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Sky Lords #1
The Sky Lords
The Gene Wars have turned Earth into a blighted wasteland. Mile-long airships patrol the skies, exacting crippling tribute from the scattered ground communities. Threatened by mutant vegetation and predatory creatures, forced to the brink of starvation by the Sky Lords, Minerva - a former feminist utopia - has had enough.
Its rebellion is swiftly crushed and Jan Dorvin, a Minervan warrior, is winched aboard a Sky Lord; towards a fate worse than death. For as a ground dweller and slave - but above all, as a woman - she is now regarded as the lowest form of humanity and is consigned to a life spent serving the sexual appetites of male slaves.
But no Minervan could be kept slave for very long.....
Its rebellion is swiftly crushed and Jan Dorvin, a Minervan warrior, is winched aboard a Sky Lord; towards a fate worse than death. For as a ground dweller and slave - but above all, as a woman - she is now regarded as the lowest form of humanity and is consigned to a life spent serving the sexual appetites of male slaves.
But no Minervan could be kept slave for very long.....
317 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1988
11 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
About the author
John Brosnan
71 books29 followers* Pen names:
Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer, James Blackstone, John Raymond
John Raymond Brosnan was an Australian writer of both fiction and non-fiction works based around the fantasy and science fiction genres. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, and died in South Harrow, London, from acute pancreatitis. He sometimes published under the pseudonyms Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer (both sometimes used together with Leroy Kettle), James Blackstone (used together with John Baxter), and John Raymond. Three not very successful movies were based on his novels–Beyond Bedlam (aka Nightscare), Proteus (based on Slimer), and Carnosaur. In addition to science fiction, he also wrote a number of books about cinema and was a regular columnist with the popular UK magazine Starburst.
Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer, James Blackstone, John Raymond
John Raymond Brosnan was an Australian writer of both fiction and non-fiction works based around the fantasy and science fiction genres. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, and died in South Harrow, London, from acute pancreatitis. He sometimes published under the pseudonyms Harry Adam Knight, Simon Ian Childer (both sometimes used together with Leroy Kettle), James Blackstone (used together with John Baxter), and John Raymond. Three not very successful movies were based on his novels–Beyond Bedlam (aka Nightscare), Proteus (based on Slimer), and Carnosaur. In addition to science fiction, he also wrote a number of books about cinema and was a regular columnist with the popular UK magazine Starburst.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 20, 2019
The future Earth of John Brosnan’s The Sky Lords is a uniquely nasty and colourful place, and I’ve visited it before.
I read the second book in this trilogy when I was thirteen – twenty-five years ago – and loved it. It took me a quarter of a century to track down book one - The Sky Lords - and return to Brosnan’s ruined Earth. I did so with some trepidation - revisiting the fondly remembered books of our youth often ends in disappointment – but I’m glad I did.
This isn’t your standard post-apocalypse Earth, your The Road style nuclear winter, or a Ballard-esque climate-change wracked, sun-blasted greenhouse. Brosnan’s future is a pungent and squalid world dripping with fungal decay, where a high-tech humanity has been largely reduced to almost medieval level, supplemented by the few surviving bits of old-science gear left functioning.
Designer fungi, plagues, animals and plants, all made uniquely vicious by genetic engineering , have blighted the Earth, turning it into an inhospitable wasteland filled with hungry terrors. What fertile areas remain are being encroached upon, the fungus and its denizens forcing humanity into smaller and smaller safe areas each year.
Unfortunately for the people struggling to survive on the blighted Earth, they also have to contend with threats from the air. Among the surviving technical wonders are a dozen or more gigantic, mile-long airships known as Sky Lords. Once built for humanitarian missions and evacuations, these vast dirigibles have become decrepit floating cities, and they rule huge swathes of the world, collecting tribute from all those who live beneath them.
Jan Dorvin lives in once such community, a matriarchal society of female warriors whose paying of tribute has pushed them to breaking point. They plan to shoot down their Sky Lord - a ship known as the Lord Pangloth – and keep their tribute for themselves. This decision will see Jan enslaved and set to hanging from a rope thousands of feet up to polish the failing solar panels on the floating home of her oppressors.
It is here she meets Milo, a refugee like her, but possessed of strange abilities and a knowledge of science and the past that is odd for a slave. Milo saves Jan from assault (largely to preserve her for his own creepy advances) and the two of them form an uneasy alliance as they embark on an adventure that will change the world and challenge the feudal rule of the airship cities.
There’s some great worldbuilding here, and it sucked me right in, despite their being a few weak points in the story.
Jan is an interesting character - a young warrior woman used to ruling over men, who is brave, tough and resourceful. Her hero potential as an Amazonian ass-kicker isn’t really reached, however, as despite her strength she pinballs around between dominant men throughout the book, most of whom treat her as either a non-entity or a target for rape. Jan is forced to use sex to get ahead, and sometimes (rather horrifically) submit to being used. Early on in the story she notes that sex given for survival or under duress is rape, and by her metric most of the sex her character is involved in is indistinguishable from that crime, which is pretty damn grim.
Jan's lack of agency in her own story is capped off by somewhat of a deus ex machina in the final act that involves a couple of machine personalities. Maybe my reader’s eye is a little jaundiced, but this development seemed a touch too convenient.
