Cover Image: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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Member Reviews

A lot to like here but the author needs a more aggressive editor. Too long for what it does. And it seemed that we plummeted from disaster to disaster. Not fast paced, just punch drunk. The conversations between characters were the best part to me, but many remained under developed. When I start skipping pages to get out of interminable action sequences that’s a bad sign. Overall it still strikes me as somewhat immature and very much deux ex machina, literally in the end (which just wouldn’t conclude and still hasn’t concluded). Interesting world. Good aliens. Interesting premise. Not thrilled with the execution.

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I really wanted to enjoy it since I love Christopher Paolini. However, this book just wasn’t for me. It was a bit too weird. It was also very long and could have been much shorter. Kira is just not an interesting protagonist. She mostly complained throughout the novel. Thus, this book should be given a try to Christopher Paolini’s fans. However, it is not near as epic as the Eragon series.

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Edge of your chair, stay up all night reading to find out what happens to Kira in this amazing science fiction thrill-ride!

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Remember that guy who wrote those books about dragons when he was a teenager? Well he just wrote a very fun scifi doorstop that should give you hours of entertainment.

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I cannot express how happy I was to read Paolini's new book. The author brings to life this complex and deeply fascinating world. The characters are engaging and the narrative is exemplary. I loved every moment spent within the pages of this book.

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I started this and I tried, I really did. Within the first 20 pages I already knew this was not going to be a favorite and so I checked out the audiobook from my library to try and listen to because I felt obligated to finish it. At approximately 12% in I am officially giving up. I just can't do it.

I'm not entertained, I don't like the main character or really feel sympathy for her (she's supposed to be a scientist and kind of smart and she just keeps doing stupid thing after stupid thing.) The plot line is very meandering and other reviews seem to suggest it won't get better.

Also, this book is massive. Even listening at 1.8x speed to try to get through it quicker, I am looking at wasting 23 more hours of my life. Not worth it. Sorry for not holding up my end of the NetGalley bargain but this just isn't it for me.

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I wasn’t sure exactly what the tone of this book would be, and it was a bit more overwhelming than I hoped, but gripping nonetheless.

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I have a love/hate relationship with this book. This book should count as eight books in a Goodreads reading challenge because it was THAT long! Not that I mind long books; heck, I love them! But this one dragged on and on and on. It isn't that the storyline was bad; it wasn't. I was entertained for the first 40% of the book, but then the same thing kept happening that I became bored and dreaded reading it. Here's what I thought was interesting though: the setting (um, space! spaceships! planets!), aliens (I mean, who doesn't find aliens interesting?), the main posse (Kira is bad-ass, after all), and, surprisingly, all the politics - this book actually made me miss the show The Expanse since it was so similar. Overall, while I thought the story was interesting, it should've been edited a lot more thoroughly so that it doesn't become so predictable, as it became for me.

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I loved this book, but it was very very long. I feel like this either needed to be shortened some, or broken into a two part series. However, I loved Kira's character and her struggle.

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I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 3.75 Stars

Space Operas seem to be a hit or miss for me. Some of them are a bit too slow and a bit too technical for me, while others are exactly what I’m looking for and I find myself obsessively devouring them. TSIASOS somehow fell right in between the two. I loved the epic battle scenes, they were written so well and kept me absolutely hooked. This is also a book that had so much going on that I expect I’ll need to reread at some point to ensure that I catch all of the small details.

I generally don’t like traveling in books as I find that it can be tedious. There was a fair amount of space travel in this, and I did struggle with those chapters. That said, they were used for Kira’s character development, so I understood why they were important. It was an odd mix for me because I wanted to see Kira’s growth but I also wanted for the pacing to speed up again. Apparently I’m just a bloodthirsty reader. Who knew?

There were parts of the plot where the pacing slowed down and it fit and made total sense to me, and there were others that seemed completely unnecessary. Some chapters could’ve been lifted right out of the book and I feel as though it would’ve flowed better without changing the overall plot.

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Epic space adventure with discovery, mystery, exploration, war, treasure hunting, relics, artifacts, aliens, superpowers, future politics, and so on. Yes, there is a lot.

