Review by The Ellipsis Writer -- Solaris Seethes (Solari...
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Review by The Ellipsis Writer -- Solaris Seethes (Solari...
[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 is book one of a four book science-fiction/science fantasy series written by Janet McNulty.
Set in between Outer Space and various planets throughout the cosmos, Solaris Seethes follows Rynah—of the planet Lanyr—as she comes into contact with an ancient prophecy foretelling of great destruction. With the help of Solaris—the artificially intelligent spaceship—Rynah seeks the help of four individuals mentioned in the prophecy to aid her on her quest to locate six powerful crystals. The same crystals that could either be the cause of the predicted destruction, or potentially save countless lives.
Based upon my description of this book, and others I have read before, I expected Solaris Seethes to be a rather long, very well detailed, and epic space odyssey-type adventure. However, while I cannot say that I was completely disappointed with this story, most of my initial expectations were not exactly met. As a whole, Solaris Seethes is generally a fine book, with an easy enough plot to follow and characters that are easily readable. Nevertheless, even for a person not reading this book for the need to review it, both the plot, characters, and the overall nature of the book have many flaws that can and do make it sometimes a challenge to read. Not in the sense of it being unreadable due to improper spelling and grammar, as the author thrives in that department. More so in the sense that the plot and characters—and the lines between these two—tend to riddle themselves in their own problems that could have been easily avoided if written properly. Overall, there were four main issues I noticed throughout the entire book. Those being: a rushed overall story, plot holes/convenient situations, no exposition/little to no establishment and development of character and plot, and the inability to build upon basic themes, plots, and characters. Those main issues are not including the other issues relating to plot and character that would require me to give spoilers for, which I will not touch on. Either way, the biggest issues with this story, are also the most deadly issues for a story to have, as without resolve to these problems, the story will suffer in the end, which I feel Solaris Seethes did.
The biggest and most frustrating issue that I found about Solaris Seethes, is the pacing of the entire book. If I could give one description of the story, I would say that it is rushed. From the very first chapter, to the last page, the story was extremely quick to progress the story onward, despite a total lack of exposition. I was honestly shocked that McNulty did so little to offer any real exposition, choosing instead to plunge right into the action. In the first chapter, where this literary device is of highest importance, the only exposition that could be found—if what was given could even be called exposition—was just enough to make readers not simply put down the book due to complete confusion. Yet still, I was given nothing to establish the plot aside from a basic knowledge of the fact that something bad was happening. One might think that what lacked exposition in the beginning was made up for later on. Sadly, this is not entirely true. Of course the plot was explained as the story went on—albeit in a rushed manor as well—but what I was deprived of in the beginning, I never was compensated for later on. Unfortunately, this did not stop as the book continued. The entire book progresses it's plot through rushed storytelling and fast paced narrative that makes it hard for readers to feel excited or interested in what is going on. Especially if the readers are people who care a great deal about proper pacing and notice when things are rushed, then the effects on the readers will most likely lead to annoyance as it did for me. This rushed nature could be found in the narrative especially, as well as the dialogue between characters, often leading to choppy and sometimes awkward sounding conversations that end up coming off as overly scripted. The biggest problem with the story—or any story—being rushed, is that by being far too quick to let the reader really get a hold onto what is happening, the author sacrifices important details that could have made the story much more interesting and fun to read. By the readers loosing out on a slower pacing, we also loose out on investment in the plot and characters. This is because when the story is too rushed, the two most important things—plot and characters—too are rushed over and make the story have weak foundations where it is most important. If I am being honest, the way the story was paced with it's rushed nature, at least two thirds of the entire book just felt like one long drawn out chapter that seriously needed divisions and better pacing. Therefore, reading this book was usually hard to do, purely because it felt like one jumpy chapter with no exposition. This too made it even harder for me to feel investment in any of the plot or any of the characters. I felt no surprise, no shock, no sadness, no excitement, or much of anything where these things were intended to be felt, and I know that I can trace that back to the fact that the entire book was extremely rushed. Though, I should make it clear that while the pacing of this book often made it hard for me enjoy because it was too rushed, there were certain parts within the story that I feel McNulty thrived in with pacing. Particularly in her action scenes, which I will touch on later. Right now all I will say is that if McNulty could take the pacing and perfectly drawn out nature of her action scenes and apply them to the rest of the book, the pacing and rushed writing of this book would practically not be an issue at all, and even something to praise.
