I cannot wait to read the rest of this book. Christopher Paolini is such a masterful story builder. I loved how he introduced us to the characters and how he developed the world so seamlessly.

While I was only able to read a portion of the story, I have no doubt that I'm going to love this book.

Ok. You've gotten me interested in the book. I wish this was the whole book so I'd know what happens next to Kira. The premise of this book reminds me of Stephanie Meyer's The Host but taking place in the galaxy. Its kind of like The Host meets Interstellar. Christopher Paolini is well know for his Inheritance Cycle books showing that he know how to weave an epic tale. This book looks to be promising and if only I didn't have to wait until September to read the rest. If this is one book in another series, trilogy or cycle sign me up. I'm invested now.

I received this and as a partial eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for giving me access.

This book had me hooked. My only wish is that I was able to read the whole story.

Paolini does and amazing job of world building and creating that suspenseful atmosphere that we crave when reading.

I got huge 'Alien' vibes. The MC is similar to Ripley, yet this story is much less violent than the 'Alien' movies and books we are well familiar with.

This partial galley gave me just enough to want more, while ending at an appropriate spot. I cannot wait for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars to be published so I can continue reading this magnificent story!

Macmillan/Tor-Forge was offering a partial galley of their September 2020 release by Christopher Paolini titled To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. While I don't quite understand the concept behind offering only a portion of a book for advance reading I am an inquisitive kind of person so I accepted their offer. I based my four star rating on how involved I was in this substantial portion of the book and how interested I am in continuing the story once the novel is available. How likely would I be to purchase the full novel? Highly likely!

Paolini is a new author for me so I had no advance ideas about what style or proficiency of writing I might find once I began to read. The premise concerns a team who have been doing testing on Andrasteia, an Earth-sized moon, for the past four months to check that it is safe for the colonists who will soon be arriving to terraform this moon into an active living space. Kira Navarez is the xenobiologist on the crew so she is given the assignment to make a quick trip back to the moon's surface to check out a drone that has stopped transmitting. With their ship leaving the next day to return to base Kira isn't very happy with having to go back down for a check of what had gone wrong with the drone. At first Kira is ecstatic when she discovers an alien artifact but that quickly turns to concern when she gets hurt and needs to be rescued. Before that rescue can take place she looks down and sees her boots covered with dust - a dust that shouldn't be there.

As I said, this sample is quite a good sized portion so I do feel that I have read enough to be comfortable with the author's style of writing. What happens to Kira is not a new, never seen before science fiction circumstance but I did become invested in her wellbeing quite quickly so I'm concerned about what will happen to her next and what consequence this alien artifact will have on the existing portions of populated space. The book can go in any number of directions from the end of this excerpt and the author has written this portion so well it has made me curious about what will happen next. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens with Kira and the alien artifact.

I really got into this book. I was enjoying the main character and the wondering about the possibilities within the story to come, THEN I realized that this was not a complete novel. Very frustrating. Please do not do that to me again.

Oh man, this was so good. I'm not usually interested in space-based stories, but since this is Christopher Paolini I knew I had to give him a shot. Unsurprisingly, I loved it and am so excited for the release of the full story. Even just in the partial galley, there's a clear sense of discovery and change as the xeno develops from murderous body-stealing dust to a possible sort of ally. I am thrilled with how epic and unforgivingly harsh the world is. If I later found out this was all a secret documentation of real events... I would really consider that possibility.

I have been highly anticipating this book since I first heard about it. I was worried that Paolini wouldn't be able to replicate the feels that I got with the Inheritance series. I was pleasantly surprised that the characters hooked me early in this sneak peek. I need more ASAP

#/5

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff has ruined people for other science fiction authors. I am people.
I wanted to like this book so badly - I was so excited for it... I mean look at the cover!

Everyone in this book is so mean to each other, even though they are so called "friends". None of the characters are relatable or even likable.
I battled to feel the chemistry between Kira and Alan unfortunately. Towards the end of the galley I found myself not really caring what happens to Kira, as I just had no connection to her.
Kira's character switches between nerdy intellectual with a soft spoken demeanor, to bad-ass space combat marine and it's really confusing.
There is one character in the book that I still don't know if it was supposed to be an actual human or an interstellar AI.

A lot of unfamiliar names and terminology was passed around like there was a story before this story. I was able to imagine the setting, but I was not able to make a connection to the setting, the world around it or the colonies.

I really enjoyed this preview of Paolini's new book!

I've never read anything by Christopher Paolini, so I was cautiously optimistic when I began this preview, but I needn't have been. This partial galley was fast-paced and intriguing, and I'm dying to see where the story goes. I will definitely be reading the full book once it's released in September.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a parital galley in exchange for an honest review.

I was lucky to be able to read the First Impression of "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini on BookishFirst. And even more lucky once I realized that I had a bit more of a preview to read on NetGalley! I can not wait to be able to finish reading this entire book! I couldn't stop reading and can only say that I can not wait until this book is published I will be buying it as soon as I am able to! This book has a bit of everything and I think it will appeal to most everyone.

AWESOME ! Yes this book from the wee bit I read was totally amazing ! Space fantasy, intense, adventurous, dangerous with fantastic characters and world building. I read and loved this authors Eragon series this is not like that series. No this is science fiction space drama and I don’t think it is YA. I can’t wait to get the whole book

This 'sneak peek' was excellent and I'm excited for the full book's release this September. It is a brilliant start to a story I really want to keep reading and I'm now a little dismayed I have to wait another 3 and a half months to see where Kira is taken next. This feels like the beginning to an epic tale and I cannot wait to jump back in.

I was given this free sneak peak partial ARC from #NetGalley to give my honest review. Since this is only a part of the book, it is hard to rate it but I think I would give it a ⭐⭐⭐⚡(3-1/2) but I'll round it up.

