To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini released 15/09/2020 Review written by Lee W.C. Jervis This is a side-step for Paolini from his more well-established fantasy series into the foray of ‘space fantasy’. It's unlike other books, as I frequent non-fiction or fantasy. Spoilers below Kira is a space biologist (like me! Without the space part!) who has a space family and is about to give up the xenobiology ‘gig’ life to get married and settle down on a colony. This is however, cut short when her would-be husband makes her go look at some funny shaped rocks and she binds with an alien machine that’s sort of alive but not really. She later gets scared after watching somebody vomit and accidently murders most of her alien family, putting a massive dent in her plan to settle down. She is then abducted by humans and subsequent tortured until the interspecies war she created prompts her to escape this prison. Sounds pretty tiring, but after fighting the childishly-named ‘Jellies’ she loses a piece of her alien suit thing and then sleeps for a month. Which was all pretty good, despite the author presuming the reader has pre-existing sci-fi knowledge (THERE’S AN EXPLANATION OF THE SCIENCE AT THE BACK OF THE BOOK THOUGH, IF YOU CHECKED, WHICH I DIDN’T.) Then, some band of misfits pick her up to extort her for money for her safe passage, but then as the book continues she seems to easily convince this gang of misfits to put all of the other 100 or so people in danger by docking a hostile enemy ship?! This makes up about 30% of the book as they become best friends and their personalities are painfully extracted, and in my eyes, becomes clear the author had an idea of the first 20% and last 50-60% and stitched something in the middle to make it happen (she also sleeps a lot here too). After dragging this easily led band of dodgy dudes to their next near-death mission (to find a magic Staff of Blue to solve everyone’s problems) the plot intensifies and everything gets explained, and the book begins to refocus your attention. The ‘science’ of the universe begins to get explained as alliances are made and we suddenly are alerted that Kira is the mother of a 3rd group of aliens that are destroying the universe because she got scared when she lost a part of a her the alien suit. Alliances are formed and she and her collection of comrades go kill the big bad boss, which is now easily done as the alien suit is basically ‘god mode’, which Kira discovers after covering her quarters in black web. After dealing with the big bad, she deals with the second big bad by turning into a space station. The book starts to wrap up and conclude, before Kira remembers she left some smaller big bads left wandering the universe - so she ups and leaves us potential for a sequel, or a alter book within the same universe. [/Spoilers]
The beginning and last 40% of this book were a delight but felt strung together in the middle. When the book went into depth, the world-building was good, but not as remarkable as his inheritance cycle with its laws of how magic operated, but enjoyable. It follows a Eragon-esque storyline, of a the main character finding something ‘magic’, being ostracised for having it, slowly bonding with it and then training with it enough to unlock ‘god-like’ powers, while understanding their ‘gifts’ aren’t just weapons. The magic here is simply replaced by ‘Markov drives’, ‘Vanished technology’ and ‘anti-matter’, leaving this book to feel like a fantasy novel with a sci-fi setting. Overall, the book was enjoyable, even if it laboured in the middle, but this reader is glad they stuck with it. I rate it 3.8 goblins out of 5.
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About MeHi I'm Charlotte, I review books for fun and read a lot! Archives
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