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A review by ichbinphoenix
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
TSIASOS, on paper, was perfect for me. I grew up on the Inheritance Cycle and deeply love the themes presented here. The book had a lot of potential, but ends up as not much more than a sequence of setpieces that persistently contorts itself to keep the protagonist central. Like Starfield, some will love it, and I'm sorry to not be one of them.
The main problem is the POV character. Kira is unlikeable, unreflective, bumbling, several chapters slower on the uptake than the reader, and constantly flinging herself & everyone around her out of the pan and into the fire by somehow managing to be simultaneously paralyzed by fear and impulsive, going off half-cocked at every turn.
The book could've been about any member of the supporting cast and been better (and probably half as long, with a fraction of the body count) for it. They fare vastly better in the likeability and competence departments, though most of them seem to be one-note archetypes: the savvy, rogueish captain with a secret heard of gold; the excitable hotshot kid; the no-nonsense doctor, and so on.
The nail in the coffin was formalistic, mechanical prose that failed to provide a compelling authorial or character voice by filtering every thought and emotion though an explicitly external perspective. TSIASOS isn't a terrible book, just a terrible disappointment. 2/5
The main problem is the POV character. Kira is unlikeable, unreflective, bumbling, several chapters slower on the uptake than the reader, and constantly flinging herself & everyone around her out of the pan and into the fire by somehow managing to be simultaneously paralyzed by fear and impulsive, going off half-cocked at every turn.
The book could've been about any member of the supporting cast and been better (and probably half as long, with a fraction of the body count) for it. They fare vastly better in the likeability and competence departments, though most of them seem to be one-note archetypes: the savvy, rogueish captain with a secret heard of gold; the excitable hotshot kid; the no-nonsense doctor, and so on.
The nail in the coffin was formalistic, mechanical prose that failed to provide a compelling authorial or character voice by filtering every thought and emotion though an explicitly external perspective. TSIASOS isn't a terrible book, just a terrible disappointment. 2/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Religious bigotry, War