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pidgepodge's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I really liked this book. I liked that when encountering new things, the species/items were given common names instead of immediate scientific ones which felt more realistic. I wish that there were more books after this one, as I liked the characters and would’ve liked to see them again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Confinement, Genocide, and Grief
jomojobo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A fun and fascinating premise, but about 25% too long. Could have done away with quite a bit of fluff and tightened the story up a lot!! I made do by listening to the audiobook, and in the end I’m glad I stuck with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Vomit, and War
ehcomposer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Medical content, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
dotyone's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
While I’m a fan of the world Paolini built with the Inheritance cycle, it feels like he tries to do too much in a single book with this story.
Ultimately, the book suffers from being a mile wide and an inch deep. While there is expanded background on the universe of the book, it feels flat given how the characters bounce between quests instead of diving deeper into specific locales or cultures mentioned through the story.
Some of the twists and turns also seem to take away development that has been expounded upon, leaving large blocks of the story feeling somewhat pointless.
Ultimately, the book suffers from being a mile wide and an inch deep. While there is expanded background on the universe of the book, it feels flat given how the characters bounce between quests instead of diving deeper into specific locales or cultures mentioned through the story.
Some of the twists and turns also seem to take away development that has been expounded upon, leaving large blocks of the story feeling somewhat pointless.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Sexual content
bookishlucy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I feel like this book changed me.
It was the first book I read about first-contact and space travel and it was a little intimidating at first, but this book was easy to read and get into. The pacing of the plot was perfect. There wasn't a single moment where I felt a scene was dragging on too long or passing too fast.
Kira was a very relatable and interesting character to follow through this story. The way she handled the Soft Blade and how they had to figure each other out slowly was very rewarding.
The crew of the Wallfish quickly grew on me and I'm so glad they stuck with Kira until the end.
I feel like all the loose strands came together so perfectly at the end. All 800+ pages of this book felt necessary and finishing this book felt like saying goodbye to a friend. I don't think I'll get over it any time soon.
It was the first book I read about first-contact and space travel and it was a little intimidating at first, but this book was easy to read and get into. The pacing of the plot was perfect. There wasn't a single moment where I felt a scene was dragging on too long or passing too fast.
Kira was a very relatable and interesting character to follow through this story. The way she handled the Soft Blade and how they had to figure each other out slowly was very rewarding.
The crew of the Wallfish quickly grew on me and I'm so glad they stuck with Kira until the end.
I feel like all the loose strands came together so perfectly at the end. All 800+ pages of this book felt necessary and finishing this book felt like saying goodbye to a friend. I don't think I'll get over it any time soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror
who_are_you77's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and War
astrangewind's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
After reading Fractal Noise, I was excited to read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. I'm not big into science fiction, but I loved how Paolini's universe came to life, human life, in Fractal Noise. So when I expected the same level of fiction in To Sleep, I was sorely disappointed.
Where Fractal Noise focuses on the fear of barren things, the unknown and unknowable, To Sleep focuses on... an alien spacesuit and intergalactic war. Really? I could read infinitely many other scifi books with an identical plot. That said, I know that there are many people out there who are into that kind of thing. I get that. But I feel like a lot of scifi authors tend to overdo their world-building; once you start describing the scary thing, it becomes worlds less scary. And having an alien supersuit that saves your life, stops you from feeling pain, heals people, grows plants, fixes machines, et cetera, becomes incredibly rote after the first dozen times it happens.
Speaking of rote, this book did not need to be 800+ pages. How many times do they scoot from one system to another, sometimes for no reason? How many times do the alien ships descend on them from "out of nowhere"? How many times is there an issue with the ship? a "serious" instance of cryo sickness? a life-threatening injury of one of the crew members that they "miraculously" live through? a member of the imperialist, beaurocracitc UMC acts like an imperialist beaurocrat until Kira expresses herself clearly and honestly, and then they throw all caution to the wind to believe her in total? (More than once, I'll tell you that much.) Paolini's editors needed to hit this one harder, I think.
