Reviews tagging 'Torture'

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

16 reviews

panickedhonking's review against another edition

Triggering content 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Medical content, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, and Body horror

redbeanm0chi's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

To sleep in a sea of stars takes place a couple of hundred years into the future, where humanity has taken root out into the universe. We follow the story of xenobiologist Kira  and her team as she makes first contact with a strange and mysterious alien artefact that thrusts her into an intergalactic war, pushing her to the limits of her identity and sanity. There’s awesome tech, found family, kinda living spaceships, space warfare, a beloved pig, a satisfying slow burn relationship, and discovery of really cool newfound alien powers.

Though there are on page descriptions of sexy times, it’s minimally graphic, so it gets a spicy score of 1.

This book really hit the sweet spot with realistic, descriptive science for me. There’s enough of it to be truly believable in the world without making the reading any kind of heavy (excluding the many pages long fictional science article at the end, goddamn Paolini).

I found the same balance between the dark, heavy scenes and the incredible humour that is reoccurring throughout all of the THIRTYTWO AND A HALV hours of this book.

There was some repetition of, among other things, Kira’s self pity and wallowing that did get a bit whiny and annoying to listen to, but over all it wasn’t impossible to get through. Like, that’s most of my criticism honestly.

“With no tongue to taste and no throat to sing, all names are equal.”

The book was effortlessly and refreshingly diverse and inclusive. The characters were above and beyond loveable and charming. The found family trope combined with the ragtag rogue group dynamics will always always steal my heart. The descriptions spanned from horrifying to hilarious, and descriptions of The Soft blade were especially lush and intriguing; every discovery about it was satisfying and giddy. And the slow build and exploration of Kira’s relationship with The Soft blade and with herself was so exciting all the way through.

“Miss Kira,” said Vishal, standing and joining them. “We know the risks and,” he bowed his head, his eyes soft and round, gentle. “We accept them with open hearts.”

“You shouldn’t have to though,” said Kira.

Vishal smiled and the pureness of his expression stopped her. “Of course not Miss Kira, but life is such, yes? And war is such.”

It’s impossible to not praise the audiobook narrator. I can’t help but be in AWE of Jennifer Hale and to find out this was her FIRST EVER AUDIOBOOK????? Getting a voice actor with experience with games and stuff was a power move. Her ACCENTS, her character work, her clarity and enunciation without sacrificing a shred of emotion and inflection- it’s masterfully done. It was so engaging and immersive to listen to her that the thirty-something hours honestly just flew by. I would recommend everyone, even those who’ve already read the physical copy, to listen to the audiobook just to be dazzled by the scope of Jennifer Hale’s voice.

The ending hit me somewhere soft behind my ribs. Hearing Christopher Paolini say he started with only the beginning and the end, and that every single word in between was written to end up where it did, made a lot of sense for me. It lost me a little bit at the end after the explosion. I’m not entirely sure why; it might have gotten a little too speculative after how grounded the rest of the book was in real life science, but it absolutely towed me mostly back at the very end. I’ll be thinking of it for a long time.

“The universe was so beautiful it hurt. So very very beautiful. And yet at the same time so full of ugliness. Some born of the inexorable demands of entropy. Some born of the cruelty that seemed innate to all sentient beings. And none of it made any sense. It was all glorious, horrible nonsense. Fit to inspire both despair and numinosity.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Torture

akfowly's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book made me feel emotions, i.e. I cried several times reading through. I cared about Kira by the end, though I'll admit to having been pretty ambivalent to her for most of the book. I do find Paolini's world building and alien-building to be fairly creative -- I definitely appreciate that the communication was not standard 'human-style', and there were some twists and turns along the way that I found compelling. I found the writing style to be kind of choppy/clunky and a bit of a drag for the first couple sections of the book, but found that after a certain point either I got used to it, or it made more sense. I'm willing to accept that this could be because I don't typically read science fiction these days, and might just be a feature of the genre.

In the end I think I might have enjoyed the book? I have some quibbles about Kira's fate. It felt almost a little like it leaned too hard into a few tropes about women, but it was still unexpected and creative. I read this as part of a christmas present for my mom, so it wasn't my first choice of a book, and if it hadn't been for that I probably would have stopped reading before part 1 ended. For an almost 900 page book, it lacks heavily in character development.

