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The Sky People (The Lords of Creation #1)

3.42 of 5 stars 3.42 · rating details · 862 ratings · 94 reviews

Marc Vitrac was born in Louisiana in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life--even human life. At that point, the "Space Race" became the central preoccupation of the great powers of the world.

Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to Jamestown, the US-Commonwealth base on Venus, near the...more

Hardcover, 301 pages

Published November 14th 2006 by Tor Books (first published 2001)

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Mar 24, 2008 Roger rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of old-school SF

This book and its sequel, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, are based on a brilliant premise I wish I had thought of myself. The premise is that, in an alternate-history universe, Mars and Venus are inhabited worlds like they were in the science fiction stories of the first half of the 20th century, with nods to Burroughs, Bradbury, Brackett, and the rest.

Stirling combines these now-obsolete images of our neighbor planets with a realistic sense of what things were like on Earth--the developme...more

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Apr 29, 2008 Troy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Troy by: Kris Johnson

The Sky People starts out with an interesting concept, that Venus and Mars are inhabitable planets and teaming with life. I liked the alternate history view of space exploration by the US and Russians to explore these new worlds in the 1980s . It makes you think about what kind of space exploration really could have been done by now if we hadn't wasted 30 years messing around with the space shuttle...
But I am only giving this book 2 stars because by the middle of the book the plot, for me, start...more

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Jul 30, 2012 H.E. Bergeron rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the vein of the John Carter books, The Sky People is set in a universe where Mars and Venus are simply foreign rather than alien, wildernesses that nevertheless have a breathable atmosphere and edible plant- and animal-life. The story takes place on Venus, where rolling plains and vast jungles are populated by animals that seem to have been assembled from prehistoric Earth: saurian behemoths, sabertoothed mammals, and intelligent, if primitive, bipeds that seem stunningly similar to humans (r...more In the vein of the John Carter books, The Sky People is set in a universe where Mars and Venus are simply foreign rather than alien, wildernesses that nevertheless have a breathable atmosphere and edible plant- and animal-life. The story takes place on Venus, where rolling plains and vast jungles are populated by animals that seem to have been assembled from prehistoric Earth: saurian behemoths, sabertoothed mammals, and intelligent, if primitive, bipeds that seem stunningly similar to humans (right down to a pretty exotic princess for the hero to romance).

Also in the vein of the John Carter books, the characters are minimally developed, the hero has a lot of gratuitous specialness, and interpersonal relationships are neglected in favor of airship crashes and dinosaur fights. This is more or less what one expects from the genre, and I couldn't be too bothered by it because I do enjoy airships and dinosaurs, and it is certainly not as bad as, say, A Princess of Mars in any of these regards; but since I know it is possible to have both characters the reader cares about and an interesting setting, it bears mentioning.

The science, such as there is, is satisfying enough that I didn't rage at anything. The presence of primitive humans on Venus is actually explained, which is delightful. The pacing is reasonable; Stirling is a bit too fond of lengthy scenes between the main character and his tame wolfdog which have little to no impact on the plot, but otherwise, stuff happens more or less constantly. The primary thing to recommend the book is the setting - I would love to trailblaze on this version of Venus. It has a nostalgic grandeur, this untamed world that can be conquered with minimal supplies and human ingenuity. The actual plot serves to take us through that world, and the characters are there to interact with it. I was charmed enough by this vision of Venus to overlook the solid mediocrity of the other aspects of the work, but it really is just an updated version of a Boy's Own adventure story, so take that as you will.

I was also pleased by the self-aware way the book acknowledges its sources, having characters mention the fifties pulp sci-fi stories upon which this novel was clearly based, but I could see some people being annoyed by the lampshading.(less)

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Nov 19, 2011 Andreas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This series is set in an alternate history where Mars and Venus were found teeming with life by spaceprobes in the 1960s. A space race ensued to set up bases on the planets. Interestingly, the superpowers spent so much on space that no major wars were fought on Earth after the Korean War. The action starts on Venus in 1988. Marc Vitrac is one of the researchers living there. It is very much a frontier life among the lush and extremely varied flora and fauna. After some initial setup, Marc and a...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Sky People, by S.M. Stirling. Have to say that I am generally not a very big Stirling fan. I found his Draka Series to be unconformatably close to an attempt to make fascism seem cool, not to mention godawful alternate history. Plus, I don't really care much for his leaden writing style or his cardboard characters. However, in this book, a kind of alternate history homage to old sci-fi pulps, it actually works for him, since we expect two-dimensional, jut-jawed, heaving breasted, real men an...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Anne Toronto1 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fan

