Review: Nine of Stars, Laura Bickle

Let’s take a look at Laura Bickle’s newest book, Nine of Stars, and see what we liked and didn’t like about it in terms of prose and more.

As someone who has a not-so-secret penchant for urban fantasy, the general look and feel of Laura Bickle’s Nine of Stars appealed to me pretty much from the word go. What makes it even better is that the series actually involves alchemy as opposed to your more standard witches, werewolves, or vampires. Alchemists need love too, you know!

Nine of Stars features geologist Petra Dee, the now-human Gabriel Manget, and the definitely-not-just-a-coyote Sig as they try to defeat Skinflint Jack, a once-human, now basically a ghost who also happens to have stag horns, because just a regular ghost would be too easy. Of course, the law’s also hot on the trail of Gabe, with the local sheriff wanting to speak to him about a certain case of murder.

However, this book also tends to bill itself as the first in a new series, and that doesn’t work quite as well for me. Yours truly gives Nine of Stars 3.5/5 stars, based on its mythology and characterization. It’s rather good, in other words.

The Good

I know I referred to this book as “urban fantasy” about two paragraphs up, but the book actually takes place out in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, close to Yellowstone National Park. I’ve seen the term “weird West” thrown around in relation to this book, and honestly, it’s about the most accurate genre when it comes to talking about Nine of Stars. Bickle’s prose really shines in its descriptions of atmosphere and setting overall, unsurprisingly enough.

As for the mythology of the novel itself, the general idea of focusing on alchemy works in particular. One of the best sequences in the book actually revolves around a trip to the spirit world, and everything seems to work when there’s magic being discussed. Nine of Stars also incorporates Skin-walker mythology surrounding a pack of wolves. Unsurprisingly, the title actually refers to a character within the novel — beyond that, we won’t spoil much.

In terms of character usage, I actually found myself enjoying the sections narrated by Gabriel and the local sheriff, Owen, more than Petra’s. Since Gabriel is actually over a hundred years old, he brings a certain knowledge of the local weirdness to the table. Owen serves as more of an antagonist within the novel, but he has some interesting issues of his own, ones I found particularly engaging considering the general conventions of the genre.

The Not-So-Good

To illustrate the following point, I will link you to the Amazon page for this book. Up top, you’ll see that Nine of Stars is the first Wildlands novel. In much smaller type below, you’ll see that it’s also the third book of the Dark Alchemy series. It’s definitely more the latter than the former. You certainly can start here. However, starting here is a bit like walking in midway through an episode of Supernatural from the season after you quit watching. (My apologies to anyone who still watches Supernatural, but it seemed like the best comparison.)

You’re left trying to figure out what’s already happened while still following the actual plot. Most of the time, Nine of Stars does just fine at filling in enough of the blanks to let you keep going. However, I had the general sense that I was still missing a few things.

On a smaller, slightly less important point, the novel also incorporates adult language weirdly. This is a standard of the general urban fantasy novel. It’s not that I mind seeing them used in print. Rather, it’s more how Bickle uses them, because the prose keeps things pretty clean. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a burst of swear words. It actually shook me out of the reading experience.

The Recommendation

To summarize, Nine of Stars really works well with its mythology, its setting, and its use of characters. However, it works far better as the third book in a series rather than a book that has two prequel novels. My recommendation is to go read Dark Alchemy and Mercury Retrograde first, then swing back around to this one.

Next: 12 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books We Want to Read in 2017

You can find Nine of Stars in both print and electronic form.