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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
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"To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*
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Soon after this book was published, I recall reading all the negative reviews. Given the inflated rating criteria for Amazon and Goodreads, I tend to avoid any book under 4.0. Consequently, I went into this book with low expectations. By the 25% point, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is a bit wordy, but still enjoyable. Some readers complained about the lack of characterization; I have not noticed that.The book is written from a single, third person POV, and a very deep POV at that. We spend a lot of time inside Kira's head, perhaps to the determent of the flow. As anyone else noticed that, and what do you think of it?
I was happy when I saw that this book was in the monthly read. I´ve read it at around easter time and I really loved that book. I even wrote down some notes and later I might share them.What I liked most is that there are many things in the book - there is some action, some humour and some drama. The conflict between human and Wranaui is shown very clerverly as it is first hostile and then becomes friendlier. And I also liked the characters, as they all have a soul - in the beginning it takes a bit of time to get into Kira, but as the story continues I started liking her. It´s not that I always agree with her, but what she does is always comprehensible. And I also liked the crew on the wallfish, with everyone there having its own story and flaws.
And yea, I noticed that the whole book is from Kira´s POV. And I liked it, or at least I didn´t miss the view of another person. The story felt well told from Kira´s POV.
So, I finally finished the audiobook (it's almost 40 hours), but withOUT listening to the appendices. Are they important to the story or do they just add to the technical stuff?Honestly, this book was much too long. [As an editor, I would have loved to cut huge part of the book down.] Far too much time was spent on stuff like cryosleep. I get it . . . You don't have to pound me over the head with it.
I felt that way about several aspects of the story. Repetition was rampant. Repetition was rampant.
The characters were interesting, even those I didn't like. I would have enjoyed learning more about some of them, hence the first-person POV mentions, I think. Also, I felt that Kira jumped a bit too quickly from being a non-violent scientist into a special ops-type killing machine who somehow knew how to use all the equipment on every craft and station.
The concepts of the aliens and some of the tech were fascinating, but after they were explained several times, it was enough.
Jennifer Hale did a superb job with the narration, in my opinion. There were some editing glitches in the audiobook, but only a few.
I have finished it, and I agree with everything Jan said. The plot was overwhelmed by too many elements. The action scenes, besides being repetitive, were over-wrought, which diminished the impact. I can easily see the author's fantasy background in this book. Not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it felt the typical hero's journey sort of trope, right down to magical weapons, the Entropist wizard companions, and the reluctant heroine who finally learns how to use her magic to save the day.
Overall, I would give it a 3.5 to 4.0. Not bad, but could have been better. I will not be in a hurry to read a sequel.
Mod
There were too many "wait...what?" moments but lots of very good parts. I still don't understand the Corrupted but I really did like Gregorovitch
I am not complete with the book yet but wanted to throw this out there, one part I really have enjoyed is the Kira's adventure once she gets on the Wallfish, just their crew and dynamic. Does anyone else get a real Firefly vibe loveable band of misfits, I really picture Mal when I read Falconi. Okay back to reading!
Kira plus the Soft Blade equals Mary Suit. *ducks for cover*Seriously though, I think that a large part of the problem is that all the external challenges are too easy because the Soft Blade is overpowered. All that's left are the internal challenges. At least Paolini recognized that he needed some kind of real challenge.
In the spirit of a superhero story, I did enjoy the sense of wonder that comes with discovery of the suit's abilities and the Wranaui.
Mod
Just wanted to throw this up here, Paolini has a pretty neat website with illustrations on People, places and things. There are probably some spoilers here so be warned before poking around to much if you just starting the book but it helped me picture some of the characters etc.The Website is: https://fractalverse.net/explore-to-s...
Dane wrote: "I am not complete with the book yet but wanted to throw this out there, one part I really have enjoyed is the Kira's adventure once she gets on the Wallfish, just their crew and dynamic. Does anyon..."I totally had Firefly in my mind for the Wallfish crew as well!!
