This book was okay, but it’s being marketed as space opera, and it’s really an odyssey through a “sufficiently advanced technology” fantasy land, combined with the angst of self-discovery and betrayal, so I had a fair amount of whiplash compared to what I’d expected. The space opera bits are peripheral and not really developed. The tech is largely biological which gives it an unusual - sometimes disgusting - feel.

As a story it’s decent, although the sort of “building oneself up from abject nothingness” tales seem to of necessity involve a bunch of flailing around plotwise. That main characters’s arc has a couple of surprises, yet the ultimate destination seems pretty clear early on. There’s a strong Wizard of Oz feel to it which might be deliberate.

The elements of the story I most enjoyed - the conflict among the different worlds - reminded me strongly of Karl Schroeder’s Virga series, so if that’s what you enjoyed most about Stars, then I recommend that series to you.