The Deadly Sky

by Doris Piserchia

Doris Piserchia Earth for 470 million days of 5 stars (

Genres: Science Fiction

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 3, 1983

About the author

Also wrote under the psudonym Curt Selby.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piserchia has become one of the forgotten figures of the field, which is a shame because she produced some excellent work. The Deadly Sky is an entertaining read, if a little diffuse... It's never really made clear where in time or space the book is set, and there's a vaguely dream-like essence to it all. It's not the best of her work, but it's enjoyable. If I had read this one without knowing the author, my first guess would have been A. E. van Vogt from the early '70s. I believe this is the last of Piserchia's novels to see print. It has a nice Kelly Freas cover which doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story itself.

[Snakes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Piserchia’s last novel and perhaps there was a reason why. I’ll save my ultimate opinion until after I read some of her earlier books, but this one was my first of hers, and it wasn’t good.

[Chad Gayle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Deadly Sky is the last novel Doris Piserchia published. By 1983, her daughter had died and she'd become her granddaughter's guardian, and the commitments of raising her granddaughter kept her from ever publishing anything again. Unfortunately, this book shows none of the idiosyncratic talent Piserchia displayed in her earlier work. Maybe that's because she was drafting it in the midst of the family tragedy that upended her career; maybe it was finished but was never revised. My copy contains both typesetting and proofing errors, so there is a good chance that it was rushed to press or given the brush off as the final piece of a contract that wouldn't be renewed.

I don't hand out one star reviews unless I have to, but this novel is so flawed and so disappointing in so many respects that giving it anything more than one star would be gravely disingenuous, which is an awful shame. Piserchia's The Dimensioneers (1982) is by no means a classic, but it has enough going for it to make its quirkiness worthwhile; in contrast, The Deadly Sky really has nothing to recommend it. It's a poorly contrived mishmash of science fiction elements that serve a weak, one dimensional plot, written in drab, uninspired prose, and the characters are essentially clones of each other. While I was reading it, I hoped that I could find something nice to say about it by the time I was finished, but the only thing worth remembering about The Deadly Sky is the cover art by Frank Kelly Freas.

But the cover IS cool. That's something, right?

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Piserchia's most entertaining novels, ultimately spoiled by an absolutely pathetic and indifferent ending. It seems that she wrote 170 pages with some enthusiasm then inexplicably and suddenly stopped caring. And I believe this is her last novel. I'm not 100% certain but it seems she completely disappeared after 1983. Dead, maybe. I could look into this but I'm not going to.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given this period of science fiction was when many SF magazines were abundant that allowed authors to publish short stories sometimes when reading the novels of new wave science fiction like this one they are brilliant initially for the 1/2 or so and then peter out towards the end. The writing throughout is excellent though.

[Todd · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m pretty sure this is the worst book I’ve ever read, and I read half of 50 Shades of Gray. I only kept reading to see if the writing got any better or if the story ever actually made sense...neither happened. Absolute dreck. At least the cover is sorta cool.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book left me smiling and feeling warm. The word, "charming" keeps coming to mind.

Doris Piserchia's books vary greatly in quality - sometimes they seem almost like first drafts, sometimes they seem very polished. They're always incredibly imaginative, playful, sometimes very funny, sometimes very romantic - although rarely is there any romance in them other than as a playful note. The Deadly Sky is possibly her best written book. The structure is excellent and consistent throughout.

While romance is not the driving force or theme in this book, it plays a strong role, stronger than in any other of Piserchia's novels except, possibly, Blood Country, which she wrote under the pen name of Curt Selby. This novel has the most love in it of any of them; there's the relationship between the protagonist and his ageing father, between him and his romantic love interest, whom he first sees while mountain climbing and finally follows to the top of the mountain, where he encounters the deadly sky of the title.

There are many other relationships, adopted children, abandoned children, the bad guy loves the same woman our protagonist loves. There is a loving relationship between the protagonist's mysterious, robot-like, full cyborg nanny. It's quite a different book, perhaps the most sophisticated and mature of all Doris Piserchia's novels. And it's charming.

Anyhow, at the top of this mysterious mountain our protagonist has loved climbing his entire life, he discovers a settlement of scientist-warriors dedicated to defeating an intrusion from another dimension, which has opens what seems like a crack in the sky, from which bizarre creatures emerge from time to time, to attack. They enter the crack in the sky and brave a perilous and shifting maze full of traps which from time to time claim a limb, or even torso, all kinds of parts which are replaced with high tech, durable, powerful glass replacement parts. The final stage is basically a brain in a jar, an all-glass robot.

The technology isn't explained clearly but is described beautifully - it's all some kind of very strong glass with electronic and mechanical properties. In fact, the entire city the protagonist comes from is made of the stuff. It's used for machines, architecture, even strange weather control devices. This book is worth reading just for the imagery! It paints beautiful pictures in your head.

Anyhow, the hero climbs this mountain on a regular basis. One day he spies a beautiful young woman about his own age, sunbathing on the opposite side of a crevasse he has never been able to find a way across. He goes up one day hoping to find her, and comes across the fellow who becomes his antagonist in the story. He feels challenged to get over to the other side and hops on an enormous bird and rides it across. From there, he finds his way up to the settlement of scientist-warriors, led by a famous statesman long since believed to be dead, who is a full cybog, fighting the invaders from the sky.

Of course, the hero turns out to have qualities which enable him to prevail, where the fight had been carrying on for over a hundred years. The scientists had been running a program to try to identify people with the greatest chances of defeating the invaders, and he had come up as a likely match. His nanny was actually the leader of the scientist warriors. It's very complicated for such a short novel.

But the romance is sweet, the relationship with his father is charming and lovely, the bad guy is strikingly bad, there's a tragic romance - a truly nice girl loves the bad guy from the other dimension, the plot is neatly, erm, plotted, and ties up well at the end. All in all, it's a very satisfying read.

Definitely a happy ending. This book is charming and has monsters and situations that make one laugh, but it's not a comedy, like Piserchia's Earth in Twilight. It's a light romance, heroic adventure with some charming humor. Really unlike anything else D.P. wrote.