Star's End

Starred review from January 30, 2017
In this skillfully orchestrated tale set nearly 2,000 years in the future, Clarke (The Mad Scientist’s Daughter) foregrounds a family drama of Shakespearean scope against the backdrop of an interplanetary “corpocracy” run by Phillip Coramina, a manufacturer of bioengineered weapons. When Phillip is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he deputizes his oldest daughter, Esme, to call her three estranged stepsisters home to the family estate at Star’s End. As Clarke’s narrative toggles back and forth between these events and occurrences in the past, it reveals sordid secrets that Esme has gradually become aware of—especially those connecting her youngest sister, Isabel, to the Radiance, a mysterious alien influence intimately bound up with the Coramina Group’s commerce. Clarke’s smoothly calibrated mystery is also a coming-of-age tale for Esme, as she accepts her responsibilities as heir apparent to her father’s business. The well-developed characters enhance this novel of grand ideas, bringing relatable human motives and vulnerabilities to a world in which industry, government, warfare, and space travel are inextricably intertwined.

September 1, 2017

The space opera odyssey you didn't know you needed, this is a moving epic about Esme, who as the eldest of four daughters stands to inherit a powerful corporate empire-but at the cost of losing her sisters. Readers learn that Esme and her father, Phillip, have a sinister secret that led to Esme's siblings becoming estranged from the family. This sci-fi blend that alternates between past and present is both a family drama of redemption and a gripping space story. The novel is full of powerful moments of devastation and self-discovery. While there are plenty of familiar sci-fi elements, it is the well-developed cast that will pull readers in. VERDICT With strong characters, gripping action, detailed world-building, and lots of mystery, this title will enthrall science fiction fans, adults and teens alike.-Ashley Selima, Lincoln Public Library, RI

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