Across the Broken Stars

There are some things done extremely well and some things which i really struggled with in this, the first full length novel by Jed Herne. Let's start with the good stuff: the world building is phenomenal in this book. The discs of Paya, each self contained and separate from one another, populated by angels who can fly across the voids of space between is a fantastic concept. The angel's having been overthrown by a people who grew up on a planet with higher gravity and are thus stronger is another great nod to science and grounds this fantastical world with some reality. The construction of the discs and the modes of transport between, the breathfung, a fungus that allows breathing in space, all give a certain ‘hardness' to the setting. There are rules that have to be followed and obeyed. The angels themselves are not all powerful and wise, and the good vs evil is somewhat grey.

What jarred me when reading was the characters however. Everyone in the book is thoroughly unlikable and somewhat one dimensional. This comes out particularly awkwardly in the dialogue and thought processes of the main character, who seems like a petulant teenager most of the time. This does improve as we go through the book, but a lot the dialogue just comes across flat to me.

The questing story arc gives a slightly Lit-RPG feel to the book. The story did maintain my interest, with a few nice twists in it.

There is a lot of potential in here. The world building is first class, but the story is let down a bit by the characters and the dialogue. An intriguing read by a promising new author still finding his feet.