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

[Heliotropia]

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

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2 out of 4 stars

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On a planet called Lanyr there is an ancient legend that speaks of several crystals. Ultimately, it warns that if ever these crystals should come together, they will form a super weapon capable of destroying galaxies with ease. As it so happens, one of these crystals is being used to keep Lanyr stable, as skeptic security guard Rynah discovered the day her fiancé, Klanor, betrays her and steals it. As the planet crumbles around her, Rynah is able to barely escape the destruction on her deceased grandfather’s antiquated spaceship. In life, Grandpa Marlow had always strongly believed in the truth of the legend and had the old ship outfitted with a highly advanced artificial intelligence, named Solaris, in the hopes that she would help Rynah prevent the super weapon’s formation.

Following an old prophecy, Solaris scans through all of the history—past, present, and future—of a primitive planet called Earth and brings aboard four people that best fit the roles of the warrior, the philosopher, the lover, and the inventor. Together, they travel across the universe trying to find and retrieve the crystals before Klanor can. Along the ways, friendships and conflicts arise with the group as they face themselves and each other.

In this book, Janet McNulty attempted to create an epic space opera. However, I found this book to be unengaging and thus hard to finish. The plot is rushed and the characters and settings are simplistic. The planets they visit are all one thing geographically (all water or all sand, for instance), the animals are all conveniently look similar to Earth animals so McNulty didn’t have to think up new alien species, the heroes overcome obstacles and complications quickly and with ease (meaning they never seemed to be in real danger), and even many of the main characters lacked proper development and impact. For example, conceptually I understand that Klanor’s betrayal hurts Rynah and thus should hurt me as the reader, but since he is only briefly mentioned to establish he exists before showing up to be the villain, it lacks that emotional punch necessary for such a moment. This character problem is not at all helped by the book having an inconsistent POV, transitioning from one character’s to another’s at the drop of a hat. The book should have stayed in Rynah’s point of view entirely or kept to a single character’s throughout each chapter, a la the Game of Thrones books.

The only character that I found remotely developed was cowardly Brie, the Lover. This only happened because the narrative dedicated lots of focus and time to her arc. I didn’t like her for most of the book, but I understood what the author intended for her to represent. But even her character arc was wishy-washy until the last few chapters. Several times, she would do something that in any other book would be seen as the climatic moment where a character overcomes and grows to change as a result, but then would soon regress back to a shrieking liability on the team.

Ultimately, I have to give this novel a 2 out of 4 stars. McNulty tried to get straight to the action, to the detriment of character building, world building, and depth. The only way I'll recommend this book to someone is if they’re searching for a simple, soft science fiction story for their young children to read.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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[MsTri]

Thanks for the thorough review. I've been back and forth on this one and your points definitely give me something to think about.