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Kameron Hurley
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The Stars Are Legion Kindle Edition

by Kameron Hurley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,218 ratings
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
See all formats and editions
Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution.  As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.

Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation - the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan's new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion's gravity well to the very belly of the world.

Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion's destruction - and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?

In the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune, The Stars are Legion is an epic and thrilling tale about tragic love, revenge, and war as imagined by one of the genre's most celebrated new writers.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    512 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Gallery/Saga Press
  5. Publication date
    February 7, 2017
  6. File size
    2658 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In a universe where the word for spaceship is the same as for world, two women struggle to escape a perpetual war in this dystopic yet hopeful space opera. This gripping book is both hard to read and easy to appreciate." (- STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly)

"One word will do it: Badass." (-- John Scalzi, bestselling author of The Old Man's War series and The Collapsing Empire)

"With mind-bending betrayals, heart-wrenching loves, souls and bodies driven to frenetic motion by war and hope, THE STARS ARE LEGION is a profoundly moving tale of self-discovery and self-construction in a world as wondrously layered as its unforge able protagonist." (— Ken Liu , Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Award winner and author of THE GRACE OF KINGS)

“So, this is chock full of action and fights and battles and betrayals and political intrigue. And those world-ships? They are all biological. Nothing in this fleet is built, it’s all birthed, and there are tentacles and blood and mucous and body fluids everywhere. It’s kind of awesome fun. You should totally read it." (-- Ann Leckie, Hugo award-winning author of Ancillary Justice)

"A sweeping epic about a squad of starships—one that just happens to feature a cast of all female characters." (-- Charlie Jane Anders, Wired)

"Grabs you like a gravity well and won’t let go. This is a dark, haunting, recursive tale, unlike any other space opera with which you’re familiar. Discovering Kameron Hurley’s work is like finding a whole new galaxy, and she is the star at its center." (— Chuck Wendig, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of Star Wars: Aftermath & the Miriam Black series)

“Kameron Hurley has done it: She’s written a true space opera with no men in it. In a genre filled with generic portrayals of space, Hurley’s take is one-of-a-kind: equal parts love story and revenge tale, mixed with adventure science fiction and body horror.” (-- The Washington Post)

"One of the most unusual and powerfully disturbing space operas we're likely to see this year.” (-- Gary K. Wolfe, The Chicago Tribune)

"The Stars Are Legion is like a magnificent storm tearing through the genre." (-- Popular Mechanics)

"Thought provoking space opera." (-- Kirkus Reviews)

"Hurley takes the reader on an exciting and at times breathtaking journey through the world of her creation. This novel is highly recommended for anyone looking for an inventive and engaging science fiction experience." (-- Booklist)

"A mesmerizing read.” (-- Adrian Lang, Omnivoracious)

"A visceral, optimistic mash-up of new, weird, and grimdark science fiction that is a cracking good read. Hurley has really leveled up." (— MaryJo Schimelpfenig , Powell’s Books)

"The Stars Are Legion is poised to be Kameron Hurley's mainstream breakthrough, but apparently no one told her. It's unlike any space opera you’ve ever read—a bizarro blend of New Weird adventure, political thriller, and body horror; and an intimate examination of two deeply damaged women. It’s as visceral and violently angry as anything she's ever written, a ragged scream from the heart of a broken world—but one not past mending, if there are people brave enough to build a better one." (— Joel Cunnigham , B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog)

About the Author

Kameron Hurley is the acclaimed author of the novels God’s War, The Mirror Empire, and The Light Brigade. Hurley has been awarded two Hugo Awards, the Kitschies Award for Best Debut Novel, and has also been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British Science Fiction and Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. Visit the author online at KameronHurley.com or on Twitter at @KameronHurley.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01BKR14LA
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gallery/Saga Press; Reprint edition (February 7, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 7, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2658 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,218 ratings

About the author

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Kameron Hurley

Kameron Hurley

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Kameron Hurley is the author of The Light Brigade, The Stars are Legion and the essay collection The Geek Feminist Revolution, as well as the award-winning God’s War Trilogy and The Worldbreaker Saga. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Gemmell Morningstar Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed and numerous anthologies. Hurley has also written for The Atlantic, Writers Digest, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Bitch Magazine, and Locus Magazine. She posts regularly at KameronHurley.com.

Get a short story delivered to your inbox once a month here: patreon.com/kameronhurley. Or, sign up to be notified of new releases here: bit.ly/hurleysheroes

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
2,218 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jon
4.0 out of 5 stars All Female Space Opera Plus Body Horror
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
About 20% into it, I was prepared to not like this book. The sheer brutality and gruesomeness of the setting and story was jarring and seemed excessive at first. But once I got deeper into the narrative I quickly realized that all of the blood and guts were actually very relavent and necessary to tell the story the way it needed to be told. Go in expecting a Cronenberg level of body horror and you won't be as caught off guard as I was.

Zan is a very strong main character. The amnesia trope is handled pretty well even if the revelations around her origin did seem predicable. Jayd is a character I distrusted and hated very early on and that didn't change throughout the work. I think the reader is meant to both understand her motivations but also disagree with them, but honestly I was just hoping she would get killed off. The secondary characters are all very strong, and that may be one of the greatest strengths of this book. They really flesh out the world and provide a great deal of color and alternative perspectives on the society, its practices, and its cultures. Having an all female cast was also very brave and well executed, and completely suited the themes of the story.

