A review by redbeanm0chi
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

To sleep in a sea of stars takes place a couple of hundred years into the future, where humanity has taken root out into the universe. We follow the story of xenobiologist Kira  and her team as she makes first contact with a strange and mysterious alien artefact that thrusts her into an intergalactic war, pushing her to the limits of her identity and sanity. There’s awesome tech, found family, kinda living spaceships, space warfare, a beloved pig, a satisfying slow burn relationship, and discovery of really cool newfound alien powers.

Though there are on page descriptions of sexy times, it’s minimally graphic, so it gets a spicy score of 1.

This book really hit the sweet spot with realistic, descriptive science for me. There’s enough of it to be truly believable in the world without making the reading any kind of heavy (excluding the many pages long fictional science article at the end, goddamn Paolini).
I found the same balance between the dark, heavy scenes and the incredible humour that is reoccurring throughout all of the THIRTYTWO AND A HALV hours of this book.

There was some repetition of, among other things, Kira’s self pity and wallowing that did get a bit whiny and annoying to listen to, but over all it wasn’t impossible to get through. Like, that’s most of my criticism honestly.

“With no tongue to taste and no throat to sing, all names are equal.”

The book was effortlessly and refreshingly diverse and inclusive. The characters were above and beyond loveable and charming. The found family trope combined with the ragtag rogue group dynamics will always always steal my heart. The descriptions spanned from horrifying to hilarious, and descriptions of The Soft blade were especially lush and intriguing; every discovery about it was satisfying and giddy. And the slow build and exploration of Kira’s relationship with The Soft blade and with herself was so exciting all the way through.

“Miss Kira,” said Vishal, standing and joining them. “We know the risks and,” he bowed his head, his eyes soft and round, gentle. “We accept them with open hearts.”
“You shouldn’t have to though,” said Kira.
Vishal smiled and the pureness of his expression stopped her. “Of course not Miss Kira, but life is such, yes? And war is such.”

It’s impossible to not praise the audiobook narrator. I can’t help but be in AWE of Jennifer Hale and to find out this was her FIRST EVER AUDIOBOOK????? Getting a voice actor with experience with games and stuff was a power move. Her ACCENTS, her character work, her clarity and enunciation without sacrificing a shred of emotion and inflection- it’s masterfully done. It was so engaging and immersive to listen to her that the thirty-something hours honestly just flew by. I would recommend everyone, even those who’ve already read the physical copy, to listen to the audiobook just to be dazzled by the scope of Jennifer Hale’s voice.

The ending hit me somewhere soft behind my ribs. Hearing Christopher Paolini say he started with only the beginning and the end, and that every single word in between was written to end up where it did, made a lot of sense for me. It lost me a little bit at the end after the explosion. I’m not entirely sure why; it might have gotten a little too speculative after how grounded the rest of the book was in real life science, but it absolutely towed me mostly back at the very end. I’ll be thinking of it for a long time.

“The universe was so beautiful it hurt. So very very beautiful. And yet at the same time so full of ugliness. Some born of the inexorable demands of entropy. Some born of the cruelty that seemed innate to all sentient beings. And none of it made any sense. It was all glorious, horrible nonsense. Fit to inspire both despair and numinosity.”
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