Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive blend of fantasy and science fiction, 21 April 2008
I've been meaning to read and review Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky since it was released last year. But other titles always found a way to come along, forcing me to push it back on more than one occasion. Still, when the novel made it to a variety of top scifi books' lists at the end of 2007, I knew that I needed to sit down and give it a shot.
Hopefully this review will encourage SFF readers to do the same, for Bright of the Sky is a very good read! Kenyon produced a fascinating blend of science fiction and fantasy, something that should appeal to fans of both genres.
Titus Quinn is a former star pilot now living as a recluse. Most people believe that Quinn lost his mind during an accident, though he swears that the accident transported him to a strange world. He has no memories pertaining to how he was able to return, yet he's convinced that his wife and daughter are still trapped in this parallel universe. When, against all odds, evidence of the existence of this universe is accidentally discovered, Titus Quinn accepts to "scout" this new world for the corporation that abandoned him, secertly hoping to find his missing wife and child. What he unearths, however, threatens the existence of everything he holds dear and forces him to reconsider his plans.
The worldbuilding is the most enthralling facet of Bright of the Sky. The exotic milieu Kay Kenyon created is known as the Entire, while our universe is called the Rose. It's a five-armed radial world which exists in a dimension without stars and planets. Spreading over the Entire is a lid of plasma that ebbs and flows. Living under this fiery canopy known as the bright is a panoply of quasi-human species, some of them copied from Earth, as well as various alien beings. Richly detailed, Bright of the Sky truly is something special.
Titus Quinn takes center stage, even though the supporting cast is comprised of a number of interesting characters. The only annoying aspect of this book is the author's tendency to jump from one POV to the next without any real "break" in the middle of various scenes. It sort of breaks the rhythm of the story, especially at the beginning, until readers get used to Kenyon's odd habit.
High stakes, skilled worldbuilding, good characterization, adroit pacing: Bright of the Sky is a superior read.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, engaging, and fascinating: The Entire & The Rose, 14 Jul 2009
I picked this up at random from a bookshop, and was pleasantly surprised to find a a wonderful new voice (at least to me) in scifi/fantasy. The story has an immediately engaging narrative, unlike many other novels that set out to do "world-building". The characters are both likeable and interesting, and there are never so many players on the stage that you forget who's who.
The two universes that Kenyon creates, the rose and the entire, are fascinating. The Rose is our universe, in the near future, but most of the action takes place in the Entire, a place like no other I've read about. It has that tangible quality, that sensation that you could really get out and look around that only gifted world-builders are able to bring to their creations.
The main character of the novels, Titus Quinn, falls in love with the Entire, and the reader does do. It is a spectacular place, that is very much its own, and feels very fresh. As Titus Quinn is a human from our universe (the Rose), we are able to explore the Entire from a new-comers perspective, which is infinitely more approachable and engaging than feeling you need to have a dictionary, atlas, and history manual next to you while you read about a new place.
The plot, which revolves around the intersection of these two universes is engaging and epic in scope, but maintains a very human quality. For some reason it reminds me watching the star wars movies for the first time, that same sense of exploring a completely new world, but through engaging and approachable characters and narrative, so that wonder is never overwhelmed by confusion or alienation.
At any rate, I highly recommend this book (and its sequels), and I felt obliged to submit this review to balance the negative (and frankly surprising) review by bob. I've bought hundreds of books guided by Amazon's 5 star customer review system, and this book is at least a 4 star book when compared to the rest of the genre. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!
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4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just not engaging, 7 Aug 2007
I stuck through three chapters, but in the end I started skipping forward and then just gave up. The concept is of your typical hero in parallel universe/strange world. Nothing wrong with that. But my problem was that the characters really did not stand out. It felt almost like a childs book where what the author says is what the character is. The strange world was not that interesting either. I am sorry I paid for this book and I cannot recommend it.
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by Kay Kenyon
by Mark Charan Newton
by Richard Morgan
by Peter V. Brett
