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SFRevu's Steve Sawicki reviews Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky.
While acknowledging that it's early days in this series (which is actually a quartet, not a trilogy as he assumes), Steve says, "...it is easy enough to admit that if the following books are just half of what this one is, that Kenyon will have crafted a real winner."He concludes with high praise indeed, saying, "A definite fun read if you're looking for broad, sweeping adventures in the mold of Dune or Riverworld."
Lou,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this reviewer gives a thumbs-up to Kenyon's novel. It is, as he says, a good book. However, a couple of opinions in the review really annoyed me:
He says that Kenyon "has been writing for a long time, mostly short stories." Not. She's previously written six novels and about as many short stories. A quick visit to her website would have clarified this.
And in my opinion, Sawicki kind of damns her novel with somewhat shallow praise when he describes it as a "fun read" in the same "broad, sweeping" mode of the Dune and Riverworld series. Well, yeah...the best of those series were certainly entertaining, but also dealt with serious philosophical and cultural speculation, too. So does Kenyon's novel.
Calling it mainly a "fun read" reminds me way too much of the kind of Olde-SF "worth your beer money" reviews that drive me nuts.
My two cents. Hope Kenyon's novel sells like hotcakes. Like epic, sweeping, hotcakes, naturally.
Robert
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeletewhile not biting hands and all that, the short story phrase, as well as several other factual misunderstandings, did indeed stand out to me.
Lou,
ReplyDeleteUnderstood about hand-biting. I do have to add that Dark of the Sky has the best cover art of any of her novels. Following in the Pyr tradition of cool cover art and artists.
Robert
While I think it would be dangerous for me to identify an all-time favorite piece of cover illustration, I think I can say it's in my top three or four!
ReplyDeleteHi Lou!
ReplyDeleteHere's a review of Bright of the Sky, as promised:
http://www.skyseastone.net/jvstin/unjvst/006592.html
Hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it, and your suggestion that RPGers check it out is interesting to me. Kay just delivered the final draft of the sequel, A World Too Near, this week too!