A chill of recognition crawled down Kira’s spine. She knew this place. She’d seen it before, in her dreams, and more; her other flesh, the Soft Blade, had walked among those planets many times in the far distant past.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars takes place in a detailed sci-fi universe envisioned by Paolini. Kira, the main character, is a xenobiologist on a deserted planet. When war breaks out between humanity and a newly discovered alien species, Kira is at the forefront, due to her unique bond with Soft Blade, an alien piece of technology.
To start, I will say that this book has a lot of thought and care taken with the world-building. Diagrams litter the text giving a nice visual for the universe and intricate technology Paolini created. The science is exciting, creative, and internally consistent throughout the novel. The technology and design of the world in the novel is probably the best part of the book by far.
The part I struggled with was the characters. There are a lot of characters, and in 880 pages, it seemed like we could have had a few pages for character development. The book is heavily reliant on events to push the plot forward, and other than the obligatory backstory conversation that almost everyone has with Kira at some point, there isn’t much to the characters. Most of the characters seem to be there to serve a purpose and not much else. It’s a shame in such a sweeping epic style sci-fi that deals with humanity’s role in the universe that there was not more page time spent developing the human (and non-human) characters.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read if you are looking for an elaborately crafted sci-fi with exciting technology in a world teeming with mystery and aliens. Sadly, the characters lack the same detail and care that the technology and world-building have, but it’s a solid enough read if you can look past that. Take note: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is an adult novel, not YA, despite the authors’ previous works. I’ve already seen reviews lamenting that this is not a ‘clean’ novel, from people expecting something closer to Paolini’s previous YA works.
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