A review by cmccoy13
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book was a massive let down. I didn’t go in knowing what to expect, but what I got was a joke.

This book started off strangely. The way Paolini wrote her relationship with her fiancé was sickly, unrealistic and jarring. I figured it was not going to be this way the whole book, so I pushed through. But the further into the book I got, the less I wanted to read it.

Plot: The plot was boring. It was stereotype after stereotype layered on top of the other. For some, this may be enjoyable, but to me it was flat. Flat, boring and predictable. I couldn’t believe she so quickly was “stuck” in space”. While problems seemed to pop up constantly, they also fell away just as easily. He loved to make things tense and nerve wracking, only for it to be quickly and painlessly solved. Things may have seemed impossible to overcome, or issues may have dominoed, but they always smoothed out with very little resistance. 

Characters: Kira is the definition of boring-female-main-character-written-by-a-man. While she didn’t bother me as much as other low-reviewers, I still didn’t find her interesting. She lacked a personality.

The crew was enjoyable, but the best character was by far Gregorovitch. A really cool way to interpret that style of AI, and also the most interesting character of the bunch. But I do think there’s something wrong if the best character of your space crew is the ship intelligence… the rest of them were just so one note. Each had a trope, and they fulfilled it. The only character that seemed to have any sort of development was the captain, and even *that* felt flat. I don’t know if it’s Paolinis style of writing or if he’s just bad at it. I don’t think he’s all bad, because I enjoyed the Inheritance cycle very very much.

I thought the relationship between Hwa-Jung and Sparrow was cool, and I hope this indicates there will be lgbt characters in the next inheritance cycle book. 

Worldbuilding: This was maybe the most cohesive in the book compared to plot and characters. Unfortunately, I think it’s unrealistic and I prefer believable sci-fi. The way the military functions, the way healthcare and genetic mods function, are just not a good or creative way to do them. Nor would our (western) government function in the way they did in the book. The unrealistic actions of the military and gov made it so frustrating to read. 

Overall: The best part of the book was the last few chapters, and even then I did not really like the way the book ended. It was the most interesting, captivating and engaging portion and yet… why did he have that happen to Kira. Idk. 

I would not recommend this book to others.