Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

TL;DR I'm still not ready to move on from The Lunar Chronicles

finished 2/4/16

AKA "Thank god Marissa Meyer announced the comic books because this probably would have killed me". 

As Stars Above contained some short stories that had already been published, I got through the book in about 24 hours. I still read the book end-to-end, but there were at least four short stories that I was already familiar with. 

I'm really glad to have Stars Above since I only have Cinder in paperback, meaning I didn't have copies to The Queen's Army or Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky (or The Little Android, but I don't know if that was included in one of the books or only released online). Now I don't have to worry about getting my hands on a paperback if I ever want to read them!

The new short stories are all so cute. And the prequel ones were slightly heartbreaking, since none of these kids ever managed to catch a break, even before the whole fiasco with Levana really started. Seeing everyone as small children was great and I wish that they all could've had bright and shiny childhoods, but y'know, they still turned out to be great adults. 

The epilogue was perfect. It was a really great way to wrap up the entire series, and I'm very content that the characters have all gotten happy endings after Winter. Even though I'm not personally ready to leave TLC behind, I have to admit that it couldn't have been wrapped up any better. 

I would like to see their lives after the epilogue, but I'm also content with knowing that they're moving on with their lives, and I'm hoping the comic books will give me a glimpse of it. 

I'm really excited for these comic books. This is the first series I've been actively interested in that's gotten a comic adaptation. (The Legend series got at least one, I think, but I've only encountered it once if that.) I'm really excited to see more of Iko in the spotlight. 

Stars Above also included a preview of Heartless, which is definitely helping me ignore the "my favorite series is over" feeling and dunking me straight into "NEW STORY!!" I'm really looking forward to how Marissa Meyer approaches an Alice in Wonderland prequel after TLC. I'm hoping for less "impending apocalypse" and more "internal struggles", but we'll see. I'm not gonna complain either way; I liked how TLC handled an impending apocalypse. 

TL;DR Stars Above made me realize that the TLC cast is ready to live their "happily ever after" and that I'm ready to see how Cath will handle what Meyer throws at her. I just gotta manage waiting until November.