To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Originally, I was planning to give To Sleep in a Sea of Stars 4.5-stars and round up.
After having some time to reflect on my reading experience, however, I can give this nothing but 5-stars. I CANNOT STOP thinking about it.
This novel is quite the accomplishment for Paolini. If I am remembering the Author’s Note correctly, he worked on this project for nine years and it shows; as close to perfection as you can get.
In the beginning of the story, we meet and follow Kira Navarez, a xenobiologist, who discovers an alien relic while on a survey mission to an uninhabited planet.
The relic isn’t as dormant as it first appears and ends up contaminating and binding with Kira. This event has lasting repercussions, leaving her feeling responsible for some negative events that follow.
This is a story of first contact. I wasn’t aware of that going in, although it says it directly in the synopsis, I missed it somehow.
I love first contact stories. It’s actually one of my favorite subgenres of Science Fiction. It is so well done here, you can definitely tell that Paolini is a Sci-Fi fan himself.
This story is so vast, it is hard to give brief plot points that would sum up the entirety of this novel’s scope. There is so much that happens from the first time Kira comes in contact with the alien suit to the stunning conclusion.
Reading this, I became so attached to her and the other characters as well. The crew that Kira travels with, defending the Universe, are the perfect rag-tag group of lovable rebels.
I loved how Paolini incorporated humor and witty banter into this story. It made the characters seem so real; they were reacting how you expect people in real life to react to such crazy and dire circumstances.
I was so engaged throughout my time reading this. It did not feel like a close to 900-page story. I got through it way more quickly than I had anticipated.
I would note this is straight-up, good old-fashioned Science Fiction. If you are thinking this will be more SFF, based on Paolini’s past works, you could be disappointed.
If you do not normally enjoy Science Fiction, you may not like this. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi though, you will eat this up. The delicious science bits are woven throughout. Start-to-finish, the details are incredible.
Also, if you do pick this book up, be sure to read through the Appendices at the end. There’s definitely a lot of interesting supplemental material there.
My favorite being a timeline of events that lead up to the world as we find it at the beginning of the story. It basically fills in the blanks between our current world through Kira’s time. It’s not very long, but I found it to be a thoughtful addition to the story.
The audiobook is fantastic as well, if you think that would be a good option for you. At first, I was thinking, why didn’t they go full cast, as there are quite a few characters. After getting into it, however, I never thought of it again.
The narrator, Jennifer Hale, did an absolutely tremendous job bringing this story to life. She is such talented voice artist and I was shocked to learn that this is actually her first audiobook. Talk about coming out swinging!
I am going to be thinking about this story for a long time to come and would love to read it again someday.
Highly, highly recommend!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Books, for providing me with both an e-book and audiobook copy of this release to read and review.
I had so much fun with this story and hope Paolini continues to write Science Fiction for a long time to come!
1. Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman – This book, which was released this past Tuesday, June 5th, is my current read. To say I am loving it is to put it mildly. I think of this book all day long while I am away from it doing serious adult things. This is a debut novel for Ms. Steadman and so far, I am impressed. The style of writing is very fluid and engaging. It follows one POV which feels a change for me – everything I have been reading lately seems to be multiple POVs – so I am happy to sit with this one character for a while and have her tell me her tale. Basically this one involves a young, perfect couple who in the midst of some financial and career hardships go on a dream honeymoon to Bora Bora. Once there they discover something in the water while scuba diving that will change their lives forever. I am almost halfway through this one and can’t wait to discover how it turns out.
2. Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier – This will be by next read – hoping to start it early next week – it releases on June 12th. I am so excited for this one. So many friends of mine in the book community have read this and absolutely loved it. I have seen many, many 4 or 5 star reviews from people whose opinions I really respect. I do not know too much about the story, which is how I prefer to go into Thrillers. From what I can tell, it is a story about three friends, one disappeared in high school and 14-years later her body is discovered and one of the others is arrested for it. The last of the three friends is a police investigator and I believe perhaps she unravels the truth. It sounds exciting – I am all about skeletons being dragged out of the damned closet so this sounds right up my alley!
3. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager – Riley Sager is the author of one of my favorite novels of 2017 – Final Girls – and this, his second novel under this name, is one of my most anticipated books of the year! My excitement level on receiving notification that I was receiving and ARC of this was skyhigh 10-out-of-10. This book is set to release on July 10th and I know I can get it read well before then. Since this is a Sager, I am anticipating an unreliable narrator of some sort and tons of twists and turns and edge-of-your-seat moments. This story also has a group of young friends that something happens to all of them but one. It has a summer camp setting – which will be the third summer camp book I have read this year – I live for this type of setting. Basically, the survivor of this summer camp debacle returns to the camp years later as an art instructor and while there, she plans to figure out what happened to her friends. I just know I am going to love this! Added bonus: the cover!!! 
4. Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen – This is the second book in the Nyxia Triad series with a expected publication date of July 17th. The first book in this series, Nyxia, I just finished in April and gave 5-stars to…which reminds me, I need to post a full review for that! (stay tuned for more one that…) Anyway, back to Nyxia Unleashed…so, I was so excited to receive an ARC of this to continue along with the series. This is a YA-science fiction series that follows our protagonist, Emmett Atwater, as he travels from Detroit to space to compete for a chance to mine a miracle substance, Nyxia, on a planet called Eden. This series has a great cast of diverse characters, cool sci-fi aspects, mystery and a sinister corporation element. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes science-fiction; it’s a heck of a lot of fun and I cannot wait to see where this one takes us!
5. The Raging Ones by Krista & Becca Ritchie – This is the first book in a new YA-science fiction/fantasy series that is set to release on August 14th. This one sounds really unique and fun. It is set in a future where the world is frozen and everyone knows the day they are going to die. Three teens somehow escape their death days and are forced to try to flee the planet in order to survive! I mean, does that sound exciting or what!? I am really looking forward to getting to this one – I really do not want to learn anything else about it before I start – I feel like this is definitely the kind of story where it is best to go in blind.