Our novel selection for April/May 2008 comes from Ken Newquist, friend of the show and editor of Nuketown and its companion podcast, Nuketown Radio Active.

The Sky People by S.M. Stirling is an alternate-history, science fiction, pulp story that takes place in late 1980s. Instead of stopping at the Moon, the Space Race has reached to Venus and Mars, both of which are teeming with life...including prehistoric creatures and humans!

I didn't see an audio version of The Sky People on GoodReads, but it most definitely exists. If you're the type who enjoys audiobooks, check your local library for the unabridged CD version read by Todd McLaren. It's 9 discs and about 10.5 hours long. It's also available on Amazon.com for about 30 bucks.

I'll join in on this one. Already requested from my library, which thankfully is part of a different system than our overlords.

This one looks fun. Count me in. :)

I've got my copy tucked away for my upcoming trip west (6 hours out, 5 hours back = plenty of time to read).

I really like the premise of this book -- IMHO there was something magical about the time when we still earnestly believed in the possibility of a canal-crossed Mars and the teaming planet jungle of Venus.

Here's to hoping it's got as good of a story as it does a premise.

I'm reading this one right now - and it's a nice fusion of planetary romance and alternate history.

The audio version of the book is from Tantor Audio Books; this company makes non-DRM'd mp3 versions of audiobooks. I can't recommend them enough. Here's the specific page for The Sky People.

US $24 for the mp3 CD. It's got a unique EAN: 9781400153459, I believe, if you want to order it from Amazon or the like...

Stirling's Draka series has earned my respect for the author, and the more recent Dies the Fire and Conquistador keeps me quite entertained.

Interesting: at the sinkhole, Mark calls Christopher Blair "wing commander". Christopher "Maverick" Blair is the main character of the "Wing Commander" video game series (portrayed by Mark Hamill in WC III and IV).

Nice. I didn't catch that. I just finished the book on the way back from San Francisco, and liked it. I'm looking forward to talking about it. :)

I finished listening to [i]The Sky People[/i] early this week. Interesting book. Once Mr. Miller finishes, we'll record our discussion. Ken, do you want in on that action?

Sure -- this week and next are good for me.

Seeding the conversation here:

1. Was anyone else a little nonplussed by the events at the Cave of the Mysteries near the end?
2. On the topic of the ending, how likely are you to now read the sequel, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings?

I finished the book over the weekend and didn't dislike it but I was a little disappointed in it. I agree that the ending in the cave got a little weird. And the other events at the end got too predictable. You could see it coming a mile away that they were going to ride a dinosaur in to save the day, and that Marc would get together with Tessa and go native.

I would have liked to have seen more of a straight up adventure. Where the group tries to rescue the Russians and then fights their way back home. Instead of the weird alien technology taking over, I was thinking that the alien influence would be more subtle. But I guess that would be different book...

I did really like the setting and the ideas of how the US and Russia would go about creating settlements on Venus. The alternate history of space exploration seemed very realistic and made me think about where we would be if the space program had kept up the momentum it had in the early 70s.

The other interesting thing for me was how the book felt like it was written 15-20 years ago. Which I think was intentional, or it was an illusion because the copy I got from the library was so beat up :) I kept checking the copyright page to see that it was published in 2006.

Ok, what happened in the Cave of Mysteries again? Given the very disturbing stuff in this book (rape, murder, pillaging, cross species sex, animal cruelty and so on) I am not sure which aspect you are discussing.

I think the book was set in the 1980s (and thus had that dated feel) because 21st folks would probably have issues rewiring dinosaur brains to serve as transports.

For me, the book didn't really fulfill it's pulp promise. Maybe I was expecting too much in the vein of thrilling adventures and death-defying escapes, but the whole thing felt subdued. I've read stuff like this before, and the while exploring alien worlds is all well and good, these aren't *just* alien worlds. It's the Venus that could have been, and frankly, it felt like another world-of-the-week from Star Trek.

There weren't nearly enough dinosaurs, mysterious aliens, and thrilling escapes. I was looking for more Jurassic Park moments of wonder at encountering the alien creatures, and instead the creatures -- hell, the entire environment -- seemed ho-hum.

