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Navigating The Stars Paperback – 19 November 2018
Maria V. Snyder (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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2019 PRISM Award Winner: Young Adult Category
Year 2471. A new discovery. Those three words thrill my parents – the galaxy's leading archaeologists – but for me, it means another time jump to a different planet. One so big, my friends will be older than my dad when we arrive. And I'll still be seventeen. Thanks, Einstein.
I really can't blame Einstein, though. No one expected to find life–sized terracotta warriors buried on other planets. So off we go to investigate, traveling through space and time. With my social life in ruins, I fill my days illegally worming into the quantum net – the invention that allows us to travel in space. Of course the only person close to my age is a hot–but–pain–in–the–neck security officer who threatens to throw me into the brig.
But when one of the warrior planets goes silent, we have bigger problems on our hands. The planet's entire population might be dead. And now my worming skills, along with a translation of an ancient alien artefact, might be the key to finding out why. But my attempts to uncover the truth lead to the discovery of a deadly new alien phenomenon, and also alert those who wish to keep it quiet. The galaxy is in real danger and time is not on our side…
A page–turning story of courage and determination in the face of the unknown.
PRAISE for Maria V. Snyder:
'YA with a pretty strong romantic thread and HUGE adult crossover appeal. The plot is fantastic, the pacing spectacular, the intricacies, the snark, the banter...oh my! Go, go, go. You'll love this!' Amanda Bouchet, USA Today bestselling author of The Kingmaker Chronicles.
'Smart, witty and full of heart, Navigating the Stars had me hooked from the very first page!' – Lynette Noni, bestselling author of Weapon & The Medoran Chronicles
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHQ Young Adult AU
- Publication date19 November 2018
- Reading age14 years and up
- Dimensions12.9 x 3.3 x 19.7 cm
- ISBN-101489252746
- ISBN-13978-1489252746
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Product description
About the Author
When Maria V. Snyder was younger, she aspired to be a storm chaser in the American Midwest so she attended Pennsylvania State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology. Much to her chagrin, forecasting the weather wasn't in her skill set so she spent a number of years as an environmental meteorologist, which is not exciting...at all. Bored at work and needing a creative outlet, she started writing fantasy and science fiction stories. Over twenty novels and numerous short stories later, Maria's learned a thing or three about writing. She's been on the New York Times bestseller list, won a dozen awards, and has earned her Masters of Arts degree in Writing from Seton Hill University, where she is now a faculty member.
Her favorite color is red. She loves dogs, but is allergic, instead she has a big black tom cat named...Kitty (apparently naming cats isn't in her skill set either). Maria also has a husband and two children who are an inspiration for her writing when they aren't being a distraction. Note that she mentions her cat before her family. When she's not writing she's either playing volleyball, traveling, or taking pictures. Being a writer, though, is a ton of fun. Where else can you take fencing lessons, learn how to ride a horse, study martial arts, learn how to pick a lock, take glass blowing classes and attend Astronomy Camp and call it research? Maria will be the first one to tell you it's not working as a meteorologist.
Readers are welcome to check out her website for book excerpts, free short stories, maps, blog, and her schedule at MariaVSnyder.com.
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Product details
- Publisher : HQ Young Adult AU (19 November 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1489252746
- ISBN-13 : 978-1489252746
- Reading age : 14 years and up
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 3.3 x 19.7 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 60,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

When Maria V. Snyder was younger, she aspired to be a storm chaser so she attended Pennsylvania State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology. Much to her chagrin, forecasting the weather wasn’t in her skill set so she spent a number of years as an environmental meteorologist, which is not exciting ... at all. Bored at work and needing a creative outlet, she started writing fantasy and science fiction stories. Over twenty novels and numerous short stories later, Maria’s learned a thing or three about writing. She’s been on the New York Times bestseller list, won a dozen awards, and has earned her Master of Arts degree in Writing from Seton Hill University, where she is now a faculty member for their MFA program.
When she’s not writing she’s either playing volleyball or traveling (she's been to 65 countries so far and has no plans to stop!). Being a writer, though, is a ton of fun. Where else can you take fencing lessons, learn how to ride a horse, study martial arts, learn how to pick a lock, take glass blowing classes, and attend Astronomy Camp and call it research? Maria will be the first one to tell you it’s not working as a meteorologist. Readers are welcome to check out her website for book excerpts, free short stories, maps, blog, and her schedule at www.MariaVSnyder.com.
