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What is love? That is the central question Emily Hamilton’s new science fiction novel The stars too lovingly. Cleo McQueary has a hard time opening up to people. She has her three best friends, Kaleisha, Abe and Ros, and that’s all. They are her family and all she needs. Well, her and technology. Cleo loves engineering and technology more than anything. Maybe even more than her friends (just kidding…maybe). But then a freak accident happens and she finds herself rocketing through space (literally) with her three best friends and the AI piloting the ship. Cleo bonds with the AI more than she ever has with anyone before. She tries to deny her feelings because she In Love with a computer is crazy. But what if the AI also has feelings? What is love anyway? These are the difficult questions that Cleo has to face in The stars too lovinglywhile trying to save herself and her friends from death on a distant planet.
(Note: Although I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it was provided to me by HarperCollins Publishers for the purpose of this review. Attention: My review of this book contains some spoilers!)
The stars too lovingly is a space adventure
There are two main stories in Hamilton’s The stars too lovingly. First we have the sci-fi story of a planet on the brink of extinction (yes, it’s Earth and yes, it’s our fault). The best solution that the brilliant minds of Earth can think of is to send a rocket full of people into space to colonize a new planet. Thanks to a new dark matter drive, this seems like a real possibility. But something goes horribly wrong and instead of being blasted into space, the entire crew disappears, never to be seen again. The entire world is so traumatized by the experience that space exploration is completely abandoned and people accept their fate of a slow death on a dying planet.
Twenty years after that fateful day, the children who were inspired by that space race have grown up and are searching for answers to what happened. Everything from that launch twenty years ago has been left where it was, so Cleo and her friends decide to break in and see what they can discover.
During their explorations, they accidentally manage to launch the rocket, and now they’re flying through space to a new planet, with no hope of turning back or seeing Earth again for at least 14 years. To make matters worse, the dark matter drive seems to have given some of them strange new, potentially dangerous powers. Trying to master these powers, cope with their terrible situation, and return home will test their friendships to the limit.
But Emily Hamilton’s new science fiction novel is also a love story
The second story is a rather unusual love story. Cleo grew up a heroine and idolized the captain of the Providence (the spaceship she and her friends are currently stuck on). And it just so happens that the AI piloting the ship is that captain. The AI, known as Billie, is not just an imitation of the captain. The real Billie spent days uploading her actual entire consciousness into the system, so that’s basically who she is.
Cleo spends so much time with Billie that she starts to develop feelings for her. She denies it for as long as she can because Billie is a computer and that’s just crazy. At the same time, Billie develops feelings for Cleo. Hamilton raises some fascinating questions about what love actually is. Who can we love and how can we love them? With all the advances in artificial intelligence, a real love like Cleo and Billie’s may not be so far away, so maybe it would be a good idea to start thinking about it now.
We must especially think of the wrench that Hamilton takes a look at the relationship between Cleo and Billie. Because after Cleo and Billie get closer, they discover that the real Billie may still be alive and that they may be able to save her. So this raises the issue of who Cleo really loves, the AI Billie or the real Billie. Is it possible that the real Billie has the same feelings for Cleo as Cleo does (if her feelings for the AI Billie are transferable)? What would happen to the AI Billie if Cleo left her for the real Billie? This is a really tricky situation with no easy answer. Hamilton suggests a workaround to achieve the desired result, but I think the fundamental thorny questions remain and are not necessarily well answered in the book.
The author asks: “What is love?”
Although The stars too lovingly is a space (and extra-dimensional) adventure. The really interesting part of the book for me is the love story between Cleo and Billie. It’s essentially a love triangle between Cleo, the AI Billie (AIB) and the real Billie (RB). It raises all sorts of questions about love, who we can form bonds with, what sexuality has to do with love and what expectations there are of love.
One interesting thing that concerned me was how sexuality plays a role in Cleo and AIB’s relationship. AIB was just a computer program with a holographic interface. She presented herself as female because RB was female, but can an AI actually sense gender? I guess you could argue that because AIB was RB’s consciousness and RB identified as female, AIB would also have to be female because gender is a concept. But does that gender identity really apply to a computer program?
Cleo is a lesbian and feels sexually attracted to AIB, even though she logically knows that there can be no physical relationship between them. I wonder if she would have felt the same attraction if AIB hadn’t had a holographic projection and was just a voice. What if that voice had been a robot? Or male instead of female? Would Cleo have developed the same feelings?
And what about AIB? RB is considered heterosexual at the beginning of the story. She had a husband whom she loved very much and whose death devastated her. Bisexuality was never mentioned. Nevertheless, AIB felt attracted to Cleo quite quickly. Well, Spoiler alert: RB also develops strong feelings for Cleo, so RB is not exclusively heterosexual. But it does make me think about AIB. Does she develop feelings for Cleo based on her personality first, or is there a sexual attraction in the beginning? And how exactly does a computer program feel sexual attraction?
Then there’s the question of who Cleo really loves. She fell in love with AIB, but since AIB is an exact copy of RB, does that mean she fell in love with RB too? It reminded me a lot of when people develop an unhealthy obsession with celebrities. Just because you think you know everything about them doesn’t mean you really know them. It could have gotten very weird when Cleo and RB met because of all the feelings Cleo had for AIB and the possible confusion between AIB and RB.
The stars too lovingly is a great LGBTQ+ novel
Hamilton’s The question of what love really is makes The stars too lovingly a great LGBTQ+ story. When you look at the love between a human and a computer, the sexuality is removed (okay, for spice, Hamilton adds sex back in, but it’s not the focus) that can complicate love, and just looks at what love is in its most basic form. I would say it’s about seeing all the different facets of a person and still wanting the best for them. Sure, it’s more complicated than that and there are many different levels of love, but that’s the most basic. And if that’s all you need, then there is no “right” or “wrong” love, just love. And that means all loves are valid. At least that’s what I got from reading The stars too lovingly.
Hamilton may not cover every letter of LGBTQ+ in The stars too lovinglyBut it actually manages to hit some of them, with a lesbian main character, a bisexual lover, a nonbinary character, and a demisexual situation (that’s how I would categorize Cleo and AIB’s relationship). And there’s always the beautiful portrayal where all of that is normal (Cleo and AIB struggling with their relationship because that’s new even in the 2060s). It always makes me happy when things like that are just portrayed as accepted in literature. I know stories about the struggle for acceptance are needed too, but the more stories there are where society just accepts these concepts, the more they become normalized in real life. Life and art create a never-ending feedback loop!
The stars too lovingly by Emily Hamilton is a summer romance of a different kind
We all know the pattern of summer: we are bombarded with silly romance novels that we are supposed to read by the pool. The stars too lovingly is another summer romance, but not a silly one. Hamilton gives us a deeper story that makes us think, rather than a silly, superficial text that makes us horny. It can be read by the pool, but don’t expect it to stay there. Cleo and Billie’s love will haunt you for a while, asking questions and demanding answers about what love is and who deserves it.
Rating: 8/10
The stars too lovingly from Emily Hamilton is now available in stores! Are you currently reading this book or will you read it soon? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus!
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