{"id":381,"date":"2007-05-26T20:17:44","date_gmt":"2007-05-27T03:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=381"},"modified":"2025-05-06T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:06:14","slug":"the-stars-compel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/381","title":{"rendered":"The Stars Compel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stars Compel<\/em> (1999) Michaela Roessner<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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<\/em> was published in 1999, it doesn’t look like I’m going to get the third book any time soon. Hence… WAH!<\/p>\n

On the bright side, the story arc of this book was completed, so I wasn’t left completely hanging. But, I still want to know what happens to the characters, and it seems like I’ll never find out. (I searched her website looking for any information on a sequel but came up blank.)<\/p>\n

However, as the sequel to The Stars Dispose<\/em>, I found The Stars Compel<\/em> well worth reading. Tommaso and Caterina were sent to Rome, so that Caterina can remain under the watch of her uncle, Pope Clement, who wants to marry her of to increase his power. However, Caterina and Ippolita have other plans, and Tommaso is drawn in both consciously and unconsciously.<\/p>\n

Tommaso has gone to Rome as Caterina’s personal chef, but continues his education in the kitchens of the Salviati home, where the master carver Marcus Gavius Spada and master baker Bindo Ramerino and their families were in charge of the kitchen, and also with the famous cook Bartolommeo Scappi, and also with the goldsmith Benevenuto Cellini.<\/p>\n

Tommaso also discovers Roman branch of his family, learns more about his family’s past–and his own, and begins to come to terms with his family’s magical heritage.<\/p>\n

As with the first book, the writing is excellent, and the characters are vivid and fascinating. And as with the first book, some of the tone reminded me a bit of Ellen Kushner’s books. There is detail–of lavish feasts, of daily meals, and of preparation of meals of all sorts–and there are a handful of recipes in the back, some of which look interesting, although I’ll skip the pork recipe.<\/p>\n

Although there is no conclusion to the series, I still have to recommend this book for it’s wonderful writing and story telling, and because it gave me more time to spend with Caterina and Tommaso.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… WAH! On the bright side, […]<\/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":[2,291],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-michaela-roessner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-69","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":379,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/379","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":0},"title":"The Stars Dispose","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Stars-Dispose.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4599,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4599","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":1},"title":"Trail of Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"May 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Trail of Dead (2013) Melissa F. Olson The sequel to Dead Spots, it wasn't horrible, but I would kick this book out of bed for eating crackers in an instant. I still liked the idea of the story. And the mystery was interesting. But I hated... no, I take that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trail_Dead","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Trail_Dead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4723,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4723","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":2},"title":"Rising Stars: Born in Fire, Power, Fire and Ash","author":"Michelle","date":"July 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born in Fire (2001) 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 Rising Stars, Vol. 2: Power (2002) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken\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":9698,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9698","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":3},"title":"Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead \/ Bright","author":"Michelle","date":"February 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead \/ Bright (2006) by Fiona Avery, Dan Jurgens, Staz Johnson, Al Rio This is actually the last published of the Rising Stars comics, but it's my least favorite, and since there was no need to read the latter comics in order, I read it\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\/2006\/07\/Rising-Stars-Bright-e1511012514410.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/136","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":4},"title":"Rising Stars: Visitations","author":"Michelle","date":"October 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski Published between Power and Fire and Ash, Visitations gives some background stories. The first story, Rising Starts, is a quick history of what caused the specials, an excerpt of Dr Wells' diary, and the Supreme Court opinion on how the specials were to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/10\/Rising-Stars-Visitations.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9656,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9656","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":5},"title":"Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born In Fire","author":"Michelle","date":"January 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born In Fire (2001) J. Michael Straczynski, Jason Gorder, Keu Cha, Christian Zanier I really really love this comic. Enough so that this is the first time I've actually stopped between volumes to review the first separately (usually I just plow right through without stopping). Here\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-Born-in-Fire-e1511012474450.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\/381","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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}