© James Pyles

I just finished reading To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars (2020) by Christopher Paolini and was really impressed. One of the biggest points for me is that the book is over 800 pages long and it didn’t drag at some point.

From the blurb on Amazon:

Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she’s awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope . . .

I don’t think any summary or any review could do justice to this novel. It starts out in an “ordinary” science fiction universe with a very real and human Kira, and then explodes (a controlled explosion) into the consequences of her merging with a form of alien technology/life that calls itself “Soft Blade.”

Kira and Soft Blade come to terms with each other very slowly, leaving behind a trail of disasters, at least at the start. Kira blames herself for the deaths Soft Blade causes, even in the mistaken cause of self defense.

Naturally, when discovered, her government and military want to dissect Kira and the suit, but the invasion of a race humanity calls the “Jellies” stops all that and allows Kira a means of escape.

It gets worse because a second set of aliens who are called “Nightmares” begins a rampage against both humanity and the Jellies and as it turns out, it’s all Kira’s and Soft Blade’s fault (sort of).

Her escape leads her to be picked up by the freighter “Wallfish” and her motley crew of miscreants, who develop into staunch allies as Kira continues to learn more both about Soft Blade and the Jellies.

I could go on, but as I said, I couldn’t do the novel justice. Kira’s adventures are a much metaphysical as physical, but at no point did the author lose me in the details or bore me with lengthy expository. There was hardly a dull moment, which is hard to pull off in a lengthy novel.

All of the characters have a very complex human texture including the Wallfish’s ship mind Gregorovitch who half the time seems totally insane and who is fun almost all the time.

As it turns out, the Jellies aren’t united in desiring war with humanity, but those who want peace only desire it because they need humans to help defeat the nightmares.

While Soft Blade is an exceptionally effective weapon, that’s not really what it’s for. Eventually, Kira’s and Soft Blade’s agendas merge and as the final battles approach, Kira understands that Soft Blade is a source of life.

The ending has a very 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe as, out of death, Kira and Soft Blade become something else, or perhaps what they should have been all along.

Paolini left himself plenty of room for a sequel and the continuation of Kira as an individual (though transcended) personality.

A side note to the conservative perspective; there was one gay relationship in the book between two crewmembers of the Wallfish. It was handled organically and didn’t overwhelm the story with “messaging” as the 21st century gatekeepers of science fiction and fantasy have a tendency to do. Of course, the plot didn’t really require a gay couple and if the two characters weren’t paired at all, not a lot would have been lost. It was more like “gay people exist in the general population, so it makes sense to see them in any human setting.”

I was curious about the author Christopher Paolini but neither Wikipedia nor his website were particularly forthcoming.

Besides having parents and a sister and having dual citizenship in the U.S. and Italy, I couldn’t tell you a lot about him. Of course, it’s his right to expose or conceal various portions of his life, but I find that a writer’s relationships reveal a lot about what drives their creativity.

Oh, well.

I highly recommend To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars for science fiction fans.

Disclosure: I can’t afford to buy all of the books I want to read, so I checked this one out from my local public library.