This was a very entertaining book. I really enjoy reading it. I was a fan of Paolini since Eragon, and he didn’t disappoint me in this new installment.
If you like aliens, space and this kind of stuff, you can’t miss this one ♥️

I only received a partial galley but it was enough to have me absolutely mesmerized. I already bought the full book, which is next up on the reading list. Anything Paolini is SO. GOOD!

Loved this book! I forgot i had it and finally got around to reading it and i need MORE!! Helped me to rediscover my love for sci-fi!!

This partial galley was one of the most exciting I have ever started. Christopher Paolini has been a favorite author for years, so I couldn't wait to dive into this sci-fi book. And I was not disappointed! We follow Kira as she and her crew survey an area for a new colony. But when Kira encounters alien technology, it all goes awry. Paolini's writing style has grown exponentially, and this partial galley caused me to buy the full copy.

This book kept me turning pages well into the night. Will definitely be recommending it to older fans of Christopher Paolini.

"... I envisioned this as a love letter to the genre ..." -- Christopher Paolini

This is certainly that. Original concept as far as I know. This put me in mind of Becky Chambers' Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet ... except it's not character-driven and not quite a diverse a world (yet) as Chambers'.

Is this going to be a series? I hope so. The worldbuilding is EXCELLENT. The science, I gobbled it up as someone who is wholly interested in physics and space.

It was incredible that a book this big doesn't have any chaff (IMO). There is not one scene or info dump that (I thought) needed to be cut. I didn't feel the need to skim pages, which is very often the case these days.

I actually found myself wanting more--my one complaint. As I read, I wanted more explanation of what things were. I wanted the Soft Blade's visions/dreams to be explained in a more human way. It was just so vague to me. But that's ok ... it still works. I just didn't get a good grasp on the Soft Blade's parts. A lot of this could have been sorted if I had known there was an appendix/glossary at the back of the book. I had the audiobook and the Kindle version, but if I'd only had the audiobook, it would have been hard to navigate back and forth between where I was in the story and the appendix/glossary. Maybe those should have been put up front.

The pacing was also incredible. For a 800+ book, I never found myself getting bored. Also, I think I have a new favorite audiobook narrator! This was her first book, and jesus christ, she did so well ... so many different characters, so many voices, each one distinct. Bravo, Jennifer Hale. I will be looking out for more of her narrations.

I would rec this to everyone who even remotely likes sci-fi.

Didn't finish this title, as it was quite clunky and could have easily been broken down into multiple books.

I was interested in seeing how much Paolini has grown since his journeys of dragons and magic and discovering who you are as a person story that Eragon brought to the table. Sci-Fi is close to an extent to fantasy, I believe, when one considers how miraculous (or magical) some aspects of science can portray.

This book, however, was a bit difficult to read. Kira, the protagonist, was the only thing I felt that really held the story together, which considering all the others that were introduced, is a bit sad. I felt like I was rereading Eragon to an extent, where there were a lot of technical issues to plow throw to grasp what Paolini was trying to explain. The world building was rather interesting. I usually love space operas so anytime anyone explores themes within space and other species. The story itself I felt was too long and there are expletives that I feel were unnecessary. It leaves me to wonder if he was aiming for a much more adult audience than Eragon ever did, especially with sex scenes. The book I'd rate for at least 18 and older minimum. Probably. There's a lot of description and overexplaining I feel. I like it was more showing than telling. He probably could've split this book in two and refined many details within it.

I am not sure if I will read more by Paolini after this. His Eragon series was decent and I enjoyed my time reading them. This book was long and hard to enjoy but there are moments here and there where it did seem to almost redeem itself. Perhaps he needs to do more studying in English and read more books in order to find his place in literature. I don't think Sci-Fi is where it's at but with time, he might improve in this genre as he did with Eragon.

I'm a huge fan of Illuminae and this book is definitely helping me get over my hangover from that series. I really love books set in space. I'll never get to go myself, so I must live vicariously through stories. Already ordered the hardcover!

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Thank you to the Author Christopher Paolini, the publisher MacMillan Tor/Forge, and NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

I loved Christopher Paolini's first series of books about the dragon Eragon. This book, even after 10 years in writing, is no disappointment.

The book is set in the distant future in which humans have conquered FTL Faster than Speed of Light-Travel and in which they can travel to distant worlds. The book includes far-distant inhabited lands, alien races, strange flora and fauna, and of course, conflict.

The book centers around a Xenobiologist Kira, who picks up a strange organism that inhabits, or I suppose, cohabits her body. It acts as an outer skin and has a sentience of its own. It is called the Soft Blade. She ends up in adventures that involve the rag tag crew of a ship and of course, they all center on saving humanity, the world, etc.

I love the characters on the ship, including the ship mind, Gregorovich, a sarcastic half-crazy being that affectionately calls the humans, "meatbags". The Jellies are also an interesting race of beings.

Anyone who loves a great yarn, and big adventure, sci-fit, or just a good story will love this book.

Congratulations to Christopher!

I know the question you’re all going to be asking: is it derivative? Is it like Eragon? Will I be drowning in tropes and predictable plots? The short answer is… sometimes. The longer answer, of course, has a bit more nuance to it. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars has much to recommend it, but suffers from occasional (and unintentional) cheesiness. Paolini may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew, particularly in his handling of a woman as a protagonist.

Fortunately, Sea of Stars has one particular feature I love: WEIRD SENTIENT ALIEN TECH. The novel opens on Kira, a xenobiologist, accidentally uncovering a strange piece of alien pseudo-life. It integrates itself into her body, and at first she struggles to control it. As the novel progresses, they develop a symbiotic relationship with potentially world-altering implications.

