Reviews with content warning for Gore - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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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ahudd's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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discordantdungeoneer's review against another edition

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It felt vaguely misogynistic. The opening was pretty good but the main character was barely compelling and the action was way too slow. The characters weren't introduced in anyway that felt meaningful after a while.

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tiffanysmith's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Like many people, I grew up with Paolini’s debut series The Inheirtance Cycle, which I was quite fond of. As an adult, I was thrilled when I discovered he had written a space adventure novel and immediately got my hands on it.

I can say that I enjoyed the premise and the characters up until I was about halfway through this tome…that’s when I began to despair. The story was slow. The plot and characters began to grow stale by the middle because their was a lack of forward motion to the story. I didn’t really know what the true plot was for quite a while and the character’s devoted much of their time to mundane dialogue and many scenes aboard the Wallfish that really just didn’t seem relevant. I think if the story had been condensed down by 300-400 pages, it would have been totally awesome! Instead, it grew dry and I had to slog my way to the finish line.

I did enjoy the plot premise and the space world that Paolini built. It was brilliant. He writes beautifully, and the description drew me into each moment. I just didn’t enjoy how it was executed in terms of pacing. From the middle until the climax at the end, I was desperately challenged to read through it, but I’m glad I finished it, so I can relish the parts I loved about it.

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erynpaige's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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kfergey's review against another edition

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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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gladiolus17's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a ride from start to finish and I enjoyed every bit of it. Paolini really put his heart into this book.

I liked many things about this, so in no particular order:

(Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I listened on audiobook)

-Paolini may have used his creative license with the science, but I sure couldn’t have told where he used it. Kira sounded like a xenobiologist and a regular user of spaceships, and everything sciencey that happened was written with confidence and clarity.

-Sometimes you can tell when a woman was written by a man. In this case, I could not tell. I think Paolini wrote Kira with realism and sensitivity.

-BOB THE NUMENIST

-Related to the above, I was delighted with every humorous part of the book. Sometimes the story can get serious, but the humor catches you off guard in a good way.

-Fuckin loved Gregoravich the ship mind. Everything he said was so off-beat and delightful.

-I discovered I love aliens as a trope? I felt so sympathetic to the jellies, especially Itari.

With every book, there were some things that didn’t work for me, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the overall book. Here’s the things I thought could better suit my taste:

-The writing is great on a macro level, but it could be more specific and more trimmed on a sentence/paragraph level. This is in the instances of describing emotions and feelings mostly.

-I had mixed feelings on Alan. I could have used some specific instances of Kira and his relationship to make me sympathize with him more. He was described as wonderful, but I didn’t see much action or scenes that revealed this.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and the audiobook was fantastic. The book has both character and plot, but I would say that this is more plot and world-building heavy. If you like sci-fi books heavy on detail and science, this is the book for you.

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