Book Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (three stars)

Book Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (three stars)

“Sorry. I haven’t got the faintest idea what’s going on.” “I’ll tell you what’s going on. War.”

Immense, slow moving epic tale of first encounters and pending apocalypse. Inner voice of protagonist propels narrative in realist atmosphere of self-doubt and concern for others.

“So what would the Soft Blade do if you die?” “I … I’m not sure. I’d guess it would return to its dormant state, the way it was on Adrasteia. That or it would try to bond with someone else.” “Well, that’s not alarming in the slightest.”

Lost a star over gratuitous language. Okay, one character was salty, but once that’s established pouring on more profanity more detracts. Despite Paolini’s serious attempt at hard science fiction, many non sequiturs knock the serious reader out of the spell of the story.

“Nothing you can say is going to make this any better.” “Just listen; it’s another story.”

The ending is appropriate to the story, but not satisfying.

“I’d rather struggle and fail on my own than be coddled as a slave.” “So you do have principles.” “Careful now. Don’t tell anyone or you’ll give them a bad impression.”

Book Review: The Stars Now Unclaimed (The Universe After #1) by Drew Williams (three stars)

Book Review: The Stars Now Unclaimed (The Universe After #1) by Drew Williams (three stars)

That’s why I was here: trying to right my own wrongs. In a very small way, of course. I was only one woman, and it was a big, big universe. Also, I had a great many wrongs.

Near superhero space opera. Protagonist is a close as a human can get to being a super and has incredible luck to boot. Good, if superficial introspection. Linear story careens from one crisis to the next, often saved by chance.

“The local radiation will be divided between us, and it’ll go that much slower.”

Williams apparently learned science from Star Trek. Innumerable physics gaffs which know the reader out of the spell of the story. The supposed Pulse radiation impacts everything except what the protag needs.

“For a religious leader-person, you suck at comfort, you know that, Preacher?” “It has been mentioned, yes.”

Some humor. Would appeal to and be appropriate for young adult readers except for the language.

“… long since gone, eons ago, along with the atmosphere.” “When we finally broke out of the caverns and back into atmosphere …” Huh?

Decent ending, despite hooks to the rest of the series. Might have gotten another star had I not been reading real science fiction on my other device.

Then again, very few of us are lucky enough to choose the day we die.

Book Review: The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley (Three Stars)

Book Review: The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley

Three Stars

“Every life is a tragedy. We are all going to die. There is no other ending, no matter the choices you make.”

Given this book’s title, no reader should be surprised to get a both-barrels blast of anger and defensiveness. That said, Hurley expresses herself well, aside from her gratuitous use of adjective and adverb forms of the f-word. There’s the making of two good books here: one focused on writing, the other on feminism. Despite that, I liked this book.

“Who and what is good is highly dependent on who wins, and whose point of view we’re writing from.”

2017 Hugo Award finalist as a “related work.” Like most books in this category, it’s a compilation of old blogs thrown together. In this case, it’s a semi-coherent whole. Also, like most other related works, this work has little to do with