The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe Published by Orbit on June 3, 2025
Genres: LGBTQ, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Pages: 352
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Source: Orbit Books
The Black Celeste is a ghost story. A once-legendary spaceship collecting dust in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Only famed pirate Bitter Amandine knows better, and she’ll do anything to never go near it again. No matter the cost.
Faven Sythe is crystborn, a member of the near-human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station. She’s trained to be a navigator her entire life. But when her mentor disappears, leaving behind a mysterious starpath terminating in the Clutch, she is determined to find the truth. And only Amandine has the answers.What they will find is a conspiracy bigger than either of them. Their quest for the truth will uncover secrets Amandine has long fought to keep buried – secrets about how she survived her last encounter in the Clutch, and what’s really hidden out there amongst the stars...
Well, the author who single-handedly made me like science fiction has done it again with The Two Lies of Faven Sythe. The second I saw that Megan E. O’Keefe had written another book, I had to read it as soon as humanly possible. And it did not disappoint, like all of O’Keefe’s works, The Two Lies of Faven Sythe features spectacular and creative world-building, loveable characters, and a thrilling story with a twist.
The novel follows eponymous Faven Sythe, a cryst-born (a member of the near human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station), as she hunts down her missing mentor. Not only has her mentor vanished, but she left a perplexing and mysterious starpath that ends in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Faven will stop at nothing to find answers, including defying the very order she’s spent her entire life serving, arranging her own kidnapping, and consorting with pirates, like the notorious Bitter Amandine. Amandine is a captain of the Marquette and has a reputation that’s larger than life and a past that haunts her even more than she knows.
“‘Because when we first met, you were sticking your neck out to find out a truth. This about the Clutch. This is about what you think is happening here. And the only way you’re going to get your answers now that you know someone back home wants you dead is being honest with pirates.’”
And the spaceships aren’t the only things zooming through space—the sparks between Amandine and Faven are flying from day one. So on top of the action, the intrigue, the pirate politics, the interesting galactic organizations, there’s also an entire star-crossed lovers romance that starts with an undeniable attraction. With Faven a member of the Choir of Stars, which rules the galaxy and its starpaths, and Amandine a former rebel and the leader of her own pirate crew, the two stand on opposite sides of an ideological chasm. This creates a delicious tension that spices up the entire novel. Personally, I would’ve liked the characters to spend a little more time yearning before acting on their feelings—but given the shorter length of the novel, it makes sense that things moved a bit faster.
“‘You’d better keep your word and get me out of here, Bitter Amandine. It seems I have a score to settle.’ Amandine grinned. ‘I knew you had some teeth goddess.’”
Adding even more weight to their relationship—or lack thereof—is the fact that every time Faven uses her navigator powers to weave starpaths, the cryst she was born from encroaches further on her body, slowly turning her into a petrified cryst-scale statue. This process will eventually lead to her paralysis—an unavoidable fate for all of her kind. Amandine hesitates to let Faven use her powers, even when the fate of both humanity and the cryst-born hangs in the balance.
As other reviewers have pointed out, there are very few men in this book. This is truly a lesbian space pirate book that only features male characters as villains, which I personally didn’t have a single problem with, but some readers may find this unbalanced and not to their taste. O’Keefe has always written strong female protagonists, so it was a delight to have only Faven and Amandine’s perspectives as the focus. On top of the lesbian characters, there’s multiple characters who use they/them though, which adds to the representation. This world kind of reminded me of the show Firefly in a way, with a fast-thinking and loveable captain, much like Captain Mal, and a close-knit crew who often get in over their heads, but always manage to find their way out of trouble despite impossible odds. However, it didn’t have the western aspect, thankfully, sticking to advanced technology like spaceflights and starpaths.
“When pirates braved the Clutch, it was only to slip behind the outer layer to the wreckage that lurked within. You did not take from the darkness, it was said, or the dark would take from you.”
I was excited that like O’Keefe’s other series, The Devoured Worlds and The Protectorate, The Two Lies of Faven Sythe provides yet another fascinating portrayal of artificial or in this case, crafted, intelligence. O’Keefe never misses with these characters and always manages to breathe life into these beings and though I didn’t think the portrayal was quite as strong as in her other works, such as Velocity Weapon, I still really enjoyed seeing her depiction of this idea again in a different flavor.
As always, the strongest part of this novel is its original world-building. Much like Brandon Sanderson, who creates fantastical realms that feel like you could simply step into them, O’Keefe crafts settings so vivid and realistic, it’s as if the door’s already open and your boots are halfway through. In this story, the universe feels like it’s at the reader’s fingertips—and for Faven, it actually is, which makes the journey all the more magical. I’d happily leap at the chance to return to this world, whether with new faces or familiar ones.
And despite this intricate and interesting world-building, O’Keefe doesn’t make the explanations feel overly detailed, information dumpy, or overwhelmingly scientific. It feels very accessible and easy to understand, which is not something a lot of science fiction novels manage to do. This makes it perfect for fans of science fiction and readers, like me, who are hesitant to divert from their preference for fantasy novels.
The only thing that I’m not sure that worked as well for me was the twist near the very end of the novel. Readers find out at the same time as Amandine and Faven that everything they thought they knew was, well, a lie, and it rocks their worlds. I saw part of the twist coming, but not all of it, and perhaps because of what I felt was too little build-up for the other part, it felt somewhat unearned and didn’t have quite the impact that it should have for me.
Even if I wasn’t completely sold on the twist, I loved The Two Lies of Faven Sythe—and I think it’s the fastest-paced of all O’Keefe’s novels so far. It’s officially secured the second spot on my list of O’Keefe favorites, right behind The Blighted Stars. Still, this book has fully cemented O’Keefe as a day-one author for me. Whether it’s part of a series or a standalone, I’ll be on the lookout for whatever comes next.
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I really want to read this author but haven’t managed it yet.
Anne – Books of My Heart
I hope you can get to her works and that when you do you love them as much as I do!