However, the good stuff in The Sky Lords makes up for some of these weaknesses. Brosnan’s post-tech neo-feudal society is vividly alive, as is his blighted wasteland. Likewise the imagined history behind it all is satisfyingly deep and well thought out. The characters and their backstories are genuinely interesting and my curiosity as to how the world was blighted drew me through the narrative like a carrot hanging before a hungry horse. I’m genuinely looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, where I hope Jan will be given the stronger role her character deserves.
Despite its flaws The Sky Lords is an entertaining, moreish read that kept me glued to my reader. It took me a quarter of a century to return to this bleak and beleaguered world, and I loved finally learning the backstory of a novel that my teenage self loved. I really should have gotten around to reading it sooner.
Three point five aggressive mushrooms out of five.
I read the second book in this trilogy when I was thirteen – twenty-five years ago – and loved it. It took me a quarter of a century to track down book one - The Sky Lords - and return to Brosnan’s ruined Earth. I did so with some trepidation - revisiting the fondly remembered books of our youth often ends in disappointment – but I’m glad I did.
This isn’t your standard post-apocalypse Earth, your The Road style nuclear winter, or a Ballard-esque climate-change wracked, sun-blasted greenhouse. Brosnan’s future is a pungent and squalid world dripping with fungal decay, where a high-tech humanity has been largely reduced to almost medieval level, supplemented by the few surviving bits of old-science gear left functioning.
Designer fungi, plagues, animals and plants, all made uniquely vicious by genetic engineering , have blighted the Earth, turning it into an inhospitable wasteland filled with hungry terrors. What fertile areas remain are being encroached upon, the fungus and its denizens forcing humanity into smaller and smaller safe areas each year.
Unfortunately for the people struggling to survive on the blighted Earth, they also have to contend with threats from the air. Among the surviving technical wonders are a dozen or more gigantic, mile-long airships known as Sky Lords. Once built for humanitarian missions and evacuations, these vast dirigibles have become decrepit floating cities, and they rule huge swathes of the world, collecting tribute from all those who live beneath them.
Jan Dorvin lives in once such community, a matriarchal society of female warriors whose paying of tribute has pushed them to breaking point. They plan to shoot down their Sky Lord - a ship known as the Lord Pangloth – and keep their tribute for themselves. This decision will see Jan enslaved and set to hanging from a rope thousands of feet up to polish the failing solar panels on the floating home of her oppressors.
It is here she meets Milo, a refugee like her, but possessed of strange abilities and a knowledge of science and the past that is odd for a slave. Milo saves Jan from assault (largely to preserve her for his own creepy advances) and the two of them form an uneasy alliance as they embark on an adventure that will change the world and challenge the feudal rule of the airship cities.
There’s some great worldbuilding here, and it sucked me right in, despite their being a few weak points in the story.
Jan is an interesting character - a young warrior woman used to ruling over men, who is brave, tough and resourceful. Her hero potential as an Amazonian ass-kicker isn’t really reached, however, as despite her strength she pinballs around between dominant men throughout the book, most of whom treat her as either a non-entity or a target for rape. Jan is forced to use sex to get ahead, and sometimes (rather horrifically) submit to being used. Early on in the story she notes that sex given for survival or under duress is rape, and by her metric most of the sex her character is involved in is indistinguishable from that crime, which is pretty damn grim.
Jan's lack of agency in her own story is capped off by somewhat of a deus ex machina in the final act that involves a couple of machine personalities. Maybe my reader’s eye is a little jaundiced, but this development seemed a touch too convenient.
However, the good stuff in The Sky Lords makes up for some of these weaknesses. Brosnan’s post-tech neo-feudal society is vividly alive, as is his blighted wasteland. Likewise the imagined history behind it all is satisfyingly deep and well thought out. The characters and their backstories are genuinely interesting and my curiosity as to how the world was blighted drew me through the narrative like a carrot hanging before a hungry horse. I’m genuinely looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, where I hope Jan will be given the stronger role her character deserves.
Despite its flaws The Sky Lords is an entertaining, moreish read that kept me glued to my reader. It took me a quarter of a century to return to this bleak and beleaguered world, and I loved finally learning the backstory of a novel that my teenage self loved. I really should have gotten around to reading it sooner.
Three point five aggressive mushrooms out of five.
July 19, 2024
Поредицата за Небесните господари е сред най-добрите образци на постапокалиптичната фантастика, която така или иначе любя, тача и милея.
Джон Броснан обаче се отличава не само с отличен литературен стил, а и развива няколко много интересни идеи относно бъдещето на човечеството, генетиката и сингулярността.
Джон Броснан обаче се отличава не само с отличен литературен стил, а и развива няколко много интересни идеи относно бъдещето на човечеството, генетиката и сингулярността.
November 17, 2014
-Pulp moderno.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Minerva es un enclave gobernado por mujeres en medio de una jungla repleta de especies animales y vegetales potencialmente letales. Falta poco para que Lord Pangloth, una nave voladora de enorme tamaño que opera mediante helio e hidrógeno perteneciente a los Señores del Cielo que llevan más de tres siglos dominando el mundo, llegue a Minerva para recibir el tributo en cereales que exige desde hace mucho tiempo. Como dicho tributo significaría la hambruna y el final del enclave, el Consejo valorar la opción de atacar la aeronave. Primer libro de la trilogía Los señores del cielo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Minerva es un enclave gobernado por mujeres en medio de una jungla repleta de especies animales y vegetales potencialmente letales. Falta poco para que Lord Pangloth, una nave voladora de enorme tamaño que opera mediante helio e hidrógeno perteneciente a los Señores del Cielo que llevan más de tres siglos dominando el mundo, llegue a Minerva para recibir el tributo en cereales que exige desde hace mucho tiempo. Como dicho tributo significaría la hambruna y el final del enclave, el Consejo valorar la opción de atacar la aeronave. Primer libro de la trilogía Los señores del cielo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
July 14, 2016
I read this one when I was a teenager. You see, I used to read an awful much of SF when I was a teen. Wait, that one is still true! I still love reading SF and that is probably never going to change. You know how I can tell? I can recall everything that happened in this novel (at doing so I realize I need to see about those sequels). I distinctly remember how much I enjoyed this one, despite the thing that it grossed me out a bit or maybe that was a part of it. It probably wouldn’t gross me out as much nowadays…or maybe it would. Yeah, there are some definitely gross things in this one. Mad ones as well. But oh how deliciously mad!
