Suzzanne Myers

I literally devoured Kay Kenyon’s first book in the Entire and the Rose series, Bright of the Sky, in about a week. Which is really fast, for me. I attended one of Kenyon’s panels at Orycon and was really intrigued by her descriptions of her characters during the session; finally, last week, I sat down to read this book.

Bright of the Sky did not leave me dissapointed. It’s a lush story that flies squarely into science-fantasy territory. In a futuristic Earth society, space travel using black holes has become a thing of convenience for rich vacationers or people looking to plumb the resources of distant planets. But there’s a secret the space-flight corporations don’t want anyone to know – ships are getting lost in those black holes, and people are not coming back. That is, until pilot Titus Quinn turns up in a remote mining colony a few weeks after his ship and all passengers – including his own wife and daughter – is reported to have been destroyed in one of those black holes. What’s stranger, Titus has changed. The thirty-two year old hot shot pilot now has stark white hair and he’s raving in a language no one can understand. When he finally comes to his senses, he claims he’s been living in another world – another dimension – for the last ten years, and that he has to go back because his wife and daughter are still there.

No one believes him. At least not until an innocent young phd candidate happens to discover a way into that dimension, and Titus’ employer, Minerva, decides that if such a place exists, then the possiblity of space travel just changed dramatically – and profitably. Facing public outcry over the continuing loss of ships, Minerva has to find a way to travel through space without using the dangerous black holes, or else they’ll lose their entire business – and this new world is just the opportunity they need. They will send Titus through to this other world to see if he can find a reliable doorway for travel, but Titus – angry and bitter, resenting his broken life and everyone in it - has only one goal in mind: to find his wife and daughter and bring them safely home. The company that abandoned him can go to hell, for all he cares.

Once Kenyon takes the reader to The Entire, or that other place, as humans call it, the story takes a drastic turn. Beginning as straight science fiction, now the reader is plunged into a world that seems strangely backward, relying on incomprehensible science that borders on magical and set in a backdrop that is part steampunk, part ancient Chinese culture. 

The world of Entire, Titus learns, was built by the Tarig - bronze-skinned lords who utilize technology in mysterious ways, preferring to keep their citizens mostly in the dark.   The Entire itself is a magical and changing place, girded on all sides by the ever-changing, undulating “Storm wall” which, the reader learns, is the world’s barrier.  Overhead the world is warmed by the Bright – a never-ending fire in the sky. While Kenyon hints at scientific explanations for the seemingly magical inventions in the Entire, these explanations are downplayed by the ignorance of the Entire’s inhabitants. Perhaps it’s not really ignorance, but rather acceptance of things that are commonplace and or never questioned.  Imagine a layperson trying to explain to aliens why we have mountains or rivers. In the Entire, however, even scholars do not fully understand the workings of their world, and thus, the scientific oddities take on magical qualities.

But where this story really shines is the protagonist’s unyielding quest to find his family.  His company’s mission to find a route through the stars is never Titus Quinn’s priority – he’s determined to find his family first, and then he’ll worry about getting home with the information Earth wants from him.  I admit I was a little dissapointed with Titus Quinn at first; he seemed stiff and bull-headed, and while I admired his temerity, I found him difficult to actually like.   For me, the story lives and breathes through its characters and whether I can find a way to identify them – to me, Titus seemed like a character completely dissassociated with the story.

And then I realized how brilliant Kenyon’s writing was in this regard.  Titus is a man set adrift in the universe, having left his whole heart and ten years of his life in the Entire. No one believed he had gone to another world, and for a time, it looked like he would never go back. He doesn’t even remember who he was in that other life, so in the beginning he is naturally a stiff character, loathing life and everything around him, even himself.   But as Titus learns about his past and formulates a plan to get his family back, he begins to open up and reveal a little of himself, and this is where he becomes a truly memorable character. As a reader, I found myself admiring his unyielding nature and noble heart.  He’s real.  He’s emotional and driven.  His unpredictable, bold-faced nature means that the story is never still, never relaxed, and like a raging river, constantly churning on Titus’ sometimes rash decisions.   He’s not the careful kind of character who wins because the story says he should; instead, he’s going to win because he thinks he deserves it and he refuses to accept anything less.

In the end, Titus is the reason this story is so incredible, because it’s through his decisions and failures that the story twists and turns. As a reader I grew to trust that Titus would complete his mission because I came to understand that was who Titus Quinn was; a man unwilling to accept failure, who would do anything it took to achieve his goals, including sacrifice himself.  He is someone I can respect, a leader and a survivor, and that’s the kind of hero you want in a book.

Set against such a rich and unique backdrop filled with hints of ancient Chinese culture and replete with alien technology, Bright of the Sky is an engaging and thoroughly satisfying read that doesn’t unfold the way you’d expect. I’ve already begun the next book in the series, A World Too Near, and I look forward to reading the rest of Kenyon’s books in the future!