I don't normally read partial excerpts but I picked up this one because I was very excited about this super buzzy book. I am probably one of the few reviewers who has not read Eragon, but rather was interested as a science fiction reader. I was not overly impressed by the start of the book, which read a bit young for a piece of adult fiction. Honestly this felt more like a YA SciFi novel with the female main character more focused on her relationship than her space mission. I also thought the writing and world building was a little weak. So unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed in the start of this space opera.

I cannot wait for this book to come out. It was a bit of a slow start but in the end I was hooked and want to know so much more.

The character development is great, even down to the ship AI. I just wish the pace moved a little faster in the beginning. I felt it was a bit drawn out. I understand why, but as someone who reads romance, I think certain points could have been gotten to a little quicker.

TL;DR

Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars starts off with an intriguing take on the first contact story. As I only had a partial review copy, I’m looking forward to seeing if Paolini keeps up the action in this fun new Space Opera. Highly Recommended.

Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

The universe is huge, and if certain physicists are correct, the multiverse is even bigger than that. In all that space up there, the likelihood that life exists seems statistically unavoidable. What will that life look like, though? Who knows. What complicates this question is the technological capability of that life. Humans don’t live off-planet, but we’ve begun to modify our bodies in many ways. As technology and life outside a gravity well progress, what changes will we see? Will that life be recognizable? These are the questions that an excerpt of Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars left me pondering.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free, partial advanced reading copy of To Sleep in a Sea of Star in exchange for an honest review.

Kira Navarez is a biologist in a surveying team, exploring a world in preparation for colonists to settle. The team’s activities are coming to a finish. Near the end of her time on the planet, Kira goes out to look for a lost drone. Instead, she falls down a hole into an alien artifact. Her life is forever changed. The reader follows Kira through this fall to recovering on the corporation’s ship in orbit to confinement in a military lab.

In the partial ARC I was given, it’s a first contact story. Aliens, yes, plural, exist in Kira’s universe, but until now, no humans had contact with any. Lucky Kira gets to be the first. Or maybe she’s just the first that survived. For the excerpt I read, there was a lot of world building, which I liked. This led to a feeling of slowness in the beginning, but soon the pace picked up.

Following Kira’s story after it gets off the ground (pun intended) was fun, and I enjoyed watching her adapt to her new life. For now, she’s the only character that really had an impact on me. But few of the other characters survived the excerpt. It makes me wonder if she’ll be alone for the whole book. Or can she even go home again? I’ll have to wait until September to find out.

Politics

The reader doesn’t get much in the way of politics in the pages that I read. We learn a general background. Corporations drive settlement and exploration, and they’re still out to screw the workers whenever they can. There exists a paramilitary organization that dictates and controls anything dealing with alien artifacts or contact. This organization seems to have priority in these areas over corporations or human governments. The reader gets a hint, and for me, it piqued my interest. How are humans organized in this world? I’d like to learn more. The distances in this book are sufficiently space opera big, and I’d like to see Paolini’s take on how governance has adapted to life at such distances.

Will I Finish To Sleep in a Sea of Stars?

Yes. I want to see where this goes. In the partial ARC that I got, enough ideas are presented to hook me. While I got to know Kira a little, I want to know more. How will she deal with all the loss of life surrounding her? And, reader, there are a lot of deaths. For the small amount of story, this excerpt was brutal. So many changes happen in Kira’s life, but she spends only a little time contemplating that her old life, the comforting, bland one, is over. I’d like to see how that plays out. Self-reflection exists in the story, but it’s cursory at best. She hasn’t really dealt with the loss of her friends or being a military lab rat. She hasn’t grieved for her old life. I hope to see more of this as the novel progresses. Not only do I want the answer to what life has in store for Kira Navarez, but I want to know how it affects and changes her. Because how she reacts leads into the bigger question that I don’t have an answer to: Is Kira still human?

Conclusion

Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars starts off well with big ideas and enough action to draw me in. My excerpt ended with Kira flying back to human civilization, and I’m interested in seeing what adventures lie ahead for her.

7.5 out of 10!

I really enjoy Christopher Paolini's work and was very excited to learn about this new book. Although this is only a partial bit of the story, it's extremely engaging and left me wanting more. I look forward to reading the rest of this when it comes out in September. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the partial ARC.

Let me start by saying that I do plan on finishing this when it is released. I believe and Paolini enough to do that. However, I was not overly impressed by either the prose or the plot of this partial galley. I recently reread Eragon, and I personally don’t feel like the author’s writing has grown as much as I had hoped and expected. The plot is engaging, but doesn’t feel particularly fresh to me. I am still intrigued enough to read on, but I am a little worried. Thank you Netgallety, Tor, and Paolini for this chance to get a sneak peek!

