Star Mother by Charlie Holmberg

Perhaps my mind was on overload from too much time in Ender's world, but unfortunately, Holmberg was not able to alleviate my reading ennui this time. Star Mother ended up being some pretty heavy metaphysical reading too. I bit off a bit more than I could mentally chew at the time, which caused me to take more time than usual to finish the whole novel.  

After I did finish, I was left with a stalemate on how to review the novel. One, I may not have approached it from the best head space, and I know how that affects a novel. Two, I had a hefty reading slump that delayed me sitting down at the keyboard. In full honesty, I am aware this is not the best foundation for a review, but here it goes.

The story itself was a bit clunky. Holmberg does not often write intense fantasy. They are more clean romance with a slight fantasy twist.  Star Mother was a new approach. Attempts at elements of epic fantasy novels were there (struggle between two powers, a protagonist searching for answers), but the pacing never flowed like an epic. I did not find myself inclined to pick up Star Mother and just read for hours at a time. 

It felt more like an epic in the vein of a Greek tragedy--Hades and Persephone come to mind. Plenty of sacrifice and tragic faults. Gods and demigods. Epic actual battle between the sun and moon that is tearing apart Earth. Women chosen once in a generation to become star mothers to maintain the power balance. 

I enjoyed many of the mystical elements, but something about the story just never hooked me. The more I think about writing this, the more I realize the romance is the odd man out. The epic elements all worked, it was the romance that turned my focus away. That part just felt typecast like all the other romances from Holmberg.