To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this audiobook. I am providing a voluntary review. All thoughts and views are my own.

***Audiobook Review***

Okay, first and foremost, Jennifer Hale (the narrator) was fantastic. I think she nailed the portrayal of this story in such a way that had it not been her telling it, I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed it as much as I did. Granted, there’s no way to say that for sure, but I’m sticking to my quasi-irrational statement because she was just wonderful and gave this story a delightfully unique voice.

As for the story itself… clearly, I adored it. I listened to this story over quite a long period of time because, for starters, it’s a long one. But I was also recuperating from major surgery and my energy levels have been next to nil lately. Yet despite having long breaks between and often stopping in the middle of chapters, I remained engaged and drawn into the intricacies of the world, characters, and their stories.

I will always remember this story as the one that got me through some pretty painful days, so it will hold a special place in my heart. But I truly believe it can—and will—do the same for anyone who loves a good sci-fi fantasy!

Recommended: yessss
for big book aficionados, for a story that takes its time in unfolding, for a plot that weaves in and out and around until you’re entirely surrounded in it, for adult Paolini goodness that shows how much he’s grown as an author

Thoughts:
The elephant in the room is actually the book itself, because it’s about as big as an elephant. It’s about 820 pages of story, with another 50 or so pages of addenda at the end. Yes, if you decide to commit to this book, you need to really be ready to commit to this book.

And the obvious followup question is if it’s worth it. To that, I would say definitely yes, but there will probably be times when reading where it doesn’t feel it. This was a strange experience where every time I read the book, I loved it and couldn’t wait for more. But in between sessions, I almost grimaced at the thought of picking it back up again because I had been reading it for so long already! I think this is ultimately a personal issue, which I navigated by reading a few shorter books of other genres during the month-ish time that I tackled TSIASOS. If you’re the same, have a plan going in.

Paolini definitely delivered on content and story in that amount though. There was hardly a dull moment, and the story just grows and grows and grows until you find yourself amazed at where you’ve ended up only halfway through compared to where you started. And let me tell you, where you end is even more incredible of a journey.

Excellent World-Building and Plot

Audiobook Review:
While science fiction is not my go-to genre, I do like to read it occasionally. I found this book to be exceptionally well done. The author has crafted a very complex and disturbing world and set terrifying things in motion. The world-building was smooth, and I didn’t feel like the author did an information dump, as can so often happen in speculative fiction. There’s a lot of tech, but the author describes it well so you can easily understand that aspect of it. Interestingly, the story didn’t really feel like it was about the characters, who died at an alarming rate (so it was hard to get close to them). The story felt more plot driven than character driven. The pacing was a little uneven—slow here and there, but at other times, with difficulties mounting at an alarming rate. I listened to the audiobook version, which weighs in at 32 1/2 hours. I wasn’t particularly wild about the narrator, as she didn’t do men’s voices well—at least in my ear—and some female voices seemed too masculine, making them hard to distinguish at times. despite these flaws, though, listening to this book transported me to a completely different realm, which rarely happens. I loved that.

Mind-Blowing! Wow, I have no idea what to write in a review of this astonishing story. You just need to read it, but I will try. Okay, Christopher Paolini has been working on this project for like nine years, the details and every aspect of this story was perfectly planned and it definitely shows the amount of work behind it. I’ve been a fan of Christopher Paolini since Inheritance Series was first published. I was waiting for this book for a while and I was more than excited when I got the honor to review this title. This story is a first contact sci-fi type of story, you get fantastic characters, starting with Kira Navarez. I was so enthralled by the story, how the author added some humor and banter into the story. This book is big, and I love big books and I cannot lie, almost 900 pages, and definitely didn’t feel like it, when it’s a good book and you get hooked time flies. The audiobook is so well narrated, I was expecting a group of narrators, but Jennifer Hale did a fantastic job, so kudos to her, I am looking forward to what she does next for sure. Brilliant story I am hoping to watch on the big screen someday!

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.

This has been a long time coming. The way I see it, this book had a lot to prove the world. The Eragon series success that the teen- CP garnered, could it follow him into mature adulthood after he became better acquainted, not only with his craft but his likes and dislikes? Many things change, tastes in reading especially from when we are younger. So getting to read a book by the adult CP is a treat. I want to say that once I undertook the journey of reading this book, I understood what an immense labor of time, energy, and love that is this story. It is memorizing; captivating and very hard even now to fully grasp the thought provoking feelings that this story leaves you with. So prepare yourself for a journey.