We’re talking about a genetically altered and quite chaotic world whose decadent ruling class is flying around in zeppelins. The protagonist is a lesbian and the villain is a brilliant sadist. If you can’t handle descriptions of violence, you might want to skip this one. They are not terribly long, but they’re pretty graphic.
The protagonist of Sky Lords is a young woman growing up in a post genetic wars society. The world where she lives is ruled by nobility flying around in zeppelins (hence the name sky lords). Sounds interesting? It is because it is, silly!
Jan, our interesting protagonist, lives in an Amazon society, created in an artificial kind of way. You see, women were genetically engineered to be taller and stronger than men because women are by nature less violent.... Someone got this great idea it would be good idea if they (the ladies) are in charge of things. This society sounded interesting to me, but the author didn’t really elaborate on it too much. Jan is naturally influenced by this society. It is interesting to note that she feels a bit inferior because she is a little shorter than the average. This made me think of The Brave New World. Nevertheless, Jan is still very much an Amazon, albeit a one that is a bit more sensitive.
However, our young protagonist is taken from this interesting society and has to, more or less, struggle quite desperately for her life for the rest of the novel. Things just seem to go from bad to worse for poor little her, but in a way that makes novel very entreating to read. As Jan is trying to survive and find her place among the zeppelin ruling class, we get introduced to other characters who are ,more often than not, a poor excuse for a human being, but that seems to be the norm with this one. If we want to read about greed and power struggled, pick this one. Without revealing too much, let’s just say that the only likeable creature to be found was a talking pantera.
Besides our lovely protagonist, the only character that stands out for me is Milo- intelligent, sadist, manipulative- he is superbly portrayed. It is ironical that he is all things that his name would imply he isn't. The novel does explore the dark side of humankind more often than not. Milo could be considered the incarnation of that dark side. Despite all that, it is hard not to be fascinated by him. He is not a two dimensional villain. He is endlessly fascinating and there seems to be some kind of aura of power around him that you as reader can sense.
However, I must say that the characterization doesn’t really go into dept. Jan and Milo are the only ones the reader really gets to know. The story is fast paced so it could be said that it doesn’t leave a lot of space for character development. YET.....How come that I remember reading stories that were just as action packed and that had more credible characters? We must admire the way Jan is determined to survive, her will to go on but wouldn't it be nice if we could see more of the character development? Her upbringing in a feminist society is hardly ever mentioned once she gets captured, it would be nice if there was some inner battle going on that would make the transition more realistic.
This novel isn’t without its flaws, but it is a lot of fun to read. Brosnan was very imaginative about possible uses of genetic manipulation and engineering and the consequences it could have on human society. He does seem to have a lot of ideas about it and in his hands this topic doesn't feel as something already seen to0 many times. He doesn’t go into psychological states of the characters nor does he create a complex moral dilemma that will make you think in a way the great ones do.
Brosnan creates a great story set in an interesting world, a story with a cool protagonist, a story that keeps you engaged. What more to ask for? Take it for what it is. Not the best SF novel ever written, but a pretty good one.
We’re talking about a genetically altered and quite chaotic world whose decadent ruling class is flying around in zeppelins. The protagonist is a lesbian and the villain is a brilliant sadist. If you can’t handle descriptions of violence, you might want to skip this one. They are not terribly long, but they’re pretty graphic.
The protagonist of Sky Lords is a young woman growing up in a post genetic wars society. The world where she lives is ruled by nobility flying around in zeppelins (hence the name sky lords). Sounds interesting? It is because it is, silly!
Jan, our interesting protagonist, lives in an Amazon society, created in an artificial kind of way. You see, women were genetically engineered to be taller and stronger than men because women are by nature less violent.... Someone got this great idea it would be good idea if they (the ladies) are in charge of things. This society sounded interesting to me, but the author didn’t really elaborate on it too much. Jan is naturally influenced by this society. It is interesting to note that she feels a bit inferior because she is a little shorter than the average. This made me think of The Brave New World. Nevertheless, Jan is still very much an Amazon, albeit a one that is a bit more sensitive.
However, our young protagonist is taken from this interesting society and has to, more or less, struggle quite desperately for her life for the rest of the novel. Things just seem to go from bad to worse for poor little her, but in a way that makes novel very entreating to read. As Jan is trying to survive and find her place among the zeppelin ruling class, we get introduced to other characters who are ,more often than not, a poor excuse for a human being, but that seems to be the norm with this one. If we want to read about greed and power struggled, pick this one. Without revealing too much, let’s just say that the only likeable creature to be found was a talking pantera.
