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pidgepodge's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Confinement, Genocide, and Grief
who_are_you77's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and War
astrangewind's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
lestie4short's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and War
lucasgillon's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Violence and War
Minor: Genocide, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
yomireads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War
categalafassi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Pregnancy
swazwald's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, and Murder
bluelaceagate's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical content
Minor: Chronic illness, Genocide, and Excrement
the_chaotic_witch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This junker of a book was gifted to Me by a youtube-friend who was really excited about the release of this book and desperately wanted Me to read it, too. At first, I was a bit apprehensive, not really even knowing what the book was actually about. I had just put it on my wishlist because she praised it so much.
On another note, bear with Me here; it will all come together. A few weeks back, a friend from home and I talked about Sci-Fi books and how we never seemed to find what we were looking for in them. And that was: plotting, political intrigue, universe/multiverse-vast world-building, multiple characters, that may not all be that important and not only our knot of that perfect friend group, (for Me:) found family, (for her:) engaging battles, aliens (duh), with more than "they are different we'll fight them" and logic. Logic was a big part for both of us. We didn't want a poor reason to get the plot going, no holes in the world-building or illogical character choices.
And then my friend sent Me this book. "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars." The title alone is beautiful, isn't it? It's melodic and mysterious. The cover, too, is intriguing. A human floating in space, seemingly naked, meaning no suit, not ship, nothing to keep them alive. Nothing to sustain their body. How do they do it? Why are they there? What do they feel beholding the universe all around them? What does it physically feel like?
Needless to say, the book was everything I was looking for.
To start this off, let Me quickly summarize a snippet of the plot. It is the year 2157, and our Main character is a young woman working as a xenobiologist on a far off planet with her team and her boyfriend. On their last day, she is sent out to recover some of their machines, and in the process, she stumbles upon a strange rock formation with a curious cave inside. As is the fashion with Main characters, she falls in. Her being a xenobiologist, someone who does science on the life forms on different planets, she is fascinated by this cave and what it beholds. But when she touches something, that something starts to move and to absorb into her body. And she doesn't like that. And the rest of the universe won't either.
Now that we have the basic premise out of the way, let Me tell you what else it is about: loss, grief, being separated from family, travel, responsibility and having to deal with things that are outside of your control, bureaucracy (would you believe it), science (duh), what makes a person a person (but not in the way you think), love of all different kinds, mental health, determination, dealing with cultures you are not accustomed to, confidence, willpower, friend( )ship, safety on a global rate (also not how you think), the multitude of human life experiences, sacrifice, the greater good, trust, the frustrations of life, and an ending that is open and so different from what you usually find in stories in general.
You can really feel that Paolini worked on this book for nine years. It is coherent in its plot, world, and characters. There is a logic behind each action. Each character is adequately fleshed out and has their reasons to act the way they do, that are not just there to serve as a sob-story but contribute to the plot. The development of different civilizations and cultures is handled with much care and diversity. Being a white, german woman, I can't speak to their accuracy, but I like to think that Paolini dedicated himself to writing them as best he could. There were some parts where I was like, eh, but then again; I cannot be the judge of that.
The cast of characters is big, and while we have our group of main characters, not even the small side-characters that appear once or twice feel one-dimensional. There is an undercurrent of meaning and depth to all of them and their actions, and that is one of the things that makes this book so magical. Not the glitter of stars, not the epic battles, not the crew's feelings and emotions. But the inherent humanness of it all. Even of the parts that were not human and weren't portrayed to be human, there was a realness to them that made it easy to emerge yourself in the story.
Now, of course, 900 pages makes this a very long story. So, I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook (at the time of Me writing this review, it is up on Scribd).
The ending of this book was bitter-sweet in more than one way. Of course, and more prevalent for Me because it ended. I didn't want to lose these characters. To not know how they would continue onwards, what their next adventure would be (because this story is truly more than only one adventure). But also because of the nature of the ending. I hinted at this before, and, to be honest, it frustrated Me - goodness, it still frustrates Me! But at the same time, I do love it so much. Because this is what I've been looking for for so long, something that is so close to life and that does not depend on what toxic traits the characters tried to overcome initially (trying hard to keep it vague and spoiler-free).
So, needless to say, I highly recommend this to anyone, who wants a cast of characters to fall in love with, a world that almost feels more real than this one, and a journey through space to find not only humanity's only hope but also themselves.
This is Me signing off, be kind, especially to yourselves. Bye ♥
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, and Grief