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A review by forthesanityof1
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Quarantine read!
I was super excited to read this since it was from the dragon god himself, Christopher Paolini. I pre-ordered my copy so far in advanced I actually forgot about it and almost bought it twice by accident. The premise sounded so interesting I was beyond happy to finally have the motivation to tackle it.
However.
While the world building was amazing, that was largely the only positive point I had for the book. I found all the characters to be one-dimensional and had a difficult time sinking into the story. It feels like it lacked emotional depth the entire way through except maybe the last 100 pages. I only maintained interest because I got to the halfway point and the plot finally gave me something interesting to hold onto with the Jellies. The character interactions themselves were superficial and did not inspire feelings of closeness between them to me. This led to me not giving a shit about any of the characters. The only ones I cared about were the entropists and Gregorovich. Everything else felt disjointed. There was a single section where the author added in a half page of dialogue about some politics that had literally never been mentioned before that point (think it was about 500 or 600 pages in) and was never mentioned again. Even in the beginning before plot occurs, Kira and Alan don't feel close or connected. I dont know, it might just be me. My other huge problem revolved around Kira herself. I love selfish characters or ones that choose to do things for reasons other than "what is morally right" but I could not get a read on Kira's motives at all. I didn't understand why she did what she did. She didn't come off as much of a scientist, either. It's like she has no personality, and yes, I know that's an issue with female narrators, I'm very aware of it; but the fact remains that Kira didn't matter to me. I felt no connection, no empathy, for her experiences. In addition, there were moments with Kira that took me completely out of the narrative. One example is whenKira first looks at herself in the mirror after obtaining the Soft Blade and is so repulsed by her form that she wonders how someone will ever love her "in that way." That being the first thing a female character thinks after enduring an alien parasite attaching itself to her, murdering her fiance and crew, and being tortured by some government doctor seems a little male-gaze centered to me. In addition, the Soft Blade actually being a life-giver and being called the "Seed" literally made my skin crawl when it was revealed. . Additionally, there were some weird moments of bullying and body-shaming that occurred for seemingly no reason at all,, which bothered me immensely when they happened. Overall, not super happy with this but I will still give his next book in the series a shot and hope for something a little more complex regarding the characters.
I was super excited to read this since it was from the dragon god himself, Christopher Paolini. I pre-ordered my copy so far in advanced I actually forgot about it and almost bought it twice by accident. The premise sounded so interesting I was beyond happy to finally have the motivation to tackle it.
However.
While the world building was amazing, that was largely the only positive point I had for the book. I found all the characters to be one-dimensional and had a difficult time sinking into the story. It feels like it lacked emotional depth the entire way through except maybe the last 100 pages. I only maintained interest because I got to the halfway point and the plot finally gave me something interesting to hold onto with the Jellies. The character interactions themselves were superficial and did not inspire feelings of closeness between them to me. This led to me not giving a shit about any of the characters. The only ones I cared about were the entropists and Gregorovich. Everything else felt disjointed. There was a single section where the author added in a half page of dialogue about some politics that had literally never been mentioned before that point (think it was about 500 or 600 pages in) and was never mentioned again. Even in the beginning before plot occurs, Kira and Alan don't feel close or connected. I dont know, it might just be me. My other huge problem revolved around Kira herself. I love selfish characters or ones that choose to do things for reasons other than "what is morally right" but I could not get a read on Kira's motives at all. I didn't understand why she did what she did. She didn't come off as much of a scientist, either. It's like she has no personality, and yes, I know that's an issue with female narrators, I'm very aware of it; but the fact remains that Kira didn't matter to me. I felt no connection, no empathy, for her experiences. In addition, there were moments with Kira that took me completely out of the narrative. One example is when
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Torture, and Violence