Besides our lovely protagonist, the only character that stands out for me is Milo- intelligent, sadist, manipulative- he is superbly portrayed. It is ironical that he is all things that his name would imply he isn't. The novel does explore the dark side of humankind more often than not. Milo could be considered the incarnation of that dark side. Despite all that, it is hard not to be fascinated by him. He is not a two dimensional villain. He is endlessly fascinating and there seems to be some kind of aura of power around him that you as reader can sense.
However, I must say that the characterization doesn’t really go into dept. Jan and Milo are the only ones the reader really gets to know. The story is fast paced so it could be said that it doesn’t leave a lot of space for character development. YET.....How come that I remember reading stories that were just as action packed and that had more credible characters? We must admire the way Jan is determined to survive, her will to go on but wouldn't it be nice if we could see more of the character development? Her upbringing in a feminist society is hardly ever mentioned once she gets captured, it would be nice if there was some inner battle going on that would make the transition more realistic.
This novel isn’t without its flaws, but it is a lot of fun to read. Brosnan was very imaginative about possible uses of genetic manipulation and engineering and the consequences it could have on human society. He does seem to have a lot of ideas about it and in his hands this topic doesn't feel as something already seen to0 many times. He doesn’t go into psychological states of the characters nor does he create a complex moral dilemma that will make you think in a way the great ones do.
Brosnan creates a great story set in an interesting world, a story with a cool protagonist, a story that keeps you engaged. What more to ask for? Take it for what it is. Not the best SF novel ever written, but a pretty good one.
May 4, 2013
Now, this is what I call SF. Very good SF. The protagonist is a young women who grows up in a post genetic wars society. The world where she lives is ruled by nobility flying around in zeppelins (hence the name sky lords. Sounds interesting?
She lives in an Amazon feminist kind of society, where women are genetically engineered to be taller and stronger than men because women are by nature less violent....Someone got this great idea it would be good idea if they (the ladies) are in charge of things. She seems to be a little shorter than the average, but still very much an Amazon.
However, our young protagonist is taken from this interesting society and has to ,more or less, struggle desperately for her life for the rest of the novel.
Besides our lovely protagonist, the only character that stands out for me is Milo- intelligent, sadist, manipulative- he is superbly portrayed. It is ironical that he is all things that his name would imply he isn't. (In Slavic languages his name could be translated as sweet or gentle etc) The novel does explore the dark side of humankind more often then not and Milo could be considered the incarnation of that dark side.
Brosnan was very imaginative about possible uses of genetic manipulation and engineering and the consequences it could have on human society. He does seem to have a lot of ideas about it and in his hands this topic doesn't feel as something already seen to many times.
As I said, very good sf.
She lives in an Amazon feminist kind of society, where women are genetically engineered to be taller and stronger than men because women are by nature less violent....Someone got this great idea it would be good idea if they (the ladies) are in charge of things. She seems to be a little shorter than the average, but still very much an Amazon.
However, our young protagonist is taken from this interesting society and has to ,more or less, struggle desperately for her life for the rest of the novel.
Besides our lovely protagonist, the only character that stands out for me is Milo- intelligent, sadist, manipulative- he is superbly portrayed. It is ironical that he is all things that his name would imply he isn't. (In Slavic languages his name could be translated as sweet or gentle etc) The novel does explore the dark side of humankind more often then not and Milo could be considered the incarnation of that dark side.
Brosnan was very imaginative about possible uses of genetic manipulation and engineering and the consequences it could have on human society. He does seem to have a lot of ideas about it and in his hands this topic doesn't feel as something already seen to many times.
As I said, very good sf.
July 22, 2017
От този тип в който си казваш "Чакай да видя какво ще стане в следващата глава.". Хардкор фантастика за хората които харесват такива книги, а аз определено съм от тях. Впечатлен съм от фантазията и размаха с който действа Броснан.
August 12, 2012
Авторът има доста богато въображение. Книгата гъмжи от идеи и е сравнително увлекателна.
Дива амазонка в бунт срещу гигантски дирижабли.
Дива амазонка в бунт срещу гигантски дирижабли.
May 11, 2016
Леко засрамен си признавам че чак сега намерих време за трилогията ��а Джон Броснан, макар и да ми я хвалят от години. И има защо!
Описания от него пост-апокалиптичен свят е страхотен, достоверен, истински, а героите му са симпатични и описани по начин който те кара наистина да страдаш когато се наядат на хой...което се случва тук и там.
Да, дори генно модифицираната амазонка, израсла в общество на феминистки-мъжемразки ми стана симпатична, макар и не с интелекта си!
Ако имаше начин да се опише една идея по-ярко това което всъщност се случва на повърхността, далеч под перките на могъщите небесни господари, мутиралите зверове и странните явления, то книгата веднага би станала една от любимите ми съвременни фантастики.
От друга страна...кой знае? Остават още два тома за прочитане.
Описания от него пост-апокалиптичен свят е страхотен, достоверен, истински, а героите му са симпатични и описани по начин който те кара наистина да страдаш когато се наядат на хой...което се случва тук и там.
Да, дори генно модифицираната амазонка, израсла в общество на феминистки-мъжемразки ми стана симпатична, макар и не с интелекта си!
Ако имаше начин да се опише една идея по-ярко това което всъщност се случва на повърхността, далеч под перките на могъщите небесни господари, мутиралите зверове и странните явления, то книгата веднага би станала една от любимите ми съвременни фантастики.
От друга страна...кой знае? Остават още два тома за прочитане.
