The Girl and the Stars is a tale of magic, mysticism, science fiction, and survival. Like Lawrence's Books of the Ancestor series, The Girl and the Stars takes place on the planet Abeth, which was colonized by humans despite its dying sun. Only a narrow belt around the equator is kept warm by a satellite that concentrates solar energy into a laser. A few nomadic tribes eke out a living on the ice beyond that belt and theirs is a harsh way of life that sacrifices any children deemed unacceptable before they can become a drain on a clan's resources. As Yaz arrives at this year's gathering she expects to be rejected by the priests. She's neither small and weak, nor growing too fast and eating too much, but she is different. There is something inside her that lets her see beyond the surface of the physical world to a river that only she can touch and draw upon. As anticipated the priest sees her difference, but instead of casting her into the pit to die he pulls her aside before pushing her younger brother over the edge. Without thought Yaz jumps to save her brother and discovers that everything the priests have told her people is a lie.

The Books of the Ancestor mentioned that humans weren't the first to colonize Abeth, but that the alien cities had been abandoned long before humans arrived. Since their cities lie under the ice little is known of the people simply referred to as the Missing, but in The Girl and the Stars much of the plot involves the dark legacy they left behind. In order to Ascend beyond the physical plane before their world died they shed the unwanted aspects of their personalities and stored them. Unfortunately, the long ages of slowly moving ice have broken that storage and the bits of dark emotion and memory are called "demons" because they can possess humans. The ruins are also home to artificial intelligences from constructs that hunt humans to the great AI that once ran the entire city. Among the humans are several who can manipulate one or more elements (those able to work with water and ice are particularly valued for obvious reasons) but Yaz's ability is unique below the ice because the children with her rare gift are taken to become priests.

It should be very complicated between the priests, alien constructs, demons, magic, survivor politics, and betrayals but the story is surprisingly straight forward because Mark Lawrence concentrates on one aspect at a time. Some reviews complain that the story is slow and boring with the occasional frantic action sequence. Slow yes, but boring is subjective. Lawrence wisely spends time on describing what Yaz learns of the ancient alien civilization, how her own power works, and how those two interact. The more common concepts of elemental magic and corrupt segments of the human population are only lightly covered. Sadly, Lawrence sticks to his usual flat characters. On a technical level the novel is well done but to be great the characters need to inspire more than complete apathy. Still, its a good blend of grim fantasy and science fiction and worth reading.

Reviews of the audio book indicate that Helen Duff's performance is competent but not exciting.