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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

By: Christopher Paolini
Narrated by: Jennifer Hale
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About this listen

Goodreads Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a masterful epic science-fiction novel from the New York Times and Sunday Times best-selling author of the Inheritance Cycle, Christopher Paolini.

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....

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Christopher Paolini (P)2020 Macmillan Audio Fiction First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Interstellar

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Critic reviews

"Christopher Paolini is a true rarity." (Washington Post)

"'An authentic work of great talent." (New York Times Book Review)

"A breathtaking and unheard of success." (USA Today)

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It reads first like a discovery or exploration story before it becomes a YA novel and then turns into a Firefly and later some form of superhero space opera.

It isn't bad, he has gotten significantly better since Eragon, but it isn't tonally consistent and whenever a man is supposed to be atractive, the main character smells musk and breath and sees muscle playing, it gets a bit old.

However.

I would absolutely die for Gregorovic.

A fun space opera that can't decide on a stort

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Not a bad book, but a pedestrian and somewhat formulaic story with few flashes of genuine novelty. Characters crudely drawn and mostly irritating. Main character implausibly guilt-ridden. A lot of loose ends. The whole takes itself terribly seriously, yet many underlying themes are not explored with much imaginative rigour (which might have justified some of the self-indulgence of the material). Not in the same league as great masters like Ballard or Heinlein. An entertaining enough listen, though tedious and unnecessarily repetitive in many places. A thorough pruning by a strong editor is needed - a book half this length would have conveyed much more in much less time. Narration breathlessly earnest and so matched the over-long text. Won’t be reading/listening again.

Quite good, but...

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Long and interesting all the way through. Glad I read it. Well worth a credit, very impressed.

Great use of a credit

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This was an amazing read, I can't recommend it enough.
I can't find the words to explain how good this book is, it brings you in gentle and then BAM non stop action! Excellent performance with amazing accents! This book has reignited my love for reading/listening.
If you're not keen on heavy descriptive books then this one may be a chew but it's worth it. So worth it.

So... in short. I loved it.

Absolutely Amazing

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Brilliant story, everything about this book is just good. Well narrated I listened while driving and just wanted to keep going.

Excellent!

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Absolutely loved this book from very early on in the story. I was hooked in its twists and turns in the opening arc and couldn't predict the turns it would take to the end.
Somehow it manages to squeeze in just about every cool and interesting sci-fi concept and theme but never gets too bloaded.
The narrator delivered the best performance I have heard in an audio book yet.
Can not recommend this enough.

Jaw dropping Sci-Fi with massive scope

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I really loved this book, I was expecting a lot because I adored his YA series and it did not disappoint. It’s true that the editing is a little spotty but honestly that didn’t really bother me that much. And it is long. Although that is a plus for me, I listened this while I was sick and bed ridden so the listening time was a bonus. The only reason I haven’t given it five stars is because I did not love the ending. It was a very classic Paolini ending- without giving away any spoilers- the ending reminded me a lot of the way he ended the inheritance series. And for that reason I was a little let down. It felt like a little bit of a cop out and him falling back on what he knew. Apart from that it’s brilliant. His characterisation is wonderful as always, you see the protagonist grow and change until she is worlds away from who she is at the beginning. She is also very realistic and beautifully flawed. He brings his love of nature and philosophical depth that we see all throughout his YA books into space. And I think that is unique. Plants and reverence to nature are not usually a big themes in sci-fi and that makes this book wonderfully unique within the genre. I hope we see more sci-fi out of Paolini and I really hope it doesn’t take another ten years.

Very almost five stars.

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I am a scifi fan & this author was a new find for me. I really enjoyed this story. Jennifer Hale almost irritated me in the beginning, but the story carried me until I got used to her voice. Bought this on Fri & finished it this Sunday afternoon. Thank you, Christopher Paolini, this was a welcome companion to a weekend of chores, & it helped me go to sleep. I might listen to it again as I know I missed bits. It’s a “yes” from me.

A weekend’s pleasurable listen

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I want to "love" this book, but I can't and the reasons are difficult to explain without spoilers.

All I can say is if you love sci-fi with a little space opera, and have an appreciation for the care of using realistic logic and science in fiction, then this is worth a casual listen.

Though this won't really "grip you". The pacing is poor and it makes the book quite a slog, and I say that as someone that enjoys lengthy reads.

A book you'll like a lot, but not love

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Even though the book is 30+ hours, I was never bored, and even more importantly, never got annoyed with the narrator. Fantastic space scifi, great for beginners to the genre too. Highly recommended listening!

Excellent narration, but wow, so long!

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