***** "The Sky People" are explorers from Earth, on the first two nearby American and Russian settlements in an alternate 1988. S.M. Stirling creates a heroic space-western style adventure, with ambiguity of motivations to show humans/ aliens may be not strictly evil. Colorful vivid Venus has dangerous predators, including prehistoric giants - dinosaurs, sabretooths, flyers. A 1960s probe finds two kinds of humanoids, smelly dirty Neanderthals who drive away clean pretty hunters from their ances...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Phoenixfalls rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who think SF has gone downhill since Edgar Rice Burroughs' days.

Shelves: aliens, male-author, science-fiction, venus

A peculiar book, throwback to the science fiction of the 20s. The first half reads exactly like an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, except that the women can fight for themselves. They don't, usually, but you as a reader are supposed to understand that they can and respect them accordingly. The characters are also prettily multicultural - a Cajun, a black woman from the Bronx, an Englishman (though there is a twist there) and a Russian - but Stirling has a tin ear for dialect and differentiates betwe...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars

The premise of this book is great: In this alternate timeline, Soviet space probes to Venus in the 1960's discover a teeming ecosystem swarming with a strange mish-mash of earthlike animal life from prehistoric and modern times, along with primitive human societies. The US and the USSR race to be the first nation to explore (and exploit) the newly discovered world.

Unfortunately, the execution of the story does not do the premise justice. The characters are flat and cliched (including the colorfu...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Annette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternate-history, sci-fi

Although written in 2006, "The Sky People" is written in the tradition of Heinlein, Burroughs, and all the pulp sci-fi writers of the 50's and 60's. Just like in the old days, Mars and Venus both have breathable atmospheres and plenty of life, and in the early 80's humans are beginning to visit and colonize.
In the hands of a lesser author - or even a less established one - this could easily have become parody rather than homage, but, unsurprisingly, Stirling pulls it off. It reads like a serious...more Although written in 2006, "The Sky People" is written in the tradition of Heinlein, Burroughs, and all the pulp sci-fi writers of the 50's and 60's. Just like in the old days, Mars and Venus both have breathable atmospheres and plenty of life, and in the early 80's humans are beginning to visit and colonize.
In the hands of a lesser author - or even a less established one - this could easily have become parody rather than homage, but, unsurprisingly, Stirling pulls it off. It reads like a serious work of sci-fi, with an internally consistent universe and even a very rational split point between our history and the book's: the arrival of a Soviet probe on Venus in 1967 that revealed life of a surprising variety rather than the comparatively uninteresting data it sent back in "real life."
As in many of his books, chapters are headed with excerpts from other works belonging to the alternate history, in this case mostly the 1988 Encyclopedia Brittanica. These articles provide historical context and thought provoking guesses as to how the world might have changed if the space race had suddenly become 10x more important in the late 60's.
As per usual, the characters are well drawn, sympathetic (even the ones w/ questionable motives or political affiliation), and full of quirks that add interest and believability. The plot, while nominally centered around the political minefield of the East Bloc / US competition for a toehold on Venus, also contains plenty of fun "what ifs." What if there were dinosaurs ranging from lizard size to 7 tons and everything in between roaming around the land you wanted to live on? What if there were giant insects (in one place, lice were referred to as "cat sized!") , Saber Tooths, and massive wolves also competing for resources? How would humans adapt to a higher O2, lower gravity environment? How would the colony's tech - not to mention personnel selection - be impacted by the astronomical shipping costs?
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I was pleased to learn that "In the Courts of the Crimson Kings" is in the same universe. (less)

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Nov 27, 2012 Bradley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: removed-from-collection, science-fiction, fantasy

The Sky People by S.M. Stirling is an interesting new novel, with a somewhat old-time feel. The Sky People takes place on a very different planet Venus than we know exists today.