My god I loathed this book. I ended up bowing out at 61% (536 pages in) because it was just so repetitive and it felt like nothing was happening. I found some of it was too over-the-top and then the rest was ridiculously basic, and I felt the characters were cardboard cutouts.Definitely didn't need to be as long as it is. Paolini seriously needs to find a decent editor, as I had the same problem with the Eragon series.
My full
I definitely found Kira to be extremely naive at the beginning. When she first wakes up in the lab on the Extenuating Circumstances, then is all shocked and surprised at how she's treated? Really? If I woke up in a lab, covered in an alien suit after what happened to my former colleagues. I would be wondering when the unlawful experiments and torture were going to start.
Krystal wrote: "My god I loathed this book. I ended up bowing out at 61% (536 pages in) because it was just so repetitive and it felt like nothing was happening. I found some of it was too over-the-top and then th..."A lot of this is basically how I felt. I finished the whole thing though and the ending was just... ugh. I was at least hoping for a good payout for slogging through and then Kira just magics everything better and heads off to the inevitable doorstopper sequel.
I rolled my eyes so hard at the "everybody gets a magical item, I'm off see ya" ending :S
@anna: That reminded me a bit of the ending of a movie or a game where it is like "you have completed the main story and here are some cool items you can use in the post-game"Talking like that, I have to say that in retrospection the book has partly the structure of a game. Like Krystal wrote in her review, the book is like "we do that here and then we journey to the other planet and do there something else". That's a bit like skyrim or the Witcher where you complete a mission and after that you can go to another region (OK, skyrim is probably a bad example for that. But maybe you get the point). And like in a game the main character isn't the... best made up character, but what counts is the plot. And the humor comes with the sidekick of the main char.
Jan wrote: "So, I finally finished the audiobook (it's almost 40 hours), but withOUT listening to the appendices. Are they important to the story or do they just add to the technical stuff?"Just technical stuff. Paolini seemed insecure about being new to science fiction. The Afterword goes into his writing of the book.
I'd say the appendices are worth scanning over quickly with your eyes, if you have a print or ebook copy. I would skip them if you only have the audiobook, you're not missing much.
I liked the beginning of the book, but then it became too convoluted and repetitive...this could've / should've been much shorter.
I'm at 64% on the audiobook and am tired of it. Very repetitive and the depiction of the military is so cliche. I keep increasing the speed on the book. I'll give it another 5% before I decide to dnf.
I didn't hate the book...but I didn't really like it very much either. I found Kira annoying. I didn't find that many of the characters were very unique, and could probably find similar characters in other books. The ending was very confusing with Kira becoming...whatever she became. I didn't like it, or understand it, and thought it did not flow with the rest of the book at all. I will not continue with this if it's meant to become a series.I should note I really liked the Eragon series when I read them. It was a long time ago, and maybe my perspective would be different if I reread the books today.
I've just finished part 1. I seriously dislike Kira, she is blander than a slice of unbuttered toast. I also can't believe that I have absolutely no idea what Kira looks like. I know what everyone else looks like, but not Kira, not even her hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, height, facial structure, body...absolutely nothing. Maybe that is why I'm struggling to connect with her because I haven't got a clue what she looks like. I was so happy when Alan died because he was just as bland. The aliens are your typical big squishy things with lots of tenticals...extremely cliche. I hope this book gets better because at the moment it kind of sucks.
Mod
Did we like the biosuit? The crew? The religions? What's something we enjoyed?
I agree with all the negative comments. But I did enjoy it in the way I sometimes like a silly, grade B, SF movie: laughable but entertaining.
Robert wrote: "I agree with all the negative comments. But I did enjoy it in the way I sometimes like a silly, grade B, SF movie: laughable but entertaining."I did enjoy tearing it to shreds in my review haha
A friend of mine loved it though! She found the science really interesting and even read the appendices. She also had far more patience and love for the characters.
I like the concept of the Bio suit, as well as it being somewhat sentient and having memory. It could be a really interesting idea in a different story. I've honestly been thinking of how it could work in different ways on other contexts already, like, if it tailors itself to a person's DNA, what if it stayed mostly under the skin unless it was needed and then cold emerge when needed, or it being a completely different life form that works in symbiosis with the body of other life forms. You could have a whole adventure of these two sentient creatures ending up connected by outside situations and having to adjust to each other. Lots of potential.