My major complaint with the book was the some of Zan's surprise and repulsion at the cruelty of the setting felt very anachronistic. I couldn't tell whether this was meant to imply that the society she grew up in was less harsh than the one she has found herself in, or whether this was a conceit of the author to try and make it easier for the reader to identify with her. Either way, it really pulled me out of the story at several points because it just felt so out of place.

Overall, I was very surprised how much I grew to like this book in the end, and how long the story stuck with me afterwards. This is unlike anything I've read in the genre in a long time, and definitely worth checking out if you're not too squeamish.
22 people found this helpful
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Ariella
5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, surreal, disturbing
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019
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This book is exceeding difficult to describe succinctly. Roughly, it's about two very damaged, enigmatic women orbiting each other, while trying to save their world as it dies around them. It's a space opera, kinda. It's a romance, only in the loosest sense of the word. It's military sci-fi, a tiny bit. There's hints of magical realism and flavors of grimdark. It's not easily explained, and it really doesn't help that the author is clearly thriving off the ambiguity. She has no desire to provide easy answers. The main character has amnesia, and none of the other character are all that keen on really providing any explanation about their universe or wtf is happening. But it is BEAUTIFUL to read, and the touches of worldbuilding are almost better without heavy-handed explanation. Early in the novel, the protagonist, Zan, notes that her languages words for "ship" and "world" are so similar as to almost be interchangeable. And that tiny detail says so much about this story and the universe it inhabits.

the book won't be for everyone. Aside from the above-mentioned lack of clear answers, the author doesn't ever shy away from the gross stuff, to the point where it borders on body horror. The ship/world- and every world in their galaxy- is ALIVE...the walls pulse, the skin of the surface rots with disease, everything is "recycled" - so desks made of human skin are common sights, and it's heavily implied that their food is made of reprocessed human waste, and human beings. There are levels to the ship- the surface has more of a traditional sci-fi feel, while lowers levels are superstitious and more tribal, and the lowest level has monstrous "recycler" creatures. But it's beautiful too- the imagery is surreal but fascinating, and the world the author has woven is so original and unlike anything I've really seen before.

The book is also super neat in that the world is inhabited only by women, and it's extra enjoyable in that the author certainly does not shy away from female relationships - from friendship, to explicitly lesbian love, and even to the bonds enemies can have for each other. It was a delight reading a story with so many diverse, complicated female characters. The author has no interest in putting women on a pedestal or pretending that an all-female society would be a glorious utopia, but she writes women of incredible depth, nuance, ambiguity, and ambition. Fair warning though: the main characters, Zan and Jayd, are NOT especially likable people. Zan- the more *main* of the main characters, is a little more likable then Jayd, by virtue of her compassion, but she's still violent, aggressive, and hot-tempered. Jayd is intriguing, but calculating, cruel, and ruthless. She also gets less and less sympathetic the more you get to know her history and her many betrayals of Zan.

The author also touches on some really cool themes- what freedom means, bodily autonomy- especially pertaining to control of reproduction, abusive love, and the symbiosis and/or parasitic relationship between the ships and the people onboard. However, while the book certainly tackles these themes head on, it's never feels like it's preaching to the reader.

If the body horror and the unlikable leads don't sound like your cup of tea, then you probably won't enjoy this book that much. But if you're cool with that, then PLEASE give it a read. It's captivating, engaging, and yes, horrific at times. But so worth it.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amy Langille
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully weird
Reviewed in Canada on September 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
I love a great science fiction and this does not disappoint. What is a world? What does it mean to be a mother or a child? What would you sacrifice for someone you love? What would you sacrifice for your world?
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A. C. Teotonio
5.0 out of 5 stars Space Opera in a vast tiny universe
Reviewed in Brazil on January 21, 2020
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Great universe made by the author, just missed more development. It seemed like a first part of a series.
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Enric Naval
5.0 out of 5 stars Mundo completamente nuevo
Reviewed in Spain on November 9, 2020
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Construye un mundo nuevo, sin re-usar estereotipos de ciencia-ficción.

Intenta dar valores "femeninos" a las protaganistas, en lugar de la típica agresividad masculina. Se trata de crear mundos nuevos y de presevar la vida, no de destruir.
One person found this helpful
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ian
4.0 out of 5 stars Organic sci-fi
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
If you want hard sci-fi, it's probably not your gig, but it takes a nice nod towards Jules Verne, and brings together an impressively organic place to be explored, where everything drips and oozes. A wholly female 'crew' reproduce parthenogenetically, giving birth to components and less often children. Wombs are swapped. If it sounds strange, it is strange.

The two interlocking protagonist's stories come together reasonably well. There's a nice air of mystery about the entire book. Perhaps the only disappointment is that more about the Legion and its purpose isn't revealed.
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carlo arrighi
2.0 out of 5 stars Nessuna novità
Reviewed in Italy on November 17, 2018
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Fantascienza classica non scritta benissimo solo girata al femminile: non mi sembra una grande novità. E poi avere donne che sparano e che combattono è poi questa grande emancipazione e questo gran vantaggio? Una questione che per me rimane dubbia. Sono abbastanza sicuro invece che il romanzo sia mediocre.
One person found this helpful
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