Review by Devinci -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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Devinci
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- Latest Review: "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty
Review by Devinci -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes is the first of four books in a series, the Solaris Saga by Janet McNulty. Betrayed by the man she loved and fleeing from her planet Lanyr as it is destroyed, Rynah manages to escape in an old spaceship her grandfather left to her, named Solaris. But Solaris is more than a ship—she’s artificially intelligent, and she’s got an attitude. Solaris informs Rynah of her grandfather’s quest to find six crystals from ancient legend that together have great power, and of another man’s plan to use them to destroy the universe. Though Rynah has never believed the myths, she and Solaris enlist the help of four unlikely heroes, each with a trait that matches an ancient prophecy. Together they set out to find the crystals before they end up in the wrong hands.
There is a lot going on in this story. Right from the beginning, you’re slammed with detail about the world Rynah lives in. Thankfully, it’s not paragraphs of exposition; a lot happens in the first few pages, so details come in the middle of action. At first I thought it was kind of hard to follow, but then I realized it was a bit like a science fiction action movie; most of the story is fast-paced, which makes for a never-dull read. I liked that each chapter had a new dilemma with action-packed scenes, as is typical of a quest story, and I got so swept up that I read the whole thing in half a day.
I had a lot of questions throughout the story—some could possibly be inconsistencies in the story—but in general I think that’s something that comes with the genre. I was also unsure that the short prologue was necessary at first, but after getting into the story a bit, I thought it made more sense that Solaris is the first “voice” the reader is introduced to, just as she introduces herself to Rynah.
The character of our main heroine Rynah was one that stumped me; there were many times where I wasn’t sure if I liked her, but I think that's okay, because hopefully we'll see her mature. When the story starts, she’s thrust into action right away, so we really only get the technical aspects of her character—straight-laced, strong willed, skilled fighter—but not so much of her personality. As the story goes on we get more of her, of course, but because of her situation there’s a lot of anger, which she has a hard time controlling; Rynah is often blinded by her anger, which causes her to lash out at her companions—she definitely needs to work on her leadership skills in terms of connecting with her crew, which is a subject Solaris often brings up to her. However, she fits the “fearless leader” archetype of the genre well.
I definitely liked the other characters; they were funny, interesting, and fit other sci-fi archetypes neatly, too—such as the warrior, the wise one, etc. And for fans of Greek history, like me, there’s a wonderful surprise for you (although, there is an instance where this character is reminded of Hercules, but since he is Greek, he should have thought Heracles, as Hercules is the Roman name, but that’s just me being nit-picky.) Other than a few moments where I thought their abilities might have been unrealistic, I thought they acted appropriately—though I thought it was odd that they didn’t question each other’s clothing, or ask Rynah why her hair was green or her skin purple. As for the villain, he confused me somewhat; I first thought he kind of contradicted himself, but after reading more, I realized he was just appropriately psychotic.
Solaris herself was a compelling and sassy character, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was interesting that much of the story was driven by her, and while in the beginning I found it almost too convenient that she had so much information for Rynah, I forgave that because her character is so clever, as well as cleverly used by McNulty.
What I didn’t like were instances when I felt some details were randomly there; for example, in one beginning scene, Rynah looks at a portrait of her grandfather while on Solaris, but that portrait is never mentioned again—also, why is there a portrait on a spaceship? There were other moments where I felt that a character would contradict their nature, or the details were sometimes confusing, or where some key character descriptions came into the story way too late; for instance, we get a physical description of the character Tom over halfway through the book, but by that point, the reader has already formed their own picture of him. There was also a moment during a battle with the bad guys when a certain creature attacked our heroes—what happened to the bad guys during this attack? Did they just hang around and watch?
As a reader, all those things I could overlook—except for the character description thing; but what I couldn’t overlook was the over-use of parentheses. Those were distracting, and could easily have not been parenthetical information. The only other thing that really annoyed me was that the author often over-explained how the characters were feeling or added unnecessary detail. The reason this annoys me is because telling the reader too much about how a character is feeling is sort of like telling the reader how to feel; and, providing unnecessary detail just detracts from the story.
For instance, when being introduced to the character Brie, we are told her father died in Afghanistan, and moments later some bullies call her “Army girl.” The next sentence is, “Brie’s father had been in the Army, hence the name.” This sentence was unnecessary because the reader has inferred that from the context already given. There’s another sentence in the beginning that says, “she had lost her hair clip during the firefight, as they never hold when one is darting about in an effort to avoid death…”; really, that sentence could have just been, “She had lost her hair clip during the firefight,” because we can obviously guess why.