Customer reviews
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Top reviews from Australia
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None of the characters were terribly realistic. Lyra comes across as a thirteen year old, rather than the supposed 17 she is. She pouts constantly. Everything she tackles she is amazingly good at. She makes more archaeological breakthroughs than her parents, the experts. She hacks the Q-net in a 'unique' manner, getting it to do things that no one else has ever thought to ask it (Say what now????) Oh, and she is pretty much an army of one - much more effective than an entire security squadron - yeah, that's not incredulous at all.
Her parents gave me whiplash. Their complete disregard for their daughter's mental health was breathtaking in their selfishness. But then they play the parent card and are suddenly all affectionate and worried. Not once did they say sorry, or even have a conversation about how Lyra might feel having to leave her friends constantly (because of travel space times in a few short weeks most of them will be dead).
Then there is Niall, the love interest. Actually - he is the only possible choice she has. Not a single other male exists within her age range on this trip so... yeah, what a shocker they got together. They initially dislike each other, but time and circumstances (shockingly) change all that. And Frog and Toad? (I threw up a little in my mouth every time they used those terms of endearment)
Still, this managed two stars, mainly because the terracotta warrior aspect of the story was so cool - but I honestly feel the author could have used that hook for a whole different cast of characters and a way better more layered storyline much more effectively.
The story starts with 17 year old Lyra arguing with her archaeologist parents about travelling to a new planet from the one where they are currently stationed. Space travel technology causes a ‘time dilation’, meaning during the journey she will age only a few months while everyone else not on the spacecraft ages years. That is, when they arrive on the next planet, all her friends from their current posting will be around 50 and she’ll still be 17.
I liked both these ideas - the time discrepancy causing friends and family to make some tough choices, and the inclusion of the terracotta warriors. But there were some other ideas I wasn’t so fussed on.
The Qnet being one. Lyra is a ‘wormer’, which is basically a hacker. She ‘worms’ her way through the vast internet type system to solve a couple of the mysteries surrounding the warriors. I don’t think the net really made sense. It was this all encompassing key to everything in everyone’s life and yet it was illegal to go onto it. There are a couple of scenes when it’s explained to Lyra why she shouldn’t ‘worm’ but, overall, it doesn’t seem logical that the government/corporations of the day could be so easily compromised by teenagers. It also didn’t make sense that Lyra would be able to use the net to work things out that no other scientist around the universe could with just a couple of wriggles of her mouse.
I rarely read young adult books and Navigating the Stars never made me want to rush out and correct this imbalance. (The fact that teenagers are always the ones to save planets/universes etc usually elicits memories of hilarious memes mocking the genre.) The romantic storyline catering to a young female audience was predictable and actually really quite awkward at times. But the thing that *really* annoyed me was Lyra’s way of speaking. Okay, I’m not expecting writers to come up with a whole new language for their characters but I really don’t think teenagers will be using the same slang in the 2400s as they do in the 2000s. They don’t even use the same slang they did 5 years ago, for goodness sake.
There are a couple of mystery plots, some better than others. I really liked the one featuring the disappearance of an entire planet's inhabitants; the whereabouts and fate of all the scientists and archaeologists being unknown. I also enjoyed the question of who built the warriors, and when and why. The mystery plot speculating on the identity of the head of the criminal gang attacking the planet to loot the warriors, however, was far too obvious and it wasn’t even the best reveal.
I don’t think hardcore scifi fans would be too impressed. I guess it could be a nice introduction to the genre but, truly, I think the target audience is younger women who don't usually read scifi.
I had slated the remaining books of this trilogy into my book challenges for the year and I’ll probably still read them; I’m hoping I might enjoy the sequels a little more (as Lyra grows up and Snyder doesn’t need to explain the universe as much), fingers crossed. 3 out of 5
Navigating the Stars features, but is not limited to, the following themes:
○ Young Adult
○ Science Fiction
○ Enemies to lovers
○ Interstellar travel
○ Terracotta army
○ Hacking
○ Advanced technology
My overall rating for Navigating the Stars is…
5 Stars!
I am ready to explore the universe! Wow! This book offers incredible possibilities and a unique, futuristic galaxy; I could not put this book down! Snyder has certainly outdone herself with this book, which took her out of her comfort zone of fantasy and deep into the infinity of space. Young or old, familiar and stranger to science fiction; I recommend this book to anyone interested in a cosmic chance!
Top reviews from other countries

So follow my train of logic and you'll see why I'm baffled. In this universe space travel has a time dilation effect which means that a space ship travels for three months but arrives forty-five years after it departs. As a consequence our heroine when we first meet her is both seventeen (physical age) and one hundred and thirty+ (elapsed years since she was born.) Okay. I can deal with that. It's an interesting twist and Snyder does some interesting things with it. But at the outset of the book, space travel has been around for about four hundred years. So if you assume a space ship is active a moderate 50% of each year with maybe ninety years elapsing for each year (2 x 3month voyages as per the journey in the book) then for Niall to have been born and lived seventeen years on a ship - and never lived planetside - he would need to have been born 17 times ninety years in the past - that's about 1500 years plus change. Around the time of William the Conqueror!