Well, the wait until September is going to kill me, because I need to know what happens next.
Christopher Paolini has written the book I've wanted for a long time. It feels so much like some of my absolutely favorite Sci-Fi TV Shows - Farscape, Stargate...
I've only been able to read a small portion of this book, thanks to NetGalley for granting my request, and I'm so excited to see what happens next.
There was a moment in this, that I legitimately stopped breathing while I was reading. The action was so tense, s emotional, and the outcome of that scene is - well, I don't want to spoil, but it had my heart pounding. The emotional weights in this book are on point, and how many more times can I say 'I can't wait for (the rest of) this book'?
I really like Kira and how she's this pawn in a much bigger plan, and isn't really thrilled with how events turn out for her. I'm so anxious to see how this continues, because where this partial ARC ends, I'm dying to know. I NEED to know.
Since I haven't read the full book yet, I'm giving this a 3.5 - rounding up for rating sake, but I have no doubt that this is going to be a 5star read from me, and something I read over and over. I've loved everything I've read so far and I'm still a massive Christopher Paolini fan.

I am not a SciFi book reader. I watch SciFi; I don’t read it. Following several tropes of the genre, Paolini puts together an interesting first piece—that conveniently and abruptly stops just when I was getting settled in and engrossed. I’m not complaining; I’m very glad to have been given the opportunity to read this partial ARC. But, c’mon!

Paolini’s toe dip into the genre takes some getting used to at the offset. His prose feels very choppy, but it lends itself to the pace he sets with the action he presents. He uses concise descriptions to familiarize the reader with the universe quickly in order get on with the rest of the story. I felt it was very seamless and not a taxing info dump. In fact, there is so much going on under the surface, with a book this seemingly large (it at one time was somewhere upwards of 800 pages; now it’s at 600 or so—not sure where the discordances are from), I wonder if readers will be taken all over the universe before arriving at the end.

My biggest complaint is the dialogue, which starts off a bit rough. I remember with Eragon that I could not suffer the dialogue, so I quit reading the book early on. For TSiaSoS, after the first main action sequence, the dialogue gets better and settles into something tolerable for me.

I’m certainly excited for this one to come out. It may be the gateway book for me into a new genre. I usually don’t reach for SciFi books. I may, after a pleasing experience with this one, just have to start. And I will definitely see to it that my local library has a copy for everyone to enjoy.

My thanks to NetGalley for the partial ARC, for which I give my own opinion.

This partial galley of Paolini’s newest title To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is an intriguing foray into interstellar colonization, first contact and symbiotic parasites. After devouring it in one sitting all I can say is sign me the hell up.

The set up is a little odd with the chapters dividing into sub-chapters. (though this may be for editing purposes and may not appear in the final printing) This particular galley was about 175 pages according to my ereader.

You’re following Kira who is a biologist on an alien planet. She and her crew are at the end of their assignment and she isn’t sure if she really want to go on the next one. There’s one last project that she has to tend to and its going to throw a wrench into her plans that none of them see coming.
I did find the initial introduction to the group quaint. Long standing flight/science crew with relationships that though clue you in to closeness aren’t fully established save the main protagonist and their love interest.
The story itself does feel a little generic/predictable at first and our main jumping point pops up barely two chapters in. Despite that observation, once it hit I was hooked. It absolutely did not feel like I had read as many pages as I did.

There is some clunkiness to the writing but if you’re familiar with his previous works its not uncommon and easily ignored. I cant wait to get more backstory on the other lifeforms we’ve encountered as well as the cast. With so many possibilities to go for from here I am chomping at the bit to finish the story.

*EARC provided by Macmillian-Tor/Forge via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the partial ARC! I was super excited when I heard that Christopher Paolini was writing a new book. The Inheritance Cycle was one of my favorite series when I was younger, Though I only got to read a small portion of it, I was instantly hooked. I cannot wait for the book to come out in September and to find out what happens next. This will be a must read for Sci-Fi fans!

Disclaimer: The ARC received is a partial ARC and not the full book, a little under 45K words. The full book is listed at ~800 pages, so I estimate this to be about 1/4 of the book.

Eragon is quite a beloved childhood series for me, and so to hear that Christopher Paolini is returning with a brand new book, and sci-fi nonetheless, I was extremely excited! While I've heard the criticism for Eragon, I read those books so long ago that I have no real recollection of the actual story. As such, I would like to say I went in neutrally optimistic. Unfortunately, even with that mindset, I was disappointed.