March 21, 2022
Drugo čitanje, nakon dvadesetak godina. Još je jednako dobra.
November 9, 2013
Ovo je jako dobro znanstveno fantastično djelo, možda i najoriginalnije znanstveno fantastično djelo koje sam do sad pročitala. Radnja se događa u dalekoj budućnosti gdje se gradovi nalaze na Mjesecu, u svemiru i na Marsu. Ljudi žive po nekoliko stotina godina, prestaju stariti u trideset i petoj, a žene imaju menstruaciju jednom u dvadeset godina. Nebeski gospodari vladaju zemljom i svatko tko se nastani na zemlji, mora plaćati godišnji danak Nebeskim gospodarima, pa često ljudi znaju gladovati.
Tako je Minerva u Sjevernoj Americi morala plaćati danak, žive Amazonke, žene su veće od muškaraca i dominantnije.
Glavni lik je Jan, isprva nesnalažljiva i osjetljiva djevojka koja živi s ocem i majkom koja je sili da bomb stavlja u anus. Knjiga počinje kad se Minerva priprema za napad nebeskih gospodara i kasnije biva uništena, a Jan biva jedina preživjela i dovedena u roblje gdje je preuzima Milo, vrlo tajanstven lik koji te uvijek iznenađuje.
Knjiga pokazuje negativnu ljudsku prirodu i kako ljudska moć može sve odnijeti k vragu. Skoro svaki lik je bio sadist i poremećen. Svaki lik je bio žedan za moći i besmrtnošću, ljudskim tkivima se raspolagalo kao običnim materijalom. Vrlo sam suosjećala sa Jan koja je bila bezbroj puta iskorištavana od strane drugih ljudi, ali ipak se snalazila. Može se reći da je imala i puno sreće. Osim Jan jedini pošteni likovi su bili Ashley, Ceri i Carl. Možemo Ashely i Carla ne kontati, budući da je Ashley hologram, a Carl softwer. usput mi se sviđala crna pantera koja je na neki način mogla govoriti.
Od likova mi se sviđao i Milo, iako je bio sadist i nije bio drugačiji od ostalih. Bio je vrlo tajanstven, svako malo bi iznenadio čitača, a on je najviše pokretao radnju.
John Brosnan ima vrlo bujnu maštu, vrlo je originalan, samo je dvedeset i prvo stoljeće prikazao kakvo nije danas, ali opet, knjiga je napisana 1988. pa mu možemo oprostiti.
Tako je Minerva u Sjevernoj Americi morala plaćati danak, žive Amazonke, žene su veće od muškaraca i dominantnije.
Glavni lik je Jan, isprva nesnalažljiva i osjetljiva djevojka koja živi s ocem i majkom koja je sili da bomb stavlja u anus. Knjiga počinje kad se Minerva priprema za napad nebeskih gospodara i kasnije biva uništena, a Jan biva jedina preživjela i dovedena u roblje gdje je preuzima Milo, vrlo tajanstven lik koji te uvijek iznenađuje.
Knjiga pokazuje negativnu ljudsku prirodu i kako ljudska moć može sve odnijeti k vragu. Skoro svaki lik je bio sadist i poremećen. Svaki lik je bio žedan za moći i besmrtnošću, ljudskim tkivima se raspolagalo kao običnim materijalom. Vrlo sam suosjećala sa Jan koja je bila bezbroj puta iskorištavana od strane drugih ljudi, ali ipak se snalazila. Može se reći da je imala i puno sreće. Osim Jan jedini pošteni likovi su bili Ashley, Ceri i Carl. Možemo Ashely i Carla ne kontati, budući da je Ashley hologram, a Carl softwer. usput mi se sviđala crna pantera koja je na neki način mogla govoriti.
Od likova mi se sviđao i Milo, iako je bio sadist i nije bio drugačiji od ostalih. Bio je vrlo tajanstven, svako malo bi iznenadio čitača, a on je najviše pokretao radnju.
John Brosnan ima vrlo bujnu maštu, vrlo je originalan, samo je dvedeset i prvo stoljeće prikazao kakvo nije danas, ali opet, knjiga je napisana 1988. pa mu možemo oprostiti.
August 18, 2017
Kad sam negdje prije pregledavala popis pročitanih knjiga, naletila sam na ovu SF trilogiju. S obzirom da sam je čitala kad sam imala 18 godina (a to je bilo davno), odlučila sam ih opet uzeti. Dio radnje sam zaboravila, ali su mi knjige ostale u sjećanju kao nešto što mi se jako svidjelo.
Ovaj prvi dio ponijela sam sa sobom na more i brzinski ga pročitala. Odmah sam se prisjetila većine događaja iz knjige. I pri drugom čitanju isto mi je bila odlična. Ideja o budućnosti u kojoj vladaju ogromni cepelini čiji vlasnici ih zovu Nebeski gospodari, a većinu svijeta su uništili nusproizvodi Genetskih ratova, mi je i nakon toliko godina i dalje osvježavajuća. Likovi su mi svi zanimljivi, Jan, draga Jan većinu vremena samo ide kud ju, što bi rekli, život nosi. A Milo, do samog kraja knjige nisam mogla odlučiti sviđa li mi se on, živcira li me, je li pozitivac ili bih ga natukla.
U svakom slučaju, prvom prilikom uzimam nastavak.