During the 1950's, astronomers believed they saw canals on Mars, and concluded they were the work of alien civilizations. The Sky People draws on that assumption and rewrites history to show that Venus is truly a sister-world of Earth, filled with wild animals and species that died-out on Earth, such as dinosaurs, Neand...more

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May 28, 2008 Kenneth rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who enjoys the pulp SF of old.

Great premise, blah execution. The idea of extending the space race in an alternative future in which Mars and Venus are habitable, pulp-style worlds is a great one, but the book lacked the sense of adventure and wonder I was hoping for. The book seemed to struggle to adjust to its own premise, not sure if it wanted to embrace pulp or hard sf, and ended up failing at both. It was an ok read, but not an inspired one.

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Dec 23, 2009 Cv Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a serviceable pulp sci-fi adventure book in the golden age mold of the genre. It reads like Burroughs or Hubbard with a cookie-cutter cast of interplanetary colonizers discovering a new and vibrant world within our own solar system. Dangers are avoided, challenges met, and secrets revealed. The good guy wins, gets the girl, and extends the grand designs of American expansion beyond our shores - beyond our atmosphere - for the good of all mankind.

There's a bit of sarcasm in what I wrote,...more

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May 08, 2013 Oswego Public Library District added it

Shelves: science-fiction

The Sky People is S.M. Stirling’s fast-paced, alternative history of the Space Race. After discovering Venus and Mars have life, the Eastbloc and the United States establish living areas on Venus. The Eastbloc’s Cosmograd and the United States’ Jamestown extraterrestrial zones harbor earth-life while the astronauts and scientists are researching the strange planet. Life on Venus is eerily similar to life on Earth – dinosauriods can be seen among space mammals that look genetically similar to ear...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Alex Brickler rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-readings-for-fun, alternative-history

In a word, 'irritating'. Not necessarily _bad_; no, in fact I had moments of genuine interest and curiosity of a sort that I imagine was rather endemic to readers of the pulp classics of the heyday of prewar Sci-Fi. And indeed, the premise was certainly enough to keep me reading, if for no other reason than to see how Stirling was going to have it all shake out in the end.
But, good grief was it a gripe-worthy journey to that conclusion!
I'm an 80s-baby, many of the cooler ideas behind this work...more

In a word, 'irritating'. Not necessarily _bad_; no, in fact I had moments of genuine interest and curiosity of a sort that I imagine was rather endemic to readers of the pulp classics of the heyday of prewar Sci-Fi. And indeed, the premise was certainly enough to keep me reading, if for no other reason than to see how Stirling was going to have it all shake out in the end.
But, good grief was it a gripe-worthy journey to that conclusion!
I'm an 80s-baby, many of the cooler ideas behind this work were much more directly evocative (to me) of Dino-Riders, or Cadillacs and Dinosaurs than the Burroughs pieces I regrettably have yet to read. That being said, I was rather excited to see how this was going to play itself out. But much like my disillusionment with the Draka books and the 'Emberverse'/Change series, the problems were in the execution. For what was billed as such a pastiche or homage to old-skool traditions (to the point of a truly gag-worthy, overt 'vindication' of them as literature in one of the novel's fictional Encyclopaedia Britannica entries. Ugh. Feelin' yourself a little too much there, eh podna?), the work felt slapdash and overly episodic, rather than any manner of truly epic odyssey. The most egregious example of which was when, after a potentially politically catastrophic incident in the Venusian city of Karathown, the author inexplicably skips forward about a month with no discussion of the ramifications, the fallout, or the significance. Perhaps this was just a chance to demonstrate the tension between the locals and the American settlers, but why sidebar it like that?
Honestly, and I'm sure this is a critique that Stirling has fielded before, there is something rather iffy about the novel's whole take on the politics of 'colonisation'. Real talk, if this was supposed to be the 1980s, you would think that American policy-makers wold be less apt to revisit colonialist/mercantilist versions of--dress it up all you like with scientific pretence--imperialism. Moreover, painting Marc Vitrac as a cajun Tarzan in the Venusian wilds courting the local 'Indian Princess' may all be part of the pastiche, but some literary tropes died out for a reason.
And the discussion of identity politics brings me, of course to 'Night-Face'. Good grief! His editors thought that this would be an okay direction to go? I applaud the author for trying to put a bit of racial diversity in what was surely a literary tradition born of extending Kipling's colonialist sensibilities to the stars, but such a ham-fisted attempt at it really turned me off as a reader. His attempts at writing local dialect are bad enough as is, but when you throw in not one, not two, but three 'Sheee-its' from the only Black character in the work, you get the impression that he's channeling her mannerisms from _The Wire_ or something.
A rollicking tale of high adventure in the Venusian wilds, yes, and one of the few works by this author that I can say that I not just finished, but rather liked; but very problematic in a number of areas of the subtext. Try though I might, I don't think I'll ever be a fan of the author, as much as I do like his imagination and ability to produce provocative setups. There is just so much more wrong with the book than even the awesome dinosaur fights can excuse.(less)