While the rushed writing of Solaris Seethes was more of a technical issue, the plot holes and convenient situational plot elements were greater issues to the actual story rather than the format. Yes, the pacing was something of a constant problem through the book, but I would venture to say that the plots holes and convenient situations were more threatening to the book. I feel this because, while fixing the pacing problem may require a total reconstruction of the entire book, fixing problems related to plot are far more exhausting and might even require a complete reconstruction of the plot itself. The issues relating to plot in this book were that there were many times when plot holes would arise, leading me to question many things that should not have needed me to question. Alike, with these plots holes, in many ways the story technically could have ended from very early on. Solaris Seethes deals a lot with time, travel of time, and manipulation of time. The titular character, Solaris, is an artificially intelligent robot that is capable of doing many things. One of her given abilities in the ability to see through time, travel through time, and essentially manipulate time based on how things work out in the book. As one might imagine, unless if a story that includes time travel as a central theme is not very carefully mapped out and a lot of time is devoted to considering the entire plot and how everything would work, very easily could the story loose itself to it's own inner workings and more times than not, it will collapse into a plot hole, or many plot holes. While I cannot go into too great of detail about the plot holes due to the chance of me spoiling the story, there were many times when the story would contradict itself—rendering the entire plot fickle—and create situations where the same time travel, foresight, and manipulation of time that Solaris has, could easily have been used to neutralize the standing threats of the book instead of going through various ordeals. This leads me to the convenient situations that riddle the book. By “convenient situations”, I mean situations, scenes, or story elements that are used by the author to progress the story onward, but make little to no sense and have no actual merit. Basically, these convenient situations are an easy way to move the story onward, despite being either incompatible to the story or making no sense at all. Think of it like this: it is a common trope to have characters split up in a dangerous situation despite no need or reason to do so, simply to lead to conflict or something that progresses the story onward. This is just a minor example of such, but that is basically it. McNulty creates various situations—either for the good of the story or for the worst—that are simple devices used to easily advance the story for the sake of cutting back on effort. I am not implying that the author did not put forth effort to the inner workings of the plot, as I can tell that she did care about what she was writing. Yet, the way she creates convenient situations left and right just as an easy method to drive the story can make things feel like she took the easy way out of a lot of the writing, which is always a pity to see. Moreover, it greatly effects the proper flow of the book. One example of what I feel was a convenient situation in Solaris Seethes, is the number of things that Solaris can—or cannot—do. As an A.I., it is expected for Solaris to have some pretty powerful abilities, especially in the context of this book. However, the abilities of hers that we see tend to range in really convenient ways. By that, I mean she is capable of doing one thing super easily and conveniently because it moves the story along, without having to think too much about it. However, at some other point in the book, she is unable to do some other thing that one would think she was easily capable of doing given her past abilities. Of course, when she is unable to do something as an A.I., it is only because it moves the story along easily. If she had certain abilities or limitations of her abilities that actually made sense or did not seem like easy outs, then it would require more effort to write more material for the story. However, because the author does put these convenient situations all throughout the story, she creates simple and easy ways out of what could and would be harder—but more interesting and detailed—situations for the plot to carry and the characters to experience. We are deprived of these potential greater details and story experiences because of these convenient situations that make the story progress in ways that are just too easy. This is just one of many situations throughout the book that the plot or the characters conveniently are put in a situation that easily allows the story to continue without a more realistic and detailed story experience. Other examples include the decisions made by the characters that clearly made no sense simply because it made the story easier to write, dialogue that was forced because context was hastily given, and so on. As one might imagine, the plot holes and convenient situations go hand-in-hand. It is often times that the convenient situations are what lead to plot holes. Again, time travel was a big theme in the story. And due to the lack of proper consideration of a time-based theme, the author used this convenient situation (time travel) to hurry the story along, when an actual journey could have been used instead of time travel, giving the story copious amounts of potential material that honestly would have been a lot more interesting. Instead, this plot device rushed the story along easily, going back to how the pacing of the book is an issue. Nevertheless, regardless of how the convenient situation of time travel was used, it in fact led to a major plot hole that very easily could have—if noticed—ended the story within the first few chapters. Unfortunately, this is how a lot of the plot is in the book, conveniently created situations that choose to take an easy way out of the story rather than a longer, more detailed, interesting way out. Thus leading to an incredibly rushed overall work. In a lot of ways, due to this, the story became predictable, worsening the lack of investment, immersion, and intrigue that the pacing of the book caused originally.