Ovaj prvi dio ponijela sam sa sobom na more i brzinski ga pročitala. Odmah sam se prisjetila većine događaja iz knjige. I pri drugom čitanju isto mi je bila odlična. Ideja o budućnosti u kojoj vladaju ogromni cepelini čiji vlasnici ih zovu Nebeski gospodari, a većinu svijeta su uništili nusproizvodi Genetskih ratova, mi je i nakon toliko godina i dalje osvježavajuća. Likovi su mi svi zanimljivi, Jan, draga Jan većinu vremena samo ide kud ju, što bi rekli, život nosi. A Milo, do samog kraja knjige nisam mogla odlučiti sviđa li mi se on, živcira li me, je li pozitivac ili bih ga natukla.
U svakom slučaju, prvom prilikom uzimam nastavak.
December 3, 2015
This was fun! I knew nothing about the book going in and once inside I was always wondering "where will this go next". I'll admit that having finished it the conclusion seems logical - sort of. Well, maybe not. This was a wlld ride from a ground bound matriarchal society which this poor reader had too short a time exploring before being whisked away to a giant airship where a more normal society hardly seemed real before tearing off again.
The characters are also interesting; from our lesbian hero to her "sorcerer" protector, warlords, disembodied teens, talking panthers, crazed robots... Wheee! Recommended for anyone who enjoys a good dystopic swashbuckling romp!
The characters are also interesting; from our lesbian hero to her "sorcerer" protector, warlords, disembodied teens, talking panthers, crazed robots... Wheee! Recommended for anyone who enjoys a good dystopic swashbuckling romp!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2014
Novela "pulp" que recuerda las historias de heroinas de los a��os 20. Se lee de un tir��n y se agradece para pasar una tarde de verano cerca de la playa.
May 28, 2019
Oh man. Where do I even begin with this one. I had been looking for this book for decades. Decades! I read it as a kid—I think it was misfiled as YA fiction thanks to its slim page count and bad cover art—and some combination of its ideas and age inappropriateness stuck with me ever since. But not its title. Only recently have Amazon’s search engine and network of sellers gotten advanced enough for me to find it. (A very similar thing happened to me with Marooned In Realtime).
So is this book good? Probably not. But it’s been in the back of my head so long that I honestly don’t know. Let me spoil the hell out of this because the odds of you finding a copy are pretty long...
Our heroine, Jan, is a member of a warrior tribe of Amazons. Their community is scraping by in the aftermath of the Gene Wars, fighting a blighted landscape that makes survival difficult. The Amazons have been genetically modified and so have their men, who are small and docile. But this is one of those postapocalypses where history and science have been lost, and Jan understands the facts of her life to be the manifest will of a feminist god.
The community is obliged to offer yearly tribute to a Sky Lord, one of a number of blimp warships that float above the ravaged earth. But the blight has made tribute impossible. They instead stage an attack on the airship. It goes badly and Jan winds up the sole female survivor of her community, taken aboard the Sky Lord as a slave.
There she meets Milo, another slave. He’s cruel, hated by his peers and mysterious, but he takes a (not very wholesome) interest in Jan and serves as her protector. Jan’s matriarchal assumptions are at odds with the horrifying rape culture of the world on the airship, and her ahistorical understanding of her origins is belittled by Milo in lengthy discourses about biological determinism.
The airship is in a decaying state: it predates the apocalypse and the people running it no longer grasp the technology behind it. Each generation of fixes is cruder than the last. Everything is slowly failing.
Gradually we learn that Milo has superhuman abilities. Jan does too, of course: like most humans she can expect to live to 200 in perfect health, albeit in a world brimming with mutants, deadly superplagues and landscape-devouring fungus. But Milo can do things no one has ever seen. The 200 year lifespan is revealed to have been a political compromise arrived at when immortality was discovered. It was still enough to destabilize the world and spark the Gene Wars, though. A few people—the most powerful officials, or those in privileged positions in the gene editing corporations—broke the law and became immortal. It eventually becomes clear that Milo is one such immortal, with a bunch of other upgrades to boot. He’s a war criminal hiding in plain sight, and one of the few people in the world who understands how civilization descended to its current barbarism. He has a scheme, and it becomes obvious that he will pursue it with exactly the same masculine moral bankruptcy that destroyed the world in the first place.
I won’t bore you with further details. Neither does the author, frankly: this thing wraps up with a curtness normally reserved for Poochie’s return to his home planet. But Jan saves the day and is free to pursue her dreams of restoring her home utopia. And despite the lengthy Milo soliloquies preceding it, any number of which could have been written by Ben Shapiro; and despite Jan’s initial ignorance; and despite the queasiness we are made to feel about the Amazons genetically neutering their men; we feel pretty good about her odds and this outcome.
So. What do I like about this.
I like the genetic technology stuff. This is a good and underused apocalypse. Orson Scott Card explores some of these ideas. Oryx and Crake is probably their best-known treatment (Sky Lords predates it by a decade). But this one really packs them in. Frankly, I think it surpasses either of those works in its expansive, pulpy vision (though not in the artfulness of its presentation).
I like the fallen age/retreat to medievalism. Obviously this is not an innovation invented by this author. Canticle for Leibowitz usually gets the credit for this idea. But it’s a good one.
I really like the inclusion of survivor(s) of the apocalypse and a plausible mechanism for making them the monsters responsible for it. This is probably the cleverest idea in the book and one that could have been used much more than it was. Quantum Thief shares some of this—the idea that being in the right job at the right scientific inflection point could confer immortal godhood in an ensuing dystopia—and I totally love it.
