Review by Berts122 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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Berts122
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- Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
Review by Berts122 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is an original piece of sci-fi aimed towards young adults. The story begins with Rynah, an inhabitant of the planet Lanyr, who is ecstatic to have recently become engaged with the man of her dreams: a man named Klanor. She works as a security officer to defend a crystal which keeps her planet in a protective stasis. The readers are thrown into conflict as the station that holds the crystal is attacked by none other than Klanor himself. He takes the crystal, and soon Lanyr is plunged into a cataclysm of natural disasters. Rynah has no option but to escape on her grandfather’s ancient ship, named Solaris, leaving her planet and people to burn. While Rynah floats aimlessly and alone, the ship’s A.I. seems to come alive, instructing Rynah of a mission passed down by her maddened grandfather. It would lead to Klanor’s fall, but she would need assistance from some alien beings from a distant and primitive planet. The planet’s name is Earth.
I found the overarching storyline engaging and unique; however, the vast number of inconsistencies, the spelling-out of almost every situation so that nothing was left to the imagination of the reader, and the simple literary mistakes made this book very difficult to finish. Notwithstanding, as the novel was aimed for young adults, I take these negatives with a pinch of salt and so this book scrapes 2 out of 4 stars.
It is true that some very enjoyable books may have slow starts, though I felt that with this book there was something off from the beginning. This turned out to be because there is not much of a real setting within the book’s opening chapter. The entire world revolves around Rynah a bit too closely, and any characters that she does mention are given about one sentence of backstory each. Indeed, Klanor, who we find out to be the supreme super-villain within a handful of pages alone, is effectively reduced to the label of Rynah’s fiancé. There is no reason why he should become the villain he is, other than his loosely-given desire to want power. Similarly, the lack of character development occurs with several other characters, not least Rynah’s grandfather, who is only mentioned in detail after the destruction of Lanyr.
The most enjoyable aspect was the originality, which alone managed to help this book cling onto my 2-star rating. It evidently was not a rehash of a traditional sci-fi story, and it was a nice twist to start with the protagonist as an alien creature, and then gather other heroes from the Earth which we as readers can relate to. Unfortunately, this also led to the production of my least favourite aspects: the inconsistencies. Four humans are drawn from earth, not only from different locations, but also different time periods. It never logically explains why this is possible, when throughout the remainder of the universe time travel is impossible. Additionally, it uses this displacement in the timestream for added drama, since once a character is sent home to Earth they may never return, due to the ship not holding enough power. Where this power comes from and why a four-person transfer could be done at one time is not mentioned. This is one of many tenuous events that in and of itself is not illogical in terms of the plot, but it must be explained in further detail for the logic to stand.
Furthermore, the problems of time travel are never addressed, even on a basic level. One character, Tom, comes from Earth’s far future, and when he reveals facts from the future to his human acquaintances (an ancient Greek, a Viking, and a modern-day teenage girl) the only hint towards temporal problems is Tom joking that he probably shouldn’t tell them much more. Lastly, there is the problem of language barriers; an ancient Greek and a modern-day teenager shouldn’t be able to understand each other. Again, I would like to assume that I can overlook the lack of detail due to it being a young adult novel (perhaps there is an automated language translator?) though this too becomes impossible since, when it becomes convenient to the plot, the languages of other characters cannot be understood.
As before, there were mistakes and incoherent sentences dotted throughout. Mistakes included not being consistent with line breaks when a new character speaks, basic grammar errors, and inconsistencies within the plot. Solaris proudly proclaims the prophecy that “four people from a distant planet none have ever been to who come and save us,” whereby the clear error detracts the profoundness of the scene somewhat. The wrong “it’s” is used, as well as questionable phrases such as “only a few lights remained lighted.” Plot inconsistencies usually came in the form of parenthetical additions, such as Rynah arriving on a planet she had never been to before, and spontaneously knowing that the rotted grass had, in the past, been “a rich emerald with a faded purple tint to it.” Evidently not enough research was put into the more technological details; Tom talks of a crystal that may hold 100 gigabytes of memory as if this technology was unheard of; after a quick google one can find that in 2011 humans created a machine that holds 120 million gigabytes.