I enjoyed the Bowie references.. everytime the nightmares were brought up, this popped into my head: "the nightmares came today, and it looks as though they're here to stay.." and I had that song in my head basically through the whole book. Plus all the nods to SF.. I caught references to Heinlein, Ralph Ellison, Asimov.. they're all I can think of off the top of my head. That made it more fun, though I found the whole story really enjoyable.
Jan wrote: "So, I finally finished the audiobook (it's almost 40 hours), but withOUT listening to the appendices. Are they important to the story or do they just add to the technical stuff?Honestly, this bo..."
Curious to hear your thoughts regarding how it compared to his previous works, assuming you have read those. I know he was often criticized for his writing quality in Eragon, but I felt that it did improve somewhat.
Finally finished the audio book. I listened to appendix 1: retained nothing. Appendix 4:timeline, that was more meaningful. Listened to the afterword and learned how many different times he rewrote and edited the book and still had this result.I gave it 3 stars instead of 2 because there were enough space exploration points I enjoyed. It did remind me of many tv shows and movies I have seen. My son overhearing me listening to it accused it of being an Aliens ripoff. I can see how he would think that.
So, it´s me again. Things I liked are:*the setting: I liked it. The political system seems coherent and I like that Paolini really thought about the technical stuff like FTL. That´s also why I liked the appendix where he explained the technology. Plus, it seems as if there is more. I forgot the names, but I liked the depiction of the people who seek science as religion and the ones who have counting as their religion. It makes the whole world seem bigger and more diverse as there are a ton of different cultures - and that only for humen.
In comparison to that, the Wranaui seem quite boring as they can only do what they´re genetically programmed to do. On the other side I found it interesting to imagine a species that is that much determined by their genetics. When you want to transform a fighter to a mechanic, you can do that easily in the nest; that´s something unimaginable for humans. I also kept the fact in mind that the Wranaui were so surprised that the humans did their discoveries on their own and not because some over-worldly creature told them how to fly FTL etc. They seemed rather like animals than human.
*the persons: Yea, there you can give some critics. Kira grows quite fast (from a xenobiologist to a real fighter) and I didn´t like her in the beginning, but well, she blended in with the others. My favourites were the persons from the Wallfish (Falconi and, before all others, Gregorovich) who made the book a bit more vivid.
*the blend of genres: The books contains action (e.g. fighting at the end), humour (e.g.- Gregorovich, crew on the Wallfish), tragedy (the backgroundstories of the characters) and mystery (the myth about the soft blade), everything under the cover of a science-fiction-novel that could also be a fantasy book.
These points are mostly why I liked the book. But I also have to say that I haven´t read thaaat many SF books in the past, so I can´t tell well if there are many SF cliché-things in the book like some of you said. And yes, the book is repetitive (journey - fighting - some dialogue or diplomatic talk - journey - fighting - and so on) but I didn´t see it as negative. It made it easy to divide the book into parts. The book has in total about 700 pages, and I just imagined that it is a book containing several stories that otherwise could have been written as a duology or trilogy (e.g. first book until Kira meets the wallfish, second book is the story with the blue staff and third book is the big fight at the ending).
Then I also have to say that this book reminded me also much of fantasy books. Actually, this book didn´t feel to me like Science-fiction, but rather like a fantasy book with spaceships. The reason could be that the mystery (the part with the soft blade) is a big role in the book, and the essence is not the spaceships but this mystery.
And yes, the ending was a bit weird. I can´t exactly tell what happened to Kira and what she becomes at the end, but I liked the contrast to other books: Kira didn´t win by killing the "end boss" like so often, but by becoming one with him. Sometimes you have to accept your enemy and to become one with him to defeat him instead of throwing your whole weapon arsenal upon him. That´s why I liked this ending more than one where Kira would have killed the maw and be the big heroine.
