I could not finish this book. Despite some fairly positive reviews that lauded the story as exciting and enjoyable, I could not get past the first third. The plot line is weak and leans on heavily used tropes from much better writers. The prose is awkward and unpolished. I’m disappointed as I enjoyed the author’s earlier books and expected more from him since those were written when he was a teenager.

IF you like Sci-Fi you should read this book. Loved the 1st contact element. Liked the characters. I enjoyed reading this book. It is similar to his writing style of the Eregon series. It seems that this book has a love it or hate it sense in looking at other reviews, but I really liked it.

Kira, a xenobiologist, and her crew are on an uncolonized planet doing a survey when Kira finds an ancient alien relic and accidentally sets off a chain reaction.

This one was a mixed bag for me. There were some things I really liked, and some things I really didn't. It's a fast-paced, space opera, interspersed with very drawn out, slow sections. I really quite enjoyed the action scenes, the adventure, the intensity of what was going on, and the world-building, but at the same time there were lots of scenes that left me thinking 'does this really need to be in here?'. The book could have easily dropped about 150-200 pages and probably not have lost anything to the story. There was some excellent characterization with the secondary characters, but I was left wanting with the development of our protagonist. There didn't seem to be much of an emotional connection to her. Honestly, I felt more connected to the ship mind, Gregorovitch. She fell flat, and at times seemed almost robotic. To me, that was probably the biggest disappointment of the story.

I recommend this to any sci-fi fan, or Paolini fan. It's not without faults, but it is an enjoyable read, even at almost 900 pages.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Good: Fun, action-packed, twisty-turny galaxy-spanning first contact story
The Bad: Limited characterization and development, even for the POV
The Literary: Thorough appendix with all the world-building that didn’t fit into this already lengthy novel

Kira Navarez and her team of xenobiologists, including her new fiance, are on an uncolonized planet for a routine terraforming survey. Then she falls into an unknown alien cave and finds a strange alien relic, which under normal circumstances would catapult her career and start a new field of study. But when Kira toes it with her boot, it climbs up her leg and into her suit before she passes out.

First contact is something every scientist dreams of, but Kira’s find sets off a chain reaction that only gets bigger and bigger, both for human civilization, and Kira herself. There’s a lot that goes on in this lengthy, action-packed space opera. Kira’s world gets turned completely upside down. The first part of the novel is tightly plotted with lots of surprises. She ends up on a ship with a rag-tag group, their pet pig, and a particularly lovable ship-mind. Together, and against all odds, they risk their lives to save humanity, multiple times over.

There is a lot to this story, and a lot to appreciate. But, for the length of the novel, the character arcs are disappointing. Kira has less personality than most of the secondary characters, and despite the tragedy handed to her early on, she doesn’t seem to grieve. Her quiet, introspective sections during FTL travel are less about overcoming any emotional flaw and more about unraveling the mystery of the alien relic. The secondary characters work better, but they’re stereotypes (including the gruff captain, the moody engineer, the young enthusiastic crew member, etc) without surprises.

Although the genre is technically scifi, none of the individual scifi elements feel new, consciousness-expanding, or provide a particular commentary on humanity’s future or present. Several of the major plot elements seem to be lifted from popular sources, like the Alien franchise and even a seminal Spiderman story-line. Ultimately, the brave underdog crew in an old ship, the capitalist corporation and play-by-the-book military, and the technologically advanced body-swapping alien species all amount to an enjoyable if somewhat familiar read.

Highly recommended for fans of action thriller scifi stories in spaaaace!

Wow. A good majority of the book was very slow. I found myself skipping sections of the book so I could find a part to grab my attention again. But once it did..... I was clutching my iPad too tight because I was so invested in what was going on.

I really enjoyed the story, characters, and extensive world-building.

The writing was fine. Like I said, it lost me in a couple of places and sometimes I was confused on what was happening. Although, it did have its moments when it had me absolutely sobbing. ESPECIALLY at the end!

Overall, this is perfect for fans of in-depth sci-fi.

