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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
To Avenge a Fallen Star by Qilanna Quinn follows Gemma Proctor, a miner on the planet Reva, who enters the Oranos Trials—a government program that takes twenty-year-olds to the capital city of Zion, and subjects them to public elimination tests in exchange for military placement and permanent citizenship. Rami, the authority of the Trials and the man Gemma believes caused her sister’s death, makes her participation in the Trials the only way to get to Rami, so she can assassinate him. As Gemma survives injuries, shifting alliances, and enforced loyalty rituals, her original objective collides with what she learns when her plans collapse. What begins as a targeted act of revenge becomes a fight to uncover who engineered a massive deception, and block a scheme that would destroy the lives of those with no power to escape it.
To Avenge a Fallen Star by Qilanna Quinn is an excellent science fiction novel, with an incredibly strong female lead protagonist in Gemma, and a series of twists that I absolutely did not see coming. From its onset, Quinn's world-building is linked to a materially grounded society on Reva, where labor systems and political power are inseparable. Quinn completely ups the ante with the trials. Gemma is a force of strength, completing trials like a tunnel obstacle course with multiple fractures. Even then, medical robots repair her with nanotechnology and return her to the trials, treating her survival as a metric and not a moral event. I love that Quinn uses these scenes in a dramatic display of Gemma's ability. Quinn masterfully demonstrates this again when a choice must be made among the contestants, taking even more agency away in a system that successfully converts survival into collective complicity. With sharp, intelligent writing and snowballing action, I am excited to see what Quinn gives us in book two of this new series. Very highly recommended.
