Kay Kenyon’s The Entire and The Rose series is one I have been meaning to get around to reading for a long but for one reason or another I kept pushing it back. I have heard so many good things about this series that I finally decided to purchase the Audio Book and enjoy it while driving to and from work.
The Bright of the Sky is the first of a four book series. Three of the four are currently in print with the fourth, Prince of Storms, due to be released in January 2010. In many ways The Bright of the Sky is deeply complex novel and other ways it is simple story. It sorta reminded of me of James Clavell’s Shogun by the fact it is a fish out of water story but set in a heritage rich world.
Summary
The novel begins with Titus Quinn having very little memory of where he disappeared to for a long period and then suddenly reappearing. He claims that he lived in another universe for 10 years but people think he is just a crazy old man. People think Quinn is a broken man because when his spaceship disappeared it had wife and child on board. His wife and child never came back and are feared to have perished.
A space station disaster causes a portal to open up and the company Quinn worked for believes this is a passageway into the other universe. So they decide to send Quinn on mission to see if there are quicker passageways through this universe than the ones they are currently using. Of course Quinn has different ideas; he is going back to learned what happened to his wife and daughter.
The title of the series, The Entire and The Rose, is what the people of the other universe use to refer to places. The Entire is their universe and The Rose is ours. They have opened small portals into our universe and have been spying on our civilization for a long time. In fact, their culture is based on the ancient Chinese traditions and customs but is somewhat modified or as they state “they made it better”. All people have their station in life and will bow to all above their stations. If the traditions are not followed to the letter then it is consider an insult and you could lose your head.
The big difference is that The Entire is populated with alien species. They all live under the iron fist of the Tarig. The Tarig control every aspect of life in The Entire and are constantly on the hunt for any kind of trouble.
Soon after Quinn’s return to The Entire we learn that his wife was probably killed and his daughter was blinded and forced into slavery by the Tarig. Quinn’s mission is to locate his daughter and return her to The Rose. Unfortunately, in this complex society nothing is easy.
Review
In most respects The Bright of the Sky should be consider a fantasy novel rather than a Sci-Fi novel. There are parts in the beginning of the story that have Sci-Fi elements but once the plot moves to The Entire it moves at the pace of a fantasy novel. There is not much, if any, real action sequences. This novel mainly develops through Ms. Kenyon’s incredible world building skills. The customs, traditions and the civilization are extremely rich and well detailed through the entire novel. Typically I am not fan of world building novels but this one drew me in hard. This is likely because Ms. Kenyon used familiar aspects of ancient cultures to provide the ground work and then overlaid it with her own flair.
Probably the single issue I had with the novel was the names. It was difficult to keep track of who was who through out the course of the story. I really wish there was a glossary to refer to.
This is the first novel that I have listened that was read by Christian Rummel. His voice is somewhat monotone during all but the speaking parts which can cause periods of daydreaming. I had to rewind several times because I just missed a whole passage because my mind drifted. Generally he does an excellent job with dialogue by using different tones / inflections for different characters. But his Chinese accent is really kinda goofy.
Last Word
I really enjoyed this novel and I am in awe of Kay Kenyon’s ability to create a vibrant universe along with a well crafted tale. I like it so much that I already working on her follow up novel, A World too Near.
My Rating
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