Review by Chinacats4 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga bo...

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Chinacats4
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Review by Chinacats4 -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga bo...

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Solaris Seethes is the first book of a four book Saga. It is a Young Adult/Science Fiction/Coming of Age/Hero Quest story.

Rynah is one of the few survivors when the crystal that is used to control the magnetic fields of Lanyr is stolen. Without the crystal the planet is destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Rynah escapes on a ship that her grandfather rebuilt and put under control of an Artificial Intelligence named Solaris. Solaris is both the AI and the ship. Solaris tells Rynah that the Lanyr crystal is one of six that were given to different planets to protect them. She also tells Rynah that the crystals can be combined into one that becomes the deadliest weapon the universe has ever known.

There is a myth or prophecy that tells where the other five crystals are located and who can find them. Solaris finds four people from different times on Earth who meet the requirements of the prophecy and brings them on board the Solaris. The prophecy tells that a Warrior, Philosopher, Inventor and a Lover are needed to find the crystals and prevent the weapon from being created. Once the Heroes are on board, they set off on the quest to find the crystals.

I enjoyed reading this book, it reminded me of the books by Andre Norton that I read as a young adult. There is an innocence to the characters and they are all flawed. Flawed as all humans are flawed. I liked that each character has a short chapter introducing them and giving information about their personalities.

Rynah is not a very likeable character, she sees herself as the leader of the band and not a part of it. She is critical and rude to the others. Her motivation for finding the crystals isn’t so much to save the universe, but rather to catch and punish the man, Klanor, who leads the group that stole the crystal. She is full of guilt and pain over the destruction of Lanyr and wants to make Klanor pay for his betrayal. The four Heroes are all from Earth, a planet that Rynah’s people considered savage and populated by vermin. She feels superior to them and this makes it difficult for her want to get close to them. Solaris Seethes is the first chapter in her coming of age saga.

Earlier reviews commented on poor grammar and punctuation. I did not find that in the copy I read. However, I do agree with earlier reviewers about the author’s frequent use of parenthesis containing unnecessary commentary. For example: “Brie Reynolds’ sneakers smacked the cracked asphalt in the alley (with a manhole cover in its center, coated in grayish, dried gum), her backpack thumping against her with each step she took.” The existence of the manhole cover is irrelevant to the story. This makes some of the sentences incredibly long and somewhat confusing.

I did not like that this story is not a stand-alone. The ending is a cliff-hanger and you have to read the next book to find out what happens. I prefer it when each book in a series is more stand-alone with ties to the others, but still, complete in itself. This book is not.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I did like the book, it has plenty of action and twists to keep the reader interested and the characters are interesting enough that I want to see what the Author does with them in the remaining books. I deducted a star because of the ending. This would be a good read for a young adult (or old adult) science fiction fan.

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Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
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