“The Blighted Stars” by Megan E. O’Keefe

I’ve been vaguely aware of Megan E. O’Keefe as a person out there writing speculative fiction, but she’s never really been on my radar, let alone my TBR. After reading the first of her new series, The Devoured Worlds, I’m very interested in reading more of her stuff.

This is a science fiction story, set a few centuries in the future. Humanity’s existence is shaped by an unobtanium mineral called relkatite that both enables FTL travel, and lets people circumvent death (at least for a while). Relkatite implants allow for a person to have their consciousness uploaded to the cloud upon death, and then downloaded into a freshly printed body - assuming someone is willing and able to pay for it, of course.

The other thing that’s going on in this universe is the “shroud.” This is a fungus that destroys ecosystems on a planetary scale. Once the shroud appears on a planet, it’s only a matter of time until the shroud is the only living thing left. Which brings us to our two protagonists. Tarquin Mercator is the son of the man who leads the conglomerate that has a monopoly on relkatite mining. Naira Sharp was formerly Tarquin’s dad’s bodyguard, but told the world that the shroud was a byproduct of relkatite mining, and that the Mercators were covering it up. This was publicly refuted (largely based on Tarquin’s expert testimony), Sharp was stripped of her rights, and her consciousness was uploaded and locked away.

The story is set on a new world the Mercators have just discovered, and are preparing for relkatite extraction and initial colonization. The mission goes wrong, and Tarquin and Naira (who isn’t sure how she ended up being printed into a new body) are both stranded on the surface - which is already nothing but the shroud, despite mining not having begun yet.

This is one part survival story, one part romance, and probably 3 parts mystery as Tarquin and Naira come to know and rely upon each other, gradually find out just how much they don’t understand, and the scope of what is going on and what the stakes are.

I devoured this (with a few pauses along the way because I was dreading reading the next chapter due to what I was afraid was about to happen) and am pretty much desperate for book 2.