Let me lay some things down up front about this book.
1) It is an epic odyssey across time and space unlike anything I have read that I can remember (I read a lot, too). This puppy is 801 pages long. Around page 200, there was so much going on and I thought “How can there be more to this story?” But there was so much more to happen. This story isn’t really a “Space Opera” as romance isn’t a key theme. Think of it as a space odyssey and buckle in.
2) Wipe Eragon from your mind. That was then, this is now. Don’t let it cloud your thoughts. Only think how much CP has grown since then.
3) Don’t get attached to ANY of the characters. You will find out very early on in this book that everyone is expendable (sadly for the betterment of the story). CP holds no love for any one character, especially if it means sacrificing the story, so be warned.
4) Kira is a scientist through-and-through. It may seem at times that she is heartless or emotionless, but she is coping the best way she knows how given the situations she is in. As a scientist myself, when I get overwhelmed it is easier to shut-down the emotions and not think about what can’t be controlled and focus on what I can. That is what Kira is doing. She is falling back on her ‘scientific brain’ to get her through this war.
5) Kira is not a warrior so keep in mind her first thought is to run or hide, to freeze or throw her hand up to keep away. She is constantly fighting herself to be something different this whole book.
6) CP did some intense research to make this book great. This book takes place in the stars, interstellar space. You will learn more about space than you probably remember from school thanks to the amazing amount of research that when into not even world-building because this is more, it’s interstellar-space-building.

Alright, with all that being said. I hope you would like to hear more about this book. Let me see if this can put you into the mindframe I was in while I was reading this book – think Bastian, with the blanket over his head, hunched over the book while he was reading Atreyu’s story in The NeverEnding Story. That was how riveted I was while I read this book. I barely ate or slept. I ignored my family talking to me while I was reading it (I think they finally got the hint and stopped including me in conversations). I had to finish this story. It has become my own story somewhere along the way. I couldn’t keep but be invested with the characters, with the story. I needed to see it through to the end.

This book has epic space battles, aliens the likes of which I would have never imagined, and imagery that brings worlds and space alive. It’s a fine line between the science and the fantasy but he does such a good job balancing it with facts, so for those of my fellow geeks out there, I hope you enjoyed that side as much as I did. . He is definitely putting the science back into the Sci-Fi genre, especially when as of late it has been Sealy lacking.

CP is merciless to his characters. He could have made is easier for them, even a little (I found myself several times saying that other authors would have given their characters ‘that’ win, but no not him). He is constantly dealing the deck against them. It is a constant all-out war, high-stress situation he places his characters in. There is no reprieve, no easy-going, no ‘I’ll give you this one’. This is way and CP hammers these characters relentlessly non-stop from the being of the book too the end. You will curse him and shake your fist, but that is a mark of a good story. I’m sure I won’t be alone in thinking that there were points in this book, battles, that CP could have said ‘alright, this is good enough.’ Did the man stop there?!? Did he want a ‘good enough’ book?!? Hell no. He wanted an EPIC science fiction space odyssey and he got it. Ask yourself when was the last time you became so into a story.

Now for some of the negatives. Though I don’t think they take way from the book as a whole, so please keep in mind I’m just wanting to give a well-rounded review. The dream sequences tend to get very enigmatic at times and can meander a ways until you forget what they are about. . . Ah, what were we talking about. Any good, they are sometimes so far between sequences that you don’t remember if there was even a point to needing to know about the dream in first place. Even now I don’t know if all of the dream sequences where needed, resolved in the waking world. They are the hardest part to understand and read due to the POV and I feel some are more powerful than others, but not all were important. As someone who who lives and breathes science, I enjoyed what learning about the science behind why something worked, but I don’t know if everyone would (even if it is only a blurb in the book). It make some people weary about reading the book.

Overall, this book has given me faith going back into the realm of space again if CP decides to continue in this genre. The world of SciFi better watch out because this story will instantly became one to be known as a standard in Science Fiction.

On a side note, see if you can find the Eragon Easter egg hidden amid the story

** I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. **