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Apr 12, 2009 Kiri rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

This book was an okay adventure in an alternate-world kind of Venus, in which our heroes take an airship across Venus to rescue a downed spacecraft, get stranded themselves, and then must try to make their way back thousands of miles without getting eaten by saber-toothed tigers, raptors, massive dinosaurs of all stripes, huge crocodiles, etc. Not to mention the rampaging Neanderthals and their clubs.

Much of the story unfolds in a very predictable fashion, peopled by characters of only limited d...more This book was an okay adventure in an alternate-world kind of Venus, in which our heroes take an airship across Venus to rescue a downed spacecraft, get stranded themselves, and then must try to make their way back thousands of miles without getting eaten by saber-toothed tigers, raptors, massive dinosaurs of all stripes, huge crocodiles, etc. Not to mention the rampaging Neanderthals and their clubs.

Much of the story unfolds in a very predictable fashion, peopled by characters of only limited depth. The protagonist, Marc, trains a local almost-wolf by rescuing it as a puppy, from which point on it is 100% loyal, super-intelligent, and figures out what he wants apparently by mind-reading, developing new skills as needed, like bloodhound-style tracking and knowing which people it should bite and which it should protect, without any instruction. Marc also hunts raptors on foot, bests a native rival (who is 2 inches taller than Marc but 30 seconds later described as 3 inches taller) in hand-to-hand combat (of course, this rival then develops grudging support for Marc, even though he's supposed to have "made a deadly enemy" by besting him), builds just about anything overnight, and speaks in a subtly annoying Bayou patois. Wait, you ask, what about a native Venusian love interest for Marc? Don't worry, she's in there too.

The ongoing mystery behind the plot is the question of why so much of the life on Venus (human and animal and plant) is so similar to that of Earth, although curiously jumbled together (dinosaurs with modern humans with Neanderthals). This is an interesting puzzle, with a sort of uninteresting (to me) solution.

The innovative element is the alternate history reworking of American and Soviet exploration of Venus, and the effects of their findings on local Earth politics. I found this interesting, but the egregious modification of Venus itself was like fingernails on a chalkboard. It's not often that a book raises my scientific hackles by the second line. In fact, I don't think that's ever happened before. But when this book mentioned Venus's "short nights", I thought, "What?!" Not only did Stirling change the rotational period of Venus, he also modified its atmosphere, pressure, history, geology, and everything else... in grating conflict with even what you'd observe of Venus from Earth (before visiting). I usually can manage sufficient suspension of disbelief, but in this case it was a constant grating annoyance. Others might do better with this. :)

Overall, it was engaging enough to keep me reading. But I recall enjoying Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time much more. It's possible that this was written as a nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs in terms of his Mars and Venus books, and it certainly has some of the same feel (plot, world, and local love interest-wise); but while books written in the 1930's about space travel have a certain innocent charm, books written today in blatant violation of the most basic current observations of our neighbor planets instead seem... weak.(less)

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Jun 07, 2009 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in 1988 on Venus, but written in 2006, this book has zeppelins, dinosaurs, aliens, neanderthals, saber-toothed tigers, space ships, weapons, a giant wolf companion, a lot of action and a little romance. I am so glad that S.M.Stirling undertook to write a book like this-- a nod to early sci-fi when Venus and Mars still held life, like Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars.