And I guess I like Milo, horror that he is. Parts of this reread reminded me of Lentz in Galatea 2.2. But it’s been a long time since I read that. Milo’s backstory is much less developed than it probably should be. There’s a deeper novel waiting here.
The exposition, sexual politics/violence and terseness are all pretty bad. But it was great to reread this. I still think there’s something there.
So is this book good? Probably not. But it’s been in the back of my head so long that I honestly don’t know. Let me spoil the hell out of this because the odds of you finding a copy are pretty long...
Our heroine, Jan, is a member of a warrior tribe of Amazons. Their community is scraping by in the aftermath of the Gene Wars, fighting a blighted landscape that makes survival difficult. The Amazons have been genetically modified and so have their men, who are small and docile. But this is one of those postapocalypses where history and science have been lost, and Jan understands the facts of her life to be the manifest will of a feminist god.
The community is obliged to offer yearly tribute to a Sky Lord, one of a number of blimp warships that float above the ravaged earth. But the blight has made tribute impossible. They instead stage an attack on the airship. It goes badly and Jan winds up the sole female survivor of her community, taken aboard the Sky Lord as a slave.
There she meets Milo, another slave. He’s cruel, hated by his peers and mysterious, but he takes a (not very wholesome) interest in Jan and serves as her protector. Jan’s matriarchal assumptions are at odds with the horrifying rape culture of the world on the airship, and her ahistorical understanding of her origins is belittled by Milo in lengthy discourses about biological determinism.
The airship is in a decaying state: it predates the apocalypse and the people running it no longer grasp the technology behind it. Each generation of fixes is cruder than the last. Everything is slowly failing.
Gradually we learn that Milo has superhuman abilities. Jan does too, of course: like most humans she can expect to live to 200 in perfect health, albeit in a world brimming with mutants, deadly superplagues and landscape-devouring fungus. But Milo can do things no one has ever seen. The 200 year lifespan is revealed to have been a political compromise arrived at when immortality was discovered. It was still enough to destabilize the world and spark the Gene Wars, though. A few people—the most powerful officials, or those in privileged positions in the gene editing corporations—broke the law and became immortal. It eventually becomes clear that Milo is one such immortal, with a bunch of other upgrades to boot. He’s a war criminal hiding in plain sight, and one of the few people in the world who understands how civilization descended to its current barbarism. He has a scheme, and it becomes obvious that he will pursue it with exactly the same masculine moral bankruptcy that destroyed the world in the first place.
I won’t bore you with further details. Neither does the author, frankly: this thing wraps up with a curtness normally reserved for Poochie’s return to his home planet. But Jan saves the day and is free to pursue her dreams of restoring her home utopia. And despite the lengthy Milo soliloquies preceding it, any number of which could have been written by Ben Shapiro; and despite Jan’s initial ignorance; and despite the queasiness we are made to feel about the Amazons genetically neutering their men; we feel pretty good about her odds and this outcome.
So. What do I like about this.
I like the genetic technology stuff. This is a good and underused apocalypse. Orson Scott Card explores some of these ideas. Oryx and Crake is probably their best-known treatment (Sky Lords predates it by a decade). But this one really packs them in. Frankly, I think it surpasses either of those works in its expansive, pulpy vision (though not in the artfulness of its presentation).
I like the fallen age/retreat to medievalism. Obviously this is not an innovation invented by this author. Canticle for Leibowitz usually gets the credit for this idea. But it’s a good one.
I really like the inclusion of survivor(s) of the apocalypse and a plausible mechanism for making them the monsters responsible for it. This is probably the cleverest idea in the book and one that could have been used much more than it was. Quantum Thief shares some of this—the idea that being in the right job at the right scientific inflection point could confer immortal godhood in an ensuing dystopia—and I totally love it.
And I guess I like Milo, horror that he is. Parts of this reread reminded me of Lentz in Galatea 2.2. But it’s been a long time since I read that. Milo’s backstory is much less developed than it probably should be. There’s a deeper novel waiting here.
The exposition, sexual politics/violence and terseness are all pretty bad. But it was great to reread this. I still think there’s something there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2018
I re-read this book having read it many MANY years ago, when I was 14 or 15 (I think). Probably not long after it first came out, during my "read every damn bit of sci-fi in the library of my small town because bloody hell this place is killing me" years. I figured I'd give it a go for nostalgia as the kindle edition was only a couple of quid. It was both better and worse than I expected.
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world set after the 'gene wars' in which a few pockets of greatly altered humanity survive in a wilderness of mutant animals and 'blight lands'. They are ruled over in a kind of feudal system by 'sky lords' - great airships, tech surviving from before society's collapse. Almost all knowledge of technology has been lost, and humanity now lives in various fantasy tropes, basically. The story follows a protagonist, Jan, from 'feminist' Minerva - a settlement of women genetically altered to be physically and socially dominant over their (oppositely altered) submissive men. She ends up captured and taken up into a Sky Lord, meeting the seemingly super-human, Milo, who alternates between dry humour and psychotic murder.
This is a novel firmly in the 70s 'sexy adventure' school of sci-fi but with a 90s preoccupation with genetic manipulation and cybernetics. Even though the writing is reasonably easy to read (that's the 'better than I expected' bit) and some of the airship stuff is cool I can't really recommend it for much more than nostalgia. John Brosnan clearly had a chip on his shoulder about feminism, an old-fashioned "I'm not racist but..." streak, and a weird preoccupation with sexual violence. When I was a young white boy this didn't seem too out of place, having read a lot of Robert Heinlein and Philip José Farmer, but now it's quite cringey.