Kira's relationships with others convinces me that Paolini has never been in love or had a sibling. Kira's sister doesn't come up often, but when she does, the interactions are stilted. (I have never once called my sister "sis." I do, however, call her "bro" roughly once per day.) Sibling dynamics aside, Kira's relationship with Alan is not well-defined and very awkward. (Who the hell uses "babe" as a term of endearment when you're both crying in a serious, terrifying moment? So weird.)It becomes even more weird given the frequency with which Alan and his death are mentioned in the remainder of the book, as though I cared about him from the start, or believed that they cared about each other. That relationship - and Kira's relationship with her family - feel so separated from her that I don't empathize when she talks about missing them. They never mattered that much to me as a reader.
In the first half of the book, I found it hard to understand why people trust Kira. She causes repeated problems- and it's not a secret that there's blood on her hands - yet the crew of the Wallfish continues to trust her with no second thought. To Paolini's credit, the second half of the book smooths this out a bit, but it doesn't mean that I ever found Kira particularly likable.
I'm for sure ragging on Paolini because I'm comparing this book against a more recent, obviously better book of his. His strengths do appear in this book, too. To Sleep ends in the only way it could have. He is not afraid of leaving questions unanswered.I did find the gift giving part a little bit silly, though. Things become much less interesting if you can solve any problem at the press of a button. And, like Angela in Inheritance, Gregorovich and Inare, both bizarre and cryptic, are a strength of Paolini's.
Ultimately, I don't regret reading this book, but the additional context did kind of ruin Fractal Noise for me, it should have been half as long, and it was generally mediocre.
Where Fractal Noise focuses on the fear of barren things, the unknown and unknowable, To Sleep focuses on... an alien spacesuit and intergalactic war. Really? I could read infinitely many other scifi books with an identical plot. That said, I know that there are many people out there who are into that kind of thing. I get that. But I feel like a lot of scifi authors tend to overdo their world-building; once you start describing the scary thing, it becomes worlds less scary. And having an alien supersuit that saves your life, stops you from feeling pain, heals people, grows plants, fixes machines, et cetera, becomes incredibly rote after the first dozen times it happens.
Speaking of rote, this book did not need to be 800+ pages. How many times do they scoot from one system to another, sometimes for no reason? How many times do the alien ships descend on them from "out of nowhere"? How many times is there an issue with the ship? a "serious" instance of cryo sickness? a life-threatening injury of one of the crew members that they "miraculously" live through? a member of the imperialist, beaurocracitc UMC acts like an imperialist beaurocrat until Kira expresses herself clearly and honestly, and then they throw all caution to the wind to believe her in total? (More than once, I'll tell you that much.) Paolini's editors needed to hit this one harder, I think.
Kira's relationships with others convinces me that Paolini has never been in love or had a sibling. Kira's sister doesn't come up often, but when she does, the interactions are stilted. (I have never once called my sister "sis." I do, however, call her "bro" roughly once per day.) Sibling dynamics aside, Kira's relationship with Alan is not well-defined and very awkward. (Who the hell uses "babe" as a term of endearment when you're both crying in a serious, terrifying moment? So weird.)
In the first half of the book, I found it hard to understand why people trust Kira. She causes repeated problems
I'm for sure ragging on Paolini because I'm comparing this book against a more recent, obviously better book of his. His strengths do appear in this book, too. To Sleep ends in the only way it could have. He is not afraid of leaving questions unanswered.
Ultimately, I don't regret reading this book, but the additional context did kind of ruin Fractal Noise for me, it should have been half as long, and it was generally mediocre.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and War
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Colonisation
Minor: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism
benmor0213's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content, Xenophobia, and War
Minor: Confinement
meowata's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and War
Minor: Sexual content
lestie4short's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The only way I can think to describe this book is if Alien and Firefly meshed together. It's more serious than Firefly, but not as Horror-driven as Alien. The world that Paoloni has built is fascinating and in-depth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and War