I received a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is an adult sci-fi novel that is of the space opera variety. It is following the main character named Kira who is on a scouting missing when she falls through an alien structure. It is the first sign of other intelligent life that humans have found even though it is set in the very distant future. It kind of starts a war. I enjoyed many aspects of this book. It is very character-focused and has really subtle interesting character moments and world-building. But it is also really action-packed especially in the second half of this book. The last third of this book is just all action and I loved every second of it.

Here is my video for a more comprehensive review: https://youtu.be/AylLB6bdz2E

I will say this book felt a little long for the story that it gave. From about the 25% mark to the 50% mark the story dragged a bit. But now that I have finished the book and I’m so attached to these characters, I can totally see myself re-reading that section and completely loving it.

One thing I did forget to mention in the video is my feeling about the audio narration. I’m going to be honest I didn’t love it. There was nothing wrong with the audiobook narrator, but there was a slight echo that made her voice sound a bit mechanical. Perhaps if the main character were a robot this would not have annoyed me. But it did annoy me, especially in the beginning. I got used to it after a while. This was the first audiobook that I listened to in the net galley app though, so not sure if that was the actual audiobook or just the app being weird.

This book is big. Like space big. Usually that makes me very happy, almost as happy as reading a really good, completed trilogy and finding out there are also spin offs. This one though, took me quite a while to read. I received an early sneak peak of the story through Net Galley, which was plenty to get me hooked.
I loved the idea of a xenobiologist living on a new planet, mapping it for life forms. She has all the good things in her life going on for her when she stumbles on ancient alien tech. Luckily, I was chosen to receive an arc through Net Galley and Tor/Forge so I could continue with the story. There is a lot that goes on in the book. Our main character, Kira, finds herself bonded to an alien life form, not tech, as she previously thought. As she learns to coexist with this life form, she learns that space is much larger than she thought and she has quite the role to play.
The writing is very descriptive. Mostly that is a good thing, I can picture the world and the life forms she comes across, but that also makes this story one that you have to pay close attention to, or it is very easy to get lost. The characters were great, I loved Gregorovich, and if you’ve read Christopher Paolini’s previous works, the Inheritance Cycle, then you’ll get a little Easter egg thrown in for good measure.
There are some spots, where the story drags, but then the action ramps up and you are thrown right back in. Thank you, Tor, NetGalley and Christopher Paolini for the ability to read an advance copy and leave a review.

I don’t even know how to begin to explain how amazing this space opera is. There is humor, action, love, mind bending physics, epic battles, redemption, ugh it’s just so damn good. YES, this is a clunker. It’s over 800 pages. Yes, even the audiobook takes 30+ hours. BUT these will be some of the best hours of your life. If you like space, intricate alien technology, sarcasm, romance, and action you will love this. OH and you better love adorable space pigs and recalcitrant AIs. The ending is a little open-ended so will there be a sequel? Will Kira continue her mission? We shall see!!! This book is honestly perfection!

Kira Navarez is a scientist with a passion for exploring new worlds. On a routine check of equipment on one of these worlds, Kira finds an artifact that ends up transforming her life forever...and the universe.

I read this book as a partial galley back in April of this year, and was pleased when I was able to read the full book later on.

When I read the partial galley, I remember that I assumed I was reading a rather large bit of the book. Oh, was I wrong-but in the best of ways! To Sleep in a Sea of Stars covers so much ground, and is quite the lengthy read, but it's worth it. Don't be daunted by the length!

While the synopsis gives hint that there is a malevolent force or beings in the universe, I was unsure starting the book what the tone would be. To my surprise and pleasure, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars feels like classic sci-fi thriller/horror, like Alien. There’s even a colony that is called Weyland, which I feel is an intentional reference! Kira is the Ripley of the story, and she does not disappoint. Kira kicks butt and is a person to be reckoned with, but she is vulnerable and so very human as well. The tone of the story lulls you into a sense of complacency, before everything hits the fan. When the action happens, it’s delightful and disturbing, with a real sense of gravity.

The tone of sci-fi thriller/horror stays throughout the book, though the tone does change at times for us to get some more personal moments with Kira and other characters that she interacts with. I appreciate that while it can be fast paced action, there's still time for moments of growth, and for developing actual characters that you care about. I was attached to every single character, which is quite a feat in a book this long, and with so many characters.