My personal taste in sci-fi leans towards explorative and new, ideally with an aggressive amount of techno-babble. I like seeing authors explore not only new worlds, creatures, and technologies, but new societal norms and bounds, new cultures. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars gave me none of that. If I had one word to describe this book, it would be 'generic'. If you threw every popular trope in mainstream Sci-Fi right now (questionably evil capitalist corporation, generic American-modeled space society, technologically advanced hivemind alien species, etc) into a blender and pulsed for two minutes, you would get this book. There was never a point where I thought to myself, 'what an interesting concept, that's really cool'. Perhaps this is due to having read majority #OwnVoices and books that reach outside of the Western sphere for worldbuilding inspiration for the past year, but returning now just seems so... boring. Uninspired. Generic.

For all that I was not excited, I do have to give Paolini credit where credit is due. While I didn't find it exciting, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is extremely well executed. The prose flows well and quite illustrative. The worldbuilding is extremely fleshed out and in this ARC alone (for as long as it is), you get a very clear idea of the different factions in this universe. Kira, our MC, is probably the best part of this book. A xenobiologist who's part of a team staking out potential new planets for colonization, I really liked her strength in character and how much she acted towards her own goals. Kira goes through a lot of shit pretty early on and her resolve was extremely impressive. I say all this.. and then the first thing Paolini has her do when she gets isolated on a ship for a month is masturbate. :/ . So... mostly good, some bad.

Overall, I rate this book a 3/5. While the execution is excellent, I never found myself excited to keep reading. There was nothing new, nothing novel, that seemed to happen in this book. At best, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a well-executed bag of mainstream sci-fi tropes.

Reivew scheduled for 28 August on blog

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars: Christopher Paolini

Breath-taking, relentless and action-driven; an epic science fiction novel.

Release date: Sept. 15, 2020

Best selling author of Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle series, Christopher Paolini debuts his first Sci-Fi novel with To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Kira Navarez, main protagonist, is a xenobiologist that has pursued her life’s dream of exploring new worlds. During one typical and banal excursion, Kira discovers, by happenstance, a relic unseen by human eyes. As this one relic changes humanity’s existence forever, Kira struggles with loss, pain, and survival.

I received a partial ARC of this book and FELL IN LOVE. Unfortunately, I would like to finish the entire book before I do a complete review. As of now, I think the writing is engaging and Paolini, once again, transports to readers to a completely different time and place. I think he truly has a gift for creating magical, science-fiction realms that one can imagine perfectly, without confusion.

I cannot wait for the book to be completed and published! The ten-year-old in me, who adored Eragon, is screaming. And, as an extra bonus, the cover art is beautiful. To all my non-human-intelligence and space/science geeks, this sci-fi is for you!

Along with posting on Net Galley, I will be posting my review to Goodreads, Amazon (when it becomes available), my Instagram (which has over a two thousand book review followers) and my blog. Please find the link to my blog post below. I am very grateful for the opportunity to review such an inspiring novel. Thank you very much.

Link to Blog Post: https://ifyoucanreadthisdotblog.wordpress.com

Link to Instagram Post: https://www.instagram.com/ifyoucan_read_this/

Link to Goodreads Post: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3284258060

Respectfully
Chanel Johnson

*I would like to give a shout out to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a partial galley for review*

This was a fantastic read! The characters were fleshed out, the story was captivating, and the world-building was awe inspiring. I couldn’t stop reading it and was sad when I remembered I didn’t have the full book! Readers of sci-fi will not be disappointed by this! I can’t wait for the full novel to be published this fall.

Rating: 10/10

Note: I was given an early ARC access via Netgalley. Thank you to Stephen, Pan-Macmillian, Tor, and Jamie-Lee Nardone – Links will come when it goes live.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Part 1 needs to be put in a televison show. It is like the Expanse season 3-4-5 and Star Trek Discovery Season 1 put together. What an amazing concept. It does contain some sterotypes of characters, but it works and I’ll tell you why. This whole concept of a woman discovering an alien space station in the outer edges of space, and then having the alien called the Soft Blade inherit her and kill the remaining members of her station, including Alan…is well amazing!

Why is this not a Netflix show? Amazon? This is the stuff that most hardcore sci-fi fans would want to see. It’s a realistic avenue of what actual human contact with aliens would be. It had so many Expanse moments that I was shocked by the number of references or themes that I got out of it when I read it. The UMC are the worst corporation ever, including the politicans that sent Kira and her team to Adrasteia, an earth-sized moon that contains a lot more secrets. Carr is the worst doctor in existance.

I almost felt rage at the UMC and it’s nebulous ways of wanting to get rid of Kira’s team. Kira and Alan are such a great couple…you’ll see what I mean. The world-building is enormous, and the grasper aliens are some of the best original creations of all time. I did feel that the Soft-Blade Alien and the Grasper conflict was shown relatively well. I also loved that Kira had an idea of the langauge, but not enough to fully understand their conflict. This needs to be a TV show with John Williams as the composer. This already has the ambitious make up of an excellent sci-fi tv show that already needs to be made.

