Intro
Kira is a xenobioligist helping her team investigate a potential new colony planet. They are wrapping up when she becomes isolated and something happens. From that point, Kira has to navigate the complexities of dealing with an alien first contact scenario while all sorts of other chaos are erupting all around her and the human-settled planets. How will she deal with all the changes while maintaining her humanity and while protecting mankind?
I received this book as a Christmas present from my wife after talking about it for several months. Big thanks for her for the gift!
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was written by Christopher Paolini (author’s website and Amazon page with his other books). It was released on September 15, 2020 and is a relatively hefty book at 880 pages in length. It is Paolini’s first major release outside of his popular Eragon series, and he has said that he plans to write more stories within this “Fractalverse”.
Read on for a detailed breakdown, or click here to jump to the conclusion.
I check my straps; I cross my arms, prepare
Myself to once again venture into the
Unknown, content to face my end and pass
Beyond this mortal realm, content to hold
And wait and here to sleep—
To sleep in a sea of stars.
Plot
The plot of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars definitely fits into the “first contact” mold. The driving conflict revolves around Kira’s interaction with and growing understanding of one alien species, and other alien species soon show up to add their unique complications. Summarizing the plot in a more detailed way than that is difficult because multiple spoiler-ish events happen quite early in the book. Some of the events were so quick that they caught me completely off-guard.
As would be expected in a first contact story, most of the later plot points revolve around humanity’s interaction with an alien species. This interaction is shown at the macro scale through the military and political response, and it is shown at the micro scale through Kira’s responses and interactions. While there is a large-scale response to the alien contact, this story is ultimately a very individual, personal character study of Kira.
I enjoyed most of the plot lines in this book, but I found myself being drawn in more and more as I approached the end of the book. Early on, I felt a bit blasé about storyline and dropped this book for several days at a time while reading some others on my list. By the end of the book, I was ready to pick up a sequel immediately.
My main critique for the plot is that I felt at times like it was a couple smaller books just shoved together in one volume. In the afterword, the publisher has included a conversation between Paolini and Brandon Sanderson. In that conversation, Paolini suggests that he viewed To Sleep in a Sea of Stars almost as a trilogy shoved into one book so the slightly abrupt plot changes are understandable.
Worldbuilding/Series Connection
If I could pick just one area where I felt that this book really excelled, it would be the world-building. I did not notice very many exposition dumps. Rather, Paolini gradually introduces the characters, locations, cultures, and constraints that he built into his universe as those points arise naturally in the story. Not only does he grow the reader’s understanding in an organic way, but he has made a world that is a fun and engaging setting for the story he wants to tell.
Paolini did an excellent job of creating the cultures in his universe with slightly different cultural practices arising on different planets. The alien culture is also well-realized. Often, authors fall into the trap of making their non-human characters into a charicature of one or two specific human traits. He definitely did not fall into that trap, and his aliens are intriguingly different.
The other part of his worldbuilding that I found excellent was the contraints he put on faster-than-light (FTL) travel. Having FTL as a possibility opens up his universe some, but the constraints he put on it (like the amount of time/resources it still takes and time delays in communications) help amplify plot points and make it feel real. You can tell that Paolini took the time to study some of the physics that could result if FTL was possible. Overall, I love the Fractalverse that Paolini made, and I am excited that he plans to write in this great universe again.
Characters
The character work was a mix of highs and lows for me. Most of the book is experienced through Kira’s point of view, and her journey and struggles are presented pretty well. I could feel some of the conflict she was facing when making certain choice through the book. However, she had one piece of her character which just struck me as odd. She experienced a certain bit of trauma early in the book which was shown as having a pretty massive impact on her at the time, but then that event drops off the radar for large sections of the book in a way that I found unbelievable.
The secondary characters were overall awesome. Most of these characters belong to the crew of a cargo freighter working in a gray section of the market. Paolini wrote the “lovable band of scofflaws” really well. Think about the crew of the Firefly (but just a little more serious), and you will get the idea of what these characters were like. I really enjoyed them, but that enjoyment may be simply because I am a sucker for these kinds of characters.
Prose
If it were not for the excellent worldbuilding, I would choose the prose as the high point of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Descriptions are vivid without being overly flowery, and parts of the book almost have a poetic feel to them. The poetry in the title itself can give some indication of the type of prose present here. Paolini also does not hold back on the vocabulary with fairly frequent usage of difficult or obscure words.
Conclusion
If you had asked me early in To Sleep in a Sea of Stars if I would recommend it, I would have had to equivocate. Parts of the early plot did not really grab me. However, by the end, I can whole-heartedly recommend it. The worldbuilding and prose are excellent. The characters are mostly great with just a couple things that did not suit me well (though they may suit you). The plot was strong once things picked up around the halfway point. After I finished, I found myself reading through all of the author’s notes in the postscript looking for hints about how long I would have to wait for the next book, and I think you will be doing the same!
You should read this if …
- You are a fan of hard sci-fi. This book places some decent constraints and sticks to them–even while adding some fantastical elements
- You like first contact stories. This book is an excellent study of humanity at the large scale and the individual scale when the mirror of an alien culture is held up to it.
- You like good writing and want a story that will occupy you for a long time
