Review by sunmuth -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)

[sunmuth]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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At its core, Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is a science fiction novel that centers around revenge. The story opens on the destruction of Lanyr, Rynah’s home planet. Rynah boards the Solaris and travels the depths of space to find the six crystals needed to save her home. Despite this captivating premise, the story fell flat in many key areas

Any good science fiction novel is driven by two elements: a well-built world and dynamic characters. Solaris Seethes did not execute in either of these areas. There was an unfortunate lack of developed world-building. There were a range of action scenes that took place on different planets and biomes, but each was described in very similar terms. After finishing the book, I do not think I could vividly describe any of the locations in a way that would differentiate it clearly from the others. The best science fiction stories are able to truly transport the reader to another world and that opportunity was missed here.

However, this shortcoming of the book could have been salvaged if the characters were dynamic and developed. Unfortunately, this was not the case either. The characters in the story were flat and their actions felt forced. In fact, most of the book and the character’s motivations felt too convenient. Typically, it becomes easier over time to predict what a character’s decisions will be as we learn more about them and their motivations. The characters in this book were too flat, however, to be able to do that. Looking back over the book as a whole, it felt like there were certain stereotypes of characters that needed to be filled (the warrior, the inventor, the philosopher) and characters never deviated from their assigned stereotype.

Finally, I was unimpressed by the actual writing style as well. The book was written in very simple language. This in and of itself does not automatically mean the story is poorly written, but it became dry and repetitive as the story continued. Many descriptions of the world were also set apart in parenthesis, which took me out of the reading experience.

Ultimately, this book has earned a rating of 1 out of 4 stars. The premise of the story was compelling, but unfortunately, the story was under-developed and poorly executed. This book would have benefited from many more rounds of revision and dedication to building a better world with more dynamic characters. I would perhaps only recommend this story to middle grade readers looking for a basic science fiction story.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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[Julius_]

Just finished reading this. The spaceship really helped Ryan. Thanks for the review.