I was also disappointed that the Soviet Union was so neutered. If you're going to have an alternative history, then go big! How would the Cold War have turned out differently if the Soviets had had two entirely habitable worlds to explore and exploit in order to keep their system creaking along into the 21st Century?

There was a lot of great opportunity there to compare and contrast the two political systems in the context of a whole new world (hell, just the idea of a capitalist first contact versus a communist one is enough to provide an entire book's worth of conflict).

I really liked the idea. I'm just disappointed by the execution.

*SPOILER ALERT*

I'm right there with you, Ken.

IMHO, this was a novel that needed to be a novella or even a short story. You could have totally ignored everything from before the American team's crash in the wilderness and you would have been fine.

The cajun thing got on my nerves, Blair is a cardboard cutout, the entire village in the first half of the novel serves next to no purpose. Feh.

I felt like this was an author's romance with the Mars novels. Get a room, buddy.

Will I read the sequel? Probably not.

I admit to being a bit tentative about buying this one. After finishing novels one and two in the Draka-verse, my judgment on Stirling was something along the lines of: "That SM Stirling, he sure likes a lesbian scene!".. which is hardly a recommendation to explore other works in his oeuvre.

Mind you, I did enjoy books one and two in the ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME series-- simply because the idea of placing Nantucket in a time period before most of recorded history is very intriguing. However, it does get a bit repetitive about midway through the second book, so I kind of dropped it for a yawner..

So, will THE SKY PEOPLE make me see the hidden merits of Mr. Stirling, beyond the realms of soft-core porn? It's perhaps too late to buy and read, but I am interested-- Stirling can definitely build on ideas, and when he isn't being uber-macho, he can deliver on occasion. So, yeah, I'm intrigued.

Welcome to the group, Hotspur! I have to say that, after reading your comment, I'm very disappointed with the amount of lesbian softcore porn in The Sky People: because there is none. Is this a complete stylistic overhaul for Stirling? I dunno, but a little wrassling match between Teesa and Cynthia might have gone a long way to spice things up, especially if there were deerskin bikinis involved.

I'll be in my bunk.

Thanks, Kris. I've been lurking for a bit, but am glad to be here and glad to participate. I used to attend a SF book club discussion at the local bookstore, alas, the store was done in by the ravages of market capitalism and is no more. I'm glad this club is around.

BTW, love the podcast so far. After a job change last year I had to get used to driving to work again (after years of sleeping on the commuter train). I hate morning drive radio in this burg (Wash DC) and have turned to podcasts as a way to keep my extra peppy and alert. Keep up the good work, fellers.

H.

PS: Oh, and if you think I'm stretching things a bit with the lesbian softcore, read a Draka book some time, or try to.

I picked up THE SKY PEOPLE about a month ago or so and am about done. I rather liked it. Not anything epic, but quite entertaining. Is there another story written in this universe?

H

Hotspur,

You're in luck! Stirling's follow-up to The Sky People is In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, which moves the narrative to Mars.

MY review...

The Sky People by S.M. Stirling


<h3>My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
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). Still, SKY PEOPLE was on my book club list for the Secret Library, so I found it and read it. And was pleasantly surprised. Stirling delivered a pretty good setting and a pretty good story here-- NOT laden with tons of surprises. The Sky People reads like a good fantasy/SF crossover written in the 80s, and that's not such a bad thing.



In the 1980s The Soviets and the American "bloc" have discovered life on Venus AND on Mars, and it's (suspiciously) human looking. Venus, where this novel takes place, is a riot of mixed biology that would give an anthropologist and biologist fits-- mammals coexisting with dinosaurs, suspiciously Human looking Homo Sapiens existing with Neanderthals, and a lot more. The setting is grand, the plot, decent. In my humble opinion, it's Stirling's best novel yet (although my sample data is somewhat limited).


View all my reviews.

Our discussion of The Sky People has just been posted at The Secret Lair. There is a hidden link to that discussion in this very comment.