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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I didn’t really care for the author’s fantasy tetralogy, but To Sleep In A Sea of Stars exceeded my expectations. The novel is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it hit enough of my checkboxes and felt like a good, solid, story.
The writing style was beautiful, and it started off really strong. The description, language, and relationships were really engaging. No spoilers here, but up to the first dramatic plot twist early on, I was thoroughly invested. However, I was less thrilled with a plot twist that seemed more for shock value than building off the groundwork laid in the beginning. I kept reading hoping that it would get better, and while it continued to be beautifully written, there were a few things I didn't love:
The pacing was slow, but I didn't mind. Mostly for me it was limited view into the internal conflict/trauma of the MC and the way certain themes were pushed. I know themes are a matter of perspective and personal reading, and not representative of an author's writing style and ability. Paolini did, for all purposes of craft, and amazing job of depicting the world, the characters, and the dawning realizations of this new world the MC finds herself in. However, between not finding myself reinvested in the plot from that first twist and themes I didn't personally enjoy, however well they were written, this was a did not finish from me at about 250 pages in.
The pacing was slow, but I didn't mind. Mostly for me it was limited view into the internal conflict/trauma of the MC and the way certain themes were pushed. I know themes are a matter of perspective and personal reading, and not representative of an author's writing style and ability. Paolini did, for all purposes of craft, and amazing job of depicting the world, the characters, and the dawning realizations of this new world the MC finds herself in. However, between not finding myself reinvested in the plot from that first twist and themes I didn't personally enjoy, however well they were written, this was a did not finish from me at about 250 pages in.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a tough review to write, because this book falls squarely into that special category of "Books that I really like a lot more once I'm done with them and looking back on the story as a whole, than I do while I'm actually reading them".
Christopher Paolini proved his worth as an author almost two decades ago with his Eragon series, and this is his first attempt at science fiction. What I loved about it were the truly imaginative levels of creativity and depth that he brought to the story. Where he lost me a bit was in the fact that he felt inclined to include every little transition scene, making the book almost 900 pages. Usually, after a big action scene, you'd want a bit of a breather before hopping into the next intense bit of fun. That's fine. But he puts ten or fifteen little breathers. Let's see how the crew gets off the ship. Now let's see how they get from there to the debrief. Let's have another scene in the waiting room before the debrief. Now the debrief itself, and then a few more scenes walking back to the ship. It got a little long winded at times, and I found myself just wanting it to GO already.
But in hindsight, the story itself was interesting and engaging. So how about for the next one, we just stay on the ship and skip the debrief altogether? =)
Christopher Paolini proved his worth as an author almost two decades ago with his Eragon series, and this is his first attempt at science fiction. What I loved about it were the truly imaginative levels of creativity and depth that he brought to the story. Where he lost me a bit was in the fact that he felt inclined to include every little transition scene, making the book almost 900 pages. Usually, after a big action scene, you'd want a bit of a breather before hopping into the next intense bit of fun. That's fine. But he puts ten or fifteen little breathers. Let's see how the crew gets off the ship. Now let's see how they get from there to the debrief. Let's have another scene in the waiting room before the debrief. Now the debrief itself, and then a few more scenes walking back to the ship. It got a little long winded at times, and I found myself just wanting it to GO already.
But in hindsight, the story itself was interesting and engaging. So how about for the next one, we just stay on the ship and skip the debrief altogether? =)
adventurous
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:
Yes
Thank you to BookishFirst and author Christopher Paolini for the chance to review a complementary Advanced Reader's Copy of the book. I should note that while I am both a sci-fi and fantasy reader, I haven't read the author's other works. That will have to change in the future.
At over 800 pages, before 3 appendices, this book was a daunting read to start. And this book isn't a light-hearted journey but rather a roller coster, lurching from one problem to the next. The author presents a hard science fiction look at space travel and alien interactions, keeping it very realistic and believable. This book presents an accidental first contact with a new alien civilization that quickly results in the main character, Kira, losing her fiancee, crew, and planned future to a alien artifact. This contact, in turn, leads to an oppressive government response AND triggers a three way interstellar war. Through the artistic skill and cerebral description and development of the story, the author weaves a truly believable and enjoyable story.
The author introduces several settings, including a planet under exploration, several spaceships, and a couple of space stations, but really the bulk of the book takes place on board one spaceship. The author introduces several characters early on, and then a host of new characters as circumstances change throughout the book. Paolini does an excellent job with character development, so the reader finds himself truly vested in the resolution of each stage of the book. The plot advances in a smooth, quick pace, with some interludes presented by the FTL travel.
While I anticipated the story's ending over the course of reading the book, I was still surprised upon approaching it. He successfully told the story, and provided resolution for major plot points, while leaving the reader both wanting and hoping for more. While the story could be complete with just this book, the author left enough of a hook to tell more of the story to draw the reader into a second book, if Paolini wishes to make this a series instead of a stand alone book. Paolini stuck his landing in this masterpiece!
At over 800 pages, before 3 appendices, this book was a daunting read to start. And this book isn't a light-hearted journey but rather a roller coster, lurching from one problem to the next. The author presents a hard science fiction look at space travel and alien interactions, keeping it very realistic and believable. This book presents an accidental first contact with a new alien civilization that quickly results in the main character, Kira, losing her fiancee, crew, and planned future to a alien artifact. This contact, in turn, leads to an oppressive government response AND triggers a three way interstellar war. Through the artistic skill and cerebral description and development of the story, the author weaves a truly believable and enjoyable story.
The author introduces several settings, including a planet under exploration, several spaceships, and a couple of space stations, but really the bulk of the book takes place on board one spaceship. The author introduces several characters early on, and then a host of new characters as circumstances change throughout the book. Paolini does an excellent job with character development, so the reader finds himself truly vested in the resolution of each stage of the book. The plot advances in a smooth, quick pace, with some interludes presented by the FTL travel.
While I anticipated the story's ending over the course of reading the book, I was still surprised upon approaching it. He successfully told the story, and provided resolution for major plot points, while leaving the reader both wanting and hoping for more. While the story could be complete with just this book, the author left enough of a hook to tell more of the story to draw the reader into a second book, if Paolini wishes to make this a series instead of a stand alone book. Paolini stuck his landing in this masterpiece!
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
Amazing sci fi read, I loved it from beginning to end.
Hundreds of years in the future, when humanity has mastered faster than light travel and colonized the stars, Kira Navarez is a xenobiologist on a research mission with her crew on an unpopulated planet. When a routine unlikely check for life goes wrong, Kira is swept up in a conflict involving multiple new alien races and new allies, hoping to keeps safe the one thing she holds sacred: life.
I recommend this book to people who liked:
- AIDAN from Illuminae
- The key from Foundryside
- the movie Arrival
- The Hero of Ages
- the video game INSIDE
- the space opera genre
I've never read any of the Eragon books so this was an introduction to Paolini for me. I was impressed, this definitely did feel adult all the way through. I really loved a lot of the scientific elements in this. For example, Kira asks a ship for directions and arrows appear on the ceiling to guide her. That's obviously not the most out-there example I could give, but I thought Paolini did a great job of immersing the reader in the universe without handing everything to them. For instance, there is a specific plot twist that is only for the reader - the characters have known this their whole lives, but the full extent of it isn't mentioned until halfway through. The cultural differences that have to be worked through and around in this reminds me of Arrival (my favorite movie) and it was so well done. The last 50 pages or so, just the general conclusion, was fantastic. There was definitely a cheesy scene in it, but there really wasn't any other ending that would have felt right, props to him. I also enjoyed how it didn't feel like Paolini was pulling any punches - Kira's actions in particular always had consequences that lasted for most if not the rest of the book. As much as those things were great, this definitely wasn't a new favorite of mine. I never - and I mean never - complain about this in books, but I felt that this was a little too long. Some sections felt kinda redundant, some felt like a wild goose chase put there for no reason. I also had some tonal problems, particularly around when Kira first boards the Wallfish. The rest of this book is really serious but then occasionally the author would try to be funny in a way that felt really out of place (why is there a pig on a spaceship?). I wasn't a fan of the romantic relationship in here, but that's probably chalked up to my last problem: underdeveloped side characters. Science fiction, for some reason, seems to be the genre that I notice most where the author just hands us a character and expects us to root for them without giving enough individual background. This is also my problem with the "found family" trope - if there's too many people, it feels fake (to me). I mean, I spent 75% of this book convinced that a specific character was a traitor (and they weren't, which was almost disappointing). Maybe I just have trust issues, who knows. Overall, I definitely get why this is making the rounds and will definitely look out for any more adult novels from Paolini, I just got bored in the middle of this one!
I recommend this book to people who liked:
- AIDAN from Illuminae
- The key from Foundryside
- the movie Arrival
- The Hero of Ages
- the video game INSIDE
- the space opera genre
I've never read any of the Eragon books so this was an introduction to Paolini for me. I was impressed, this definitely did feel adult all the way through. I really loved a lot of the scientific elements in this. For example, Kira asks a ship for directions and arrows appear on the ceiling to guide her. That's obviously not the most out-there example I could give, but I thought Paolini did a great job of immersing the reader in the universe without handing everything to them. For instance, there is a specific plot twist that is only for the reader - the characters have known this their whole lives, but the full extent of it isn't mentioned until halfway through. The cultural differences that have to be worked through and around in this reminds me of Arrival (my favorite movie) and it was so well done. The last 50 pages or so, just the general conclusion, was fantastic. There was definitely a cheesy scene in it, but there really wasn't any other ending that would have felt right, props to him. I also enjoyed how it didn't feel like Paolini was pulling any punches - Kira's actions in particular always had consequences that lasted for most if not the rest of the book. As much as those things were great, this definitely wasn't a new favorite of mine. I never - and I mean never - complain about this in books, but I felt that this was a little too long. Some sections felt kinda redundant, some felt like a wild goose chase put there for no reason. I also had some tonal problems, particularly around when Kira first boards the Wallfish. The rest of this book is really serious but then occasionally the author would try to be funny in a way that felt really out of place (why is there a pig on a spaceship?). I wasn't a fan of the romantic relationship in here, but that's probably chalked up to my last problem: underdeveloped side characters. Science fiction, for some reason, seems to be the genre that I notice most where the author just hands us a character and expects us to root for them without giving enough individual background. This is also my problem with the "found family" trope - if there's too many people, it feels fake (to me). I mean, I spent 75% of this book convinced that a specific character was a traitor (and they weren't, which was almost disappointing). Maybe I just have trust issues, who knows. Overall, I definitely get why this is making the rounds and will definitely look out for any more adult novels from Paolini, I just got bored in the middle of this one!
adventurous
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:
Yes