Bright of the Sky - Kay Kenyon

Title: Bright of the Sky
Author: Kay Kenyon
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 450
Date read: June, 2009

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.

I finally finished this book today. It took me almost 2 weeks to read!! Very unusual for me. It wasn't that it was bad, it was just much too easy to put down. I wasn't intrigued by the story, and with so many other books I also wanted to read, I kept procrastinating. But this week I finally told myself to shape up and finish it... if for no other reason, then for my own 'job satisfaction' ;-)

The plot was actually quite well thought out, but Kay Kenyon totally failed to make me care for Titus Quinn, and therefore I wasn't really interested in knowing what happened to him, which made it difficult to stay motivated. Also Bright of the Sky practised my number one pet peeve in series - it spent the entire book setting up the universe and introducing the characters, so there was no time at all to resolve the plot.

I loved Sydney though, and wish we could have heard more about her. Her life among the Inyx was fascinating, and she seemed like a much more interesting character than Titus did.

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