I was surprised that #Paolini wrote a sci-fi book this time instead of fantasy. I realize that he has obviously matured as an individual and as a writer, considering #Eragon was started when he was 15. I would still say that Paolini has stayed within the YA genre. This was a very easy to read book. There are some great very fast paced action scenes. All of a sudden I discovered that I was turning pages like crazy, in a good way.

The story surrounds Kira a xenobiologist on some planet and galaxy that we have never heard of. Then she makes a discovery that will change her career forever. Not only does it change her career, it changes her life drastically. Shortly after that, the book preview ends. I will be very curious to see where the xeno leads her new life. Can't wait for #ToSleepInASeaOfStars full release in September 2020.

Wow! So much has already happened yet there is still so much we don’t know. Where did The Soft Blade come from? Does it have it’s own intentions or plans? How will Kira keep the galaxy safe from so many unknown factors? Where did the Grasper’s come from and what do they want with the Soft Blade?

I can’t wait until I can rad the rest of this story to find out what happens next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for making this partial galley available. All opinions are my own.

I am very interested in being able to continue the book. The plot is very intriguing and not overly predictable, but the characters are not developed enough to become obsessed with. So far, the book is a four out of five. I can think of twenty patrons off the top of my head that would love this book, and it is definitely a recommendation for a possible book club book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge Publishing for letting me read and review this partial arc of this intriguing and intense story.
This took me a bit by surprise because I've read and liked Christopher Paolini ever since Eragon so I was a bit thrown when I read this partial arc and it was sci-fi. I'm so used to him writing fantasy, it was different finding this story as sci-fi, but this story took off - it's very intense and stressful to read. I had a hard time stopping reading this until I was done and I was freaking out in parts because it's so tense and it was like reading a sci-fi suspense/thriller story.
This story is about Kira, who's a microbiologist that goes around studying and exploring things with her team and what happens when she goes to explore a particular find on the planet they start on and then things go crazy and stressful from there. I don't dare say much about it because you need to read it to find out what happens.
It's a very fast-paced, intense, and stressful read not long after it starts and it just keeps going and leaving you with questions, all the unanswered questions and concerns trying to figure it all out, wondering what's going to happen next.
If you like Christopher Paolini, Sci-fi thrillers/suspense, and the like, you'll want to check this one out. A little note here though for those who like to have clean reads, there is some profanity in this story.

4.5 stars. Disclosure: I was provided an ARC by Netgalley in exchange for a review (which I swear is honest).

I have to admit, I read this right after reading Martha Well's Murderbot (the 5th one), which is a hard act for Paolini to follow. But he does an admirable job.

I like reading books that have humans poking around the universe and encountering unexpected difficulties. (Really? They're unexpected? You're on a freaking remote planet, folks; don't be surprised ;-) I dislike "space war" books, though. But I'm ok with fighting in localized situations; it makes for some excitement.

So this book ticks all my boxes. Here we have humans exploring a planet as part of an organization that does this for a living. Human meets unexpected alien - or, is it alien tech? We don't exactly know, but the encounter has lasting effect on the human(s). And it turns out there's more than one alien thing to encounter, and this second one is less nice. Conflict ensues. Spacecraft zoom around. Shots fired. Running towards, and away from the conflict begins.

In the meantime, humans turn out to not necessarily always know what to do with each other in these situations. Our morals turn out to be flexible, eh? We have the good stuff - romantic interests budding, people helping each other, etc. But, we have some humans who are more willing to toss aside human life in the effort to deal with threats.

All this makes for great, rollicking fun to read. I liked it, and look forward to seeing the story continue.

Speaking of which, I was a *bit* frustrated by the abrupt-ish end. I was going to give this a less-good review as a result; I REALLY dislike it when an author stops a story mid-stream, and makes two books out of what should be one. BUT THEN I came back to put the review on Netgalley, and saw the words "Partial Galley" in the title; this makes me think the book (likely?) goes on after what I experienced as the end. If that's true, the review stays at 4.5 stars. (If that really *is* the end, it loses a half - maybe a full- star.)

I am more of a fantasy reader than sci fi, but I really liked this story. I found the story interesting from the beginning as we follow a group of scientists who are exploring a planet and collecting samples. When two of the crew are sent to check out something shortly before the group is scheduled to leave the planet, they find more than they bargained for. I really enjoyed this long sample and am definitely looking forward to completing the story when the book is released. I would definitely recommend it!

This was a really good ARC. I liked how it was kind of Event Horizon with a mix of Prometheus. ALso, I noticed how Chrsitopher's writing has changed since the writing of Inheritance so I will be buying the book for sure on my Kindle.

I am so sad that I only have access to the first few chapters because they were absolutely phenomenal. From the very first moment I met her, I felt a connection with the main character, Kira. The more I read, the more interesting it got. I didn't want it to end.

I've always appreciated the level of detail Paolini manages to weave into his work. It didn't feel like an overwhelming info dump and I was never bored. We are slowly introduced to the space environment, the characters and the alien species. I snatched onto any and every scrap of information sprinkled in throughout the chapters and I NEED TO KNOW MORE.

I've been in a science fiction mood for quite a while now and this book slowly but surely ticked every box. It has suspense, spaceships, xenobiology and a strong main character with a distinct personality. And of course, the last chapter in this Partial Galley left me on a cliffhanger, teasing me.

I cannot wait to read the rest of this book to see how Kira's story pans out. This has easily become my most anticipated reads of 2020 and I will definitely be grabbing a copy as soon as I can. (Let's hope the book gods are kind to me and I get to read the full ARC before it comes out in September!)

If you enjoyed books like Kaufman & Kristoff's Illuminae Files, then you'll be absolutely obsessed with this.