Review by Irey41 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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Irey41
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- Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
Review by Irey41 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
In Janet McNulty's book Solaris Seethes, Rynah, an inhabitant of the planet Lanyr, is a security figure whose training and love for her planet is put to the test when Klanor steals the crystal that stabilizes Lanyr, causing the whole planet to break out in chaos. With Lanyr now uninhabitable, Rynah and a group of individuals plucked from throughout time must use Rynah’s grandfather’s ship, Solaris, to not only track down the stolen crystal that will save her planet. On this journey, they must also find the other existing crystals scattered throughout the universe before Klanor can get to them and create a weapon powerful enough to destroy whole planets and solar systems.
After a very short preface, the book begins by dropping the reader right into the center of a storyline, introducing an environment, characters, and actions that the reader cannot possibly understand yet, as they lack build-up and explanation. Although this is not a style which I prefer, I realize that this may be a style some readers do enjoy and gave the author the benefit of the doubt that she would follow up the action with explanations that would make the reader feel more settled into this new world they were thrown into. While McNulty did in fact bring more explanations and background to light shortly thereafter, I believe there was a missed opportunity of connecting the readers to the main character early on, letting emotional ties to the character build based on an understanding of her life that would then allow them to be impacted more strongly by the terror and betrayal she faced. Unfortunately, since I did not have the chance to bond with the character in that way early on, I found myself mostly undisturbed with what seems to have been intended as a plot twist. This early lack of connection to the character made it difficult to enjoy following her story as the book went on.
While I originally liked the general storyline, I quickly realized it was one I was already familiar with. In Solaris Seethes, six crystals, often used as power sources/data cores, are spread out on various planets throughout the galaxy. When these crystals are brought together, they can form a weapon powerful enough to cause planet-wide destruction. While it is difficult to come up with a completely original concept in a world where so much content has already been created, this storyline is too close, for my comfort, to the concept shown in Marvel's The Avengers stories, which were produced before this book. In The Avengers, six infinity stones (crystal-like objects) that can be used as extreme power sources have been scattered across the galaxy. Thanos, like Klanor, embarks on a mission to collect them all to put them together to form a weapon of mass destruction. The heroes of the story are individuals pulled from various worlds and periods, similar to Rynah’s companions pulled from throughout Earth’s history, attempting to track down the stones or crystals before the antagonist can. The multitude of similarities between Solaris Seethes and the story of The Avengers is, in my mind, too close to simply be a coincidence and made the book rather unenjoyable as I had been through such a similar story before.
The story did have some interesting aspects to it that I liked, such as a variety of characters. I appreciated the wide range of characters introduced in the book (a Viking, a scholar, an inventor, and a teenage girl trying to get through a high school filled with bullies), as I believe this gives readers a better chance of finding someone they may connect with. However, I feel like the book lacked extensive character development which took away from the appeal.
I disliked most the unoriginality of the book’s concept, as mentioned before, as well as what appears to be a lack of effort into making the book as believable as can be, despite it being fiction. The fiction books I most enjoy are ones where the author has put in an extraordinary amount of time planning out each detail, often including thinking of foreign creatures with new names and newly created foods and customs, all so different from everyday life that it is intriguing but detailed enough that the reader can almost believe these environments may exist somewhere. This book does nothing of the sort. When introduced to creatures described as wolves, the author writes that the word wolves “sounded foreign on [Rynah’s] tongue” (page 338). This would make sense because she comes from a different, far-off world. However, marinara sauce is mentioned later in the book being had by Rynah’s comrade from her planet (page 372). This oddly specific, Earthly food, despite Rynah not knowing of many other features of Earth, shows the lack of imagination put into the details of the book. A similar lack of characters' surprise at very common to Earth phenomena while being completely unaware of some others is a contradiction that does not contribute to the story and confuses me as the reader.
In other instances where details seem to have simply not been thought through before publication, I am in awe at some of the events and comments the author felt necessary to include. The most jarring of which is a scene where the group is worried that the three fair-skinned people from Earth may draw attention to the group. To solve this, two characters are covered in cloaks as disguises, but the third “scooped up a blob of black sludge… and smeared it all over his arms and face, turning his skin brown” (page 384). While there are countless ways the author could have gone about hiding the characters once she chose to bring up that their pale skin would make them stand out, she chose a method that is so blatantly similar to blackface it is uncomfortable and disturbing. An “‘I guess that will do’” (page 384) from another character is all that is said on the matter, leaving the reader with no reasoning behind this off-putting reference.
Additionally, a species encountered in the book is referenced as being born gender-neutral, “so they tend to be a bit cavalier… in their love life” (page 386). Using gender non-conformity as an explanation to criticize the integrity and choices of one’s romantic life not only upholds an uneducated stereotype often seen in hateful rhetoric, but is simply untrue, gross, and uncalled for. This is just another experience that did nothing to further the plot or show character development and easily could have been completely left out of the book.
