LitPick Review
Digging in the Stars is an exciting young adult novel that follows the story of Carter, a sixteen-year-old Archeology of Outer Space major, as she and her class journey to the mysterious planet Thror. An excellent student, she is her professor's TA and put in charge of making reservations for the class’s expedition to the planet Magnus for an archeology apprenticeship. While making the reservations, she is distracted by the memory of her missing friend, Conrad. He left suddenly after a fight between them. Fearing what may have happened to him, Carter gets tickets to Thror instead of Magnus.
When photographs from Conrad’s camera reveal what may be the tomb of the last king of Thror and the overly-friendly natives increase in hostility, Carter and the class launch an excavation in a forbidden zone, revealing hidden clues and coded messages. This mystery may be much deeper than they imagined.
Opinion:
At first, Digging in the Stars seemed like it would be a fast-paced page turner. And at some points, it was. For the most part, though, I found that it moved rather slow. This was a book that was hard for me to get into and I could easily put down; that doesn’t happen very much for me, so it was a little disheartening. The author’s writing was a bit confusing to follow, and sections were either long and a bit boring or short and chock-full of information. The story itself dragged a little and the ending was rushed and over before I was entirely sure what happened.
All that said, the book decently enjoyable. Blakely’s character descriptions were detailed, and they came alive in my mind, and she still left room for the reader to create their own imaginative facts for them. Professor P, for example, is a passionate, headstrong female character with witty remarks and a protective streak a mile wide. She’s an independent woman who “don’t need no man!”
I loved that Blakely used legitimate archeology facts throughout the book, and that really added to the futuristic feel of being in the year 2222.
Overall, I thought the book was okay. Not particularly great but not terrible either. Katherine Blakely could’ve gone very far with the ideas presented. Archeology in space is an absolutely fantastic idea that had a lot of potential, but I don’t believe she went all the way with it. Yes, there was a lot of mystery and a good handful of surprises, but most characters (especially side ones) were flat, and subplots were left undeveloped.
