In the far-flung future, a lot has changed. For one thing, humanity no longer lives on Earth, or indeed, in the Solar System. Instead, they live in the Zodiac System, a stellar system based around the Western Zodiac. For another thing, predicting the future is not only perfectly possible, it's now necessary for society to function. Peacekeepers known as Zodai are taught to read the stars so as to protect their people.
One of those star-readers is Rhoma Grace, an Acolyte at House Cancer's Zodai Academy with an unusual way of reading the stars. Her peers use astrological math to calculate their readings, while Rho does it purely by intuition. Most people dismiss her readings, seeing them as just silly stories.
And then House Cancer has its own moons slam into it and is utterly destroyed.
Reeling from the destruction of her home, Rho quickly learns that this wasn't a mere tragedy—it was an attack, orchestrated by the mysterious Thirteenth Guardian, long thought to be a legend. Now, traveling with skeptical Lodestar Mathias Thais and charming Libran Hysan Dax, Rho must convince the Houses to unite against this threat...assuming she can convince anyone of Ophiuchus's existence at all.
The Zodiac Series is a Science Fantasy YA series by Romina Russell. It consists of four books.
- Zodiac
- Wandering Star
- Black Moon
- Thirteen Rising
Tropes associated with this series include:
- Apocalypse How: House Cancer goes through a Class 2 that destroys their way of life, House Ophiuchus was completely crushed by Dark Matter in a Class X, and the entire galaxy is poised to suffer a Class X-2 if Aquarius's plan goes through.
- Big Bad: The master, The Man Behind the Man of all the antagonists. Their exact identity is unknown, and both Wandering Star and Black Moon are about puzzling them out. Eventually revealed to be Aquarius.
- Crapsaccharine World: The Zodiac System as a whole is this. The Houses are technologically advanced and very committed to making sure their people have all their needs met...but the keyword there is their people. Every House has isolationist tendencies and tend to mistrust each other, which bites them in the ass on numerous occasions.
- Doomed Hometown: Try Doomed Planet—House Cancer gets utterly wrecked within the first few chapters of Zodiac.
- First-Episode Twist: Throughout all of Zodiac, both the reader and the characters are led to believe that Ophiuchus is the Big Bad. A perfectly reasonable assumption...and also completely wrong, as Ophiuchus himself reveals the existence of the master at the book's climax. The rest of the series is about trying to figure out their identity and agenda.
- I Lied: As Thirteen Rising reveals, there was absolutely no way Ophiuchus couldn't have known the master's identity, given that said master openly talked about his idea of flying into the sun long before the events of the series; that Ophiuchus didn't know was a lie to protect him. Rho calls him out on it.
- Love Triangle: Between Rho, Mathias, and Hysan. Downplayed in that it quickly becomes clear that Hysan is the Love Interest, it's just that the matter ends up complicated by a lot of things. Like Mathias's apparent death.
- Meaningful Name: Rhoma is constantly referred to with the nickname "Rho". One of the stars in the real-life Ophiuchus constellation is "Rho Ophiuchi".