The worldbuilding in this story was incredible. I love seeing how sci-fi books make the aliens so...alien. The aliens in this book were developed and weird and fantastic. Everything felt so visceral and real.

I could go on for days about this book, how profound it is, the themes of entropy and renewal, morals and so forth. Or even just talking about the aliens and how unique they are! Sadly, that would start to move towards spoiler territory. My final words are these: read this book. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is one of the most unique science fiction stories I've read in a long time.

Rating: 9.0/10

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance copy of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is simply astonishing. This is the premiere space opera epic of 2020 and is a fantastic adult debut for Paolini. If you enjoy stories about first contact, traversing the galaxy, uncovering ancient artifacts, and a gigantic space battle, this door-stopper is for you.

I’ll go ahead and lead this review by stating a simple fact: I have NOT read The Inheritance Cycle. I have it. I want to read it. I just simply haven’t. Sorry not sorry.
So to say that I went into this 850+ page work of fiction with high expectations based on the author’s previous works is now mute.

What I can say is that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this novel; so much so that I devoured it in a matter of a couple of days which I feel that I tend to do with such massive tomes (i.e. Wanderers, Seven Blades in Black, A Game of Thrones, etc). Maybe more authors should stick with this “writing an entire story in one massive novel” idea instead of breaking it off into trilogies or longer (or just for my sake, give me the collection up front).

*Obviously kidding as longer series make for anticipation, mo money, and TBRs. Amirite?*

Paolini’s writing itself was part of what I like most. This doesn’t feel like a YA author taking a stab at writing adult fiction (eyes a couple of authors without mentioning names). The dialogue is smooth and emotionally gripping without all the unnecessary language; romance, though somewhat overshadowed, doesn’t involve a whole lot of fluff or fluffing (get it?); and the characters didn’t make me feel like I was too old to be reading the story and vibing with it.

While world-building played a big piece, I really was enamored with the character of Kira Navárez. From the onset, she is your POV. If you can’t connect with her, its game over. Luckily, she was super easy to root for, and I think an emotional hook in the early stages really helped cement my relationship with her. She also meets a litany of characters along the ride toward a dramatic conclusion that help with comic relief, getting Kira out of her own head, and also keeping her on track with the task at hand.

There is a ton to this book, but revealing one of the biggest pieces practically spoils the whole thing. If you enjoy Paolini’s writing, you probably already have this one pre-ordered. If you like first contact stories with galaxy-wide implications, this should be high on your list. Don’t let the page count scare you off; by the time you are finished, it’ll have been a ride of a lifetime.

What a wonderful book! The world building was excellent, and the writing was beautiful. The only reason I couldn’t give 5 stars is the author occasionally gets bogged down in descriptive paragraphs, so it took me longer than usual to finish. Definitely going to put it on display in my library!

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars was such an intense fast paced book! I was immediately hooked from the beginning as we follow Kira, who is a xenobiologist that finds an alien relic beneath the surface of the world. What follows after that is a whirl wind journey to discover the truth about the alien civilization. I loved most aspects of this book. The entire world building was incredibly phenomenal.

Some down points, it was SUUUUPER long (800 pages+) and while there were bad things that happened, no major characters died and it didn't feel like the stakes were real. The end was a mind of a mindf*ck, I won't spoil it but I'm interested but not overly optimistic on how it will play out.

Definitely read, it's not for the faint of heart and has a little too much mysticism for the regular sci-fi junkie, but is a solid addition to your TBR pile.

Another epic book by Christopher Paolini. Although this book is extremely long, a lot of it was character building. The characters themselves were well thought out and well defined except I felt like there were quite a few characters to keep straight in my head. I especially loved Gregorovitch who was a lot more complex and awesome than I originally thought. The story itself was great - and although as I mentioned it was very long, there is nothing I would’ve changed or removed. The book was left open ended so I’m hoping we will get another book or two...

DNF at 50%

Definitely disappointed that this one is going into the DNF pile, but I honestly can't bring myself to get through the remaining 16 hours of audio because this book is just lackluster.

