2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is a tale about Rynah’s quest to stop the man who betrayed her and save her planet, Lanyr. Along the way, she acquires four heroes who attempt to aid her in her journey. As a group, they travel the galaxy in search of six crystals that the ancient legends say can repair the damage. However, the crystals could also be used to destroy many more planets, if they fell into the wrong hands.
This is a very entertaining story. It is full of adventure, suspense, drama, and even a "tear jerker" moment. I genuinely enjoyed the story. Some of the scenes are very well written with an appropriate amount of description. Of the characters, Alfric is my favorite. He is, in my opinion, the most well-developed character in the book. I felt like I really got to know him, despite knowing virtually nothing about his background. Additionally, the characters almost always saved themselves with skills they already possessed.
Apart from the story, the book has more issues than I can address. As such, I will focus on the worst two. The first has to be the five continuity issues. The worst of these involves what day Lanyr was destroyed. Within the first seven chapters, that day changes three times. This makes me wonder if the author paid attention to her own timeline. All of the others involve events that are later implied to have not happened. A simple rewording of the initial event in each case would have prevented the respective errors completely.
The second major issue is the use of parenthetical statements. I understand they are technically acceptable; however, Ms. McNulty abuses them. She inserts them into existing sentences which breaks the flow of said sentence and disrupts the mental image she is trying to paint. Those statements also cause most of the run-on sentences throughout the book. Some of which are excessively long. This book would have been considerably better had she followed a simple rule about using parentheses in essays, stories and similar works. "Don’t. If you have to put something in parentheses then it is unnecessary and should be omitted. If it is important enough to be included, then reword the context and make it its own sentence." Other issues include confusing, poor or unnecessary wording and redundant statements. Surprisingly though I found only one grammatical error.
Solaris Seethes is an excellent story that I thoroughly enjoyed. What I did not enjoy, however, was the book itself. I genuinely wanted to give it a good rating but with all the errors and flaws, I simply cannot. It felt like the book was competing with the story rather than supporting it. For that reason, I am giving this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. That said, I would still recommend the book for no other reason than the story. I am also looking forward to reading the sequel as the story was that good.
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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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