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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
If I could give more stars I would, this was a great read.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is an adult sci-fi novel, based around first contact with aliens. We follow Kira Navarez, a xenobiologist who discovers alien relics on Astra. This unleashes a series of events that even Kira could not have predicted would occur. Christopher Paolini spent 9 years on this work, and it really shows with the amount of depth and detail within the novel. As a lover of all-things science, this book was immensely interesting and really expressed the research. The book, while was a chunky one, didn’t seem to be overly slow as a whole, however did have patches of slow pacing. It also had times where I was a little overwhelmed with the events happening, but was thoroughly enjoyable overall, hence an overall 4 star rating from me. Cannot wait to see how the story progresses, but I shall hope it won’t take another 9 years for some answers.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Parts were very entertaining but overall my enjoyment suffered by the middle being far too long and repetitive.
From what I’ve read since finishing the book, it has received a lot of criticism - largely on the length and pacing.
I found this to be a very enjoyable read! I’m the type of reader that doesn’t mind hanging out with characters, as long as there’s interesting interactions and discoveries along the way. And I found that the gradual discoveries of the Soft Blade and what it was and what it could do was enough information to keep me enticed through times of plot waffling.
Writing style was very straightforward which is my preferred style. Main character wasn’t particularly unique but I didn’t mind following her.
I thought the ending is the book was a little odd with the giving of gifts, it added a tone to the end of the story that hadn’t been in any previous parts of the book, almost felt a little bit religious?
I found this to be a very enjoyable read! I’m the type of reader that doesn’t mind hanging out with characters, as long as there’s interesting interactions and discoveries along the way. And I found that the gradual discoveries of the Soft Blade and what it was and what it could do was enough information to keep me enticed through times of plot waffling.
Writing style was very straightforward which is my preferred style. Main character wasn’t particularly unique but I didn’t mind following her.
I thought the ending is the book was a little odd with the giving of gifts, it added a tone to the end of the story that hadn’t been in any previous parts of the book, almost felt a little bit religious?
There is always that one book from childhood you re read and re read. For me it was the Eragon series. Absolutely loved it. I know some people said it is very troupey, ripped off LOTR, badly written, doesn't stand up to time. But for me I just loved it, especially as a bright eyed kid.
Obviously this book had high standards to live up to, and did it? Well no. But it wasn't all bad. I just wasn't as absorbed by it, unsure if I was too keen on the protagonist. But I will probably persist with this series. See where else we go in this fractal verse. The universe was probably my favorite aspect of the book
Obviously this book had high standards to live up to, and did it? Well no. But it wasn't all bad. I just wasn't as absorbed by it, unsure if I was too keen on the protagonist. But I will probably persist with this series. See where else we go in this fractal verse. The universe was probably my favorite aspect of the book
Creative bankruptcy.
* A main character who looks like a 12 year old girl who fell in love for the first time with no depth whatsoever.
* A mediocre, forgettable supporting cast... well aside 1 special character that's a specific trope we have seen over and over in sci fi.
* Mediocre, way too simplistic (at least for my taste) prose. The amount of times Paolini uses expressions as 'BOOM' and 'BANG' is ludicrous.
* Atrocious pacing. Here's the plot of the book: we need to find A, we go to someplace, oh no the aliens found us, explosions and more explosions, we escaped, now we need to find B, let's go to another place, more explosions... *sigh*
At some point it felt like I was reading the equivalent of a Michael Bay book.
C'mon... space battles and action scenes should be occasional climaxes the author should build the narrative towards to, not some plot device that happens every 50 pages.
* The xeno that attaches to our Main Character is basically a Fantasy object. Oh the plot needs this to happen, voilá, here comes the Soft Blade. Oh, our characters are in peril, voilá here comes the Soft Blade to the rescue.
Jesus Christ. Instead of exploring the relationship between the xeno organism and the main character with depth, with handicaps, with opportunities to flesh out the character, no. Our main character is a Comic Book Super-Hero who saves everyone. *facepalm*
* The world building I can definitely give some value to Mr. Paolini. Does it have unique concepts we've never seen in sci-fi? Not really but it's overt the amount of time and care the author spent in creating the world, so yeah, that was not the problem here.
Suffice to say, this was my first and last experience with Mr. Paolini.
* A main character who looks like a 12 year old girl who fell in love for the first time with no depth whatsoever.
* A mediocre, forgettable supporting cast... well aside 1 special character that's a specific trope we have seen over and over in sci fi.
* Mediocre, way too simplistic (at least for my taste) prose. The amount of times Paolini uses expressions as 'BOOM' and 'BANG' is ludicrous.
* Atrocious pacing. Here's the plot of the book: we need to find A, we go to someplace, oh no the aliens found us, explosions and more explosions, we escaped, now we need to find B, let's go to another place, more explosions... *sigh*
At some point it felt like I was reading the equivalent of a Michael Bay book.
C'mon... space battles and action scenes should be occasional climaxes the author should build the narrative towards to, not some plot device that happens every 50 pages.
* The xeno that attaches to our Main Character is basically a Fantasy object. Oh the plot needs this to happen, voilá, here comes the Soft Blade. Oh, our characters are in peril, voilá here comes the Soft Blade to the rescue.
Jesus Christ. Instead of exploring the relationship between the xeno organism and the main character with depth, with handicaps, with opportunities to flesh out the character, no. Our main character is a Comic Book Super-Hero who saves everyone. *facepalm*
* The world building I can definitely give some value to Mr. Paolini. Does it have unique concepts we've never seen in sci-fi? Not really but it's overt the amount of time and care the author spent in creating the world, so yeah, that was not the problem here.
Suffice to say, this was my first and last experience with Mr. Paolini.