creator requests Abel call him father. And he dreams.

Do I think any of this is intentional? No. These ideas have been around forever as it is, and humans can never seem to stop naming spaceships after Greek or Roman gods or characters for whatever reason. For all the programming we give AI, we can’t seem to unprogram ourselves from doing this sort of thing. And I’m not talking about Claudia Gray—I don’t have any doubts that humans would name ships and planets like this. Heck, we already have, what with shuttles called Atlantis and Project Apollo. But I digress.

I wondered how the plot would grow more complicated as I continued reading, so it was fun to watch as it all unfolded. At first it sounds so simple for Noemi—and then things just become more compounded and complex. I wondered if we would visit all five planets in the gate loop, what might be found on Earth if we got there, and is Noemi would accomplish her goal. Some seemed more likely than others. And, of course, as I continued to read I wondered—with Abel’s fantastic longevity as primarily AI, would he an Noemi actually get together? Without spoiling anything, I’d like to say that I almost felt like I got to have my cake and eat it, too. Almost.

And before you get too weirded out about a human and a robot hooking up, I’d like to take a small moment to argue for Abel’s case. You eventually learn just how mechs are created on Earth—it’s not a big secret or anything special—and there’s a surprising amount of biological matter involved. To the point that one might almost argue that Abel is a cyborg than pure android. His interior skeletal structure is more Terminator-like, but his brain is a mixture of processor and legitimate gray matter. According to Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible, creating the sort of AI science fiction is always doing would actually require the  complexity of the human brain, so Claudia Gray has chosen the most likely path of achieving intelligent AI as opposed to so many other writers of robots.

Ok, I’m getting slightly off-base again, but my point is that I’m 100% down with a Noemi and Abel pairing. Does that actually happen in this book? I don’t know—you’ll have to read it to find out. (I said no spoilers, remember?)

When I finished I was satisfied, though wishing that there was a sequel. That was before I looked at the publication date and realized the book wasn’t nearly as old as I thought it was. I’d been thinking 2015. After realizing it was 2017 I hopped online to check Claudia’s website only to see, lo and behold, there is a second book and it’s already out. Has been since April of 2018.

Guess what book I put on hold from the library? 

In Conclusion: I had a fantastic time reading this book. I haven’t been reading much of anything lately (terrible, I know), but I read through this one in almost an entire sitting. I’m very much looking forward to reading the second book and discovering how Noemi’s adventures continue and how Abel continues to evolve.