This book is a 3.75 stars for me. The way I get do this rating is that it was a marathon to get here. I read the first half of this novel in 2020, and the second half in 2021. I really loved the first half of the book (5 stars). The planet exploration colonization, and all that was great! Then weird stuff happens with unknown substances and possible aliens. Still great stuff. And it's awesome up to a certain point, then it becomes a completely different story towards the middle with war, politics and more. The second half of the book was a little tougher for me to get through (2.5 stars). The themes seemed different. It might have been worth splitting this book into 2 parts or a trilogy. Then each book/part could focus on a certain theme (discovery, hunt for treasure, space war and conflicts). I enjoyed the ending which made the second half worth it.

Another aspect of the book that I found made it feel very slow paced was the fact that we are constantly following the protagonist Kira from start to finish. It makes sense that the focus is her. But I think it could have helped to jump around a little more from point of views to understand the universe a little better. Especially when we get to the war and politics involved in this book.

The ideas in this novel were fun, most characters were great, and the writing was excellent. It is an awesome modern pure science-fiction novel that checks all the boxes for a proper SF novel.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the author, the publishers and the NetGalley team for providing me with a copy. I cherished this opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

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I don't typically read science fiction books, but I loved Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Saga, and so decided to give it a try. His world-building is fantastic as always. The characters are great, there's drama and suspense, and I look forward to seeing where the sequel takes us. It is so hard to not give away spoilers.

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This book took me a lot longer to finish than I had anticipated when I started it, but that wasn't at all due to it's plot or character development, as much as to life interfering with finding time to finish an 800+ page story. I have to admit that I started it, then had to abandon it, and it got pushed down in my TBR list for quite a while until I realized that I hadn't read and reviewed it as I had planned. Once I picked it up again after life calmed down, I couldn't stop reading! Paolini is an author I've always respected, with his intricate world development and detailed story telling, but this is the author as a more mature master of his craft, and the six sections of this book are very entertaining! Readers will find themselves transfixed by the circumstances Kira finds herself in, and how excitement can be very close to terror when unexpected events change your plans and perception. The battle she finds embroiled in will also make readers take a step back and question what we think of as "humanity" and our rights vs. the rights of others, even if they aren't like us. I appreciated the appendix and glossary to help me keep up. The pacing varies, and sometimes I wanted things to speed up in certain places, but that was a minor inconvenience. I'm glad this is the first of a series!

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When it comes to storytellers who weave together magic through their words Paolini is one of the best. From dragons to space squids Paolini has grown as a writer and this may be one of his very best.

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An Epic Journey through space that you didn't know you needed until picking it up!

Readers who loved the sweeping landscapes of Eragon won't be disappointed in Paolini's next adventure.

I enjoyed this book! It was so much fun watching ti come together. The characters were decent and I loved that. It was slow in spots, but that's ok! I enjoyed it still and can't wait to see Paolini brings us next

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Absolutely beautiful epic space saga! For someone who isn't much of a sci-fi fan, it was just the right mixture of "believable" to keep me reading. I loved Kira and the progression her character made from beginning to end. The science was not overwhelming and the characters were extremely well developed. I don't know if there will be a sequel as I am good with the progression of the story, but if there is, sigh me up!

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I am a big fan of the Eragon series so I was excited to start this Sci Fi book by Christopher Paolini. Once again he really did a great job of world building and character development. I really enjoyed this action packed space opera. The vivid details of the time and place, the strong female leads and the great relationship of the spaceship crew made this a compelling and enjoyable read. Thanks #NetGalle for my ARC.

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Really enjoyed this one! Wasn't sure what to expect. I loved Eragon in high school and was so excited when hearing about this new novel from Paolini. This was long and kind of intimidating to start, but didn't feel that long once I got into the story.

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Thank you for letting me read and review this!

To Sleep In a Sea of Stars was a wonderful new story from Paolini.
Yes, there are places where pacing slows. But the story overall? It was a wide and sweeping novel that keeps tugging you back.

Sci-fi isn't normally my thing, but I wanted to read something new from Paolini. This was a fantastic intro for me, and I LOVED the appendices at the end.

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Paolini does not disappoint with this enchanting tale that draws in readers old and new from the first page. A strong, heartfelt story one will return to and enjoy all over again on rereading.

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