To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

This book was received as an ARC from Macmillan-Tor/Forge - Tor Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a fan of Christopher Paolini and his Eragon series and his signature style of writing where the reader get transported away along for the ride. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was no different. When an ancient relic is found by Kira and then she is sent away among the stars when war breaks out. As the "peacemaker" all of her fears come to light and she is now terrified beyond any means and she gets smacked in the face and realizes what it means to be human. I could not stop reading this book and was saddened when it ended. I was panting non stop and my mind was blown at the style and technique Christopher Paolini expresses in his book.

We will consider adding this title to our Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I have always loved Paolini's books. War in the stars. what could be better. Kira must be a new character or I have missed her? Good book

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. It's so great to see Christopher Paolini writing books again. It felt like I was watching this whole book play out in a movie and he was able to suck readers into this story and develop a world that made it seem so real. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy science fantasy or space fantasy. I even convinced my dad to preorder this book! Thank you again. 5 stars!!!! Loved it!

During a scouting mission on a uncolonized planet, Kira finds a ancient place and is exposed to a odd dust that can move by itself. Things progress fast and furious from there, until war erupts from all sides and from beyond the stars. How can Kira make this right?

This is a action packed book full of wonderful characters that come together under a very unusual circumstances, one of which normally would not happen. Kira is a strong main character that finds a way to keep her friends safe. This is a wonderful book and a great come back for Paolini.

This review will appear on my blog on Sept 15th

This is a fun, fast-paced adventure to read! As a fan of Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, I was pleased to see that his writing style has improved since that series. (Although there is still some room for improvement.) The story pulls you in and while Paolini borrows from other space/sci-fi stories (Alien, for one), there is a lot of originality. The characters are well developed and I felt really connected to them, especially Kira and the crew of the Wallfish. Kira is my favorite character, but there was a bit of awkwardness that I felt came from Paolini writing a female character (at one point she stops and sobs how ugly she is, which felt out of place), but while distracting, the plot is compelling enough to move past it and continue reading. The plot is quite action-heavy, which made it a fast read, yet Paolini was able to fit in believable character development among many of the main characters. I wasn't super happy with the ending, but I have hope that the next book will help explain why he went in the direction he did. 4 stars and looking forward to the next book.

So when I first heard about this book, it was the story that lured me in. I had read some of the Eragon series but the author wasn't the reason I wanted to read it. I then heard some negative feedback which made me hesitate momentarily about reading but boy am I glad I took the plunge. This was a fantastic, large scale science fiction story which I have not had the pleasure of reading for some time. The characters are well written, developed and relatable.
Kira, the main character was so great getting to know. She really ended up being a real bad ass super hero!
I felt like the Matrix soundtrack could be playing while she fought aliens! LOL
I really loved the crew of the Wallfish. When Kira met up with them and got them involved with her journey I really got a "Firefly" vibe off of the ragtag crew. The characters were funny and engaging. Their relationships were believable.
Without saying anything about how it ended, well it was mind blowing. I really felt that it left an opening for there to be more to the story but it could easily work as a stand alone story. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

READ THIS BOOK.

Okay, now to the actual review. I first read Paolini when I was a teen and fell in love with Eragon, so I was so excited to see he had a new book coming out. I was unsure of how I would like it because I’m far more of a fantasy reader than a sci-fi one, but I couldn’t put it down. I was engrossed in the story and could envision the story in my mind’s eye, and it was epic. The idea of humans spreading out into far-flung corners of space was juxtaposed with very real characters. There were so many great aspects of the character, and the Kira Navaréz was certainly strong enough to carry this entire story. Every character had a depth that ensured they were not simply good or bad, but complex living beings. I actually cared about the characters, and that to me is always important and perhaps even more so when you’re investing time in a large book. I was so engrossed in the story and constantly trying to find time to read that it actually took me less time to read than a far shorter book I read recently. So, even if you’re not a huge sci-fi fan, PLEASE give this book a try because it will suck you in and hold you the entire way through.

#ToSleepinaSeaofStars #NetGalley

I absolutely LOVED this book! It is such a unique sci fi page turning book!
Thank you so much for this arc! It is now one of my top reads for 2020.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini | Sep 15, 2020| Tor Books

Kira is an exobiologist on a team finishing up a pre-colonization survey, enjoying a final party with the team she's bonded with, and the guy she'd be happy to give up the exploring life for, maybe even join the colonists coming to ?????.

You know better than to get attached to any of them, even if  Christopher Paolini isn't George R. R. Martin, right? When a story starts out with everything going right for the main character, you know something terrible can't wait to make its appearance.

So when Kira draws the short straw to check out the crash of one of the survey drones before they all go home, it's no surprise that what she finds is an ancient alien artifact, a cloud of black alien goo that swarms her, and after she's rescued that most of her team will wind up suddenly dead. But that's not all.

A military ship has been sent to check out the artifact, and since Kira now qualifies as the artifact, or at least its host, that means she gets to be prodded by increasingly aggressive probes whether she likes it or not, because the black cloud is now a skin fitting exoskeleton and it's very, very, tough. Also, naturally, at least a little sentient and connected to Kira's nervous system.  Then really hostile aliens show up and take the Extenuating Circumstances apart, with Kira escaping in one of the ship's shuttles.

And we're still only about a tenth of the way through an 880-page novel (Hardcover edition). Don't plan on getting anything done for a week or two, because Paolini just keeps ratcheting up the action, adventure, and mystery in his first Space Opera.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars deserves a full review, and I plan to do that elsewhere, but first and foremost it deserves a wide audience among fans of Space Opera. Paolini spent the better part of a decade getting not just the plot but the technology right, and it shows. Sometimes it shows a bit too much, but when you've invested so much time building a universe and paying attention to details it's hard not to obsess a tad. At the core, as it must be, is Kira's evolution from wounded scientist to whatever her will and destiny determine. Along the way, she's given the advice that she must "Eat the path,"  and though it takes her some work to claim her agency, she doesn't let us down.