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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Diana A. Hicks’s Reign of Silver & Stardust: Stardust Trilogy Book 1, at twenty-three, Catalina Sterling is a mortal cadet aboard the Epoch, a mothership traveling between Aeterna, home of the immortals, and Veridia, the Old Planet. For months, Catalina has dreamed of a green-eyed stranger dying on Veridia, although she has never met him. When her immortal twin sister Ry takes her planetside during a mission for the Queen’s Elite Cadre, Aeterna’s immortal army, Catalina becomes separated from the unit and reaches the Wharf District alone. There she meets Valorek Dar, the stranger from her dreams, whose community lives under Aeternan rule. Valorek hides Catalina from soldiers searching the marina after recognizing her military uniform. Catalina must find her way back to Ry as the unexplained connection between her and Valorek draws them closer.
Diana A. Hicks’s Reign of Silver & Stardust is an incredible dark romantasy with an ambitious futuristic world. Catalina’s relationship with Valorek has genuine heart, with mutual respect giving their forbidden romance a solid foundation. Each person first sees the other as a person. That appears when Valorek offers Catalina his hand after she chooses to dance at a workers’ gathering. The world-building is massive, with Aeterna’s social divide shaping where people sleep. Workers share six bunks in the yellow quadrant, whereas QEC officers have private rooms in the red quadrant. The descriptive writing is superb, with Aeterna presented on a scale that reaches far beyond the city. You see that in clouds against its crimson sky above miles of red Barren Vallis desert beyond the city walls. Readers drawn to forbidden love across rival worlds are in for a real treat with this exciting first book in the Stardust Trilogy. Very highly recommended.
