Digging In The Stars by Katherine Blakeney

Title: Digging In The Stars

Author: Katherine Blakeney

Pages: 368

Genre: Sci-Fi

Format: E-book

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Goodreads synopsis:

“A lost ancient civilization and the tomb of a legendary king lie buried beneath centuries of ash on the volcanic planet Thror, but that’s not the only reason sixteen-year-old Carter has tricked her Archaeology of Outer Space class into coming here. Her best friend Conrad has just disappeared on a trip to Thror, leaving behind little more than a broken vintage camera. The strange and disturbing photographs she manages to extract make her suspect Conrad’s disappearance is somehow connected to the hidden tomb of the last king of Thror.

Unfortunately, the ludicrously over-friendly ‘Furry Giants’ who have taken over the planet’s barren surface would rather offer her cheap souvenirs than answers, and the local officials insist they have no record of Conrad’s existence. Inspired by fear for Conrad’s life and the chance to make the greatest archaeological discovery of the century, Carter and her friends follow Conrad’s footsteps deep into the mountains of Thror’s forbidden Black Zone and launch an illicit excavation.

Coded messages, stunning ancient ruins, and clues left by Conrad himself begin to surface as the young archaeologists fall victim to an alarming series of accidents staged by the increasingly hostile Furry Giants. Piecing together a history of dictatorship, terrorism and disguise, Carter glimpses the horrors beyond Thror’s flamboyant façade and startling revelations about the friend she thought she knew. The masks of Thror hide devastating secrets, and the golden tomb buried deep in the frozen core may claim the lives of everyone she loves.”

My review:

Thank you to Blaze Publishing for allowing me to read and review this. I was excited to read this because it had such an intriguing plot and included some “mysterious history”. Unfortunately, I was a tiny bit let down by this book but I still like it – just not as much as I was hoping to.

The first few chapters had me hooked. I wanted to know more about the world, about Carter and Conrad and about Thror. Especially when the crew landed on Thror, I wanted to see some action, something that screams out “interesting” to me. But alas, that did not happen. Not much happened, other than some arguing between the crew and with the Throrians. So I lost interest in it. But then it picked up again when the case of Conrad’s disappearance was brought up.

Honestly, I continued reading this just to find out what happened to Conrad. I was expecting something interesting to have happened, like a kidnapping or a cold murder (I am a nice person, haha). I guess the plot twist at the end did make up for it, I did have a small idea of it but it still took me by surprised.

The world building was good, I could understand what was happening and where. I do hope there is a map in the paperback copy because it would be much easier to visualise where everything is, for me that is.

I honestly found most of this book confusing, the characters and what was happening just confused me and I could only follow on a bit. Like with one of the characters, I still don’t know what her name is and everything.

I felt no connection with any of the characters, and didn’t really care what happened to them. I also felt annoyed at the professor because she kept judging the “furry giants” harshly when they were just trying to be welcoming. Although they were kind of perverted too, the professor could have been nicer.

Overall, I enjoyed some of parts of this book, but it definitely had me confused most of the time. I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you’re really into archaeology and space, although it kind of is a letdown. This story had potential to be amazing but didn’t go for it.