And then there's the economics of running a space fleet which gives you a couple of good commutes per ship per century!
And when our heroine is injured and subsequently has to catch-up with her school work there's no reference to the impact of a forty-five year jump in curriculum content. And the character who left home at 18 to go to Earth and will arrive 95 years later... Is that the equivalent of someone who graduated high-school in 1923 rocking up to attend 2018 university?
And while I'm nit-picking, where does the food and water come from? Forty-five years from re-supply you'd think it would be an issue.
This book drove me crazy for the better part of a day. I don't mind suspending belief but it's hard to suspend basic arithmetic.
On the other hand I finished it because the story is well-paced and I liked the characters and I love the idea of a galaxy being guarded by terracotta warriors.

The story follows young Lyra Daniels who is 17AU years old (AU meaning actual years because she travels through space and time – thanks to Einstein’s principles of time travel, a 90 day trip for her, will add 50yrs of time to the ‘real’ universe, so going from point A to B means that everybody else ages by 50yrs, whilst those on the ship only age by 90days – thus the rather confusing Physics aspect of the book at times).
Lyra does not want to go, wanting to stay on her current home of Xinji with her friends (one of the main ones being Lan, who she is planning, or was, to go to University with). However, a new discovery has been made on the planet of Yulin, of Terracotta Warriors, the same that were unearthed in China all those years ago, and have now been found on over 21 newly colonised planets across the Galaxy. Unfortunately (or Fortunately??), for Lyra, her Parents are the preeminent experts in Terracotta Warriors, and have been assigned the lead role in excavation of this new find. Being that Lyra is not an adult, she must go with them.
On this trip, Lyra meets a rather good looking, (but totally unsociable), 17yr old boy called Niall, who calls her out on her ‘Worming’ activities – the term used for hacking what in the future is their internet – known as the Q-Net, and what controls pretty much everything, from communications, to the ships operations. Worming allows Lyra to access things she shouldn’t, and she was taught by a boy called Jarren on Xinji, Jarren being a somewhat expert at it, but also having been caught multiple times.
Upon reaching Yulin, we learn that Niall is to be put off the ship with his father, the Chief of Security on the ship, and now Chief of Security on the Planet. Niall is also a Security Officer in Training.
During the initial stages on the planet, whilst investigating the dig site, Lyra touches a heart that has been found with the Warriors, which then crumbles, coating her arms in some substance.
It is from this point that the story goes from a lesson in physics, a slowly burning romance story, some very clever world building, and an introduction to the various characters, to a full-on action packed thrill ride in which you seriously just can’t stop reading for a minute as you have to know what is going to happen next. Snyder grabs you and takes you on this running, looking over your shoulder expecting to die any second (and some do), absolutely breathtaking, joyride that will leave you at the end sitting there going, where is the next book. If you don’t own it, you will be sitting there at 3am in the morning, trying to buy it.
Lyra Daniels is brilliant, her character is at times naïve, almost irritating in some of the silly decisions she makes in relation to her relationships, but then you remember, she is a 17yr old kid, who has been picked up and bounced from planet to planet, with this weird concept of social time in which they make kids come together for a mandatory period to interact, but it is under the watchful eye of a guardian babysitter, so it can’t be natural. Snyder has created this amazing teenage girl, who is incredibly realistic (I have one, I know), but she is highly intelligent, and responds so well, based on her upbringing. It is very clever.
Snyder’s other characters are equally as well written, from the sullen, shielded, but ultimately looking for friendship or love Niall, to the utterly broken Chief, to the Fiercely overprotective Parents (the Mother is just brilliant), and each of the security officers are wonderful. Jarren is masterful.
Whilst the physics is a little difficult, maybe not quite right, overcooked for some, too difficult for others, as a whole, the world building is not only beautiful, it is incredibly well done, and creates the perfect environment for each of the different storylines that take place.
Ultimately, this is one of the more impressive stories I have read this year, easily one of the most extraordinary, compelling, and creative stories I have read in this genre I have read in years. It is one that anyone who has any interest in Sci-Fi, regardless of your different tilt (Mi/Space Opera/etc etc) will not only get something out of, but will utterly love. Do yourself a favour and get into it.

The intrigue and plot twists are fantastic. I love these characters and world. It has been fascinating. Highly recommend.