{"id":379,"date":"2007-05-21T20:45:10","date_gmt":"2007-05-22T03:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=379"},"modified":"2025-05-06T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:06:14","slug":"the-stars-dispose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/379","title":{"rendered":"The Stars Dispose"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stars Dispose<\/em> (1997) Michaela Roessner<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I picked up The Stars Dispose<\/em> used, several years ago. But for one reason or another, never got around to reading it. However, when I was looking for something different to read, I finally picked it up.<\/p>\n

In the 1500s, there was a power struggle in Florence. The de Medicis struggle to remain in power, however, the actions of the de Medici pope and some of the de Medici nobles have turned much of the populace against the family. A handful of people, including the de Befanini family of cooks and the seer Ruggiero struggle to save the young duchess de Medici<\/p>\n

The Stars Dispose<\/em> is a somewhat unusual fantasy. In tone it reminded me of Ellen Kushner’s fantasies. The fantasy elements, however, reminded me of Charles de Lint, with the supernatural world just below the surface of the world of which most of us are aware. And the food…<\/p>\n

The main focus of the story is upon Tommaso de Befanini, the young son of the head cook of the Ruggiero household who is learning the family trade, but because of his family’s involvement with the de Medicis, ends up learning much more.<\/p>\n

The story is chock full of historical characters–the cast of characters listed in the back is a who’s who of 16th century Florence, including Michaelangelo and several other Renaissance artists. <\/p>\n

However, despite all the famous people filling the pages of this book, I found the story fascinating. As Tommaso learns about politics and art and cooking, so do we learn about these things and the world at that time.<\/p>\n

However, this is not a book you want to read on an empty stomach. As I said, Tommaso comes from a line of cooks, and is continuing in the family tradition. Everyone is constantly eating and cooking–from small snacks to multi course meals.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the kitchen all was the usual clamor and bustle as the cooking apprentices and scullery maids kneaded and pounded bread, rolled out dough for pasta, ground spices and pestles, and whisked sauces at the other workstations. A scullion checked a haunch roasting in the spit in the great fireplace. The ovens banked along the far wall opposite the shelves and smaller worktables were primed–the roasting oven heated to cook three fat capons and a frittata, the fornaio<\/em> baking pastries for dessert (though most breadstuffs were cooked early in the morning), and in the salamander<\/em>, a platter of oysters enjoyed a brief bath of flame. Sacks lay piled high near the pantry door at the opposite end of the kitchen. The kitchen cat rustled among them searching for rats. Some of the younger Ruggiero sons who’d come looking to pilfer scraps of food were teasing Tommaso’s littlest sister, Beatrice, as she sat struggling to shell peas with her fat five-year-old’s fingers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it’s not all cooking and food. There’s also art and politics and scheming and religion and magic. <\/p>\n

The one difficulty I had was keeping track of who was who, especially with the artists. As the cast of characters was in the back of the book, I didn’t find it until I was finished with the book, so I kept getting confused as to who was apprentice to which artist, and which character was which. Next book I’ll keep checking the cast of characters to help keep everyone straight. This may also have been because although the main characters had distinct personalities, many of the secondary characters all ran together in my mind.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed The Stars Dispose<\/em> immensely. It reminded me not just of Ellen Kushner, but also of Sean Russell and Guy Gavriel Kay; There’s more to the story than magic. There is history. There are strong characters and wonderful storytelling. And most of all there is a fantastic world. If you are looking for a different kind of fantasy, then I highly recommend The Stars Dispose<\/em>.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Stars Dispose (1997) Michaela Roessner I picked up The Stars Dispose used, several years ago. But for one reason or another, never got around to reading it. However, when I was looking for something different to read, I finally picked it up. In the 1500s, there was a power struggle in Florence. The de […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,291],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-michaela-roessner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-67","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/381","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":0},"title":"The Stars Compel","author":"Michelle","date":"May 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stars Compel (1999) Michaela Roessner First things first... WAH! This was supposed to be book two of a trilogy--however, the third book was never published, and since The Stars Compel was published in 1999, it doesn't look like I'm going to get the third book any time soon. Hence...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Stars-Compel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24035,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24035","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":1},"title":"Fugitive Telemetry","author":"Michelle","date":"November 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #6) The bag had lights but turning them on would just be stupid plus I didn\u2019t really want to see what was happening. Farid came into the room, spotted me, and came over to say, \u201cUh, we\u2019re making tea. Do you\u2014\u201d I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fugitive Telemetry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Fugitive-Telemetry.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":149,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/149","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":2},"title":"Supreme Power Vol 1 Contact","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Supreme Power Vol 1 Contact (2004) J. Michael Straczynski I picked this up because I really liked J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars. It looked interesting, so I decided to see if I liked this series as well. The story is good, although not quite as good as Rising Stars. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Contact","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/supreme%20power.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/132","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":3},"title":"Rising Stars","author":"Michelle","date":"September 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars: Born in Fire (2001) Power (2002) Fire and Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski Wow. When I asked for comic recommendations, Tom gave me several suggestions. The one I found locally was Rising Stars. Initially I only picked up the first volume, however I saw that all three volumes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Rising-Stars-Born-in-Fire.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1485,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1485","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":4},"title":"The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite","author":"Michelle","date":"November 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (2008) Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba Seven children--of the forty-seven spontaneously born--were adopted by Reginald Hargreeves to become the Umbrella Academy. He sought to help them develop their powers to save the world, but no one knew what the world needed saved from. I wanted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"apocalypse_suite","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/apocalypse_suite.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9689,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9689","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":5},"title":"Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash","author":"Michelle","date":"February 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler And the story ends. We see the culmination of the paranoia and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Rising-Stars-Fire-and-Ash-e1511012492327.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}