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minna_chan's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Entertaining, immersive and well-thought out world. Very fun to decipher the laws of nature and society in this sciencefiction world. And oh, it’s actually based on science that could work in theory. Nice addition.
Characters were kind of flat to me at times, and story became predictive. There’s no real major character development for any of the characters.
(Spoiler alert, read with caution).
Main girl has to save the world (or universe, really) because it’s about to be destroyed by a monstrous debacle but doesn’t really change throughout the story. I mean, yeah, she might’ve accepted that she might not return to her old lifestyle but is otherwise the exact same person as she was at the beginning, despite having been dead and resurrected…twice.
But it was a nice read overall. 3/5.
Characters were kind of flat to me at times, and story became predictive. There’s no real major character development for any of the characters.
(Spoiler alert, read with caution).
Main girl has to save the world (or universe, really) because it’s about to be destroyed by a monstrous debacle but doesn’t really change throughout the story. I mean, yeah, she might’ve accepted that she might not return to her old lifestyle but is otherwise the exact same person as she was at the beginning, despite having been dead and resurrected…twice.
But it was a nice read overall. 3/5.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Violence
kfergey's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, and Xenophobia
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Infertility, and Torture
raerae123's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
I have always loved Christopher Paolini’s books, but this novel challenged that. The story itself is interesting and the world building is ✨immaculate✨, but the book lacked unique characters. The MC, Kira, lacked a personality and wasn’t a strong narrator. She wasn’t a character a reader can connect with. When her fiancé was murdered, she barely mourned him. She seemed to forget about him as soon as she entered the Wallfish. I think this book had too many characters. In almost every chapter, a new character is introduced. The addition of new characters took away from the character development of characters who had already been introduced. This also forced the author to include lengthy descriptions for the new characters that felt rather unnecessary. A good writer should show and not tell. There was only one character that had any personality: Gregorvich. He helped to make up for the boring characters who seemed to just exist instead of taking an active part in the plot. The other character seemed to just lie in wait for something to happen to them instead of trying to change their fate.
This book also contained a 💩 ton of filler. This book could’ve easily been 600 pages without losing any key plot points. This may be a failure of the editors, but the novel simply had too many unnecessary details discussing minutia that wasn’t plot related.
What To Sleep In a Sea of Stars lacked in character development, it made up in world building. The setting of this story was developed well and helped to keep me reading even with the bland characters. However, I think it should included more detailed description of how certain mechanisms work in the main part of the novel. There is some detail contained in the appendicies, but not enough to help understand key concepts like entering ports with a ship and basic rules for the universe.
Overall, I rated this book a 2.25. It had an interesting and engaging plot, but the writing made it hard to get through. I really struggled to finish it, but I’m glad I did. If you love science fiction, this book will prob leave you thinking for a few days. It contains some really interested concepts that haven’t yet been tested in the real world. It’s quite fascinating.
This book also contained a 💩 ton of filler. This book could’ve easily been 600 pages without losing any key plot points. This may be a failure of the editors, but the novel simply had too many unnecessary details discussing minutia that wasn’t plot related.
What To Sleep In a Sea of Stars lacked in character development, it made up in world building. The setting of this story was developed well and helped to keep me reading even with the bland characters. However, I think it should included more detailed description of how certain mechanisms work in the main part of the novel. There is some detail contained in the appendicies, but not enough to help understand key concepts like entering ports with a ship and basic rules for the universe.
Overall, I rated this book a 2.25. It had an interesting and engaging plot, but the writing made it hard to get through. I really struggled to finish it, but I’m glad I did. If you love science fiction, this book will prob leave you thinking for a few days. It contains some really interested concepts that haven’t yet been tested in the real world. It’s quite fascinating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Abandonment and Medical trauma
Minor: Xenophobia and Mental illness
fromjuliereads's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
WOW WOW WOW. I still love Christopher Paolini's writing. Of course he would be the one to get me to jump into sci fi! It wasn't too heavy with a lot of science all the time, which I was dreading and terrified of. There were definitely concepts in relation to the spaceships and space travel that I didn't fully understand, but I had enough information that I followed along for how it moved the story.