Oh one other thing I just remembered was interesting. When Kira's implants are non functional she is disgusted at the idea of things like memory and entertainment being dependent on the regular, unenhanced human brain and imagination. Was kind of interesting how regular people as we are today was a horrifying idea for her, barely better than being an animal.
Just finished part 2. I do like the Wallfish's crue, they seem to have depth to them. I think Kira is quite selfish, she would put innocent passengers in harm's way just to try get some Jelly tech so she can bargain with the UMC. The Numanists have a very odd religion which I thought was quite creative. The Entropists are seriously strange, I would hate to be part of a hivemind, but they are entertaining. The Nightmares are disgusting, but I still don't find them unique. Well, I'm off to read the search for The Staff of Blue.
While there was little truly original here, some of the ideas were well-explored. I particularly appreciated Kira’s character development in tandem with her increasing understanding of the abilities of her alien suit. It was definitely too long. The conclusion was satisfying aside from a new conflict that came out of nowhere.Quick questions:
Who or what is the Seeker? Is it another artifact left behind by the Old Ones? What is its goal and why? And what relationship might it have with the Maw (and its offspring at the end of the book)?
Did anyone get anything out of the chapter titles? Why are they Latin?
Why are they in Latin?"To sound pretentious?
Taylor wrote: "Curious to hear your thoughts regarding how it compared to his previous works, assuming you have read those. I know he was often criticized for his writing quality in Eragon, but I felt that it did improve somewhat...."I wouldn't know, because I gave up after the second Eragon book. LOL! I should have learned my lesson, I guess.
Finished part 3. Quite a bit of action in this part, which I enjoyed. I was upset that one of the chapters was called "Shattered" because I then knew beforehand that the staff of blue was broken. That's why I don't think it is a good idea for authors to name their chapters, it can really spoil what is to come. So now we know where the Nightmares come from, and I must admit that that was a surprise, it was a good twist. I don't know, but Kira is still just not doing it for me, I just can't seem to like her.
I'm only at p. 18 and already Kira is shown as too weak to move a piece of equipment that is designed to be portable and is integral to her work, and also willing to drop what seems to be a pretty good career just to be with a man. I am not impressed.And the fact that y'all are saying it's wordy & repetitive, and the fact that I have so many other books I'm excited to read... I kinda wanna bail now!
Strike that. I read more reviews, and I am bailing. It just doesn't sound interesting to me unless made much more concise & to the point.
Cheryl wrote: "Strike that. I read more reviews, and I am bailing. It just doesn't sound interesting to me unless made much more concise & to the point."I was actually keen for the first 100 or so pages and ended up hating it so if you're already having issues 18 pages in you're probably making the right call haha
Finished Part 4. Not much to say really. I expected the UMC to betray them. The rest was just one big escape battle. And poor Gregorovich, I think he has finally gone totally crazy. He was my favourite character.
YouKneeK here. I listened to the audiobook. It took me 23 days! The audiobook was narrated well and I enjoyed it, but I think choosing to listen to it was a mistake because Ernest heard it too. Now he has Ideas. I’m required to call him The Great and Mighty Ernest. He’s calling me Meatbag and doesn’t get the irony. (Ernest is my cat.)1. What did you think of the set up?
I enjoyed it. Starting off with Kira discovering the Soft Blade worked well for me, I was immediately interested. I thought it had a bit of a creepy feel at first, until we learned more about what was going on.
2. What did you think of the characters?
I liked them. Kira was a bit of a mess, but I liked her determination and that she never gave up. Trig got on my nerves, I was kind of glad when he was out of the picture for an extended period of time, but otherwise I liked the whole crew of the Wallfish. I always have a soft spot for characters who do the right thing when it really matters. And Gregorovich was hilarious.
3. What did you think of the plot?
I liked it, but I did sometimes groan when yet another horrible thing went wrong to pile on top of all the other horrible things that had gone wrong. It definitely could have been shorter, but it mostly held my interest.