Though I have somewhat mixed feelings about it, overall, I enjoyed this story, and I think it’s one that sticks in your mind; and I think I good story is supposed to mix up your feelings. The ending was appropriately dramatic, and left plenty of room to move on to the next book in the series. The characters are compelling and interesting, the plot is exciting and entertaining, and there were many moments that made me laugh; if you’re looking for a faced-paced adventure where relatively normal people are quite literally thrust into the unknown, it’s a pretty sure bet you’ll like this story. For myself, I give it a 2.5 out of 4, which for star purposes rounds up to a 3 out of 4.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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3 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes is the first of four books in a series, the Solaris Saga by Janet McNulty. Betrayed by the man she loved and fleeing from her planet Lanyr as it is destroyed, Rynah manages to escape in an old spaceship her grandfather left to her, named Solaris. But Solaris is more than a ship—she’s artificially intelligent, and she’s got an attitude. Solaris informs Rynah of her grandfather’s quest to find six crystals from ancient legend that together have great power, and of another man’s plan to use them to destroy the universe. Though Rynah has never believed the myths, she and Solaris enlist the help of four unlikely heroes, each with a trait that matches an ancient prophecy. Together they set out to find the crystals before they end up in the wrong hands.
There is a lot going on in this story. Right from the beginning, you’re slammed with detail about the world Rynah lives in. Thankfully, it’s not paragraphs of exposition; a lot happens in the first few pages, so details come in the middle of action. At first I thought it was kind of hard to follow, but then I realized it was a bit like a science fiction action movie; most of the story is fast-paced, which makes for a never-dull read. I liked that each chapter had a new dilemma with action-packed scenes, as is typical of a quest story, and I got so swept up that I read the whole thing in half a day.
I had a lot of questions throughout the story—some could possibly be inconsistencies in the story—but in general I think that’s something that comes with the genre. I was also unsure that the short prologue was necessary at first, but after getting into the story a bit, I thought it made more sense that Solaris is the first “voice” the reader is introduced to, just as she introduces herself to Rynah.
The character of our main heroine Rynah was one that stumped me; there were many times where I wasn’t sure if I liked her, but I think that's okay, because hopefully we'll see her mature. When the story starts, she’s thrust into action right away, so we really only get the technical aspects of her character—straight-laced, strong willed, skilled fighter—but not so much of her personality. As the story goes on we get more of her, of course, but because of her situation there’s a lot of anger, which she has a hard time controlling; Rynah is often blinded by her anger, which causes her to lash out at her companions—she definitely needs to work on her leadership skills in terms of connecting with her crew, which is a subject Solaris often brings up to her. However, she fits the “fearless leader” archetype of the genre well.
I definitely liked the other characters; they were funny, interesting, and fit other sci-fi archetypes neatly, too—such as the warrior, the wise one, etc. And for fans of Greek history, like me, there’s a wonderful surprise for you (although, there is an instance where this character is reminded of Hercules, but since he is Greek, he should have thought Heracles, as Hercules is the Roman name, but that’s just me being nit-picky.) Other than a few moments where I thought their abilities might have been unrealistic, I thought they acted appropriately—though I thought it was odd that they didn’t question each other’s clothing, or ask Rynah why her hair was green or her skin purple. As for the villain, he confused me somewhat; I first thought he kind of contradicted himself, but after reading more, I realized he was just appropriately psychotic.
Solaris herself was a compelling and sassy character, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was interesting that much of the story was driven by her, and while in the beginning I found it almost too convenient that she had so much information for Rynah, I forgave that because her character is so clever, as well as cleverly used by McNulty.
What I didn’t like were instances when I felt some details were randomly there; for example, in one beginning scene, Rynah looks at a portrait of her grandfather while on Solaris, but that portrait is never mentioned again—also, why is there a portrait on a spaceship? There were other moments where I felt that a character would contradict their nature, or the details were sometimes confusing, or where some key character descriptions came into the story way too late; for instance, we get a physical description of the character Tom over halfway through the book, but by that point, the reader has already formed their own picture of him. There was also a moment during a battle with the bad guys when a certain creature attacked our heroes—what happened to the bad guys during this attack? Did they just hang around and watch?
As a reader, all those things I could overlook—except for the character description thing; but what I couldn’t overlook was the over-use of parentheses. Those were distracting, and could easily have not been parenthetical information. The only other thing that really annoyed me was that the author often over-explained how the characters were feeling or added unnecessary detail. The reason this annoys me is because telling the reader too much about how a character is feeling is sort of like telling the reader how to feel; and, providing unnecessary detail just detracts from the story.
For instance, when being introduced to the character Brie, we are told her father died in Afghanistan, and moments later some bullies call her “Army girl.” The next sentence is, “Brie’s father had been in the Army, hence the name.” This sentence was unnecessary because the reader has inferred that from the context already given. There’s another sentence in the beginning that says, “she had lost her hair clip during the firefight, as they never hold when one is darting about in an effort to avoid death…”; really, that sentence could have just been, “She had lost her hair clip during the firefight,” because we can obviously guess why.
Though I have somewhat mixed feelings about it, overall, I enjoyed this story, and I think it’s one that sticks in your mind; and I think I good story is supposed to mix up your feelings. The ending was appropriately dramatic, and left plenty of room to move on to the next book in the series. The characters are compelling and interesting, the plot is exciting and entertaining, and there were many moments that made me laugh; if you’re looking for a faced-paced adventure where relatively normal people are quite literally thrust into the unknown, it’s a pretty sure bet you’ll like this story. For myself, I give it a 2.5 out of 4, which for star purposes rounds up to a 3 out of 4.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
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Latest Review: "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty
