Review by Barney J Barnett -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga bo...

[Barney J Barnett]

[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 a science fiction novel about a young woman named Rynah who finds herself part of a prophecy about six crystals that when combined can destroy galaxies. The crystal that protects Rynah's's planet is stolen by, Klanor her now ex-fiancé. As her planet begins to rip itself apart, Lanyr's people race to ships in hopes of getting off the planet. Rynah is able to get to her grandfather’s ship, named Solaris. The ship was built by her grandfather and prepared for this exact moment. Rynah and the sentient ship, Solaris, must form their group from heroes across different eras of time in order to save her planet and the galaxy.

I was excited to read this book based on the premise, I love science fiction. I thought this book had a good concept, the plot really could have gone somewhere, and the characters could have been really interesting. I thought it really had a lot of potential.

However, the characters ended up being very flat and stereotypical. There was no development. There would be points where you would think the character was going to start developing and then it would just stop. I never cared about any of the characters at all. I want to be invested in the characters I read about and their lives. I wasn’t with this book.

There was no building of the story, plot, or adversity. Every conflict or problem always seemed to be solved within a few pages and very simply. The plot ended up being very linear. With so much potential for a good story here it made the read very disappointing and boring. Some good development here could have stretched this out to a much longer novel or maybe one or two. Get the readers invested in the characters, show us the story don’t just tell it to us.

There were a couple things that I just kept getting hung up on with this book. It did not feel like this book had any professional editing done at all. There was a constant use of parentheses that made long run-on sentences. Then there would be these short choppy sentences as well. It made the reading jerky and there was no flow to the story mode.

I think the worst thing that stuck out to me was this sentence though, “Rynah blushed, her heliotrope cheeks turning a nice shade of pink.” It felt like the author would randomly pick a word out of the thesaurus that sounded the most educated and insert it into the story. I had to go look it up. To define the word here in this context it means a light purple/blue color, similar to that of typical heliotrope flowers that are purple or blue in color. That wasn’t the only use of the word in the story either. In Chapter 11, Page 152, the author uses heliotrope again. Just say purple or blue. It felt like the trying to cover up the lack of development by sticking in big words.

Overall, I give this book 1 out of 4 stars. If the story and characters were taken back and developed much further and then it was professionally edited, I would consider giving it another read though.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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Like Barney J Barnett's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Kajori Sheryl Paul]

The premise sounds interesting. However, the linear plot and lack of character development makes wary of this book.

Thank you for the great review.

[Allyseria]

Thank you for your review. The plot sounded good to me too, until you mentioned the characters being very flat and stereotypical. Well-developed characters are the number one thing I look for in a book. It's a shame that this book failed in this important aspect.

[Barney J Barnett]

Thank you for your review. The plot sounded good to me too, until you mentioned the characters being very flat and stereotypical. Well-developed characters are the number one thing I look for in a book. It's a shame that this book failed in this important aspect.

Thanks for the comment. That part was a big let down for me as well. I have to love the characters and get to know them to really love a book.