I was OBSESSED with the characters. All of the beginning kind of sets things up, but then when things get rolling, it is a great balance of bonding moments with terrifying space battles that have you on the edge of your seat! The addition of Inare was AMAZING and I saw the connection immediately - it put such a big smile on my face! There were other little references to the Inheritance Cycle that you see in bits and pieces. And of course Runcible and Mr. Fuzzypants were awesome! I wish they were in it a little bit more.
Gregorovitch has got to be one of my new favourite characters ever - his sass and retorts are next level, and his story just thoroughly pulls you in to sympathize with him. And his fierceness to protect his crew? Amazing. There wasn't a single character that I didn't like. Falconi is awesome, Nielsen, Sparrow, and Hwa-jung are all BADASS, and I loved Trig and Vishal. Kira of course is the most epic character of all, and I absolutely loved having the story from her perspective. I thought that Paolini did a fantastic job writing her pov - it definitely did not feel like how some male authors write female characters. While the focus had to be on her body at so many points because of the Soft Blade, it never felt like he was oversexualizing or using a stereotypical male author perspective to write her. I felt she was written so well.
I will say that there is obviously a lot of space travelling, and a lot of space battles. I felt that he did really well with the balance of pacing, slowing things down at point to develop characters and the plot but then ramping things up for completely epic escapes and battles. The space travel sub-chapters could get a bit slow, since most characters are sleeping or in cryo, but they were soooo important to the development of Kira's character, and he did a really good job of breaking them up at the ends of the parts of the book. The battles were intense and had me stressed out more than once - screaming in my head "DON'T KILL THE BABIES" - but written well where they were easy to follow and picture in my head.
Plus, I just love the artwork and the cool sciencey space maps!? Such cool additions.
I also HIGHLY recommend reading Paolini's afterward and acknowledgements. Knowing what he went through to write this book and how long of a process it was gives me an even deeper appreciation for this book.
Note: I was buddy reading this with two friends who love sci-fi, and I am someone who has not read sci-fi. Somehow, I was constantly past them in reading, and ended up finishing before them. Apparently, Paolini has gotten me to like sci-fi...
I was OBSESSED with the characters. All of the beginning kind of sets things up, but then when things get rolling, it is a great balance of bonding moments with terrifying space battles that have you on the edge of your seat! The addition of Inare was AMAZING and I saw the connection immediately - it put such a big smile on my face! There were other little references to the Inheritance Cycle that you see in bits and pieces. And of course Runcible and Mr. Fuzzypants were awesome! I wish they were in it a little bit more.
Gregorovitch has got to be one of my new favourite characters ever - his sass and retorts are next level, and his story just thoroughly pulls you in to sympathize with him. And his fierceness to protect his crew? Amazing. There wasn't a single character that I didn't like. Falconi is awesome, Nielsen, Sparrow, and Hwa-jung are all BADASS, and I loved Trig and Vishal. Kira of course is the most epic character of all, and I absolutely loved having the story from her perspective. I thought that Paolini did a fantastic job writing her pov - it definitely did not feel like how some male authors write female characters. While the focus had to be on her body at so many points because of the Soft Blade, it never felt like he was oversexualizing or using a stereotypical male author perspective to write her. I felt she was written so well.
I will say that there is obviously a lot of space travelling, and a lot of space battles. I felt that he did really well with the balance of pacing, slowing things down at point to develop characters and the plot but then ramping things up for completely epic escapes and battles. The space travel sub-chapters could get a bit slow, since most characters are sleeping or in cryo, but they were soooo important to the development of Kira's character, and he did a really good job of breaking them up at the ends of the parts of the book. The battles were intense and had me stressed out more than once - screaming in my head "DON'T KILL THE BABIES" - but written well where they were easy to follow and picture in my head.
Plus, I just love the artwork and the cool sciencey space maps!? Such cool additions.
I also HIGHLY recommend reading Paolini's afterward and acknowledgements. Knowing what he went through to write this book and how long of a process it was gives me an even deeper appreciation for this book.
Note: I was buddy reading this with two friends who love sci-fi, and I am someone who has not read sci-fi. Somehow, I was constantly past them in reading, and ended up finishing before them. Apparently, Paolini has gotten me to like sci-fi...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit
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