The only downside of this book was that, while the action and dialogue were entrancing, for some reason the setting desc...more

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Oct 18, 2009 Bob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Marc VItrak, a Cajan and member of the US led consortium settling on Venus is tasked to go with a rescue mission for a downed pilot and crew of a Soviet block shuttle. The time is 1988 and it seems that Venus and Mars are both inhabited. On Venus there is a strange mixture of fauna from near pigs to a whole gamete of dinosaur like creatures. There are also several different groups of human like natives. Venus is a dangerous place and you can look back to Edgar Rice Burroughs' adventure tales for...more

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Jul 17, 2009 Wayne Wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Just what I thought it would be. Sort of a variation on a theme. Very similar to the series "Dies the Fire" which I am waiting for the next installment. This book gave me my S.M. Sterling fix.

For me Sterling does great descriptions of lands and people which allow me to escape. Maybe it seemed so similar to the "Dies the Fire" series because I listened to this book and it has the same narrator.

This idea of some sort of Alien race in the background of all his books that acts like "god" to the huma...more

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Jul 26, 2008 Charles rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This one was good, but more space opera to me than Sword and Planet. I liked it but it didn't have the power of "In the Courts of the Crimson Kings."

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Oct 26, 2010 Nathan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2010, sci-fi

The only reason I gave this two stars is that, as bad as I thought it was, I still continued to want to read it. The plot was fair. It had some nice ideas but was unable to capitalize on any of them. The descriptions in the book were good, but limited. Ever time a big meat eater was talked about we were told it had steak knife teeth. EVERY time. Every time there was fire, there was a paragraph about the higher oxygen content on Venus. Same thing with physical exertion. All in all I have to say t...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Andrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Its another book with a lot of potential. The idea is great, and the plot is wonderful. The only flaw(and a rather large one)is the execution. It is okay. The ending feels rushed, especially after all of the great build up. The plot starts to wear a tad thin by the end. Who knows, maybe the Editor was rushing Stirling, but still, a flaw is a flaw.
Five stars for ingenuity. Four for plot idea. Three-ish for execution. Oh yeah, the characters were not developed too well also.

I mean, the book was...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

The only book I've actually read three times over the years.

This intelligent "alternate history" book examines "What If?" at the start of the American/Russian Space Race of the early 60s.

With a nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs, it's an adventure, history, and romance, set in a hostile, uncharted land.

By the end of the novel, you've cared so much for the central characters, that their return to "civilization" has a number of anticipated, and heartwarming surprises.

This is also the BEST of this series...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Christina by: Androids Dream

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, sci-fi

Imagine if "Avatar" had been written at a high school level instead of an elementary level.

Now imagine that the Na'vi (the blue aliens, for those who haven't seen the movie) are basically blonde Asians. They're the same size as us, so the avatars are unnecessary.

Imagine that they're fighting other natives, who are basically Neanderthals.

Now imagine that the main character (Jake Sully in "Avatar") is actually smart.

Now imagine a little more action.

And there you go. You've pretty much got "The Sky...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Mouldy Squid rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The Sky People is the first of a duology by S. M. Stirling (best known for his Change series). The premise of the novel is rather attractive for fans of the old pulpy days of Science Fiction: that both Mars and Venus are discovered to be just what those old pulpsters envisioned them to be. Anyone familiar with early Science Fiction will know exactly what this means. In The Sky People a tropical Venus is settled by the competing Soviet and American space programs, set in the late 1980s. There the...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Duffy Pratt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, alternative-history, science-fiction

More and more, I'm thinking of Stirling as a guy who makes mediocre books out of really cool ideas. Here, an alien race terraformed Venus and Mars a couple of million years ago. It made a kind of zoo out of Venus, populating it with all sorts of Earth critters, and then setting up a sentinel for observation. This race, apparently, is so advanced that it can go to the trouble of terraforming an entire planet, and then just leave it alone without seeming to use it for anything.

That premise is the...more More and more, I'm thinking of Stirling as a guy who makes mediocre books out of really cool ideas. Here, an alien race terraformed Venus and Mars a couple of million years ago. It made a kind of zoo out of Venus, populating it with all sorts of Earth critters, and then setting up a sentinel for observation. This race, apparently, is so advanced that it can go to the trouble of terraforming an entire planet, and then just leave it alone without seeming to use it for anything.

That premise is the jumping off point for an alternate history. When the space programs did the first drive-by of Venus back in 1962, they found a planet very capable of supporting life, instead of an 800 degree hellhole with an almost entirely CO2 atmosphere. So a probe was launched, and not only was life discovered, but humanoid life. This diverted the course of Earth history. JFK gets a second term. The cold war comes to an early end as governments focus obsessively on the exploration and colonization of Mars and Venus.