Another one of the main issues I found in Solaris Seethes revolves around the establishment, growth, and overall structure of the plot and characters. Something that I found interesting about this book, was that while it was a sci-fi story at heart, there were some major elements that gave it a very fantasy aura. I, being a huge fan of the fantasy genre, highly appreciated this and welcomed it. Alike, the way the fantasy elements were incorporated into the plot felt very natural, giving the—otherwise somewhat fickle—story a nice balance. That being said, this story follows some very common character, plot, and even setting patterns found in countless other works within the fiction realm of storytelling. I do not say this negatively, as some of the most respected, memorable, and my personal favorite works follow the same basic patterns that McNulty does for Solaris Seethes. However, this is where I have an issue. As far as plot goes, the basic pattern or base for the story is: a problem arises, the protagonist(s) must fix said problem, and the antagonist gets in the way. There is nothing wrong with that, because it's like I said, so many other amazing stories follow this same pattern. Yet, the problem with Solaris Seethes, is that there is not enough done to build further from that basic pattern. The story has a simple plot foundation, but McNulty does not create a plot structure from that basic base. What I mean by that, is there is no growth or depth from the general guidelines many other books follow for a fiction work. It's like putting up various metal beams in the shape of a building and calling it a finished work. There need to be walls, windows, a roof, and various other elements added to it before it can be something of it's own. This story has this same sort of issue, in that it does not do enough to grow from it's basic story pattern into it's own unique and original entity. The story is about a group of people trying to collect six crystals before the antagonist can, in order to save the universe. Honestly, there is not much more to it than that in this book. From there, the story basically follows a constant cycle of action-narrative-action-narrative with general dialogue in between that either progresses the story or tries to establish character. That leads me to the issue of character design, establishment, and development through the story. Same with the plot, the characters too follow basic patterns common to other stories. Again, this would not be a problem if there was more to be done to establish them, design them, and develop them later on, which I feel was not done enough with these characters. Even in the book, the four characters that were part of the big prophecy were labeled as: the warrior, the inventor, the philosopher, and the lover. They were given titles, and it's either some of them were unable to break away from these titles—rendering them just another plot device—or they had problems even being conveyed as what they were supposed to be, aside from some very stereotypical ideas of what would make them as such. For example, the character, Alfric, labeled as the “warrior” simply was not expressed as anything but a fighting character. While the “inventor” character, Tom, practically did nothing for the story that even related to his title. The opposite could be said for the “philosopher”, Solon, as he actually came across as his title, purely by speaking philosophically every time he spoke, but again, not doing much for the story as his given title. Finally, the “lover”, Brie, was the hardest for me to see as her title, because when love should have counted for something, it did not really come across. And when love did not really mean something, that's when her “lover” character kind of came into play. Basically, these characters revolved around their titles and nothing was really done to express them as anything but their titles, even if they did not do a whole lot (or did too much) to really act like their given titles. Aside from some history given on each character—history that itself was mostly expected and stereotypical for the given character types—the story did not establish them as anything other than what they needed to be for the book. If there was any growth to be seen by them, it was expected and nothing that was of any real importance. This goes back to the rushed nature of the book, because if more time was put into establishing, developing, and designing these characters, the entire story would have been given depth it so desperately needed. Short and simple histories of the characters are not enough to make them real characters. In the end, even the main character, Rynah, along with all the others, came across as stock characters. This especially holds true for the antagonist. His motivations and his histories do not match at all given what little context I had in the stories, and his drive to do what he does has no backbone. I feel no sympathy for him, not because he's the “bad guy”, but because his character and his motivations are too one-dimensional. Some of his actions seem pointless and basically serve mostly as what could only become emotional distress for certain characters later on. However, if anything is to be said about characters that I found enjoyable, it would be about Solaris. Oddly enough, the character that requires the least amount of establishment, design, and development, has the most character. I really enjoyed her character and her personality, as I feel she had these elements more than anyone. She does not need what other characters lack, such as deep meaningful histories that last more than a simple conversation. She does not even need character. But she still has these things, fitting enough for a robot. And she has them in the most enjoyable way. It's understandable because she does not need certain elements that the others do, so there is less struggle to convey her enjoyably. However, the characters that are not robots cannot be treated the same, as it's more deep than that. Even so, the author was not afraid to give Solaris really great character, without overdoing the classic idea of a sentient robot. I applaud the charming nature of her personality and funny attitude that gave her and the story as a whole flavor. I especially was interested in her complete lack of humanity—given that she is a robot—while maintaining the story's most sensitive, compassionate, and honestly kind-hearted character. Even as a character that drove the plot, her genesis and purpose was really what I wanted to see in this story. While her given abilities were major issues relating to the plot for me, I can firmly say she was completely refreshing and Solaris was my favorite part of the book. Even so, one character cannot carry the weight that the others slack in. Same goes for the overall setting and the other characters in this book.
My last point on this matter that relates to character and plot establishment and design as well as building from basic plot patterns, is about the total originality of the story. Unfortunately, by that, I mean this story lacks some originality. When I am reading a science-fiction novel, set in space nonetheless, one of the biggest issues I find constantly is when I see all too familiar environments, creatures, and cultures. The thing is, is that people go into science-fiction books, expected an escape from what they know so much about already. I, of course, am speaking about Earth. Given, Earth does play a role in Solaris Seethes, as the location the four characters form the prophecy came from our very own pale blue dot. Other than that, Earth is seen as a primitive and lowly planet compared to other more advanced ones. Despite this, it's cultures, creatures, and peoples seem to have had a great influence of the creation process of the other planets in the mind of the author. When a science-fiction book set in Outer Space has animals practically the same as the ones on Earth—with only minor descriptions to separate them from Earth creatures such as “looking different”—it is really disappointing for the readers, as we want something new and unique to the authors imagination. It's not just the creatures as well. It's the people of the planets too. They act the same with practically the same attitudes, actions, and values as humans. A good example is when the main team goes to a planet and find a civilization extremely similar to ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Mayans. These people—stereotypically portrayed as savages—showed nothing different from what we all already know from our own reality. As well, there were space pirates in this story, and they were just like normal pirates on Earth during the 17th century in the ways they spoke, the hierarchy, characteristics, and so on. It lacked originality in it's settings and characters that really made it too familiar and not much of an experience. Again, this could be brought back to it's rushed natures and convenient situations, as creating these similar worlds makes it easier to progress the story onward as quickly as possible. If more time was devoted to making something new, I would have enjoyed reading this book a lot more. Of course one may argue that these were merely parallels to Earth, and that there is nothing wrong with parallels. Normally, I would agree with that based on certain terms. Like I said, when dealing with Outer Space in a science-fiction novel, there is a lot of originality and creativeness expected to come from the author, otherwise many people will be disappointed. Even so, there are certain types of stories that parallels would work with, even in the space science-fiction realm of things. Many fiction works deal with other planets that are very similar to Earth, using these parallels as major plot themes. These stories are about parallel planets and cultures specifically. Solaris Seethes is not. This story did not have a plot where planets, peoples, creatures, and cultures were parallel to those of Earth specifically for the story. It had completely different plots and themes, therefore the lack of creativity in the diversity of these worlds and the beings inhabiting them was quite a let down. Moreover, I feel that this book lacked any major themes at all, aside from the plot devices such as space and time travel. Whenever there was potential for a theme to arise, it did not really go anywhere.