Also, I don't care for the world-building info-dump I discovered at the end of the book when I went back to check a couple things for this review -- if you want to tell me that a pepper was cultivated by someone before they won a 'tri-solar hot pepper bash', incorporate it in the text.

Important: I don't care for the way Paolini portrayed the non-white characters and women in this book, to be completely honest. There were definitely moments where Kira's perspective felt uncomfortable to read, and pulled me out of the flow as I was reminded that a man wrote her, especially as she was perceiving herself and some of the male characters. Also when she had 'emotions' she felt less believable/real than the (2/3 male-coded) maybe more robot-than-human ship minds. It felt a little like she spent the entire book (which covers maybe up to a couple years of time? Hard to follow the timeline between her dissociating and the cryo gaps, tbh) dissociating from shock, and viewing the world through a looking glass.

In general the romance aspects of this book felt clunky and unrealistic/lacked emotion**, and even as an avid romance reader, I could have done without it. On the note of Hwa Jung, I did not care for her portrayal - it felt at times like a series of microaggressions rather than a whole person. Kira's own heritage is only alluded to via her last name, so it felt a little bit checkboxy, i.e. they are not white because that's what's 'in' vs. creating full and complete intentional characters. Also felt pretty uncomfortable about the other two romances - Hwa Jung and Sparrow felt like another 'diversity' checkbox, and the Dr. who was being antagonized by the gal and then suddenly they were having sex and then engaged to be married felt...bizarre to say the least.

My other big quibble is that a huge twist in the book relies really heavily on unreliable narrator and hinges pretty heavily on something that in my opinion is actually a moment where he figured it out at the end and forgot to make sure the beginning still fit the timing right. Without giving spoilers, it has to do with the timing of Kira's first and subsequent contact experiences and the origin of something that I don't think quite fits with the explanation at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Murder, Gun violence, War, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Colonisation, Sexual content, Dysphoria, and Racism

I found Kira's reaction to her fiancé Alan's death and her mourning period to be beyond bizarre and emotionless. Beyond a few initial grief-dumps initially, she just kind of forgets about him except for a sparse few moments when it's a tool to keep her rejecting the possibility of understanding the Idealis better, or when she starts having attraction to another man less than a year after the love of her life dies a horrific death at sort-of-kind-of her hands (tbh I also found the self-flagellation to be completely overdone. She reacted to those situations the same way any human would, and the way the ones around her did. The Idealis reacted to those reactions, and it was a horrible result, but not in a million years could you reach and say "it's your fault the weird alien-made-maybe-creature-maybe-creation you DIDN'T KNOW was inside of you reacted to your honest and unfiltered fear of danger".)

sometimes_samantha_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was a beast. It took a long time to finish but it was worth it! The fight scenes were wel-written, judt a bit overdone bu tue end I think. Otherwise, this is the best sci-fi I've read in years and I'm happy to know that a second book is in the works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Torture, War, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Violence

darkefyres's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Vomit, War, and Sexual content

Minor: Medical content

mar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book was a lot of fun!!! loved how it seemed like hard sci-fi and science fantasy simultaneously. but it did Not need to be 880 pages long. anyway gregorovich my beloved <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Medical trauma, and War

Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Body shaming, and Pregnancy

kateemily's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Death

whatswithrandy's review

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, War, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement

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

I'll start by saying I did like this book. The story (when it got going) was interesting and most of the characters were likable or interesting. The world was cool if under-explored. But, this book is TOO long, it did not need to be this long. The whole storyline of the staff of blue mcguffin was unnecessary and the dream sequences were overly long and dramatized and made the book drag. The main character was also hard to like at times as she was so introspective to the point of being a bit needy/whiny.  However, what dropped this below a 4* for me was the ending.  All of a sudden she can make all sorts of magical staffs and pills and she talks like an omniscient creature and overall I found it to be too much.  I'd only recommend this book to people who really like sci-fi and philosophy. <Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, and Xenophobia

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Infertility, and Torture

categalafassi's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Torture, War, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Death, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia, Pregnancy, and Body shaming