Review by Demesnedenoir -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga...

[Demesnedenoir]

[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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I imagine that the target audience for Solaris Seethes is Middle Grade to Young Adult, while appealing to some older folks. The story follows Rhyna and her grandfather’s spaceship, named Solaris, who is a quirky AI character with attitude. The premise is a standard quest setup: Our hero is out to save six legendary crystals from her fiancé, Klanor, who used her to get close to one crystal before betraying her. His goal is to rule the universe.

Once onboard Solaris, the AI zap’s four humans from various points in Earth’s history onto the ship. Naturally, the ship selected them for a reason, even if that reason is not immediately obvious. It is a version of the Magnificent Seven or Dirty Dozen setup, and it gets humans into an otherwise alien universe. From there, it is a wham bam action and chase story pitting ship and crew against Klanor as they both seek these crystals.

The novel is a fun ride, with a decent premise for a youthful audience. I could see either of my daughters reading this as they get a little older and enjoying it.

The in media res beginning is flawed for me because of one major problem: I’m not at all invested in Rhyna’s character. Betrayal works well when the reader is invested in the betrayed and works best when we are also invested in the betrayer. Hitting the reader with this so fast loses its potential dramatic punch. If setup well, this could have been the most dramatic scene in the book right until the end.

If the story had taken the time to setup this betrayal and get the reader invested in the characters, it would have been a better read. This could have been achieved without adding significant word count by tightening the prose and story-telling, which is shaky throughout.

The characters, for me, are interesting but not deep. Not that they don’t have some interesting character points, it’s that they’re standard fare in genre fiction. To be fair, I think the book is geared toward a younger audience. A younger reader would likely find these characters far more interesting and compelling than I did, so I give it a pass on that note.

While there is lots of action, it left me feeling flat and unengaged. Here is a piece of action that leaves me flat: “Some who had fallen over rolled into the cracks that had formed; their screams indicating a painful death.” This is a dramatic scene and its telling lacks the verve and emotion to pull me in. Now, if this line were atypical of the action sequences it wouldn’t be a problem, but I found this style of action description too prevalent.

The ultimate judge of this book is whether I read the second book, and the answer is no I won’t. On the other hand, would I turn my daughters away from reading this book in the future? I wouldn’t do that either. I can see how they might enjoy it. Because of this potential for a youthful audience I give it 2 out of 4 Stars.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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