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Bright of the Sky (Book 1 of The Entire and the Rose) |  | Author: Kay Kenyon
Publisher: Pyr
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  33 reviews
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 453
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
ASIN: B003N7MYQK
Publication Date: April 17, 2007
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Product Description
Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme. Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe--one where he himself may have been imprisoned--he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter's dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn's memories return, he discovers why. Quinn's goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire--to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family's redemption. But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm. This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles, and Dan Dimmons's Hyperion.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
 A compelling story! August 29, 2010
Alexi R.
I'll be honest, I only downloaded this book because it was free. I have Kindle on iPhone and wanted to try out this new medium. I am an avid reader of the sci-fi genre so I've seen Kay Kenyon's name in my local bookstores, however, I've never read any of her books.
Reading a book on a cell phone is counter-intuitive to holding the book in your hand & turning the pages. Even with the screen on landscape mode, the screen is defaulted to a font that allows for 7-8 lines only. You can change it to smaller or larger if you want. But the default font didn't cause any eye strain, it's about the size of a paperback font, so it's comfortable.
I read fast, so at first I was constantly swiping my screen until I inadvertently discovered that if I tap on the right hand side, the screen slides forward for me. Once I got past the hurdle of adapting to reading in this new digital mode in a fairly small screen, I couldn't put this book down.
The screen stays lighted and I cradled it in one hand tapping with one finger. Next thing I knew, I couldn't put my phone down. It took me longer to read this book on the cell phone, but once the weekend appeared, I stayed up hoping to put my phone away to get some sleep.
This is the first book in a series of 4 books. The story is a nice mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. Titus Quinn wants to return to the alternate universe where his wife and daughter were left behind. It's a complicated story of regret, revenge and redemption. As soon as I finished this book, I went right back to my iPhone and downloaded the next book. I can't wait to read it!
 Great Premise, Poor Execution August 27, 2010
Luxie P. (Brooklyn, NY United States)
Something about a book really has to stand out, for good or ill, to make me actually write a review about it. The catalyst, for this novel, is the fact that the concept is great - a really interesting story - but the execution is miserable. I started to put the book down several times, out of irritation, but ending up actually finishing it just for the sake of the story.
The problem is that it really is poorly written:
-- Awful, jarring switches between character and perspective - errors of style and flow that are taught in freshman composition.
-- A hero who is really a jerk, but every horrible decision and character flaw is forgiven because the poor, angsty man has just suffered SO MUCH...sob. He treats everyone around him like crap - but feels completely justified in his own distrust and anger at others.
-- The human villains are cartoonishly evil - making unsubtle threats that make no sense for someone with their supposed power and influence and position to make. And the attempts to humanize them are laughable, as well.
Again, the story isn't bad! I'd love to know how the it ends...just not enough to sit through another book (or, rather, three more books) of the author's atrocious writing!
 Murder, She Wrote August 18, 2010
Tai Chi (Southern California United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The middling rating is due to one huge flaw. The writing is good. Compelling minor characters populate the fully imagined alternative universe. Sure, you can poke holes in "The Entire" concept, but basically it's well-done. I also think the writing is good and direct with plenty of transitive verbs. You will keep reading. There are a few slow points, but suspense about what happens keeps you going. So you may think I was on track to rate this book 4 1/2 or 5 stars, and you'd be right. However, to set up the final chase section the author writes a plot device that is so offensive to me, and so repugnant to me, that I would have rated 1 star if I had not enjoyed the book so much until then. Quinn the protagonist turns into a brutal, murdering monster for no good reason. It's a total break with his character throughout the book (and the author's attempts to remind us of some earlier erratic behavior don't do it). I don't read much scifi or fantasy and maybe aliens aren't considered people, but that attitude's not true to this work. Also, it's violently inconsistent with Quinn's close associations with the aliens, and his former wife's associations as well. It's totally unnecessary to the plot of this book also, since a simple alarm would have served as well. The author forgets what Raymond Chandler taught us - the hero walks through a dark world, and he may be a cynical anti-hero, but he cannot be the darkness. Here, through some sort of moral blindness in the author, a very enjoyable work is betrayed, and the hero is turned into the darkest shadow of all. It's a plot device that rings false. Moreover, it betrays the sympathies of the reader, and Quinn's supporters in the book itself, utterly. This book left a bad taste in my mouth. As Agatha Christie had a character say in "Murder On The Orient Express," harming a child cannot be forgiven.
The betrayal of the Quinn character was extra dissapointing because otherwise the book was good. It's crucial for a protagonist to make morally justifiable decisions at decision points. Two books worth reading that stay true to their protagonists are "Scent of Shadows" and "The Wounded Man." "Scent of Shadows" is an urban fanstasy and "The Wounded Man" is a hardboiled mystery. In these two fine examples, protagonists walk through a dark landscape, and deal plenty of violence, but they remain better than their surroundings. It's crucial to retaining the sympathies of the reader that the anti-hero remain noble at the core. All I can say about "Bright" is - wow, what a mistake to turn the hero into a brutal monster.
Bright of the Sky August 6, 2010
Pamela M. Richter (West hollywood, ca United States)
This should be a classic, way up there with science fiction giants. The writing is wonderful, characters realistic. The world she presents is alien and fantastic. Always a surprise twist. Highly recommended.
 Terrible writing, worse editing August 2, 2010
New Jersey Mom (Maplewood, NJ)
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
I got this as a free download for Kindle, but think they should have paid me to read it. I got about a third of the way through the book before giving up in disgust. This is one of the most terribly written books I've ever read. Here are some basics that the author and editor both need to work on.
One, as other reviewers have said, the author shifts perspective between characters in a most disconcerting manner. This is something that amateur writers do fairly often. You should stick with one perspective at a time - and when you switch, make sure that there is some notice that you are going to do so.
Two, words are missing. E.g., a character is "going to (place)" but it is written as "going (place)." This is just one example. There are quite a few places where the author seems to have been writing in shorthand. The editors should have caught these.
Three, inappropriate use of three-dollar words when fifty-cent words would be better choices. Read Stephen King's _On Writing_ for more about this. Again, this is a mistake that amateur writers often make.
Four, and this is the most annoying thing - egregious and embarrassing spelling errors.
- A character walks with a "loping gate." I think she meant "gait!"
- A character is "pouring over a text" Er, shouldn't that be "poring?" unless she meant the character was pouring milk over it!
- A character complains about how "low and course" some others are. I'm pretty sure she meant "coarse."
The fact that neither the author nor the editor caught these cringe-worthy spelling/misuse errors is shocking to me.
The story itself was mildly entertaining, but I assume that an author who cannot write intelligently probably cannot resolve a plot in an intelligent manner, either. I was pretty sure it would be a waste (or "waist," badump-bump!) of my time to suffer through the bad writing to the end.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
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