There’s so much more…that will leave you wanting to discover what happens in part 2. I do like this concept of partial galleys though my preference is towards full galleys. It really got moving fast when I read on.

From me? 10/10. You’ll enjoy this a lot.

Amazing world-building, breath-taking descriptions of high-flung galaxies and tentacles….fast and witty dialogue.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher TOR for allowing me to receive this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars
by Christopher Paolini


This is a review of a small excerpt from the novel and not a full review of the book!

So far so good! I think I am really going to enjoy this and I am glad that I have it pre-ordered to finish it! The characters and world seem like they are going to be interesting and unfortunately need to finish the final book at release to know more about my feelings!!

Predicting this could be at least a 4 star read!

I have waited so long for another Christopher Paolini book, and let me tell you, he did not disappoint. I wasn't expecting a sci-fi novel, since Eragon was fantasy, but this book is still just as exciting. From the beginning, I was so caught up in this book. I am so sad it is only a preview. Paolini did a great job of building his main character Kira. She is relatable, smart and strong. You feel all her joy and sadness. She is a great character. I am intrigued by the alien storyline and excited to see where it goes, as well as how Kira's character grows and develops in the face of adversity. I am hooked and can not wait to finish the story!

This is a review of the partial galley provided on NetGalley.

I have fond memories of reading the The Inheritance Cycle, so of course I jumped at a chance to read a partial ARC of Christopher Paolini’s newest book. The sample clocked in at 175 pages on my ereader and contains the first 10 chapters, each named and containing separate numbered sections, some around a page and some substantially longer.

It’s hard to articulate exactly what I was expecting from this, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. This definitely has a very Alien feel, complete with body horror and a kickass heroine. The world building was interesting and felt organic, and the characters, especially Kira and her reactions to her change in circumstance, felt realistic. After setting up Kira and her crew in the first chapter and a half, the action quickly picked up the pace with space battles and a nail-biting escape. Alas, no space dragons (yet!) though there were other appearances of space aliens both helpful and decidedly unhelpful.

As for cons, there’s some clunky language and some amusing nonwoman-writing-a-woman quirks, but, as in his previous books, Paolini’s excellent storytelling makes it easy to shrug off.

Overall, I finished the sample definitely wanting more. Luckily, I’ve already preordered the book, but it’s going to be a long time until September!

I was intrigued to find news of a new title from Christopher Paolini. Even though I only had the chance to review an excerpt, I am pleased to report that this book is engaging and made me want to keep reading more. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars may be a fresh universe, but what we readers love about Paolini's work is here, perhaps with even more authorial development. A most enjoyable excerpt of what is sure to be a wonderfully entertaining book. Thanks to the publisher for sharing this segment with me so that I could talk about it with other readers.

Christopher Paolini's "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" is very different from his "Eragon" fantasy series, and it's very good.

Its heroine is xenobiologist Kira Navarez, who has a much too close encounter with an alien entity. It changes her, but significantly enhances her chances of survival - and that of her species - as it comes upon a very hostile alien threat.

Paolini' gives readers an engaging lead in an impossible situation, with constant action and suspense throughout. How much will the entity that has become a part of Kira change her? How great is the threat to humanity?

I only had access to a portion of this exciting novel and am left anxious to read the full story (which should be available September 2020!

Paolini continues to show why he is a power in the realm of SFF with his next novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Much as he highlighted in The Inheritance Cycle, Paolini again showed his skill at writing from the perspective of a non-human intelligence. Though only a partial ARC, his characters are emotional and deep, forcing you to care about their choices and fates almost immediately. His worldbuilding has advanced, with bits and pieces of the history and science of his universe doled out with plot advancements rather than exposition. Paolini has been skilled at writing action scenes since Eragon, but he shows that ability isn't limited to swords and magic as his protagonist is unwillingly thrust into a violent confrontation, almost beyond her understanding. Finishing the partial ARC left me wanting more, which is the highest praise I can give to the beginning of a story. I eagerly await the finished novel, and look forward to seeing more of Paolini's universe (and the history and stories of the denizens therein) unfold.

This is exciting! When Christopher Paolini came onto the scene it was with his Inheritance Cycle series. It was a hit with our family. We read each book with the kids and eventually they read them on their own. The anticipation for the release of any new book in the series was unequal to anything else at that time. Now, he has written another novel separate from those days. Having received a partial ARC of “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars”. It captured my attention from the beginning. It shows the writing maturity of Paolini and how much he has grown in his creativity. The characters are believable and you grow to appreciate them. Paolini’s writing creates a world that one can visit each time you open the book. It is truly something special; I cannot wait to read the entire book when it is released.