This is an extremely cool premise. But Stirling does what he seems to do too easily. He sticks in his stock characters, and runs them through an adventure that seems like a coy reworking of The Lost World or One Million Years B.C. As always, his hero is a brash and hyper-competent guy with a quasi-military background. You could take Marc in this book and plug him into almost any other Stirling hero without noticing much of a difference. This time, the hero is Cajun, and that means he starts some of his interior monologues with the word "Mais", and he makes a roux once. Otherwise, he's the same guy I've seen at least five times before.

He and some other hyper-competent folks go on a rescue mission, trying to save the crew of a downed Russian shuttle. Along the way there is a Russian plot, the possibility of a love triangle, the mystery of a saboteur, Neanderthals with AK-47s, and some other engaging possibilities. For the most part, these threads simply fizzle. The action remains fast paced, well described, and fun. But there is so much possibility here, some just from the set-up, and other bits from plot tensions that Stirling deliberately created. And he just doesn't do much with the material he's created. To me, it felt like he just got lazy. To a certain extent, this book feels like an homage to Burroughs. It's almost as if Stirling couldn't bring himself to take his premise seriously, and yet he doesn't make a really good joke out of it either. Great premise, but disappointing execution.(less)

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Aug 04, 2009 Guy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy

Bleh. Not terrible, just not very good. Definitely not a "Sci Fi Essential". I realize that a printed page is flat and black and white, but it's a little unsatisfying when the characters, the plot, the writing, and the world-building are as well.

I realize (in retrospect) that those books by Stirling that I've liked have always been written with someone else... and clearly the things I've liked about them have come primarily from Stirling's co-authors. Too bad he didn't have a co-author on this...more

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Sep 19, 2008 Hotspur rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Burroughs, Moorcock, Wells

Shelves: pulp-adventure, fantasy, tsl-library

Imagine the Cold War transposed over Edgar Rice Burroughs, Larry Niven and a little bit H.G. Wells, and you have the milieu of the SKY PEOPLE. I'll be honest, I have never been very impressed with Stirling's work in the past-- they start off well, for the most part, but he has (historically, in my experience) dove into some fairly cheesy directions, possibly because he thought that was what his (mostly male) audience wanted (start a Draka novel some time, you'll see.. you'lllll seeeeeeeee). Stil...more

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Jun 11, 2008 Dave added it

I put this one on my "read" shelf, but really, I'm only about half way through. The thing is, I know I'm not "currently reading" it either. Sucka's shelved. It wasn't compelling in the slightest, but then, to try to salvage the book, I'm not sure it was supposed to be.

When I ditched the book, I realized that I had no interest in what would happen because I felt like there were only two or three possible directions the book could go, and none of them were particularly interesting. The thing is, t...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Manuel rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of science fiction

This is the first book I've read by this writer. I know he is better known for his sci-fi series set in the North Western US dealing with the end of civiliztion.

Basically I was just looking for something not too heavy to read while I sit at the pool.

Yes I liked this book even though Im not normally a fan of alternative history. Basically its a story very much in the style of 50s pulp sci-fi. It imagines a universe where life has been discovered on both Venus and Mars.

The book describes the ten...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of pulp Sci-fi and Hard Science Fiction

Recommended to Jesse by: My Eyes

Shelves: military-sci-fi, sci-fi

Take the Venus of the pulps with all its adventurous glory, and add the backing of "hard Sci-fi", and you've got this book in a nutshell. Its a little of everything: Alternative history, space exploration, pulp adventures, even some military sci-fi.

This is my first S.M. Stirling book, and already he has made a big impression on me. The concept sounds a bit corny, to mix hard science fiction with pulp Sci-fi yet this man pulls it off in spades. Each chapter opens up with an entry in this worlds f...more

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About S.M. Stirling

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

More about S.M. Stirling...

Books by S.M. Stirling

Island in the Sea of Time (Nantucket, Book 1)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77879.The_Sky_People?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312023937l/77879.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77879.The_Sky_People?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Sky People by S.M. Stirling[/url]

The Sky People (The Lords of Creation #1)

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