Rating: 4 Stars
Prior to reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, I had not read any of the books by Paolini. Though I had been meaning to for a long time. As a lover of Sci-Fi, when this book came out I felt it was the perfect opportunity to finally read one of his books. Glad I did because it is a great story.
Kira Navarez is a xenobiologist working with a group of scientists to survey an uninhabited planet. By chance she discovers an ancient alien artifact. When the artifact bonds with her everything changes. Humans make first contact with an alien species, a war erupts, and the fate of all humanity seems to rest with her.
That is a lot for any person to take in and I loved that the author gave us this strong and tenacious main character who happens to be female. Kira for sure endured a lot and most people would have given up and thrown the towel in. Despite her personal doubts and blaming herself for the events that happened, she worked through them.
Her internal dialogue with herself hit home for me. It felt real and made her character not only believable but gave her a lot of depth. For me, character development is critical to a successful story and especially one that is a sweeping drama. Paolini really delivered here.
As much as I loved the character development and world building, there were places that the book dragged a bit. However, I was so invested in the story that I soldiered on because I wanted to know what fate had in store for Kira. If the story had been just a little tighter I would have given it five stars instead of four.
Despite my one complaint, this is a fabulous story and I highly recommend it to all lovers of Sci-Fi. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.