The Vanished and well, the fact that they arenвЂ™t around anymore, provide tons of intrigue with their leftover tech, abandoned cities and legacy that still pulls the present into their past. It did not feel limited in that way at all. Paolini is an expert at showing a vast world through just one pair of eyes. And this is all experienced through KiraвЂ™s POV. TheyвЂ™ve a history, culture and place in the story that sometimes feels like it fits more than the humans. Sometimes, it can feel like they are just slapped in there because, you know, itвЂ™s sci-fi-but not in this book. The aliens in this one were my favourite part. The crew is an eclectic mix of outcasts and experts who sit in your mind as real people. Every one a character in their own right, not some side character you get to know little about.

In a good way.ДЇalconi and the Wallfish crew-the characters-are where this book is at its strongest each one nuanced in histories, affected by the different environments they were brought up in (literally) and cast in the troubles that surrounded that upbringing and brought them together. For me, anyway, it has taken up my entire life for a couple of weeks. ItвЂ™s a fractal mesh of hitting you in the feels and wowing you so much that even when you put the book down, itвЂ™s all you can think about. This is paralleled with those intricate, character building moments, the little snippets that of ship-mind philosophy and staggered, strange xeno dreams. Action-packed is a difficult feat to pull-off over 800+ pages, but it gets done-and then some. ThereвЂ™s great space-fights, on-world skirmishes, spikey-alien-suit attacks, and nuclear mushroom clouds. The plot chases you through the black of space with nuclear missiles and laser fire that only relents with the turn of the page as you follow Kira and the lovable crew of the Wallfish. What Paolini has done here is take the sci-fi genre, turn it on its head, add a pinch of originality here and a bit of fantasy there, then seat it in believable, fully-fleshed out science. However, that doesnвЂ™t quite cut it, so I will try to delve deeper into what I liked about this one. The words that spring to mind most immediately for this book: epic, immersive, grand, page-turner, wow. Even having written this out in draft form, I donвЂ™t feel like I can properly put into words everything I like about this book-but that is the good thing about a book review, just saying this is enough to set people onto their next read. To try to condense this marvel into a short review is spectacularly difficult. It begins on a far-off planet in a system not yet settled. Where on earth do I begin with this one вЂ¦ Well, I donвЂ™t. Now, Kira might be humanityвЂ™s greatest and final hope. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. First contact isnвЂ™t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. At first sheвЂ™s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.ДЄs war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation.

Kira NavГЎrez dreamed of life on new worlds.Дuring a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic.

To sleep.in a sea of stars