4. What worked or didn't for you?
The action scenes sometimes got tedious for me. I would have liked it better if they were shorter and fewer. I also didn’t always buy into some of the Soft Blade’s abilities, particularly its ability to create living things such as plants. Also I rolled my eyes a little every time Kira discovered some new way to use the Soft Blade just in the nick of time to help her or her companions.
I got the theme song to The Greatest American Hero stuck in my head over the course of listening to this book, even though there are few similarities aside from a hapless human ending up with a suit that came from aliens and that they don't really know how to use. I would find myself walking through my house and passionately belting out, “Believe it or not, I’m walking on air!” while The Great and Mighty Ernest glared at me.
YouKneeK wrote: "YouKneeK here. I listened to the audiobook. It took me 23 days! The audiobook was narrated well and I enjoyed it, but I think choosing to listen to it was a mistake because Ernest heard it too. Now..."This is pretty spot on to how I felt across the board (as you will see below)! Keep an eye on Ernest as if cats needed a bigger ego lol.
I truly enjoyed this book, I also ended up doing the audio book which was very well read. I think if this had been a bad narrator I would have struggled with it. My library loan ran out with just 4 hours left and had to wait a week to get it back which was a real bummer. 1. What did you think of the set up? I really liked the setup author did a good job of setting up the world/timeline and then quickly getting you invested in Kira as a main character and the soft blade as a big part of the story and a character in itself. By the time that Kira's first encounter with the softblade that killed/injured most her team I was already invested and sad for her loss of her fiance.
2. What did you think of the characters? It was fun seeing Kira grow as a character both personally from scientist to leader and with the soft blade as she understood it more and more slowly realizing that it was more friend then foe. I loved the crew of the wallfish as a group and most of the individuals. As mentioned above really got a Firelfly vibe from them which was fun. Falconi/Nielson, the entropists were great supporting characters along with obviously Gregorivich as a favorite. I really liked the Wranaui and the interaction between Kira and Itari.
3. What did you think of the plot? As most said there were some slow spots in the story that could have been cleaned up but for the most part I enjoyed the whole journey from beginning to end. I found myself always wanting to listen more or what will happen next. The down times usually had a purpose of providing backstory or growing the characters. I actually really enjoyed the ending with the exception of the obvious sequel creator of random Maw duplicates. But Kira completely joining with the softblade and creating peace between humans and Wranaui was a fitting ending.
4. What worked or didn't for you? Main issue with the story was the whole trip to get the staff of blue and that being a complete dead end. I feel like they made such a big deal about it that there should have been some way to reconstruct it or utilize it in some way. Could have introduced Tschetter and the whole Knot storyline with out that huge side mission. My favorite parts of the book where any of the missions that included Kira and the whole wallfish crew: invading the original Wranaui ship, the fight on planet for the staff of blue, escaping imprisonment from the UMC, and the final fight to kill the great and mighty Ctein!
Ouch, having to wait a week to hear the wrap-up would have been frustrating! I had nearly forgotten about the staff of blue part after that fizzled out, but I agree with you.
2 points...1. This is fantasy disguised as SF.
2. It's not particularly good fantasy.
2 of 5 stars
I read this earlier in the year but have to concure with most of the comments here. It had some good elements (and I did read the whole thing) but was bogged down in places and had some story sidelines that could have been removed. The first half of the book was great and set up some good expectations but then it lost its focus and the started sort of floating around as if it were in space looking for somewhere to land.
I'm finally finished. I'm giving it a 3 star.1. What did you think of the set up?
I found the first part really boring. The start was too slow and took for ever for something to happen. Also I'm very irritated that we never find out what Kira looks like. Yes, we get some descriptions of how she looks in the xeno suit, but never of what she looks like, not in over 800 pages. I found the first set of characters very bland. But, the moment we got onto the Wallfish, it all changed, the crew was amazing.
2. What did you think of the characters?
I never really got round to liking Kira, something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. I loved the crew of the Wallfish though, especially Falconi, Sparrow, and Vishal. Oh and who could forget Gregorovich, he was amazing!
