To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

By: Christopher Paolini

Narrated by: Jennifer Hale

Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

"Narrator Jennifer Hale's outstanding performance brings this story of alien invasion to life.... Hale's range of differentiation is masterly as she animates all the quirky characters Kira meets. From the rough, snarky slang of ex-military woman to the half-mad musings of a human 'ship mind,' every unique voice enhances the listening experience." (AudioFile magazine, Earphones Award winner)

This program includes an afterword read by Christopher Paolini, as well as a bonus conversation between Christopher Paolini and Jennifer Hale.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a brand new epic novel from New York Times best-selling author Christopher Paolini.

This program is read by Jennifer Hale, a Canadian American actress and singer who has appeared in hundreds of cartoon episodes and taken on roles in well over 185 video games, winning multiple awards. Her varied roles include Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, Rosalind Lutece in BioShock Infinite, Cinderella in both games and animation, Kronika in MK11, Naomi Hunter in the Metal Gear series, several roles in The Powerpuff Girls, Justice League, Avengers Assemble, the Emmy Award-winning Lost in Oz, Jean Grey/Phoenix in both games and animated series, and dozens more. This is her first audiobook.

Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she's awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope....

Barnes & Noble Best New Books of the Year - 2020
Goodreads Choice Awards - 2020
Amazon.com Best Books of the Year - 2020
NYPL Best Books of the Year - 2020

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Christopher Paolini (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

A very promising start, if there's more.

For his first foray into si-fi, it's excellent. Narrator Jennifer Hale, an excellent voice actor, really brings the story to life with her talent.

Absolutely spectacular

Paolini's exquisite penmanship yet again goes above and beyond your imagination. I can't wait for a sequel!!

Wonderful from start to finnish.

This was an easy listen. A great next step for the author and a by myself very beloved Eragon listener. Jennifer Hale made the voices of the caricatures come to life, and was such a please to listen to. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

It was just ok for me well thought out world build

it was just ok never really captivated me the world building is very well thought out however.... the final 2 hours reveal this as they are an appendix that explains faster than light travel and all slang and jargon used in the book.


while I respect the work that went into it I was never fully engaged with the characters the overall book was just ok

I was satisfied

Over all I thought it was a unique story. Kept me interested. I love the in depth world building he does and the cool ideas and concepts he came up with. In all truth I didn’t really like the ending. I did... but I didn’t. I liked it enough that I hope he puts out more books based in this world.

Not to be compared to other works by the author.

Starts strong and ends stronger. I put too much expectation and comparison, before I realized I was not listening to a young adult novel. I became board with Sea of Stars a third of the way in, and gave up. A friend told me about this new book and I had said "nope I already tried" and he convinced me to go further. GLAD I DID. It's such a good story beginning to end just slows a bit before ramping up again. If you read this and other reviews you have been warned THIS IS NOT ERAGON! A need for a fresh story is what will make you love this one too.

Much better than expected

Every time I thought I figured out where this story was going, I would check the time remaining and wonder if something was wrong. Then the plot takes a turn and I was enjoying the next 2-3 hours, then then time for another clock check- and another turn. Inventive, unique and enjoyed the way he pulled everything together.

Flawed and awkward but tolerable

This book SOUNDS (to me) a bit like a child writing as an adult. It isn't terrible. Paolini writes good narration and good dialog. Paolini does not seem to know how to write about adult characters in meaningful adult relationships. My opinion: Adult novels are ABOUT personal interaction, meaninful social interaction, interpersonal relationships, friends/rivals, and a character's emotional growth. In this book that is missing or superficial. Throwing in some sex *did not* make the book for adults. There are lots of: Gamer cliches, Sci-fi references, and some Fandom jokes like "crunchy and good with..." There is a lot of slang that does not belong or make sense in a futuristic sci-fi novel. There are awkward references to checking in with one's parents that seem ridiculous to me. About 3 hours from the end, the character goes up against what can only be described a "boss mob." It is so glaringly obvious that I could not get past it. I gave up at that point. I don't care about the protagonist enough to keep going. This is not a LIT RPG game novelization... was that sort of formula necessary? Didn't an editor notice? It won't matter to some people, but I could no longer suspend my disbelief. If I want to read: VB Larson, Sansbury-Smith, Craig Allanson, Star Wars Novels, Anne McCaffery, and on and on, I will read those writers work. Imitation may be flattery, but it is also arguably plagiarism. There is way too much of it in this book. If you don't care about that sort of thing, the book may be fine for you. I will finish the last 3 hours eventually.

Good unique but a little ambitious for one book

While being a Paolini fan I was not ready for what was about to happen. I'm glad I went into this not knowing much about the plot. It was surprise after surprise and "Omg what is that?" That being said I do believe this was a little to ambitious for one book. While Paolini did amazing research, I found it to be too much at times. If I daydreamed for one second while listening I missed something important.

This was a very character driven book. Which I was surprised about. It seemed as though the world was given a lot of detail but not in a way that was easy to understand and construct. Although the characters were so fun. Really making you want to be apart of the Wallfish crew. The ship mind Gregorovitch was by far my favorite character. The comic relief if you will. I felt Keria was too detached most of the time kind of like a robot and in the end it's almost what she became.

"I like to be where ever interesting things are happening."

The many named woman with the cat. I have a hutch that there are a couple salutes to Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle which was nice. And of course I'm very impressed with the narrator Jennifer Hale. If I knew all the characters better to begin with she wouldn't even need to tell you who was talking because Jennifer was that good at changing her voice. The audiobook is a must.

The worst part to me was being so conflicted. Having read the Ender's saga I have a new found respect for alien lifeforms and how we should handle first contact. Let me clarify with regards to this story. If we as humans are attacked, without the knowledge or communication skill, we have no idea of the threats intentions. Are they doing it out of an act of desperation, misinformation, or if they are in fact just a menacing species? So that being said even later on, without trying to reason with them we continue shooting the aliens down. It just didn't sit well with me.

One of the best things was the length of the story. It didn't appear to drag too much but I loved the real time at which you read it. Not much time slipped by unless Keria was in cryo. So we got to follow her across the galaxy which was very awe inspiring. The line was blured to where you were getting to know this new world and then all the sudden you were apart of it.

"A newtron bomb."

Hahaha the puns was they funniest part of the story. I really wish there would have been more of that togetherness that helped bring you into the group of characters. Also just going to come out and say it Paolini is a little cruel when it comes to romance. It's never satisfying even though I know it's not the main ring of the circle. Still the relationships always get pushed to the very back of the story. Almost as if that don't really matter or are not strong. The ending again wasn't sufficient. It was nice and fit but left a lot up in the air.

Excellent Sci-fi read

Excellent character development, wonderfully constructed story that challenges your imagination about future
Delightful read for sci-fi lovers,