Also, on a side note, the character, Solon, is a Greek scribe. At one point in the book, he speaks about the relation of one person of Rynah's people's myths to that of his own. Basically, he gets to talking about Hercules. However, Hercules is the Roman god. Seeing as Solon is Greek, he would have referred to the Greek god, Heracles. The Greeks mythology and pantheon was eventually adopted or incorporated into Roman myths and pantheons during it's genesis and rise to prominence. As early as the 6th century BC evidence survives of Romans worshiping the Greek “Heracles” as the Roman “Hercules”. An easy way to remember the two from one another, is that the Greek god, Heracles, was the step-son of the goddess, Hera. Thus, Heracles.
Now, despite what one might think based upon what I have had to say thus far about Solaris Seethes, I did not hate this book. I in fact enjoyed reading it. There were simply aspects about it that made it less enjoyable than it could have been. Perhaps because I was reading it as a critic, but I would have noticed the same problems even if it was not for a review. While there were other smaller aspects that I would like to note, they carry spoilers with them, so I will leave my criticisms what they are.
With that, there were various aspects about this book that I quite enjoyed as well. Aside from Solaris' character, my favorite thing about this book were the action scenes. Despite what I had to say about most of the book being rushed, I was amazed at how well the action scenes were written. They were perfectly paced and extremely well thought out. McNulty clearly had no trouble at all envisioning every moment during the action scenes and was more than capable of conveying them in perfectly readable paragraphs. She did not rush through them and make a grueling action scene seem boring nor did she haste through it, dragging it out longer than it should have. It was almost cinematic the way she wrote it. It became clear to me early on that McNulty has the entire scene mapped in her head and is very good at painting an easily understandable and enjoyable picture of what is going on. She was able to really help the reader feel like they were part of the fights and scenes of action. When the characters were tired and out of breath, I could feel it in my lungs. When they were throwing punches or getting punched, I felt the impact. When they were zooming through the grand expanse, I felt my stomach sink. This is by far the most immersive aspect of the entire book, being the only times that I forget I am reading a book at all. Nevertheless, as greatly written as the action scenes are, they alone cannot carry the entire weight of the novel. As enjoyable as they were to read, I would have loved to see the effort put into the actions scenes also put into the rest of the story.
With that, I must commend McNulty's overall writing ability. While I feel there is some trouble in plot and character as well as narrative and dialogue, I can clearly see that McNulty has a professional sound to her writing. Though, due to the rushed pace of the book and the other issues I listed, her quality writing sound suffers. If you put aside all the issues I listed, you can see that there is quality sounding written material. It never sounds elementary, and that was what made reading through the more challenged parts of the book much easier. Seeing as how McNulty has been writing very early on in age and even published her first book in college, it is easy to see that she has a talent for making words sound good together in sentences and paragraphs. While this may seem like a general thing for any writer to be able to do, too many times have some writers given less attention to their sound than they do with their plot, characters, and setting, making the actual written material sound poor despite a thriving story. I feel as though it is the opposite for Solaris Seethes. There is clearly a lot of effort put into the sound and style the book is written in, however in some ways the actual story has been given less attention.
Overall, I believe that Solaris Seethes has immense potential to become an entirely great book if adjustments were made to improve the story. McNulty has proven entirely capable of writing professionally and sounding really good while doing it, and her plots, characters, and story elements are great bases to start off with. There simply needs to be more growth and establishment. Above all else, it needs to slow down and really take it's time being a story. It's a novel, not breaking news. It was a likeable book with plot and characters that I can certainly become invested in if more is done to make them something more than basic models. It is because of the potential that this book has and it's retaining elements that make it good that I am giving it a 2 out of 4 stars. Despite the fact that the issues with the book were a constant throughout and definitely put a damper on reading a lot of the time, giving anything lower than 2 stars would make it seem as though it is a bad book, which it is not. It would take a lot for me to say a story is “bad” and Solaris Seethes does not have the credentials for me to label it as such. It just has it's ticks and nicks that need to be sorted out. Given, they will not be easy seeing as how problematic they throughout the book, which is why I could also not give it anything above 2 stars. It will definitely take a lot of work and likely an entire rewrite of the book, but with a lot of effort and time put into it, I feel as though Solaris Seethes could easily become what I know McNulty is capable of making it be...
