Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon (Book 1 of The Entire and the Rose)

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'sRiverworld, Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles, and Dan Dimmons's Hyperion.

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Editorial Review

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. At the start of this riveting launch of a new far-future SF series from Kenyon (Tropic of Creation), a disastrous mishap during interstellar space travel catapults pilot Titus Quinn with his wife, Johanna Arlis, and nine-year-old daughter, Sydney, into a parallel universe called the Entire. Titus makes it back to this dimension, his hair turned white, his memory gone, his family presumed dead and his reputation ruined with the corporation that employed him. The corporation (in search of radical space travel methods) sends Titus (in search of Johanna and Sydney) back through the space-time warp. There, he gradually, painfully regains knowledge of its rulers, the cruel, alien Tarig; its subordinate, Chinese-inspired humanoid population, the Chalin; and his daughter's enslavement. Titus's transformative odyssey to reclaim Sydney reveals a Tarig plan whose ramifications will be felt far beyond his immediate family. Kenyon's deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building will have readers anxious for the next installment. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon's seventh novel, took critics by surprise. Compared to works by Frank Herbert and Philip Jose Farmer, this impressive first installment in a planned four-part series won them over with its riveting plot, vividly imagined alternate universe, and exotic alien denizens. Titus Quinn is a charming anti-hero, fully fleshed-out and likable; Kenyon's secondary characters are also convincing and memorable. One critic felt that some narrative jumps were confusing, and the Washington Post compared Kenyon's early chapters on 23rd-century Earth to "a kind of retro (1950s) view of the future," but these were considered minor complaints. With elegant prose and a solid grounding in real-life physics, Kenyon has conjured a spellbinding, action-packed planetary romance. -- Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
In the future conjured by the first book of the Entire and the Rose, megacorporations control Earth, and only the best and brightest get company jobs. Titus Quinn was on his way, though, until he piloted a Minerva corporation colony ship through a network of black holes. The ship disappeared. Believed dead, Quinn showed up six months later on a distant planet that no transport had visited in years, with disjointed memories of a parallel universe in which the sky is fire. There he lost his wife and daughter, also the ship. In hope that the place will provide a safer alternative for interstellar travel, Minerva sends him back. Once there again, Quinn becomes embroiled in strange politics and faces terrible choices and the emerging, awful memory of what he did during his last stay in the Entire. In a fascinating and gratifying feat of world building, Kenyon unfolds the wonders and the dangers of the Entire and an almost-Chinese culture that should remain engaging throughout what promises to be a grand epic, indeed. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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About the Author

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Book

Tittle:	:	Bright of the Sky (Book 1 of The Entire and the Rose)
Author:	:	Kay Kenyon
Language	:	English
Buy the Book	:	Light of Eidon (Legends of the Guardian-King, Book 1) by Karen Hancock
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