The plot itself was action packed. There is quite a bit of info dumping interspersed, so if you aren't paying careful attention, you could easily got lost in what exactly was going on in the pain. Our MC Kira leaves a lot to be desired. There isn't much to here to feel a connection with. She feels more like a robot than the AI Gregorovitch.

As far as worldbuilding went...there wasn't much. This is more of a space adventure with aliens, which honestly, just isn't for me.

The only redeeming thing in this book is the narrator Jenny Hale. She does a fantastic job of voicing the many characters.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced listening copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

This book. I don't have to the words for how much I loved To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars. Paolini's writing has only improved since his last book was released and I can only imagine where good writing will go from here. I need to gather my complete thoughts, but TSIASOS gets a 5 star rating and moves to the top of my best of 2020 reads list

I want to start by saying that am not your typical Sci-Fi reader. I requested to review this book because I knew of Mr. Paolini's background and I was curious because I have been wanting to read more in the Sci-Fi genre. I really enjoyed this book. I read the ebook as well as used the audio.

I HIGHLY enjoyed this book and think even if you aren't a big Sci-Fi reader, you may enjoy this also. The first 25% of the book had me HOOKED! It felt like every chapter or so had me on the edge of my seat and I even had some outward shivers/skin-crawling moments. I LOVE IT!!! From there the story took time to build so there were times where I was wanting the story to rush along, but using that slower time to build the character relationships was important. I really liked how the characters started to care for each other as friends and not just co-workers trying to make it through the galaxy and fight the alien beings. I loved the first contact moments plus others I can't talk about because of spoilers; I loved that edge of my seat feeling. I've found out I don't really care for space wars but that is of no reflection on the book. Those scenes were written in a way, I could totally picture. The ending was something I didn't see coming and while a lot of times I like nice neat endings, I'm also a fan of endings that leave some room for speculation.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillian-Tor/Forge for allowing me to review this book in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to more from Mr. Paolini in the future.

The beginning of the novel starts fairly quickly; you're introduced to a cast of characters whose mission is to research uncolonized Adrasteia and then things quickly go awry. Kira accidentally discovers an alien room and organism when the crew is about to leave the planet. What follows is a story of the discovery of intelligent life, and what happens when humans are confronted with sentient beings 200 years in our future.

I was completely engrossed in Kira's story from the beginning and was interested to learn about the alien technology as she learned it herself. After Kira leaves Adrasteia for her journey through space, I lost interest in her story. There is a lot of monotony -- tests run on her several times and Kira being shuffled from ship to ship. The cast of non-military characters introduced in this section were the only interesting developments; these people end up being Kira's companions for much of her journey. Roughly halfway through, the book begins to focus on the war and the action makes the plot exciting again.

This novel is long. It was close to being a DNF (did not finish) title for me because the middle drags on. Large chunks of this book are unnecessary and could be removed. It feels like Paolini has been working on the novel for a long time and was reluctant to give up certain parts that weren't needed. The slower sections could have been condensed to give information without drawing it out into a saga.

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of hard sci-fi. Still, the overarching story here is interesting but the execution is flawed. The last large chunk of the book is addendums and appendices filled with scientific jargon that will be overwhelming to the average reader. There are entries on space combat, alien languages, timelines, technology... Does this information needed to be included to understand the story? No. It makes even less sense to include these after the story if they're needed to understand it.

Recommended for science fiction fans, especially those interested in space travel, interplanetary wars, and first contact stories.

In short, this book was epic. Events in the beginning immediately drew me in, and from there, the stakes rose higher and higher right up until the very end... And that ending... it left me with a deep ache in my chest. Somehow, it wasn't the ending I wanted for Kira, yet it was perfectly suited to the book's name.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, indeed.

I devoured this book in 2–3 days. The feeling of isolation and loneliness was all too real, the battle scenes were generous and enormously visual. All-consuming, actually. And surprisingly, there was even enough love interest to keep my hopelessly romantic heart sated.

