Nick James (1) (1983–)

This alternates between first-person chapters from Jesse's POV and third-person chapters focused on Cassius. There's a lot to the world-building, and I'm probably forgetting large chunks of it, but basically this is set on a devastated Earth that's horrifically hot and kind of toxic. There are two main political factions: the Skyship dwellers who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere, and the corrupt Surface government that controls the "Chosen Cities," oases protected from the results of the chemical bombings that made so much of the rest of the planet nearly unlivable. Both groups are after one thing: Pearls, mysterious little orbs that fall from space and can power entire cities or ships.

Jesse is a young Skyshipper on what should have been a simple Surface mission to retrieve a Pearl. Instead, he accidentally crosses paths with Cassius, a young Pearl hunter for the Surface government. The encounter changes both of their lives, awakening powers that neither one of them understands.

I got this for free years ago, at a conference where the poor publisher rep kept having to explain to people passing by his table that this was sci-fi and not steampunk. To be fair, neither the title nor the cover communicated that very clearly. "Skyship" still seems more steampunk than sci-fi to me.

While I enjoyed several of the revelations near the end of this book, overall this was kind of dull and weighed down by its world-building. I felt like I was swimming in a sea of info about this world, and unfortunately it was hard to bring myself to care.

None of the characters really grabbed me. Jesse was the "ordinary" protagonist who found himself caught up in a situation where everyone around him seemed to know more about what was going on than he did. Cassius was the talented and loyal protege of the villainess (and obviously being used by her). Cassius interested me more than Jesse, but neither one of them was particularly compelling.

There were several revelations near the end that were huge and completely unexpected. It seemed like the sort of information that would completely alter this world, so I was confused why no one seemed to be worried about the obvious implications of it. Was I misunderstanding how this world worked? It's possible - like I said, the world-building was more than a bit much for me. Or maybe I understood just fine, and the author just didn't want to deal with any of it until the beginning of the next book. Having your characters realize that their entire way of life is somehow going to have to change overnight would be a pretty big deal.

You'd think revelations this huge would make me excited to read the next book, but for some reason I can't work up any enthusiasm. I wouldn't say this was a bad book, but it wasn't for me. I'll be stopping here.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (mere)

I have had this book to read for quite awhile. I thought it looked like a really interesting premise (and it has a cool cover). It ended up being okay but not great. It takes quite a while for the story to get going and I never really connected with the characters or the story.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was fine. The narrator did a decent job with characters voices. The narration wasn’t anything special but it wasn’t bad either.

The first half of the book is pretty typical post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff. Humanity has been split into the military on Earth and the Skyships above; they both fight over Pearls which are an alien power source that falls to Earth from the heavens. Things get a lot more interesting when our two heroes (one boy from a Skyship and one from Earth) have an encounter that leaves them both strangely changed.

I will say the characters are pretty balanced between male and female; there are strong characters of both. So this book should appeal to both female and male sci-fi fans. Some of the things happening towards the end of the book are very mysterious and interesting. The book ends at a decent spot; some things are wrapped up but there are still questions.

Overall this is an okay sci-fi read. I personally never engaged all that well with the characters or the story. However the book does pick up quite a bit in the second half and get more interesting. While I don’t plan on reading anymore of the series I would tentatively recommend to fans of post-apocalyptic earth type sci-fi; especially YA fans.… (mere)