Review by Lbowie10 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)

[Lbowie10]

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

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2 out of 4 stars

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2 out of 4 Stars

Solaris Seethes is the first book in the Solaris series and follows Rynah a high spirited yet somewhat naive being from the planet of Lynar. Lynar’s magnetic fields are controlled by a crystal, which keeps the planet inhabitable. When her fiancé steals the crystal triggering the destruction of the planet, Rynah escapes with the help of a sarcastic space ship Solaris, which was built by her grandfather. The ship seems to have been built for just this scenario and quickly fills Rynah in on a prophecy which states that the crystal can be combined with other crystals like itself to create a unknown power which could either be used to create or destroy. The prophecy states that the universe could be saved by a group of five people. Rynah, obviously, and then four people from an underdeveloped planet, largely ignored by the rest of the galaxy. The underdeveloped planet is Earth, and Solaris manages to pull four people from various points in Earth’s history that she feels meet the prophecy requirements. She teleports a Viking, a scribe from ancient times, an engineer from the future, and a teenage girl from the present onto the ship and with very little introduction, the five unlikely heroes are off on an adventure to save the universe.

This book is full of action, our heroes, with the exception of the teenage girl, take to their new surroundings quite quickly and dive head first into their mission. It’s a race through the stars against Rynah’s old fiancé to obtain all the crystals. There are space pirates, traps, crazy alien worlds and even some drama thrown in to keep the reader intrigued. Yet, there is something that didn’t quite come together, which is why I gave this book a two of four star rating.

The characters themselves are likeable, although we do not get to see a lot of depth, and they seem to simply accept the fact that they have traveled in time and are in space when at least two of them come from a time when space wasn’t understood never mind traveled in. The one character that the author puts time into is the teenage girl from our time, her character struggles with being away from home and debates abandoning the mission when she doubts her usefulness.

As I mentioned there is a ton of action in this book, however it seems to have been put in at the expense of the plot and character development. There is a fair amount that only the space ship Solaris understands, and it leaves gaps in the reader’s knowledge. The other crystals are spread out across the galaxy, and the prophecy manages to narrow it down to certain planets, but Solaris seems to have no issue getting them within a mile of where they need to go. There are just too many coincidences, it takes away from any skill or knowledge the characters may have.

All that said, I really wanted to like this book. I adore the character of Alfric the Viking, and may read the second book just to see if he is developed further. There is also great world building, although the pace of the book doesn’t really allow us to fully explore all the different planets that the author has put together. I find myself wishing that the author had slowed down a bit to fully flush out the great ideas that she had put into the story. There is just too much shoved into too few pages for us to truly enjoy the characters and worlds.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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