Review by cherryalakei -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga ...
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Review by cherryalakei -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga ...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes
by Janet McNulty
Science Fiction has never really been a genre that has drawn me in. My best friend is a sci-fi fan, so I am familiar with the genre, and while I do like some aspects of it, my interests in it are pretty generic and basic. I like sci-fi movies, but until reading Solaris Seethes; I had never read a book classified in this genre.
The exposition of this story is stereotypical. Rynah, our main character is happy with her life after getting engaged to her boyfriend Klanor. It’s a normal day in the life of Rynah, going to work, showing off her engagement ring to everyone. At work, it’s life as usual, except for…… an attack! The geothermic lab in which she works is attacked by thieves who are after the crystal that keeps their planet functioning. The band of evil doers is led by none other than *yawn* Rynah’s new fiancé. Betrayed and angry, Rynah manages to escape as her world is deteriorating around her, and finds her way to the abandoned tower where her grandfather used to work in search of a decommissioned military ship which he was working on. She finds the ship; named Solaris, which is also the ship’s artificial intelligence system that can communicate telepathically while the pilot wears their helmet. Amidst some obstacles, Rynah manages to escape and her planet falls to ruins as the thieves leave with the crystal.
The style of writing was hit or miss with me. One thing I did not like, was the constant side notes, in which the author used parenthesis. Rynah is described as having “pale lavender skin (a very light shade at that)”. This somewhat informal side note kind of confused me, as I don’t see why the author had to put that in parenthesis when it would have worked just fine in description without it. Rynah is also described as having “emerald green hair with flecks of gold.” Maybe it’s because I’m a Marvel fan, and have seen Guardians of the Galaxy, but with Rynah’s description I kept picturing Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The similarities didn’t stop there for me either, and at times the book felt like something of a watered-down version of the Marvel story.
The main plot of the story is that there is the great ancient prophecy that talks about there being 6 crystals- much like the infinity stones in Guardians of the Galaxy- that when brought together can create a weapon of great power and destruction-again with the Guardians similarity, and maybe even a little like the Death Star in Star Wars. Part of the prophecy tells of four heroes, who we later find out are four humans from the Terra Sector, aka Earth. The catch is that each human is from a different time period. Solaris, who is more than just a ship, but also a character herself; transports our heroes to her ship, and our heroes are off on their adventure.
There are definitely some plot holes, as the plot itself is pretty thin and leaves space for questions that don’t really get answered, and don’t make sense. I’m not going to go into full detail here, as I want to avoid spoilers; but if you read the story you will pick up on what it is I mean. The contradictions continue, when for a world who supposedly shuns Earth at best, surprisingly has many earth derived things.
The plot is thin at best, and I feel like it’s honestly been done before and better. Every now and then I would come across phrases or words that were grammatically incorrect as well as just not sounding right. In one of the chapters, the term “tie-dyed” was spelled “tie-died”, and in another chapter the same term was spelled correctly as “tie-dyed”. In another chapter, one of the characters says “He walked in just I managed to take this thing apart”, when the phrase is clearly missing the word as and should be read as “He walked in just AS I managed to take this thing apart.” Those mistakes are small, but really threw me as a reader as I had to re-read the lines to make sure I read them correctly.
Having stated my issues with the story, I can’t say I hated it or disliked it. I know it’s part of a series, and I typically like to finish series, so I’ll probably eventually try to finish this one. Regardless of some of the major issues I had with this book, there were things I did like, such as Solaris. I really enjoyed the idea of the ship being a character and having a personality. I felt if anything, Solaris was the strongest character. Rynah felt too much like a copy of Gamora, and the others felt too stereotypical, and had next to no personality for me.
I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. This rating is reflective of the issues I had with the writing and the plot, as well as some of the character development. I couldn’t give it a 3 because of those issues, yet I couldn’t give it a 1 either because I did like it enough to want to finish it. If I could, I would recommend it for young adult readers into sci-fi. The writing isn’t the best, but it is full of action, and adventure and makes up in imagination for the things it lacks. For someone who is into space ships, and time travel this might be a really good read for you. There isn’t any romance or love triangle, so those looking for that sort of thing-which I fall into that category more often than not- are going to be solely disappointed. There are lots of action sequences with pew pew laser guns and swords, and pirates and hidden treasure. If I had to pinpoint it, I’d say it had elements from Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Firefly. If you’re not familiar with sci-fi novels like me, there’s probably a high probability you won’t like this book. I did like parts of it, and was able to read it all the way through, and as I have stated I will probably check out the rest to see how the story ends. Sometimes the sequel or the later books in a series put the first to shame, so you never know.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
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2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes
by Janet McNulty
Science Fiction has never really been a genre that has drawn me in. My best friend is a sci-fi fan, so I am familiar with the genre, and while I do like some aspects of it, my interests in it are pretty generic and basic. I like sci-fi movies, but until reading Solaris Seethes; I had never read a book classified in this genre.