I give Solaris Seethes a rating of 1 out of 4 stars, and would not recommend this book to readers looking for deep character connection, original plot, or carefully considered details used for plot enhancement. Between the lack of original ideas and neglect in paying attention to detail, I do not believe that this book deserves a higher rating. Overall, I did not enjoy this book, and would not want to read it again.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
In Janet McNulty's book Solaris Seethes, Rynah, an inhabitant of the planet Lanyr, is a security figure whose training and love for her planet is put to the test when Klanor steals the crystal that stabilizes Lanyr, causing the whole planet to break out in chaos. With Lanyr now uninhabitable, Rynah and a group of individuals plucked from throughout time must use Rynah’s grandfather’s ship, Solaris, to not only track down the stolen crystal that will save her planet. On this journey, they must also find the other existing crystals scattered throughout the universe before Klanor can get to them and create a weapon powerful enough to destroy whole planets and solar systems.
After a very short preface, the book begins by dropping the reader right into the center of a storyline, introducing an environment, characters, and actions that the reader cannot possibly understand yet, as they lack build-up and explanation. Although this is not a style which I prefer, I realize that this may be a style some readers do enjoy and gave the author the benefit of the doubt that she would follow up the action with explanations that would make the reader feel more settled into this new world they were thrown into. While McNulty did in fact bring more explanations and background to light shortly thereafter, I believe there was a missed opportunity of connecting the readers to the main character early on, letting emotional ties to the character build based on an understanding of her life that would then allow them to be impacted more strongly by the terror and betrayal she faced. Unfortunately, since I did not have the chance to bond with the character in that way early on, I found myself mostly undisturbed with what seems to have been intended as a plot twist. This early lack of connection to the character made it difficult to enjoy following her story as the book went on.
While I originally liked the general storyline, I quickly realized it was one I was already familiar with. In Solaris Seethes, six crystals, often used as power sources/data cores, are spread out on various planets throughout the galaxy. When these crystals are brought together, they can form a weapon powerful enough to cause planet-wide destruction. While it is difficult to come up with a completely original concept in a world where so much content has already been created, this storyline is too close, for my comfort, to the concept shown in Marvel's The Avengers stories, which were produced before this book. In The Avengers, six infinity stones (crystal-like objects) that can be used as extreme power sources have been scattered across the galaxy. Thanos, like Klanor, embarks on a mission to collect them all to put them together to form a weapon of mass destruction. The heroes of the story are individuals pulled from various worlds and periods, similar to Rynah’s companions pulled from throughout Earth’s history, attempting to track down the stones or crystals before the antagonist can. The multitude of similarities between Solaris Seethes and the story of The Avengers is, in my mind, too close to simply be a coincidence and made the book rather unenjoyable as I had been through such a similar story before.
The story did have some interesting aspects to it that I liked, such as a variety of characters. I appreciated the wide range of characters introduced in the book (a Viking, a scholar, an inventor, and a teenage girl trying to get through a high school filled with bullies), as I believe this gives readers a better chance of finding someone they may connect with. However, I feel like the book lacked extensive character development which took away from the appeal.
I disliked most the unoriginality of the book’s concept, as mentioned before, as well as what appears to be a lack of effort into making the book as believable as can be, despite it being fiction. The fiction books I most enjoy are ones where the author has put in an extraordinary amount of time planning out each detail, often including thinking of foreign creatures with new names and newly created foods and customs, all so different from everyday life that it is intriguing but detailed enough that the reader can almost believe these environments may exist somewhere. This book does nothing of the sort. When introduced to creatures described as wolves, the author writes that the word wolves “sounded foreign on [Rynah’s] tongue” (page 338). This would make sense because she comes from a different, far-off world. However, marinara sauce is mentioned later in the book being had by Rynah’s comrade from her planet (page 372). This oddly specific, Earthly food, despite Rynah not knowing of many other features of Earth, shows the lack of imagination put into the details of the book. A similar lack of characters' surprise at very common to Earth phenomena while being completely unaware of some others is a contradiction that does not contribute to the story and confuses me as the reader.
In other instances where details seem to have simply not been thought through before publication, I am in awe at some of the events and comments the author felt necessary to include. The most jarring of which is a scene where the group is worried that the three fair-skinned people from Earth may draw attention to the group. To solve this, two characters are covered in cloaks as disguises, but the third “scooped up a blob of black sludge… and smeared it all over his arms and face, turning his skin brown” (page 384). While there are countless ways the author could have gone about hiding the characters once she chose to bring up that their pale skin would make them stand out, she chose a method that is so blatantly similar to blackface it is uncomfortable and disturbing. An “‘I guess that will do’” (page 384) from another character is all that is said on the matter, leaving the reader with no reasoning behind this off-putting reference.
Additionally, a species encountered in the book is referenced as being born gender-neutral, “so they tend to be a bit cavalier… in their love life” (page 386). Using gender non-conformity as an explanation to criticize the integrity and choices of one’s romantic life not only upholds an uneducated stereotype often seen in hateful rhetoric, but is simply untrue, gross, and uncalled for. This is just another experience that did nothing to further the plot or show character development and easily could have been completely left out of the book.
I give Solaris Seethes a rating of 1 out of 4 stars, and would not recommend this book to readers looking for deep character connection, original plot, or carefully considered details used for plot enhancement. Between the lack of original ideas and neglect in paying attention to detail, I do not believe that this book deserves a higher rating. Overall, I did not enjoy this book, and would not want to read it again.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