Though, I suggest reading it for yourself to see if you agree with me or think everything I said is pure nonsense...
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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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2 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes is book one of a four book science-fiction/science fantasy series written by Janet McNulty.
Set in between Outer Space and various planets throughout the cosmos, Solaris Seethes follows Rynah—of the planet Lanyr—as she comes into contact with an ancient prophecy foretelling of great destruction. With the help of Solaris—the artificially intelligent spaceship—Rynah seeks the help of four individuals mentioned in the prophecy to aid her on her quest to locate six powerful crystals. The same crystals that could either be the cause of the predicted destruction, or potentially save countless lives.
Based upon my description of this book, and others I have read before, I expected Solaris Seethes to be a rather long, very well detailed, and epic space odyssey-type adventure. However, while I cannot say that I was completely disappointed with this story, most of my initial expectations were not exactly met. As a whole, Solaris Seethes is generally a fine book, with an easy enough plot to follow and characters that are easily readable. Nevertheless, even for a person not reading this book for the need to review it, both the plot, characters, and the overall nature of the book have many flaws that can and do make it sometimes a challenge to read. Not in the sense of it being unreadable due to improper spelling and grammar, as the author thrives in that department. More so in the sense that the plot and characters—and the lines between these two—tend to riddle themselves in their own problems that could have been easily avoided if written properly. Overall, there were four main issues I noticed throughout the entire book. Those being: a rushed overall story, plot holes/convenient situations, no exposition/little to no establishment and development of character and plot, and the inability to build upon basic themes, plots, and characters. Those main issues are not including the other issues relating to plot and character that would require me to give spoilers for, which I will not touch on. Either way, the biggest issues with this story, are also the most deadly issues for a story to have, as without resolve to these problems, the story will suffer in the end, which I feel Solaris Seethes did.
The biggest and most frustrating issue that I found about Solaris Seethes, is the pacing of the entire book. If I could give one description of the story, I would say that it is rushed. From the very first chapter, to the last page, the story was extremely quick to progress the story onward, despite a total lack of exposition. I was honestly shocked that McNulty did so little to offer any real exposition, choosing instead to plunge right into the action. In the first chapter, where this literary device is of highest importance, the only exposition that could be found—if what was given could even be called exposition—was just enough to make readers not simply put down the book due to complete confusion. Yet still, I was given nothing to establish the plot aside from a basic knowledge of the fact that something bad was happening. One might think that what lacked exposition in the beginning was made up for later on. Sadly, this is not entirely true. Of course the plot was explained as the story went on—albeit in a rushed manor as well—but what I was deprived of in the beginning, I never was compensated for later on. Unfortunately, this did not stop as the book continued. The entire book progresses it's plot through rushed storytelling and fast paced narrative that makes it hard for readers to feel excited or interested in what is going on. Especially if the readers are people who care a great deal about proper pacing and notice when things are rushed, then the effects on the readers will most likely lead to annoyance as it did for me. This rushed nature could be found in the narrative especially, as well as the dialogue between characters, often leading to choppy and sometimes awkward sounding conversations that end up coming off as overly scripted. The biggest problem with the story—or any story—being rushed, is that by being far too quick to let the reader really get a hold onto what is happening, the author sacrifices important details that could have made the story much more interesting and fun to read. By the readers loosing out on a slower pacing, we also loose out on investment in the plot and characters. This is because when the story is too rushed, the two most important things—plot and characters—too are rushed over and make the story have weak foundations where it is most important. If I am being honest, the way the story was paced with it's rushed nature, at least two thirds of the entire book just felt like one long drawn out chapter that seriously needed divisions and better pacing. Therefore, reading this book was usually hard to do, purely because it felt like one jumpy chapter with no exposition. This too made it even harder for me to feel investment in any of the plot or any of the characters. I felt no surprise, no shock, no sadness, no excitement, or much of anything where these things were intended to be felt, and I know that I can trace that back to the fact that the entire book was extremely rushed. Though, I should make it clear that while the pacing of this book often made it hard for me enjoy because it was too rushed, there were certain parts within the story that I feel McNulty thrived in with pacing. Particularly in her action scenes, which I will touch on later. Right now all I will say is that if McNulty could take the pacing and perfectly drawn out nature of her action scenes and apply them to the rest of the book, the pacing and rushed writing of this book would practically not be an issue at all, and even something to praise.
