Format: Hardcover, 560 pages
Release Date: January 4, 2022
Publisher: Tor Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Epic
The first book in a new series from #1 New York Times Bestselling author James Rollins, The Starless Crown
is a page-turning tale of action, adventure, betrayal, ambition, and
the struggle for survival in a harsh world that hangs by a thread.
An alliance embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets of
the distant past and save their world in this captivating, deeply
visionary adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling thriller-master James Rollins.
A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death.
Fleeing into the unknown, she is drawn into a team of outcasts:
A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home.
A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own.
An
imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a
gleaming artifact—one that will ignite a power struggle across the
globe.
On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must
learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in
strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that
hold the key to their salvation.
The Starless Crown, by author James Rollins, is the first installment in the authors Moon Fall series. I have read an interview that stated Rollins plans to write four total in this series. Rollins debuts a major new series that opens a riven world trapped
between fire and ice. One upon a time, Urth turned as our world does. Then it stopped. Now you have a tidal locked planet with one hemisphere always in the scorching sun and the other forever shadowed in frosty darkness. While the story unfolds through several viewpoints, it is really Nyx
who is the true main character and heart of the story.
First, she was raised by Myr bats after her mother dies when she was born. Thanks to being raised by bats, she's nearly blind. Being nearly blind is a huge disadvantage against her fellow students who look down on her and bully her because they are from rich families. Nyx has spent 1/2 her life in the walled Cloistry of Brayk. Nyx experiences the world through touch, but after her fellow students attack her, and she nearly dies, her adopted brother (Bashaliia) comes to her rescue.
Several moon turns later, Nyx can also now see clearly for the first time in her life and gets a premonition of the end of the world. Instead of heeding the warning, however, the king decides the bearer of such a dangerous prophecy must be put to death. Nyx, along with her best friend Jace, will go on a massive adventure reminiscent of the Lord of the Ring in a world where she's far more important and powerful than she ever could have dreamed.
Rhaif is an imprisoned thief betrayed by his guild. His greatest fear is being stuck in darkness. After a cave in, Rhaif escapes and finds a gleaming artifact—one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe or bring about its doom. It seems that this artifact is highly prized by some powerful and dangerous people. The only way to remain alive and free, is to find help from people who are criminals or worst. Rhaif and the Bronze woman he calls Shiva eventually meets up with Nyx's group and the action is almost non-stop.
Prince Kanthe is the second born twin of King Toranth. After being pushed aside in favor of his brighter, bolder, and more promising older twin brother, Kanthe is generally fine with his lot in life, and spends his days in something of a drunken haze. Kanthe is given a mission to retrieve Nyx which in turn becomes part of a larger plot to assassinate him and get him out of the picture. Kanthe's entire view of the world is set to change. Kanthe is naively noble. When he learns about Nyx's premonition and her fate if she falls into the wrong hands, he promises to find a way to make sure Nyk lives to find a way to stop Armageddon.
Graylin is a knight living in exile. He’s sworn never to return home or to wield his sword again, but when he receives word that the child of his slain lover might be still alive, he may be forced to break his vows once more. Graylin later learns that the woman that he once loved gave birth to a daughter who is Nyx. He experiences all the awkward and overwhelming emotions of suddenly trying to make up for the fact that he maybe could have done something to save the woman he loved and her daughter.
There’s
a lot of time spent introducing the characters and their back stories
as well as world-building, but that’s not unusual in the first book in a
series of this magnitude. As readers get acquainted with the
characters, both good and bad, it becomes clear that there is even more
going on than the journey. Evil, greed, the desire for power, and
treachery are abundant. One of the more interesting parts of this book is the fact that some of the travel takes place in what would be considered to be zeppelins.
Clocking in at 560 pages, I really don't think this needed to be as long as it is. A very significant part of the book is characters traveling and fighting, which gets to feel repetitive at times, especially because we keep switching to the perspectives of yet more characters who are also traveling and fighting that being the villains and their contemporaries.
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