Review by cupofmarcee -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga b...

[cupofmarcee]

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

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1 out of 4 stars

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Solaris Seethes, by Janet McNulty, is an absolute mess. The main storyline follows Rynah, a security guard tasked with protecting a mysterious crystal on her home planet of Lanyr. Rynah is subsequently betrayed by her fiance, Klanor, who steals the crystal, which in turn brings destruction on their planet. Rynah barely manages to escape using her grandfather’s old spaceship, named Solaris, who turns out to be sentient and speaks with a woman’s voice. Rynah vows to avenge her friends and family and, in accordance with an ancient prophecy, brings four other people from different timelines of Earth’s history to assist her in this task. I gave it 1 out of 4 stars. This is why:

The setup seems innocent enough. In the right hands, Solaris Seethes could have been an excellent novel. It has all the right tools available to make a name for itself in the YA sci-fi community. Ultimately, McNulty just wasn’t able to follow through with my expectations. I was surprised to see that the intended audience was young adult readers and not, say, elementary schoolers looking to get into the realm of chapter books. The writing is so basic that it takes away from the plot. I didn’t look forward to when I had to read more of it. I just didn’t care for the plot or the characters. It’s as if McNulty doesn’t actually want her readers invested in anything she has to do. I was never drawn into the story at any point in time. In addition to the rather dull language, there were multiple errors in the text. Words were used in incorrect context, and the tense changed from past to present at least one time that I noticed. Not to mention McNulty’s habit of withholding information from the reader until it happens to become relevant (that’s not a cheeky plot twist, it’s just bad writing!).

Solaris Seethes is a giant adventure story that hinges entirely on these MacGuffin crystals that, judging from the cover art, look like giant Sims diamonds come to life. Literally, everything revolves around either the crystals, Rynah’s inability to communicate with other sentient beings (she’s just mean), and briefly, space pirates?

Oh, the pirates. That brings me to the next major issue of the book— McNulty somehow manages to make space boring. The pirates are giant walking cliches. They ride around, steal stuff, terrorize people, somehow all without murder? Does McNulty know what real pirates are like? At the very least, has she seen pirates represented in sci-fi media that isn’t a Guardians of the Galaxy movie? The pirates are also weirdly racist. The pirates are introduced having sharp brown skin, which would have been fine, I guess, had McNulty not made it a point to highlight how ‘unique’ and ‘desirable’ the white skin is on the teenage girl from Earth. This plot point, in turn, leads to a weird subplot in which McNulty slut shames sex workers numerous times for no apparent reason. If I sound annoyed, it’s because I am. Science Fiction should not be about Earth racism or gross gender norms. Aliens shouldn’t be exactly the same as humans all for a different color scheme, and they shouldn’t be as bland as a box of frosting-less wheat thins. Science Fiction should be about exploration, and new experiences and the unbridled excitement that comes with the knowledge that there may be societies out in space that share zero characteristics with any society that has ever existed on Earth.

In conclusion, you should not read this book! It’s a boring sci-fi novel that tries too little and might just be a thinly veiled Star Trek fanfiction. No, really— the ending is a complete ripoff from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Watch that movie instead, as it’ll be a better use of your time.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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