While the rushed writing of Solaris Seethes was more of a technical issue, the plot holes and convenient situational plot elements were greater issues to the actual story rather than the format. Yes, the pacing was something of a constant problem through the book, but I would venture to say that the plots holes and convenient situations were more threatening to the book. I feel this because, while fixing the pacing problem may require a total reconstruction of the entire book, fixing problems related to plot are far more exhausting and might even require a complete reconstruction of the plot itself. The issues relating to plot in this book were that there were many times when plot holes would arise, leading me to question many things that should not have needed me to question. Alike, with these plots holes, in many ways the story technically could have ended from very early on. Solaris Seethes deals a lot with time, travel of time, and manipulation of time. The titular character, Solaris, is an artificially intelligent robot that is capable of doing many things. One of her given abilities in the ability to see through time, travel through time, and essentially manipulate time based on how things work out in the book. As one might imagine, unless if a story that includes time travel as a central theme is not very carefully mapped out and a lot of time is devoted to considering the entire plot and how everything would work, very easily could the story loose itself to it's own inner workings and more times than not, it will collapse into a plot hole, or many plot holes. While I cannot go into too great of detail about the plot holes due to the chance of me spoiling the story, there were many times when the story would contradict itself—rendering the entire plot fickle—and create situations where the same time travel, foresight, and manipulation of time that Solaris has, could easily have been used to neutralize the standing threats of the book instead of going through various ordeals. This leads me to the convenient situations that riddle the book. By “convenient situations”, I mean situations, scenes, or story elements that are used by the author to progress the story onward, but make little to no sense and have no actual merit. Basically, these convenient situations are an easy way to move the story onward, despite being either incompatible to the story or making no sense at all. Think of it like this: it is a common trope to have characters split up in a dangerous situation despite no need or reason to do so, simply to lead to conflict or something that progresses the story onward. This is just a minor example of such, but that is basically it. McNulty creates various situations—either for the good of the story or for the worst—that are simple devices used to easily advance the story for the sake of cutting back on effort. I am not implying that the author did not put forth effort to the inner workings of the plot, as I can tell that she did care about what she was writing. Yet, the way she creates convenient situations left and right just as an easy method to drive the story can make things feel like she took the easy way out of a lot of the writing, which is always a pity to see. Moreover, it greatly effects the proper flow of the book. One example of what I feel was a convenient situation in Solaris Seethes, is the number of things that Solaris can—or cannot—do. As an A.I., it is expected for Solaris to have some pretty powerful abilities, especially in the context of this book. However, the abilities of hers that we see tend to range in really convenient ways. By that, I mean she is capable of doing one thing super easily and conveniently because it moves the story along, without having to think too much about it. However, at some other point in the book, she is unable to do some other thing that one would think she was easily capable of doing given her past abilities. Of course, when she is unable to do something as an A.I., it is only because it moves the story along easily. If she had certain abilities or limitations of her abilities that actually made sense or did not seem like easy outs, then it would require more effort to write more material for the story. However, because the author does put these convenient situations all throughout the story, she creates simple and easy ways out of what could and would be harder—but more interesting and detailed—situations for the plot to carry and the characters to experience. We are deprived of these potential greater details and story experiences because of these convenient situations that make the story progress in ways that are just too easy. This is just one of many situations throughout the book that the plot or the characters conveniently are put in a situation that easily allows the story to continue without a more realistic and detailed story experience. Other examples include the decisions made by the characters that clearly made no sense simply because it made the story easier to write, dialogue that was forced because context was hastily given, and so on. As one might imagine, the plot holes and convenient situations go hand-in-hand. It is often times that the convenient situations are what lead to plot holes. Again, time travel was a big theme in the story. And due to the lack of proper consideration of a time-based theme, the author used this convenient situation (time travel) to hurry the story along, when an actual journey could have been used instead of time travel, giving the story copious amounts of potential material that honestly would have been a lot more interesting. Instead, this plot device rushed the story along easily, going back to how the pacing of the book is an issue. Nevertheless, regardless of how the convenient situation of time travel was used, it in fact led to a major plot hole that very easily could have—if noticed—ended the story within the first few chapters. Unfortunately, this is how a lot of the plot is in the book, conveniently created situations that choose to take an easy way out of the story rather than a longer, more detailed, interesting way out. Thus leading to an incredibly rushed overall work. In a lot of ways, due to this, the story became predictable, worsening the lack of investment, immersion, and intrigue that the pacing of the book caused originally.