It was a ton of fun watching each new xeno-related discovery rise from the murk. Plus, Paolini also gave me cats in zero-g (love it), a space pig, and some really cool jellyfish-like aliens. While I originally thought the term “jellies” for the aliens felt a little bit much, we now live in the time of Rona and I can’t really judge any more. The jellies communicate via scent and are heavily based off of the ‘immortal’ Medusa jellyfish – I loved getting to learn about their society and life cycles!

Sadly, I did feel like plot ended up highly predictable and often brought to mind other books that had similar ideas and themes, but had done them better. As far as the way Kira and the xeno interfaced and her subsequent struggle with bodily autonomy and identity, I was repeatedly reminded of Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear. Bear also had better zero-g cats, I’m sad to say.

This book is also quite a bit longer than it ought to have been. It’s a solid 800 pages, and there is a distinct turning point in the middle that makes it feel like a duology combined into one volume. I think it would have been a stronger book if around 300 pages or so had been trimmed.

Kira often feels flat and one-dimensional. At the start of the novel, when she first ‘meets’ the xeno and can’t control it, she slaughters her husband and crewmates. This occurs within the first, oh, thirty pages or so; we barely see any of the relationship between her and her partner, which makes it difficult to understand her feelings on the event later on. Frequently, that trauma is conveniently forgotten only to resurface later when it is used solely as a plot device. I was also pretty uncomfortable with how the novel handled womens’ reproduction and periods. It felt inauthentic and just… strange, really. Kira had “turned off” her periods prior to encountering the xeno, but for some reasons the xeno “fixes” that for her, which she is weirdly nonchalant about given her overarching concerns with bodily autonomy. I would have expected this to be highly distressing. She also reacts to cramps in ways that seem very overblown given the manner in which they are described.

If you don’t find weird alien organisms fascinating, you will probably find this book to be a frustrating read. If you do happen to love that particular brand of space opera, however, and you have a well-developed ability to ignore things that are just a bit off, this will be a fun read.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great plot! I love the pacing. It is very well written. I love anything by Paolini, and I have been a big time fan since his first novel. I love the voice of the character.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Wow! I haven't read anything by Christopher Paolini, and now I'm so thrilled to have gotten a small glimpse into his writing! I'll definitely be looking forward to reading the whole book, and possibly some of his backlist.

Even though this is just a partial galley, it was so engaging and exciting right from the start. The action definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and left me wanting more - and that's the perfect feeling for a book!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the partial ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was really difficult for me to finish. There were many sections I felt were unnecessary, a lot of long treks across space, only for another big fight. Another stretch of cryo, then yet another big fight. There is also a lot of lore and background history that bogs it down.

The descriptions of the different species were difficult to picture at first. Especially the xeno that attaches itself to Kira. What the xeno is capable of becomes more apparent as time goes on, which makes it easier to picture. I first thought of it as Venom, like from the Marvel comics, a sort of ectoplasmic material that oozes like slime. It’s not just that, though I continued to picture it that way.

Kira’s reaction to her fiance’s death was underwhelming at best. It definitely had me questioning her love for him, not that we saw all that much of them together in the first place. She barely spends a second to grieve and doesn’t even think of him often after that. If she does, it’s very distant. One could blame everything that happened giving her a sense of unreality and causing her to dissociate. The cryo gives a false sense of time passing, as well. Suddenly, nine months have passed and of course Kira isn’t grieving as she should have been.

My favorite character was Gregorovitch, the ship's mind. He spoke the best and was the most interesting. I would have much rather heard more about his history and his point of view. He reminded me of the AI in Illuminae, as well as Wheatley from the video game, Portal 2. I definitely see elements of both Illuminae and the Starbound trilogy in Paolini’s writing. It’s not incredibly unique as a story line. It’s a little bigger than many stories try to take it, with the jellies attacking the entire galaxy, rather than just one system. I still don’t think I fully understand what was happening.

For the most part, I found Kira annoying and boring. She just wants to get married, in the beginning. Then she becomes host to the xeno, an alien being that covers her and inhabits her like a suit. She kills people, including her own fiance, Alan, after she loses control of the suit. One could argue that the xeno killed her friends and fiance. I just don’t think she struggled enough with the horrible things that happened, from the death of her fiance to killing some of her friends, to being tortured. I wish she would have faced her suffering with more realism.

I will never read a book like this again. I did not enjoy it. It was boring most of the time, with some interesting aspects spread throughout. I wish the characters had been fleshed out more, but the ‘plot’ kept jumping around, shuttling the characters off to somewhere else and into cryo before we could really learn about them. It was easily apparent that the main characters wouldn’t die, after a point. Between medical advances and tech, almost everything could be fixed and, if not right away, the character could be put in cryo until a fix was available.

I almost stopped reading several times but I pushed on, just to finish it. It was a constant exercise in checking how many pages I had left. I was just so bored and there was a bare wisp of intrigue, and the desire to finish, keeping me reading.

Another top SciFi from Paolini. He takes us on a voyage into the depths of the future world of the stars where alien creatures overtake the crew. The “Jellies” want to rule the humans. The ship also wants to be in charge and Kira needs to move on from the loss of her fiance.

I tried to read this book because I love aliens but it is way too long for me. I just could not get into it but I think for fans of Paolina it may be good. To compare-I could not get into the Eragon series either.

I guess I enjoyed this about as much as one can enjoy a short excerpt of a book. It did however get me excited for the original book to be released.

This book solidified that I can and will love everything Paolini will write. I am not the most sci-fi savvy reader but this book stole my attention and threw me in space.

This was just the partial galley. I enjoyed what I read, this being my first book by Christopher Paolini. Kira is a fierce character and the worlds created in the storyline are very detailed.

I just reviewed To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. #NetGalley