TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS WALLPAPER SKIN
TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS WALLPAPER PLUS

It allows them to communicate without humans even noticing, so when they first appear, they seem like an entirely silent species. The scent-based Wranaui language is also very interesting. An individual Wranaui might switch bodies many times throughout its life, paying no more heed to past bodies than a human would to yesterday’s laundry. Soldier bodies have thick armor and powerful muscles, while technicians possess a multitude of delicate appendages for repairing complex machinery and getting into hard-to-reach places. Wranaui are distinctly non-human, taking many different forms depending on their career and stage in life. Admittedly, I might be biased because I’m a sucker for aquatic aliens. Speaking of aliens, they’re called the Wranaui, * and they’re very cool. But when referring to an entire species, singular they is simply the better option for cis writers. Now, there are people in real life who use it/its, so that’s not always a terrible choice. These aliens don’t have binary gender, * and the story defaults to “it” as their pronoun. Not only are all the human characters cisgender, but also when Kira explains humanity to her new alien friends, it’s always in terms of men and women. The main place where Sea of Stars stumbles is in trans and nonbinary representation. But until that day, Paolini is doing a better job than some other scifi books I’ve read recently. I hope that one day soon, this worldbuilding choice will itself be so unremarkable that I won’t even have to mention it readers will simply expect it unless the author has a very good reason to do otherwise. It normalizes the appearance of marginalized characters, it helps readers imagine a better world, and it doesn’t entail the harm that comes from telling a story about real-life oppression. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: spec fic stories should portray bigotry-free diversity by default. That’s just the way things are in the future. And I’m glad to report that no gays were buried in the writing of this book.īest of all, none of the story’s diversity is treated as unusual. Of the two prominent romances, one is gay and the other straight. Gender diversity is decent, with a roughly equal number of women and men among the main cast, though it’s notable that most of the authority figures we encounter are dudes. Protagonist Kira is Latina, one of her shipmates is Indian, and another is of Korean descent.

TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS WALLPAPER SKIN

Sea of Stars has a cast that runs the spectrum of both skin tones and national backgrounds. Fortunately, he’s gotten a lot better in that area, and we see that right away.

Paolini’s previous novels are, shall we say, limited when it comes to depicting a diverse world. But what does Sea of Stars have to make it stand out from all the other stories that also have all those things? Not much, I’m afraid, but let’s take a look at what there is.

TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS WALLPAPER PLUS

It’s got spaceships and aliens and cyborgs oh my, plus strange new worlds and an interstellar war. This book has all the basics you’d expect from a space-opera world. Spoiler Notice: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars The Good And at over 260,000 words, there’s a lot to talk about! Humans haven’t encountered any other sapient species, * but they have found remnants of an ancient civilization that previously inhabited the galaxy. Ships depend on constant thrust to maintain gravity, but they also have faster-than-light engines for interstellar travel. Sea of Stars is an odd space-opera setting, something of a mashup between The Expanse and Mass Effect, with a bit of Star Trek thrown in. That’s a pleasant surprise, as authors often get worse after a wildly successful debut. In his 2020 novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, it’s clear that Christopher Paolini’s writing skills have come a long way.

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