Another one of the main issues I found in Solaris Seethes revolves around the establishment, growth, and overall structure of the plot and characters. Something that I found interesting about this book, was that while it was a sci-fi story at heart, there were some major elements that gave it a very fantasy aura. I, being a huge fan of the fantasy genre, highly appreciated this and welcomed it. Alike, the way the fantasy elements were incorporated into the plot felt very natural, giving the—otherwise somewhat fickle—story a nice balance. That being said, this story follows some very common character, plot, and even setting patterns found in countless other works within the fiction realm of storytelling. I do not say this negatively, as some of the most respected, memorable, and my personal favorite works follow the same basic patterns that McNulty does for Solaris Seethes. However, this is where I have an issue. As far as plot goes, the basic pattern or base for the story is: a problem arises, the protagonist(s) must fix said problem, and the antagonist gets in the way. There is nothing wrong with that, because it's like I said, so many other amazing stories follow this same pattern. Yet, the problem with Solaris Seethes, is that there is not enough done to build further from that basic pattern. The story has a simple plot foundation, but McNulty does not create a plot structure from that basic base. What I mean by that, is there is no growth or depth from the general guidelines many other books follow for a fiction work. It's like putting up various metal beams in the shape of a building and calling it a finished work. There need to be walls, windows, a roof, and various other elements added to it before it can be something of it's own. This story has this same sort of issue, in that it does not do enough to grow from it's basic story pattern into it's own unique and original entity. The story is about a group of people trying to collect six crystals before the antagonist can, in order to save the universe. Honestly, there is not much more to it than that in this book. From there, the story basically follows a constant cycle of action-narrative-action-narrative with general dialogue in between that either progresses the story or tries to establish character. That leads me to the issue of character design, establishment, and development through the story. Same with the plot, the characters too follow basic patterns common to other stories. Again, this would not be a problem if there was more to be done to establish them, design them, and develop them later on, which I feel was not done enough with these characters. Even in the book, the four characters that were part of the big prophecy were labeled as: the warrior, the inventor, the philosopher, and the lover. They were given titles, and it's either some of them were unable to break away from these titles—rendering them just another plot device—or they had problems even being conveyed as what they were supposed to be, aside from some very stereotypical ideas of what would make them as such. For example, the character, Alfric, labeled as the “warrior” simply was not expressed as anything but a fighting character. While the “inventor” character, Tom, practically did nothing for the story that even related to his title. The opposite could be said for the “philosopher”, Solon, as he actually came across as his title, purely by speaking philosophically every time he spoke, but again, not doing much for the story as his given title. Finally, the “lover”, Brie, was the hardest for me to see as her title, because when love should have counted for something, it did not really come across. And when love did not really mean something, that's when her “lover” character kind of came into play. Basically, these characters revolved around their titles and nothing was really done to express them as anything but their titles, even if they did not do a whole lot (or did too much) to really act like their given titles. Aside from some history given on each character—history that itself was mostly expected and stereotypical for the given character types—the story did not establish them as anything other than what they needed to be for the book. If there was any growth to be seen by them, it was expected and nothing that was of any real importance. This goes back to the rushed nature of the book, because if more time was put into establishing, developing, and designing these characters, the entire story would have been given depth it so desperately needed. Short and simple histories of the characters are not enough to make them real characters. In the end, even the main character, Rynah, along with all the others, came across as stock characters. This especially holds true for the antagonist. His motivations and his histories do not match at all given what little context I had in the stories, and his drive to do what he does has no backbone. I feel no sympathy for him, not because he's the “bad guy”, but because his character and his motivations are too one-dimensional. Some of his actions seem pointless and basically serve mostly as what could only become emotional distress for certain characters later on. However, if anything is to be said about characters that I found enjoyable, it would be about Solaris. Oddly enough, the character that requires the least amount of establishment, design, and development, has the most character. I really enjoyed her character and her personality, as I feel she had these elements more than anyone. She does not need what other characters lack, such as deep meaningful histories that last more than a simple conversation. She does not even need character. But she still has these things, fitting enough for a robot. And she has them in the most enjoyable way. It's understandable because she does not need certain elements that the others do, so there is less struggle to convey her enjoyably. However, the characters that are not robots cannot be treated the same, as it's more deep than that. Even so, the author was not afraid to give Solaris really great character, without overdoing the classic idea of a sentient robot. I applaud the charming nature of her personality and funny attitude that gave her and the story as a whole flavor. I especially was interested in her complete lack of humanity—given that she is a robot—while maintaining the story's most sensitive, compassionate, and honestly kind-hearted character. Even as a character that drove the plot, her genesis and purpose was really what I wanted to see in this story. While her given abilities were major issues relating to the plot for me, I can firmly say she was completely refreshing and Solaris was my favorite part of the book. Even so, one character cannot carry the weight that the others slack in. Same goes for the overall setting and the other characters in this book.
My last point on this matter that relates to character and plot establishment and design as well as building from basic plot patterns, is about the total originality of the story. Unfortunately, by that, I mean this story lacks some originality. When I am reading a science-fiction novel, set in space nonetheless, one of the biggest issues I find constantly is when I see all too familiar environments, creatures, and cultures. The thing is, is that people go into science-fiction books, expected an escape from what they know so much about already. I, of course, am speaking about Earth. Given, Earth does play a role in Solaris Seethes, as the location the four characters form the prophecy came from our very own pale blue dot. Other than that, Earth is seen as a primitive and lowly planet compared to other more advanced ones. Despite this, it's cultures, creatures, and peoples seem to have had a great influence of the creation process of the other planets in the mind of the author. When a science-fiction book set in Outer Space has animals practically the same as the ones on Earth—with only minor descriptions to separate them from Earth creatures such as “looking different”—it is really disappointing for the readers, as we want something new and unique to the authors imagination. It's not just the creatures as well. It's the people of the planets too. They act the same with practically the same attitudes, actions, and values as humans. A good example is when the main team goes to a planet and find a civilization extremely similar to ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Mayans. These people—stereotypically portrayed as savages—showed nothing different from what we all already know from our own reality. As well, there were space pirates in this story, and they were just like normal pirates on Earth during the 17th century in the ways they spoke, the hierarchy, characteristics, and so on. It lacked originality in it's settings and characters that really made it too familiar and not much of an experience. Again, this could be brought back to it's rushed natures and convenient situations, as creating these similar worlds makes it easier to progress the story onward as quickly as possible. If more time was devoted to making something new, I would have enjoyed reading this book a lot more. Of course one may argue that these were merely parallels to Earth, and that there is nothing wrong with parallels. Normally, I would agree with that based on certain terms. Like I said, when dealing with Outer Space in a science-fiction novel, there is a lot of originality and creativeness expected to come from the author, otherwise many people will be disappointed. Even so, there are certain types of stories that parallels would work with, even in the space science-fiction realm of things. Many fiction works deal with other planets that are very similar to Earth, using these parallels as major plot themes. These stories are about parallel planets and cultures specifically. Solaris Seethes is not. This story did not have a plot where planets, peoples, creatures, and cultures were parallel to those of Earth specifically for the story. It had completely different plots and themes, therefore the lack of creativity in the diversity of these worlds and the beings inhabiting them was quite a let down. Moreover, I feel that this book lacked any major themes at all, aside from the plot devices such as space and time travel. Whenever there was potential for a theme to arise, it did not really go anywhere.