The exposition of this story is stereotypical. Rynah, our main character is happy with her life after getting engaged to her boyfriend Klanor. It’s a normal day in the life of Rynah, going to work, showing off her engagement ring to everyone. At work, it’s life as usual, except for…… an attack! The geothermic lab in which she works is attacked by thieves who are after the crystal that keeps their planet functioning. The band of evil doers is led by none other than *yawn* Rynah’s new fiancé. Betrayed and angry, Rynah manages to escape as her world is deteriorating around her, and finds her way to the abandoned tower where her grandfather used to work in search of a decommissioned military ship which he was working on. She finds the ship; named Solaris, which is also the ship’s artificial intelligence system that can communicate telepathically while the pilot wears their helmet. Amidst some obstacles, Rynah manages to escape and her planet falls to ruins as the thieves leave with the crystal.
The style of writing was hit or miss with me. One thing I did not like, was the constant side notes, in which the author used parenthesis. Rynah is described as having “pale lavender skin (a very light shade at that)”. This somewhat informal side note kind of confused me, as I don’t see why the author had to put that in parenthesis when it would have worked just fine in description without it. Rynah is also described as having “emerald green hair with flecks of gold.” Maybe it’s because I’m a Marvel fan, and have seen Guardians of the Galaxy, but with Rynah’s description I kept picturing Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The similarities didn’t stop there for me either, and at times the book felt like something of a watered-down version of the Marvel story.
The main plot of the story is that there is the great ancient prophecy that talks about there being 6 crystals- much like the infinity stones in Guardians of the Galaxy- that when brought together can create a weapon of great power and destruction-again with the Guardians similarity, and maybe even a little like the Death Star in Star Wars. Part of the prophecy tells of four heroes, who we later find out are four humans from the Terra Sector, aka Earth. The catch is that each human is from a different time period. Solaris, who is more than just a ship, but also a character herself; transports our heroes to her ship, and our heroes are off on their adventure.
There are definitely some plot holes, as the plot itself is pretty thin and leaves space for questions that don’t really get answered, and don’t make sense. I’m not going to go into full detail here, as I want to avoid spoilers; but if you read the story you will pick up on what it is I mean. The contradictions continue, when for a world who supposedly shuns Earth at best, surprisingly has many earth derived things.
The plot is thin at best, and I feel like it’s honestly been done before and better. Every now and then I would come across phrases or words that were grammatically incorrect as well as just not sounding right. In one of the chapters, the term “tie-dyed” was spelled “tie-died”, and in another chapter the same term was spelled correctly as “tie-dyed”. In another chapter, one of the characters says “He walked in just I managed to take this thing apart”, when the phrase is clearly missing the word as and should be read as “He walked in just AS I managed to take this thing apart.” Those mistakes are small, but really threw me as a reader as I had to re-read the lines to make sure I read them correctly.
Having stated my issues with the story, I can’t say I hated it or disliked it. I know it’s part of a series, and I typically like to finish series, so I’ll probably eventually try to finish this one. Regardless of some of the major issues I had with this book, there were things I did like, such as Solaris. I really enjoyed the idea of the ship being a character and having a personality. I felt if anything, Solaris was the strongest character. Rynah felt too much like a copy of Gamora, and the others felt too stereotypical, and had next to no personality for me.
I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. This rating is reflective of the issues I had with the writing and the plot, as well as some of the character development. I couldn’t give it a 3 because of those issues, yet I couldn’t give it a 1 either because I did like it enough to want to finish it. If I could, I would recommend it for young adult readers into sci-fi. The writing isn’t the best, but it is full of action, and adventure and makes up in imagination for the things it lacks. For someone who is into space ships, and time travel this might be a really good read for you. There isn’t any romance or love triangle, so those looking for that sort of thing-which I fall into that category more often than not- are going to be solely disappointed. There are lots of action sequences with pew pew laser guns and swords, and pirates and hidden treasure. If I had to pinpoint it, I’d say it had elements from Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Firefly. If you’re not familiar with sci-fi novels like me, there’s probably a high probability you won’t like this book. I did like parts of it, and was able to read it all the way through, and as I have stated I will probably check out the rest to see how the story ends. Sometimes the sequel or the later books in a series put the first to shame, so you never know.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
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Latest Review: "30th Century: Escape" by Mark Kingston Levin