I loved the entire crew of the Wallfish. Kira, Falconi, Trig, Sparrow... the damned cat and pig, even. But perhaps my favorite was the delightfully borderline insane ship mind Gregorovich in all his darkly snarky wit. Every one of his scenes was a delicious treat.

This book reminded me of why I love sci-fi. As a fan of other sci-fi series like Ender's Game and The Expanse, I only wished there was more... more and more and more as the Seed would say. Good thing a sequel's on its way.

To Sleep is worthy of multiple read-throughs. Thank you, Chris P.

–7/7

Harry Potter was a large SFF book targeted towards children back in the 2000's era. While waiting for other the next installments, young readers like myself at the time were looking for more fantasy books. That's where Eragon steps in, as it was a well marketed book in the bookstore-- front and center with its colorful dragon covers. It follows-up a Harry Potter book by bringing in dragons, but is different because it is a high fantasy tale, introducing a completely new world. I enjoyed reading Eragon as a young preteen, and remember it fondly, especially the first two books of the series that came out. Mr. Paolini took his time finishing the series-- the four books were published across a total of 9 years. I was in college by the time the last book came out. And the last two books I remember less fondly, as the flaws of the series started to become more apparent to me. The story moves slow and is heavily focused on description.

Paolini took several more years off (though he did publish a short story collection taking place in the Eragon universe) and spent those years researching the science that he would eventually use in his first adult novel. And after reading the novel, I must say that the research was definitely done. Mr. Paolini is doing the sci-fi genre justice in that he is using the best knowledge of scientific principles to develop his own world and technology. There is a lot incorporated throughout the novel and I think many sci-fi fans will enjoy it.

There are also instances of the book that remind me a bit of Eragon. It's not that Paolini hasn't grown as an author over the course of 2twodecades, but more so that he has some of his own style that still manages to come through. What's also nice about this book is that, like how Eragon was a good introduction to high fantasy, this book is a good first book for sci-fi, especially adult sci-fi. I think many of those preteens of the 2000s reminiscing about Eragon may pick this up today as adults and it likely will get them to pick up more in the genre.

This almost 900 page novel isn't without it faults. I also found it similar to Eragon in that it is very description heavy. There are definite times where the plot moves slowly due to all the world and content Mr. Paolini is trying to build. In the end I think it's a little too long, but I slightly came in expecting that since I've already been exposed to it through Eragon (as well as other novels and authors). There are definite times that are exciting, though, and some even caught me off guard. The character development could have also been stronger given the page count, but if I am remembering correctly, I don't think an emphasis on character development was high in Eragon either. Paolini vastly enjoys and focuses on the world building and action scenes. So if you read more so for those things, you'll likely enjoy this.

This novel is currently set as a standalone story and feels complete. But Paolini has stated that the world he created here can and will be used in other books. I likely may give them a try, especially if I know I am in the mood for a Paolini tale.

This book is long - probably much longer than it has to be, but also there's a lot that happens over the course of 800 pages of plot (and something like 100 pages of extra material). We see so many cool aliens, lots of different people (both alien and human) with all kinds of ideologies that don't necessarily play well together, different technology, lots of action and battles and spaceships and maneuvering. We're never left bored, even when we're just traveling from one place to another - the travel time is handled rather brilliantly by having characters go into cryo-sleep, so the passage of time is nearly instantaneous for them. But there's also... too much. There are so many characters, most of whom are only passing-relevant for at most 100 pages. And I don't know whether it's because I mostly listened to the audiobook (and this book requires a lot of focus), but I feel like a lot of things weren't entirely explained.

Which brings us to the negative portion of this review. There are several moments in this story where I was very much struck by the irrefutable fact that it was written by a straight man starring a woman. Kira is very casually sexualized a handful of times in the story - in a way that kind of soured my experience. The sex scenes are weird and don't feel very natural at all (using the words "embrace" and "clutching" a lot in a way that shows that the moment is being taken altogether too seriously; it felt very staged) - but luckily there are only two of those. Also, the ending was weird. It was a very classic-epic-fantasy "parting of ways" where people get gifts based on their personality/contribution to the quest. Like... not really how I would have pictured a book like this ending. Paolini, your Eragon is showing.