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The Actual Star
The Actual Star: A Novel | Monica Byrne
17 posts | 7 read | 8 to read
David Mitchells Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butlers Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) spins a brilliant multigenerational saga spanning two thousand years, from the collapse of the ancient Maya to a far-future utopia on the brink of civil war. The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle. Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne ofa Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change. In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hateuntil all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see. The Actual Star is a feast of ideas about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where were goingand how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together.
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rachaich
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Immense book set in three centuries and addressing climate change and what happens... but needed trigger warning...

review
Yossarian
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Panpan

This was some bullshit. Set in three time periods, all of which sucked:

1012 — Mayan twelve year old twins have sex, give sexy enemas (Ew), cut, and get tortured.

2012 — Girl is “sex positive” somehow despite only having bad sex. Gets aroused by cave.

3012 — Written during the half hour between when no one heard of Latinx and when Latinx was offensive. In the future everything was Hermanix this and Ninx that. No book will ever be more dateable.

BarbaraBB 🤣 2y
35 likes1 comment
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Yossarian
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I‘m ambivalent overall on trigger warnings, but this book also has graphic pedophilia and incest, and there‘s no warning about that.

Also, all three (children having incestuous sex and cutting) are all presented in a positive light, which strikes me as possibly more upsetting than just that they are “depicted.”

Yossarian Oh, also human sacrifices. 2y
5feet.of.fury Yikes. 2y
RaeLovesToRead It's like having a label on American Psycho that says "may contain bad language" 2y
Yossarian @RaeLovesToRead Yep. Deciding to put a warning for one thing kind of implies that there‘s nothing else worth warning about. 2y
KathyWheeler I‘m also ambivalent about trigger warnings, but if I were to put some on this book, from the way you describe it, I‘d put ones for the pedophilia, human sacrifice, and incest before cutting. Crazy! (edited) 2y
39 likes5 comments
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Centique
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Pickpick

Thank you so much for this book @Reggie it was such a page turner! I was desperate to get home today to finish it. This is a mind blowing ride from 1012 Mayan civilisation to 2012 Belize to a post climate disaster 3012 nomadic civilisation. In each setting we are following two to three characters questing to find their truth, god, & transformation. There is tension and adrenaline in each timeline but it is also philosophical & thought provoking⬇️

Centique A few violent scenes and quite a glossary of new words - but don‘t let that put you off if you like speculative fiction. Really keen to read more by this author. 2y
Ruthiella I remember Jenny @ReadingEnvy talking about/recommending this on her podcast. 💔 2y
Centique @Ruthiella yes me too! Almost every book I‘ve read since May I‘ve read her review online straight after I‘ve finished reading it. 💔 2y
See All 11 Comments
Twainy This was a GSFF book last year & I‘ve never heard of it. I haven‘t seen any reviews so this is great news. 2y
Reggie Yay, I‘m glad you liked it. When I got it for you it was because a mix of you liking sci-fi and that Jenny had liked it. I‘m glad you liked it. I have it here also amongst the rubble of books I‘ll get to one day. 2y
Centique @Twainy oh wow does that mean you already have a copy? 2y
Centique @Reggie I really think you‘ll like it! There are a couple scenes where I was thinking “I bet Reggie liked this bit” but turns out it‘s still in front of you 🤪 It‘s just so cool to be in the reimagined Mayan times - and the violence made it so gripping so searing but not so much to freak me out👍(tame by your stds but still awesome) 2y
Reggie @Centique it so funny because I read horror a lot but the scariest book I‘ve read this year was by Hanya Yanigihara. To Paradise. The third section of that is a plausible future, one that I think will be here sooner than we think and it terrifies me. 2y
Centique @Reggie I think I know what you mean although I haven‘t read it yet. This idea of a nomadic future is quite positive in many ways so you might get a kick out of it ☺️ 2y
Reggie @Centique I‘ll check it out. 🙂 2y
Twainy @Centique yes! I have a copy & now I want to read it!! It was in my TBR but overlooked as I haven‘t heard any hype about it until now. 2y
65 likes1 stack add11 comments
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Branwen
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My October book from the Goldsboro SFF subscription came in a while back but I forgot to post about until now! 😁 This edition has a naked cover with beautiful gold embossed designs on the front and back covers as well as lovely green painted edges! 😍 I'm also really excited about this title! I've been eyeing up the library copy for weeks now! #goldsboro #goldsborobooks

43 likes1 stack add
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Conservio
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Late night reads with some Apple pie.

#scifi #recommendedbooks #maya #belize

5 likes2 stack adds
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Lindy
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Pickpick

Wow! Alternating between 3 timelines—Mayan civilization in 1012; Belize in 2012; & post environmental disaster 3012—this hefty audacious novel tackles big ideas of how best to live on our planet. Monica Byrne‘s vision of a worldwide nomadic sex-positive society that evolves from climate refugees gives me hope. You may need patience for Kriol dialogue, Spanish, & invented future vocabulary that includes many terms for personal identity.

40 likes1 stack add
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Lindy
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The human race has outgrown this way of life. Just like we outgrew monarchy and capitalism.

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Lindy
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“What does entropy have to do with desire?”
“Well, as the universe comes apart, everything we desire will get farther and farther away. So we‘ll have to work harder to get it.”

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Lindy
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In the year 3012 in this novel, people have augmented intelligence implants that can translate the languages of other beings. If you are curious, cicadas have this to say: “The moon is a lemon too!” (Which reminds me of Laura Jean McKay‘s The Animals in That Country.)

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Lindy
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Birds are not birds; they are messengers.
This world is a world of deceptions.
This world is merely a representation of representations.
The star we see is not the actual star.

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Lindy
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I‘ve got seven books on the go at the moment but I‘ve become so caught up in the tagged novel that the others have temporarily fallen by the wayside.

marleed I get that! Sometimes I surprised by the one that pulls me away from the others. 2y
Lindy @marleed Yes! This one has a lot of unfamiliar futuristic words & concepts, plus dialogue in a creole language that requires sounding out to understand, so I was slow getting into the book. Now that I‘m in, I‘m ALL in! 2y
31 likes2 comments
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Lindy
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Mayan earspools come up several times in this novel, so I decided to Google some images.

(Internet image)

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Lindy
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Literary serendipity strikes again: concurrent books feature a main character who loses one eye on account of a nonhuman animal. (The other book is The Apollo Murders, which could also have used the tagged book‘s dust jacket image.)

24 likes1 stack add
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Conservio
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Can‘t remember what prompted me to check this out.. but hey looks good! #library #scifi

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ReadingEnvy
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Reading Envy Podcast Episode 229: Second Contact with Tom Merritt

Author and podcaster Tom Merritt joins Jenny to talk about books, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and Tom shares about his newest book, Project V.E.R.A. Jenny knows Tom from the Sword and Laser Book Club and Podcast, but it's not his only project!

https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy229

Centique A week late listening to this but Tom was a great guest! I‘m excited to read all of these (of course I‘ve already read the Murderbot 💕) 3y
ReadingEnvy He could podcast in his sleep! 2y
44 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Decalino
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Mehso-so

I received an ARC of this book and really wanted to love it, but alas no. One of the main characters, Leah, just did not seem like a real person: sex-positivity is not a personality. Of the three parallel timelines, I found the elaborate world-building of 3012 the most interesting; the ancient Mayan twincest and 2012 tourism were just not as compelling, although Belize itself was a vivid setting. Also kind of romanticized cutting--big TW there.