The Actual Star

A Novel

by Monica Byrne

hardcover, 624 pages

Published Sept. 13, 2021 by Harper Voyager.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-300289-0

(3 reviews)

The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents —telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle.

Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne ofa Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change.

In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate—until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.

The Actual Star is a feast of ideas about where …

The Actual Star is a feast of ideas about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where we’re going—and how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together.

2 editions

Alex Cabe reviewed The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

Deeply and Passionately Researched, Woven Together Brilliantly

5 stars

You could tell throughout that the author had thoroughly researched Belize and had a deep passion for the culture. The book tells three stories: past, present, and future, and weaves them together both plot-wise and thematically. The twins that were reincarnated throughout the timelines weren't always likeable, but were always compelling.

The future track had some elements that recalled the Culture novels. It did a great job of exploring how currently technology may evolve in a post-capitalist society.

Makes me dream about going to Belize and seeing the ATM cave myself.

Ending was a little bit sudden, but mostly satisfying.

joachim@lire.boitam.eu reviewed The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

Engaging and enjoyable

4 stars

Three successive stories, told in interwoven chapters. Three visions of what Maya culture was, is and could be. One tale could be read like mesoamerican fantasy, one like contemporary magical realism and one like the best kind of utopian science fiction.

alx@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

A real achievement

5 stars

This novel alternates between three connected timelines, each separated by 1000 years from the next, each on the cusp of social (and environmental) change.

The future timeline is set in a utopian (though by no means perfect) global nomadic society, organised around principles of mutual aid. It's refreshing to see a vision of how humankind might adapt positively to the challenges facing us, even as some of the fault lines in that vision are exposed over the course of the story.

The other timelines are just as vividly drawn, and feel researched and sensitively written. All three are deftly woven into the greater whole, and I found reading the chapters in blocks (one for each timeline) helped me appreciate the connections being drawn across all three.

This will definitely be going onto my to-reread pile, as I'm sure there's a whole lot that I've missed on my first pass through. …

This novel alternates between three connected timelines, each separated by 1000 years from the next, each on the cusp of social (and environmental) change.

This will definitely be going onto my to-reread pile, as I'm sure there's a whole lot that I've missed on my first pass through.

Things to be aware of: this book is pretty bloody in some places, and horny as hell in others.