This book is for the reviews of the stories submitted to via the now-obsolete Pink Alpaca Reads. Beware: honest opinions ahead.
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One morning the sun rises a few hours early, striking levitating skyscrapers in Soliara ahead of schedule. People in the streets stop to look up at the sky and then down at their watches. Most of them, puzzled but disbelieving, adjust the hour on their timepieces, hoping they aren't late for meetings.
Constellation invented magic. It fuels Soliara's stellar teleportation system, rapid civil expansion, and skyscrapers that soar. After a takeover at Constellation, elite executives control the power of the stars. The son of a wealthy exec, Cristo feels entitled to a better future.
To most, the early sunrise is the only indicator that today is any different from those that came before it. To some, it is a portent of their fears that an empire at its pinnacle has no way to go but down. To Cristo, the sign couldn't be clearer. He is the perfect candidate to change the results of the takeover at the Constellation company, but the early dawn is telling him to stop.
"If the world didn't want to change, it should never have allowed him to speak." Words and magic compete for power in Soliara, an empire full of magicians who can channel the magic of the stars.
Welcome to a novel in the Constellations universe.
Review Proper
A. Blurb
The blurb perfectly sets up the premise and the initial state of disturbance of the book. It tells us immediately that there is something wrong. It introduces us to the world and finally, to one of the main characters.
One note I have though is that the blurb does not focus on the main conflict of the book but rather on the apparent rising of the sun earlier than expected. Having read the whole book, I feel that there is some sort of disjunct from the main meat of the story and this blurb. It doesn't have the hook, if you get what I mean.
The blurb talked about much but it doesn't talk about the things that mattered most for the story.
One improvement on that is to keep all the worldbuilding details short and at the beginning of the blurb. That should be enough to establish that the setting is not anywhere on earth and instead on your own world. Another is to center that to a single character, in your case, you used Cristo. So, focus on him and try to write the blurb from his perspective without the clutter from other perspectives.
Lastly, the last line that should have packed a punch, as well as a hook, is not quite there.
B. Setting
I looooooooove the worldbuilding of this one. It is not dumped in your face. There are no dialogue expositions anywhere but I was able to grasp the world, the circumstance, and the setting just fine. That is a very, very good job done!