3. What did you think of the plot?
Some of the plot was good. For instance I found the creation of the maw very interesting. But the action scenes were a bit too scifi for me and all the lazers and stuff hitting ships was a bit dull. I'm also not quite sure what I think of Kira basically becoming a goddess at the end. And I really disliked the part where everyone is given a present by her, it was kind of like Oprah handing out free stuff to everyone. I found the politics a bit tedious with the UMC being so corrupt. Basically the crew of the Wallfish made up all the good parts of this book.
4. What worked or didn't for you?
Not much worked for me. I'm not the biggest fan of scifi. I only read this book because it was written by Paolini and I loved Eragon. This book was structured like an epic fantasy, and is set up quite differently from other scifi books I've read. The beginning was boring, parts of the middle worked like the search for the Staff of Blue, but then things got a bit repetative with all the different fights and escapes. I did like the part about the Maw and how it was created. The Jellies seemed a bit too cliche as aliens--big squishy things with lots of tenticals. But I loved the Wallfish's crew, except for Trig, he was freaking annoying. I'm not sure how happy I am with the ending, I sort of feel that Kira is too powerful. So if I put all my likes and dislikes together, it sort of balances out at a mediocre 3 star.
YouKneeK wrote: "I got the theme song to The Greatest American Hero stuck in my head over the course of listening to this book, even though there are few similarities aside from a hapless human ending up with a suit that came from aliens and that they don't really know how to use."That's funny! I remember the show and the theme song.
My point of reference was Venom, Spider-Man's sentient and parasitic black suit.
I enjoyed the book. I really loved the science aspects of it - it was really well-researched and detailed. The appendix about FTL travel was a fascinating read, being based on real concepts in physics. The worldbuilding was great - well fleshed out, detailed and plausible. Lots of interesting features not integral to the story but that made it feel real and lived-in, like the various religions, the political parties and political dynamics around Sol vs the colonies, the perceptions of Earth among people who have never seen it or anything like it in their lifetimes. I felt it borrowed from the Expanse series a bit in some of these things.
The Jellies were an interesting addition and I liked how they were an intelligent species, not evil, but still potentially harmful to humans, with a culture totally unrelatable to our own - as you would expect. The ideas of a culture of individuals who essentially never die and switch their bodies as needed is interesting to explore in terms of how that affects their attitude about life. The reveal about where the nightmares come from took me completely by surprise and makes for an interesting ethical issue. I liked the way this was resolved at the end.
The Soft Blade falls into the category of 'any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic'. I liked the way its history was slowly exposed though flashbacks and memories and the exploration of how it was used, without full understanding, by various less advanced species and individuals, and its own reactions to this. The idea that less advanced civilizations would try to weaponize something like that and more advanced would use it for growth rings true to me. I hope our own civilization someday evolves away from weaponizing everything, and I saw Kira's evolution through the story and transformation at the end as a sort of allegory for that - her journey being the human race's eventual journey, accelerated by her merger with someone far more advanced, while others such as the UMC and League are still at earlier stages of that journey. Meanwhile the Jellies, in contrast, took technological advancement from the Vanished, but not cultural or psychological advancement.
I felt the Staff of Blue could have been omitted - it was a bit of a McGuffin - and the search in that part could have been for information instead. It does serve to demonstrate just how much more advanced the Vanished were than current civilizations, but then the Soft Blade does that too. I'm not quite sure where the Seeker fits in, and I assume that will be explored in future books. It seems a bit of a contrast to other technologies of the Vanished.
I thought the characters were the weakest part, with Kira of course pretty fleshed out but others not so much, and in particular the Entropists were pretty devoid of personality. Unlike others, I guess, I like that Kira wasn't described physically. First of all, I think it makes sense that, with the story being told from her perspective, she wouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about or describing her own appearance. Second, I think it's refreshing to have a female lead not defined by her appearance and relating to others based on her appearance. And in a way, it makes her more relatable to a wider audience. Picture her any way you like.
A few questions to get us started:
1. What did you think of the set up?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What did you think of the plot?
4. What worked or didn't for you?
Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions