Starcaster

Author: Shana Shaheen

The Time Train, Book One

Book Title: Starcaster

4 ⭐

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, YA, Science Fiction, Time Travel.

Hello, dearies! 🌌

I finished this one as quickly as I could, not because I wanted to get it over with but because I had Starcaster on my TBR since forever.

It was a great read, and I recommend it. ☄️

Why is it 4? Because I was not lost in it and constantly thinking about it. I was curious, and Shana is a storyteller for sure, but as the story winded down, I knew exactly what would happen at the end of it, I knew that I would be left hanging and it would end in a cliffhanger just as they were getting to the good part.

I know, this first part, Starcaster, was about how it all starts and what happened to get the characters to where they will be in the present or where they are headed, but I wanted more to it. I feel bad for giving 4, but I know it should feel like a 5.

I must say though that Starcaster helped me out during a difficult time, and it was a great read to get lost. When reading it, I could imagine myself on the train and away, so thank you, Shana. You always know how to make people believe in other worlds, as she did with the D rakon series.

Now some notes I took from the book while reading it. Spoilers are coming next, don’t read if you don’t want to see snippets from the book.

Starcaster notes

“The sky blazed with that perfect sapphire sharpness that only came with this time of year. Sapphire sky; golden wheat. I loved autumn.”

“Relativity. Time dilation.” Sure, sure, the explanation.

“I enter first. Wood paneling the color of maple syrup; thick rugs patterned in sage green, cranberry, plum. More brass”

“Inside the box are eight little robo fireflies, resting in the shape of a heart.”

“He’d been looking for his fallen star and had gotten a girl instead.”

“There’s an image of a young woman on the cover, a magnifying glass held up in one hand. Red’s expression is utterly engrossed; she turns a page. Her tongue pokes out to wet her lips and I wonder why she doesn’t have a LitPad, like everyone else. Maybe paper books carry more prestige with this crowd.”

This is the coolest, and if you read the book, you’ll know more context about why it’s cool…

‘”Lone Boy,” she greeted him. It was the same all-encompassing, semi-affectionate title she’d bestowed upon him since the day he’d entered the world.’

‘”Well, you look beautiful,” he says, and smiles.’

Shana is trying to make me smile and cry.

‘As far as I can tell, I am the last to go. And I still don’t want to.’

As I knew she would be.

“A fragment of the Bright Times finally falling to earth?”

I knew what it was by this line, it was all building up.

“he couldn’t, and he hated the sick bastards who’d thought up these spells,”

And I knew after reading this part that this book would end up in a cliffhanger.

Shana has a way with words, and she manages to convey a scene, to describe it explicitly that it’s almost seamless. I like that.

That’s it for now, dearies! Thank you for sticking to the end. I hope you will read it, for real. I think you should. This is book one in this series, and from Shana’s site, I know there will be a sequel, but it’s not published yet. The wait will be long though, but what can we do?

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Happy Reading! 🛸