Also, on a side note, the character, Solon, is a Greek scribe. At one point in the book, he speaks about the relation of one person of Rynah's people's myths to that of his own. Basically, he gets to talking about Hercules. However, Hercules is the Roman god. Seeing as Solon is Greek, he would have referred to the Greek god, Heracles. The Greeks mythology and pantheon was eventually adopted or incorporated into Roman myths and pantheons during it's genesis and rise to prominence. As early as the 6th century BC evidence survives of Romans worshiping the Greek “Heracles” as the Roman “Hercules”. An easy way to remember the two from one another, is that the Greek god, Heracles, was the step-son of the goddess, Hera. Thus, Heracles.
Now, despite what one might think based upon what I have had to say thus far about Solaris Seethes, I did not hate this book. I in fact enjoyed reading it. There were simply aspects about it that made it less enjoyable than it could have been. Perhaps because I was reading it as a critic, but I would have noticed the same problems even if it was not for a review. While there were other smaller aspects that I would like to note, they carry spoilers with them, so I will leave my criticisms what they are.
With that, there were various aspects about this book that I quite enjoyed as well. Aside from Solaris' character, my favorite thing about this book were the action scenes. Despite what I had to say about most of the book being rushed, I was amazed at how well the action scenes were written. They were perfectly paced and extremely well thought out. McNulty clearly had no trouble at all envisioning every moment during the action scenes and was more than capable of conveying them in perfectly readable paragraphs. She did not rush through them and make a grueling action scene seem boring nor did she haste through it, dragging it out longer than it should have. It was almost cinematic the way she wrote it. It became clear to me early on that McNulty has the entire scene mapped in her head and is very good at painting an easily understandable and enjoyable picture of what is going on. She was able to really help the reader feel like they were part of the fights and scenes of action. When the characters were tired and out of breath, I could feel it in my lungs. When they were throwing punches or getting punched, I felt the impact. When they were zooming through the grand expanse, I felt my stomach sink. This is by far the most immersive aspect of the entire book, being the only times that I forget I am reading a book at all. Nevertheless, as greatly written as the action scenes are, they alone cannot carry the entire weight of the novel. As enjoyable as they were to read, I would have loved to see the effort put into the actions scenes also put into the rest of the story.
With that, I must commend McNulty's overall writing ability. While I feel there is some trouble in plot and character as well as narrative and dialogue, I can clearly see that McNulty has a professional sound to her writing. Though, due to the rushed pace of the book and the other issues I listed, her quality writing sound suffers. If you put aside all the issues I listed, you can see that there is quality sounding written material. It never sounds elementary, and that was what made reading through the more challenged parts of the book much easier. Seeing as how McNulty has been writing very early on in age and even published her first book in college, it is easy to see that she has a talent for making words sound good together in sentences and paragraphs. While this may seem like a general thing for any writer to be able to do, too many times have some writers given less attention to their sound than they do with their plot, characters, and setting, making the actual written material sound poor despite a thriving story. I feel as though it is the opposite for Solaris Seethes. There is clearly a lot of effort put into the sound and style the book is written in, however in some ways the actual story has been given less attention.
Overall, I believe that Solaris Seethes has immense potential to become an entirely great book if adjustments were made to improve the story. McNulty has proven entirely capable of writing professionally and sounding really good while doing it, and her plots, characters, and story elements are great bases to start off with. There simply needs to be more growth and establishment. Above all else, it needs to slow down and really take it's time being a story. It's a novel, not breaking news. It was a likeable book with plot and characters that I can certainly become invested in if more is done to make them something more than basic models. It is because of the potential that this book has and it's retaining elements that make it good that I am giving it a 2 out of 4 stars. Despite the fact that the issues with the book were a constant throughout and definitely put a damper on reading a lot of the time, giving anything lower than 2 stars would make it seem as though it is a bad book, which it is not. It would take a lot for me to say a story is “bad” and Solaris Seethes does not have the credentials for me to label it as such. It just has it's ticks and nicks that need to be sorted out. Given, they will not be easy seeing as how problematic they throughout the book, which is why I could also not give it anything above 2 stars. It will definitely take a lot of work and likely an entire rewrite of the book, but with a lot of effort and time put into it, I feel as though Solaris Seethes could easily become what I know McNulty is capable of making it be...
Though, I suggest reading it for yourself to see if you agree with me or think everything I said is pure nonsense...
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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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Latest Review: "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty
