It might come as a surprise but I hadn't heard anything about Mark Lawrence and his previous works until very recently which is strange because this author has published twelve books prior to The Girl and The Stars among which the Broken Empire trilogy and the Book of the Ancestor trilogy are heavily praised by fantasy readers. And after reading The Girl and The Stars, first instalment in the Book of the Ice, I realize that I should have read one of his previous trilogies as an introduction to Mark Lawrence's universe; especially when The Girl and The Stars is undoubtedly connected with his earlier works.
I do think that Mark Lawrence is a phenomenal writer. He definitely knows how to hook his readers and he has a gift for creating a real sense of place. Indeed, as I was reading The Girl and The Stars, I felt more and more claustrophobic being in a pitch black pit with hundreds of caves occasionally lit by little shiny stones/rocks. I was thrown into this harsh desolated dying planet where only the strong can survive and the "broken" are discarded from society. And in all honesty, the setting is what kept me so interested in the book. I wanted to to know more about this world, about the magic and many other elements present within the story but I didn't end up getting much answers or, at least, some beginnings of an answer (p.s: this book ends on a cliffhanger).
Yaz, a sixteen-year-old young woman, member of the Ictha tribe, is an undeniably well-written strong female protagonist but I had trouble understanding some aspects of her character evolution: first, regarding her moral standards, she loves telling others what's right and what's wrong while she herself uses manipulative techniques onto others to obtain what she wants, and second, regarding her relation to magic which, in my opinion, was more based on innate talent than an actual learning process (I think it is important to add that there doesn't seem to have any real consequences in using such powers). Moreover, I didn't find that the secondary characters had real defined personality traits or even depth which rendered them easily forgettable. This makes me think that The Girl and The Stars would have gained in having fewer characters as it may have helped provide a better understanding of each of these characters, their beliefs and their view of the world they were pushed into. Also, I do believe that the introduction of a love square in the second half of the story really impacted the pacing of the book (but I'm probably biased here as I'm not a huge fan of love triangles to begin with and love squares even less of a fan) in a negative way.
I have yet to decide if I will continue with Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ice series. I did love the first half of the book, the world, the magic and the themes made me invested in the story. However, the second half of The Girl and The Stars had me feel completely disengaged from the story and the characters due to certain factors which contributed in slowing down the pace as well as in making the action redundant.
Lawrence, M. The Girl and the Stars, London, Harper Voyager, 2020.