Author D. Nolan Clark combines circumstances and antagonists that were refreshingly unusual to write a novel of old fashioned science fiction with plenty of imaginative concepts. Forsaken Skies uses a political back structure that has Earth as an economic and military force playing balance of power against immense interstellar corporations. It’s an interesting concept that Clark mentions only in passing, something that explains the predicament and fleshes out the constraints.
Forsaken Skies is entertaining and introduces several characters and fascinating plot elements.
Plot Synopsis
Just before the book opens an unknown force – assumed to be a rival corporation – has attacked small, inhospitable colony world Niraya inhabited by several peaceful quasi-religious groups plus some corporate mining employees. Both the corporation and Earth decline to aid the colony because the world is barely profitable as-is but a conniving naval office, Auster Maggs, says he can personally assist them for a very large fee. The colony sends two people to negotiate with Maggs, paying him the equivalent of two years’ terraforming fees for his non-existent help.
Former naval hero Aleister Lanoe and traffic controller Tannis Valk, who had fought against Lanoe in an earlier war, get mixed up with the Nirayans when they overhear the situation and realize Maggs is a con man. Lanoe recruits a few of his former squadron to come and assist the colony.
Pace and Characters
Once the group arrives at Niraya the plot gets interesting but the pace is uneven. We have way too many pages where the two young characters indulge in the usual teen angst and self-doubt, rebel against authority and build relationships. Those sections dragged on. In between we have Lanoe and his team working hard to first find out who the heck is attacking Niraya and why, and second, to build a defense against what appears to be an unstoppable force.
During this phase we learn more about Lanoe and Valk and get to know them. Forsaken Skies does a reasonable job building characters although I wouldn’t give it top marks for realistic, interesting people.
The author needed to build up Maggs in order to make the ending believable but the sections with him plod along. Maggs remains a bit of a cipher, a cardboard cutout instead of a real person. I think author Clark could have done more with him.
Clark could have done more with Niraya itself as it clearly has a wide variety of people, anywhere from seekers of peace and piety to miners. There were a few boring pages where Elder MacRae does a Yoda imitation but the part where she is the primary viewpoint in the battle on the moon is well done.
First in a Series
Forsaken Skies stands on its own. It has a beginning, a middle and an end and the ending nicely finishes the story arc. Nonetheless it leaves room for a sequel, where Lanoe and/or the Earth navy tracks down the source of the attacks and gets them to stop. I suspect a second book will be more interesting, with fewer segues into teen troubles (I hope), and a fascinating diversion into a completely different, alien culture. (Incidentally the aliens here reminded me a bit of the Star Trek episode with a doomsday machine that ate planets and ships but Clark did a much better job building a realistic and vivid threat.)
Overall
I read Forsaken Skies in a couple evenings and enjoyed it. It is not top caliber science fiction mainly due to pacing problems and the two boring teen characters. The aliens are very well done, unique and fascinating. 4 stars.
I received a complementary copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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