To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

I had already been trudging through the audiobook for hours when i realized there were still 20 hours left, and 10 hours was really enough.The writing didn't interest me and I didn't care about the characters so I finally gave up.

4/5 stars

This is a nice mix of Star Trek, Star Wars, Indianer Jones and a tad of Fantasy.
I really enjoyed it for 2/3 of the book, the later third was a bit of a drag but still on the good side. It could have used some trimming, I would guess it's 200 pages too long, for example there is a super pointless romance arc out of nowhere and a super super cringy sex scene and drawn out action/fight scenes, which are not the strength of the book.
Anyhow, good story, great world, looking forward to reading more from the Fractalverse

Whew! Well that was phenomenal. LONG but phenomenal. I honestly feel like this could have been culled by a few hundred pages and the intent would still have been very clear and well loved. BUT as it stands...

I absolutely loved this. I haven't read many space operas and boy did this have it all. I can only imagine how hard it must be to build a world in outer space, let alone keep things going when most of the time spent in space is on ships. While there are parts that are slower, I think the author did an amazing job with keeping the storyline moving.

Let's talk characters. I ADORED every single one, main and side. Trig stole my heart early on as well as the Entropists. Kira, even with all her insecurities and annoying whining

Unnecessary long and predictable. Also I hated the ending. The aliens and the ship mind were the only things I liked in this book.

Started strong, very meh after 20%

I have not read any Paolini before, so I am not coming in with any nostalgia over Eragon. I umm-ed and ahh-ed about the star rating for this but in the spirit of trying to be a bit more generous with my ratings I'm plumping for 5 stars.

I read the ‘sneak peak' last year, which comprised of “Part One” of the total novel, and really enjoyed it. It took me a while to get back to finish it off as I am a mood reader and the intervening mood between TSIASOS's release and now has been overwhelmingly fantasy based. It took a while to get back into it given the almost-a-year gap between reading Part One and continuing from Part Two and I had forgotten a couple of things but nothing that made too much difference.

Looking through other reviews, this seems to have been a polarising book but I'm definitely in the positive camp. I was possibly a little more invested in the story/history of the xeno/alien that Kira first encounters as opposed to the, erhum, ‘space squid' as others have dubbed them. I would certainly read more around Kira in the future and the crew of the Wallfish who she encountered along the way.

No, it isn't perfect but no book really is. Some of the dialogue/language used was a little hammy but I can forgive it because of the enjoyment I had from the rest of the book. Yes, it is long. I think it was worth it. If you don't want to read 800+ pages though, don't, that's up to you.

I had heard mixed reviews on this and was pleasantly surprised as I have not read Eragon and have never really wanted to.

This is a scifi story if you couldnt tell by the title and coverl ol, the 1st one I believe Paolini has written and set in what has been termed the fractalverse.

What I liked: the tech in these books had a interesting twist on the idea of warp drive an use of cyrogenic sleep and human mind brain interfaces. So all your classic scifi tech from ship minds to bio implants.

The ship minds created a interesting and honestly fun character to interact with gregory the wallfish ship mind.

I did not find this book big on character development, this is not to say it had none, there certainly was some character development but i found that this was more a plot driven book which in and of itself is not a bad thing just my feelings on the how the book is written. i would say a 60/40 split between character development and plot with plot being 60%

The softblade xeno i really like how that brough our main character Kira, into there journey to becoming something truly unique and new. this being the trigger for the greater conflict within this story overall and also playing a key role in the ending leaving this open to more fractal verse books in the future which i would be open to reading.

This book really has a found family trope which TBH Is one of my favorite tropes and worked well in this story

What I didnt like, the soft blade seems too powerful in a few ways to, virtualling making its user/wearer/partner etc.. virtually invinceable which at some scenes felt that there is no way anyone could have survived that a re-write on said scenes to be more survivable or rather less unsurvivable imho would have made it better.

not sure how i feel about the idea of the aliens in this book communicating by scent, while its not impossible, and aliens certainly will and likely do communicate via means that would be foreign to us, for narrative purposes i feel like it would just work better for these aliens to have a spoken language, maybe a nitpick but i just think from a narrative perspective it just works better.

overall a good read and i look forward furture reads in the fractalverse

Full review to come. Overall very fun. A step up from Inheritance in some ways and a step in place in others.

What a mess!
This book is all over the place and never trust itself on its own. Its basically Alien and HAL 9000 gangraping ET at the Firefly ship. 95% of my reading time was spent trying to find from which franchise the next chapter would lend its theme. And still i wouldnt stop reading, dont know why

All finished. Five stars for an epic, galaxy-spanning tale of a woman's life and metamorphosis; the challenges, the enemies, the friends, and the loves.

Thank you @Netgalley for the advanced readers' edition of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Chris Paolini! Here is my honest review....

I am aghast that I have to wait till September to finish this read. I hadn't realized when I placed the request with NetGalley that it was for the first 25% of the book! OOOOOOOO but that 25% was damn near perfection! I was completely surprised at just how INTO this book I was (am). It has everything I look for in a SciFi book, intrigue, humanity, internal struggle, realism. I couldn't put it down, and when my kindle hit 100% and I realized the story was nowhere near over I was mortified, as a matter of fact, I'm still shook!

So anyway, if you like books with a reluctant heroine forced into tough situations that has a heart of gold, if you like your Scifi with epic journeys through the stars and distant inhabitable planets, and if you like your journey to include sentient armor and an advanced race of squid-like aliens trying to steal it... Well then you've met your match.

I read this book because a friend recommended it to me, even though I am not super into si-fy. I am so glad she did recommend this book, because I absolutely loved it! The world-building, characters, and technology described throughout was incredibly detailed and very interesting. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is completely unlike anything I've ever read, and it has earned a spot in my favorites!
(Ari, you're the best for recommending this book!)

The book is a long story about Kiara and her relationship with the soft blade that surrounds her. It brings ancient and new species into contact with each other, and a spell binding situation of the consequences of human actions of fear, love, lust, and ego.

Futher more over and again this book pushes the idea of what it means to be not quite human, in hindsight almost ever main character displays this idea from a different perspective.

It is definitely a journey style novel. The plot can be meandering and the ending suprising. At many turns it's clear this is not the straight forward plot many books go for. Without understanding that it could be a very long frustrating read. So graba nice nook, take some breaths and just live with Kira, because that's truly how this book shines.

Oh and this is a bit hard core. There's a lectures in the back of the book from “Professors” to explain the sci fi elements. Personally I was satisfied without the deep dive, but knock your socks off!