"Spinning Starlight" by R.C. Lewis

I got an advanced e-book of this novel from Netgalley for review. The book is coming out next Tuesday, October 6th, 2015. This is a companion novel to Stitching Snow by the same author, but as far as I know you do not have to read one in order to pick up the other. I had not read the first novel, but heard really good things about it, so was super excited to review Spinning Starlight.

This is a sci-fi retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans. I am not familiar with the original fairy tale so cannot really say how the two relate. I did, however, enjoy Spinning Starlight very much. The book is set on a technologically advanced planet where humans enjoy instantaneous interplanetary travel, everyone gets around by hovercraft and celebrities are pursued by ubiquitous vid-cams.

The main heroine Liddi will soon inherit a huge technology firm (JTI) where 8 of her older brothers work on developing tech innovations. Their parents died in an accident when Liddi was only 6 years old. Unlike her brothers, Liddi has not shown any particular talent in technology development, and instead is known throughout the seven planets (or as they call them "the seven points") as a socialite and party goer. What she does not know is that the conduits through which interplanetary travel occurs are rapidly failing, and JTI scientists including her brothers are desperately trying to repair them. Liddi finally learns that her brothers are trapped in the network of conduits and someone is trying to keep her from going public about this.

I flew through the book in 3 days. It is very well written and even with all the technology descriptions, it does not get tedious or boring. I rated it at 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to all who like fairy tale retellings and sci-fi.