To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Review of the novel by Christopher Paolini
An unexpected delight Back in 2004 I read and loved Eragon, his first novel, a fantasy about dragons and such. The other two novels of that trilogy were disappointments. Now he has a massive and totally engrossing scifi, convincingly set 300 years in the future — world building on a galactic scale. Lots of battle scenes among humans and two separate highly advanced and bizarre alien species (“jellyfish” and “nightmares”). And a heroine who goes through an evolution from ordinary human to a massively powerful amalgam of all three species.
Along the way, he comes up with unique and memorable expressions, that make the strange universe of the book feel tactile and credible enough for the reader to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride:
“sure as entropy” p. 759
“a potential surrounded by actuality P. 771
“was WHERE something real or something she had imagined” p. 785
“The fabric of reality seemed to grow thinner, more malleable around her.” p. 823
