Publisher Tor graciously provided a review copy through NetGalley for The Stars Now Unclaimed by new author Drew Williams.  The book blurb describes it as space opera with a strong female lead, Jane.

The novel has potential as Williams creates a far future galaxy devastated first by endless war among tens of thousands of sects comprised of 17 space-faring races including humans, followed by the Pulse, radiation that reduced most planets to pre-technological levels.  The Pulse effects were random, leaving some worlds almost untouched, others back to steam and others back to horse, spears and clubs.  This backdrop has excellent story potential but it needs strong characters to engross us readers.

Williams brings us Jane, the narrator (we don’t learn her name until about 80% through), who works for the Justified, the group who created the Pulse and now seeks to minimize its damage the next time it flows through.  Jane is responsible to collect kids with unique mental talents but her primary skill is fighting.

That brings us to the problem.  The novel is one fight scene after another, with very little time for character development and not much setting.  It is as though the author creates this great world, then figures it is good enough and we can fill in the blanks.

Even though Jane is in the entire novel we don’t really get to know her other than she likes to fight and she is a tenacious friend and worse enemy.  The other characters also have little personality and we see them primarily as foils for Jane.  The character with the most personality is her ship, Scheherazade.

Jane and friends swear a lot, mostly F-bombs as general purpose filler words, but there is no blasphemy.

Overall The Stars Now Unclaimed is a decent read.  I couldn’t get too involved with it given the lack of full-bodied people, but the author writes reasonably well and has created a complex world.  I wish him well in future novels in this series, although I’m not likely to seek the next books.

3 Stars