The final nail in the coffin for me was the author actively adding “no pun intended” after a descriptive sentence. It is all very well using the ‘young adult novel’ as an excuse to cover such unconventional elements, but these novels are the ones that are to bridge the gap between simple children’s books and adult books which begin to require some imaginative input from the reader. This book should seek to begin challenging young adult readers, which I do not believe it achieves. Personally, I found the book extremely difficult to finish, and for the book to be of any use at all I would only recommend it to the youngest tier of young adults, if not to more mature child readers.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
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2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is an original piece of sci-fi aimed towards young adults. The story begins with Rynah, an inhabitant of the planet Lanyr, who is ecstatic to have recently become engaged with the man of her dreams: a man named Klanor. She works as a security officer to defend a crystal which keeps her planet in a protective stasis. The readers are thrown into conflict as the station that holds the crystal is attacked by none other than Klanor himself. He takes the crystal, and soon Lanyr is plunged into a cataclysm of natural disasters. Rynah has no option but to escape on her grandfather’s ancient ship, named Solaris, leaving her planet and people to burn. While Rynah floats aimlessly and alone, the ship’s A.I. seems to come alive, instructing Rynah of a mission passed down by her maddened grandfather. It would lead to Klanor’s fall, but she would need assistance from some alien beings from a distant and primitive planet. The planet’s name is Earth.
I found the overarching storyline engaging and unique; however, the vast number of inconsistencies, the spelling-out of almost every situation so that nothing was left to the imagination of the reader, and the simple literary mistakes made this book very difficult to finish. Notwithstanding, as the novel was aimed for young adults, I take these negatives with a pinch of salt and so this book scrapes 2 out of 4 stars.
It is true that some very enjoyable books may have slow starts, though I felt that with this book there was something off from the beginning. This turned out to be because there is not much of a real setting within the book’s opening chapter. The entire world revolves around Rynah a bit too closely, and any characters that she does mention are given about one sentence of backstory each. Indeed, Klanor, who we find out to be the supreme super-villain within a handful of pages alone, is effectively reduced to the label of Rynah’s fiancé. There is no reason why he should become the villain he is, other than his loosely-given desire to want power. Similarly, the lack of character development occurs with several other characters, not least Rynah’s grandfather, who is only mentioned in detail after the destruction of Lanyr.
The most enjoyable aspect was the originality, which alone managed to help this book cling onto my 2-star rating. It evidently was not a rehash of a traditional sci-fi story, and it was a nice twist to start with the protagonist as an alien creature, and then gather other heroes from the Earth which we as readers can relate to. Unfortunately, this also led to the production of my least favourite aspects: the inconsistencies. Four humans are drawn from earth, not only from different locations, but also different time periods. It never logically explains why this is possible, when throughout the remainder of the universe time travel is impossible. Additionally, it uses this displacement in the timestream for added drama, since once a character is sent home to Earth they may never return, due to the ship not holding enough power. Where this power comes from and why a four-person transfer could be done at one time is not mentioned. This is one of many tenuous events that in and of itself is not illogical in terms of the plot, but it must be explained in further detail for the logic to stand.
Furthermore, the problems of time travel are never addressed, even on a basic level. One character, Tom, comes from Earth’s far future, and when he reveals facts from the future to his human acquaintances (an ancient Greek, a Viking, and a modern-day teenage girl) the only hint towards temporal problems is Tom joking that he probably shouldn’t tell them much more. Lastly, there is the problem of language barriers; an ancient Greek and a modern-day teenager shouldn’t be able to understand each other. Again, I would like to assume that I can overlook the lack of detail due to it being a young adult novel (perhaps there is an automated language translator?) though this too becomes impossible since, when it becomes convenient to the plot, the languages of other characters cannot be understood.
As before, there were mistakes and incoherent sentences dotted throughout. Mistakes included not being consistent with line breaks when a new character speaks, basic grammar errors, and inconsistencies within the plot. Solaris proudly proclaims the prophecy that “four people from a distant planet none have ever been to who come and save us,” whereby the clear error detracts the profoundness of the scene somewhat. The wrong “it’s” is used, as well as questionable phrases such as “only a few lights remained lighted.” Plot inconsistencies usually came in the form of parenthetical additions, such as Rynah arriving on a planet she had never been to before, and spontaneously knowing that the rotted grass had, in the past, been “a rich emerald with a faded purple tint to it.” Evidently not enough research was put into the more technological details; Tom talks of a crystal that may hold 100 gigabytes of memory as if this technology was unheard of; after a quick google one can find that in 2011 humans created a machine that holds 120 million gigabytes.
The final nail in the coffin for me was the author actively adding “no pun intended” after a descriptive sentence. It is all very well using the ‘young adult novel’ as an excuse to cover such unconventional elements, but these novels are the ones that are to bridge the gap between simple children’s books and adult books which begin to require some imaginative input from the reader. This book should seek to begin challenging young adult readers, which I do not believe it achieves. Personally, I found the book extremely difficult to finish, and for the book to be of any use at all I would only recommend it to the youngest tier of young adults, if not to more mature child readers.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Like Berts122's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