I'm probably going to finish the trilogy out of nostaliga and a morbid curiosity to see more clearly the thing I read at a young age. If you want an 'old fashioned' adventure that's reasonably easy to read, has some 'cool' action and fantasy/ sci-fi elements, and will otherwise not challenge your brain one iota, than you might be interested. Although I'm fairly sure you could find something like that without the heavy dose of problematic elements if you looked around a little. Oh and be warned that this should really be read as part of a trilogy. It does sort-of wrap up but it would be more appropriate to package this and the later books as a single slab-sized book instead of three slim volumes.
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world set after the 'gene wars' in which a few pockets of greatly altered humanity survive in a wilderness of mutant animals and 'blight lands'. They are ruled over in a kind of feudal system by 'sky lords' - great airships, tech surviving from before society's collapse. Almost all knowledge of technology has been lost, and humanity now lives in various fantasy tropes, basically. The story follows a protagonist, Jan, from 'feminist' Minerva - a settlement of women genetically altered to be physically and socially dominant over their (oppositely altered) submissive men. She ends up captured and taken up into a Sky Lord, meeting the seemingly super-human, Milo, who alternates between dry humour and psychotic murder.
This is a novel firmly in the 70s 'sexy adventure' school of sci-fi but with a 90s preoccupation with genetic manipulation and cybernetics. Even though the writing is reasonably easy to read (that's the 'better than I expected' bit) and some of the airship stuff is cool I can't really recommend it for much more than nostalgia. John Brosnan clearly had a chip on his shoulder about feminism, an old-fashioned "I'm not racist but..." streak, and a weird preoccupation with sexual violence. When I was a young white boy this didn't seem too out of place, having read a lot of Robert Heinlein and Philip José Farmer, but now it's quite cringey.
I'm probably going to finish the trilogy out of nostaliga and a morbid curiosity to see more clearly the thing I read at a young age. If you want an 'old fashioned' adventure that's reasonably easy to read, has some 'cool' action and fantasy/ sci-fi elements, and will otherwise not challenge your brain one iota, than you might be interested. Although I'm fairly sure you could find something like that without the heavy dose of problematic elements if you looked around a little. Oh and be warned that this should really be read as part of a trilogy. It does sort-of wrap up but it would be more appropriate to package this and the later books as a single slab-sized book instead of three slim volumes.
October 27, 2017
A fantastic saga
It is the third time I read this book. It is always fun and deep at the same time. With the anti intellectual times of today, the narrative of the book is very actual. In a post apocalyptic world of the future, destroyed by the genetics wars, we have the heroine, Jan, trying to outgrow her fundamentalistic view of moral and history, and choosing from her upraising the best teachings.
Also it is super fun, make a movie please, or better another Tv series: it has so much to put into visuals!
Must read with an open mind.
It is the third time I read this book. It is always fun and deep at the same time. With the anti intellectual times of today, the narrative of the book is very actual. In a post apocalyptic world of the future, destroyed by the genetics wars, we have the heroine, Jan, trying to outgrow her fundamentalistic view of moral and history, and choosing from her upraising the best teachings.
Also it is super fun, make a movie please, or better another Tv series: it has so much to put into visuals!
Must read with an open mind.
September 12, 2022
Brosnan is a new author for me, and the book was a Terry Prathchett recommendation and to be honest I struggled with it. Published in 1991 for me it managed to somehow embody a very eighties vision of a post-apocalyptic future that grated with me time and again. All sorts of aspects of it simply seemed to me utterly implausible: the genetics gone crazy, airships the size of large towns, the mix of feudal and high tech, the list just keeps going on. Not for me and I won’t be continuing with the series.
February 8, 2019
7/10. Media de los 3 libros leídos del autor: 7/10.
En realidad solo me he leído su trilogía de Los señores del cielo, entretenida.
En realidad solo me he leído su trilogía de Los señores del cielo, entretenida.
April 29, 2019
4 stars for the setting.
June 18, 2022
Ez dakit zer esan.
January 29, 2023
Една от любимите ми книги от старата фантастика, силно феминистка и общо образователна.
March 30, 2023
Erilainen, mielenkiintoinen, riittävän dystooppinen. Sanoinko jo erilainen? Sci-fiä mikä ei jätä kylmäksi.
November 7, 2020
Entertaining.
December 18, 2009
I don't know. I didn't like it much, but I had to keep reading. Funny. The story is like a roller-coaster. I could not connect with any of the characters. I still don't understand Jan - her background and the way she had to be brought up, what was she imbued with, very much clashes with the way she behaves later. Anyway, I am proceeding with the series, just to see what happens.
May 12, 2012
I really liked this book because it does not copy the plots of other fantasy books. It moved smoothy and ended completely differently than expected. Hope it isn't a window into the future though. Read it and get lost in the story.
Read
March 27, 2010SciFi reminds the world what it could happened if ... Brosnan writes an enjoyable novel for a rainy day.
July 20, 2010
Не си играйте с гените! Радвайте се на това, което имате!
Read
June 28, 2013Всички човешки връзки се градят на нуждата, на егоизма. И всички човешки чувства. Егоизмът е равен на оцеляване. Да вярваш в друго,
означава да си играеш с романтични самозаблуди.
означава да си играеш с романтични самозаблуди.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews