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The Stars Too Fondly

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

In her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton weaves a suspenseful, charming, and irresistibly joyous tale of fierce friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself.

So, here's the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship.

They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.

Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries come crawling back to life, and Cleo's initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.

Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.

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    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2024

      Hamilton's debut combines a space odyssey with a sapphic rom-com as Cleo and her friends visit a spaceship to investigate how its entire crew vanished without a trace, but then the engine starts by itself and launches them on a journey into space and further mysteries. With a 100K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 8, 2024
      In this tantalizing space opera debut, Hamilton weaves a thoughtful, self-aware story bursting with witty repartee and provocative romance. The year is 2061, more than 20 years after the failed launch of the Providence, a spaceship that promised to save humanity from a dying Earth by using a newly developed dark matter engine to bring colonists to a habitable exoplanet in only seven years. Unfortunately, an unknown error caused the entire crew to vanish without explanation when the engine switched on. Still, the fervor surrounding the launch inspired a new generation of scientists and historians. Four such rambunctious young professionals—Cleo, a computer engineer; Ros, a doctor; Abe, a historian; and Kaleisha, a botanist—break into the Providence and accidentally start the engine, lifting off. Even after activating the ship’s computer—a hologram with the uploaded consciousness of its former captain, Wilhelmina Lucas—they’re not able to reverse course. They also find that the dark matter engine has altered their bodies, giving them superpowers. Captain Lucas—“Billie” to her friends—and Cleo investigate the source of their newfound abilities, while also agonizing over their growing feelings for each other. This Star Trek-inspired space adventure has something for everyone—heartwarming romantic comedy, cosmic superpowers, and humanity’s future at stake. It should win plenty of fans. Agent: Roma Panganiban, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

    • Booklist

      April 15, 2024
      Do the ends justify the means when it comes to the future of humanity? Hamilton answers with a resounding no in her optimistic debut sf novel. Earth's first and only attempt to launch a colony spaceship failed 20 years ago when the entire 203-person crew vanished at the moment its dark-matter engine was engaged. Attempting to solve the mystery, Cleo and her three best friends break into the abandoned ship and accidentally reactivate the engine, launching the craft on its original seven-year mission to a habitable planet. Now wielding strange new abilities to manipulate space and time and aided by a holographic replica of the ship's irascible captain, Billie (whom Cleo finds annoyingly sexy), the friends devise a plan to get back home to Earth . . . until the same forces that prevented the ship's first mission interfere. This book will appeal to readers of hopepunk by authors like Becky Chambers and to folks who will appreciate its diverse queer representation and the loving friendship dynamic at the book's center.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2024
      When a group of friends sneak into an abandoned spaceship, it inexplicably roars to life and takes them on a journey to another solar system. It's the year 2061. Cleo McQueary, Abe Yang, Kaleisha Reid, and Ros Wheeler are now young adults, but they were children at the time of the infamous Providence I disaster. The Providence I was a feat of human engineering, featuring the top-secret dark matter engine that would take a group of 203 colonists to another solar system. But when the dark matter engine fired up for the first time, every last one of them vanished. The corporation that built Providence I never discovered what happened to them, and the world was so traumatized by the mass disappearance that they left the spaceship to sit on the launchpad, fully abandoned. Cleo and her friends, all trained scientists with various specialties, sneak onto the neglected ship with the goal of finding evidence that might help explain the colonists' disappearance. But simply touching the dark matter engine brings it to life, and soon they're soaring through space on their way to a far-off planet, with no hope of rescue. The mystery of the Providence I colonists is a tantalizing start to what soon becomes more of a romance and friendship-focused story than an SF mystery. If some readers find that change a little disappointing, they still have a compelling SF action plot to look forward to, as well as an engaging discussion of artificial intelligence from the surprising form taken by the onboard computer. Love finds you in the least expected places, even in other galaxies.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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