Review by MKsimpson -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga boo...
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Review by MKsimpson -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga boo...
Rynah’s day takes a turn for the worst when her home planet of Lanyr is destroyed by her scheming fiancé (Klanor). By stealing a crystal used to stabilize the planet’s atmosphere, he has doomed the planet to death. Narrowly escaping in her grandfather’s ancient spaceship (Solaris), it is up to Rynah to prevent the rest of the universe from suffering a similar fate. With the help of the ship’s snarky A.I., she assembles a motley crew of helpers based on the ancient stories of the six crystals, long thought to be myth. Is Rynah able to collect all the crystals before Klanor, protecting other worlds from destruction?
Solaris Seethes is the first in a four-book series by Janet McNulty. The Kindle version is 460 pages. While the basic storyline was interesting enough to keep reading, other aspects were distracting which made this a difficult read. The book suffered from poor pacing and no real attempt at character development. While it should not be an issue for the book's target audience, it does keep it from being a great read.
My favorite thing about the book was the overall plot. The idea for the series could work very well. There’s an interesting attempt at combining Science Fiction and traditional Fantasy in a new way that I would love to see explored. There is great deal of action, which does help keep the reader engaged with the story.
The most glaring issue with the novel is the lack of development. Ms. McNulty brings together an interesting mix of backgrounds and personalities, but doesn’t allow them to evolve throughout the book. There are a few quiet moments where she could have taken the opportunity to give them more depth and texture, creating more than just caricatures moving through the story. All the action, which is fun, leaves little time for the kind of development these characters need for the reader to care about them. In addition, there is a lack of continuity in a lot of the action sequences. For example, in Chapter eight the crew heads back to the unstable planet. There is a scene where two of the crew are faced with the terrifying physical task of jumping 10 feet to the floor, because the bottom of the stairway was destroyed. Six pages later, the group needs to make a hasty retreat and the stairs are somehow intact for them to run right up. The sheer number of this kind of inconsistencies leads me to believe that the book was not professionally edited, merely proofread.
I would give this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. It would be good for younger readers who are just getting into the Science Fiction genre. It’s a good story which will keep most reading through the whole series. The proofreading was good, as there were only 3 errors I noticed. There was no profanity or explicit content in this novel, so there is no worry for younger readers.
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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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