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Savage Skies

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From the NYT bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, comes a brand new look at the future in this thrilling sci-fi military novella.

A hostile world that will doom the human race … or save it, if a few survivors can unlock its secrets …

After waking up with no memories in an underground facility, a squad of elite soldiers and scientists must try to recall what their mission is. But first, it’s a race against the clock to escape their collapsing bunker before it becomes a tomb. Topside, an even more dangerous world of fiery skies and desolate terrain awaits.

As they venture out to explore their strange new surroundings, bits of memory begin to return, though nothing can prepare them for the strange forces protecting this bleak landscape. Worse, it seems that not everyone on the team wants the mission—whatever it is—to succeed. One thing is the world they remember is gone, destroyed by war or natural disaster. Soon, they will learn that they must unlock the past if they are to have any hope of ever seeing the future.

Please note, this is a novella, and is the introduction to a brand new NSS universe.

156 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 11, 2023

114 people are currently reading
87 people want to read

About the author

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

103 books2,384 followers
Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels with two million copies sold. Before his writing career, he served at Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a background that inspired many of his story concepts. A two time Ironman triathlete, he enjoys running, biking, and hiking. Nicholas also loves traveling, especially to his cabin in Northern Minnesota where he weaves his tales. He lives in Iowa with his wonderful wife and their son and daughter.

Note: Nicholas is no longer an active user on Goodreads and does not use the platform. If you want to connect with him on social media here are some links. He would love to hear from you.

Facebook Fan Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NSSFa...
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/nicholassans...
Website: nicholassansburysmith.com
Instagram: instagram.com/author_sansbury/

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5 stars
168 (43%)
4 stars
112 (29%)
3 stars
76 (19%)
2 stars
24 (6%)
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5 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
Profile Image for Rain.
2,587 reviews21 followers
April 19, 2025
The story begins with a squad of elite soldiers and scientists waking up from cryo sleep in an underground bunker, with no memory of who they are. They struggle to piece together their identities and mission, it quickly becomes clear that their shelter is collapsing around them. It's an intense race against time, as the team emerges into a harsh, alien world marked by fiery skies, desolate terrain, and strange forces.

The memories were slowly coming back to her, and nearly all of them were awful.

Military/thriller
Sci-fi/survival fiction
Space exploration
Cloning, AI
Unique alien species

Smith excels at creating immersive settings and especially shines in his sci-fi worlds. The world outside the bunker is dangerous and beautifully strange, hinting at secrets and histories far beyond what the team at first understands. The soldiers’ memories slowly return, revealing pieces of a larger story involving war, colonization, and perhaps something even more profound...

Recommend for fans of military/colonization adventures and sci-fi mysteries. I wasn't feeling this book at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it, the TWIST at the end was perfection. I can't wait to read the next one.
Profile Image for Jamie.
1,435 reviews221 followers
September 14, 2023
Solid start to a new military/thriller sci-fi series mixing in elements of space exploration, AI, cloning and some chilling otherworldly settings and alien species, though I don't exactly feel compelled to continue on.
Profile Image for Aristotle.
734 reviews74 followers
July 17, 2023
Nicholas Sansbury Smith said 'you can vote for sequels by leaving an HONEST review.'
I'm not a fanboy. I've written negative reviews on Nicholas' books, Sons of War was one star.

This was a good novella where I look forward to continuing the series.

It's a cheeseburger deluxe with a cold beer in a chilled mug.
Fast, fun and effortless.

Elegant prose?
Elegant what?
It's an onion ring.

If you're looking for a steak dinner with a bottle of cabernet sauvignon try another restaurant.

P.S. Was Deckard a Replicant?
Profile Image for William.
73 reviews
July 17, 2023
Great plot

Great plot overall, thankfully the writing got better as the story went on. It seemed to be very short sentences and choppy at the onset which surprised me for an NSS book. But as reading went on it felt more and more like the previous tales from the NSS universe I've been accustomed to. Definitely hope to see a follow-up to this one as I loved the turning point in the middle the most!
Profile Image for Ziggy Nixon.
1,149 reviews36 followers
July 14, 2023
You are the guardians of humanity.

A tremendously satisfying "amuse-bouche*" from the best action-adventure writer I know of today! If you're like me and constantly marking time until Nicholas Sansbury Smith's next "Hell Divers" release or even a taste of whatever new he has in his vast and imaginative pipeline, "Savage Skies" will be just what you're looking for while you're patiently waiting! Filled with a mysterious future and a world unknown, this really clicks all the buttons!

There will be a new war for this zone. A war that could determine the future of the human race.

And speaking of "Hell Divers", our story starts off almost as if we're on one of the missions that the earlier cast and crew of that great series might have found themselves on! Ok, granted, there's no jumping out of airships during this particular escapade, but you might notice some other flavorings from (for example) the "E-Day" books and more! Again though, it is the mysteries we are faced with from the get-go that carry this tale to its unexpected but satisfying conclusion!

The memories were slowly coming back to her, and nearly all of them were awful.

Even with a shorter volume of pages to devour, this tale feels no shorter than most, as Smith quickly establishes his characters and their missions. While we could have arguably spent much more time exploring some of the situations that arise, I found that the pacing was not hurried at all. Even as the memories of our crew slowly recover - albeit perhaps not completely in all cases - you can't help but feel the same urgency that for better or worse surrounds their mission.

He swallowed hard, then got up and did what he was trained to do. Survive.

Smith also again shows that when he puts on his scifi hat - particularly when it comes to creating "non-human" lifeforms and their environs - that he is second to none! There's a lot of potential here and without giving away any clues that might act as spoilers, I would more than welcome a deeper look into this "universe". But yeah, getting ahold of the next "Hell Divers" before summer's over wouldn't be so bad either. Oh well, that's what happens when your fan base gets so addicted: we're just never satisfied!

Something had gone terribly wrong…

Great stuff! *Oh right: 'amuse-bouche' is what translates from French as "appetizer", though typically what you get is so small it almost doesn't qualify as same (for example: my culinarily-inclined brother-in-law serves them in shot glasses!) . The literal translation - "amusement for your mouth" - might work best, particularly if you gulp them down as fast as you will no doubt burn through this story!
Profile Image for Michael  Keller.
936 reviews10 followers
July 18, 2023
A job to do. Just can't remember why!

Sgt. Nate Stryker woke inside a glass column with wires snaking away from his body and a breathing mask over his face. Corporal Ramona 'Red' Redl helped him from the chamber and got him to shaky feet. As he dressed, Red checked the rest of the unit and started clearing them from their cryo tubes. Not all were still alive. Two were dried husks dangling inside cracked and broken tubes - their engineers hadn't made it. The last, with a damaged cryo, was half of their scientific command team. Zhi Mian's husband Fei didn't make it out, leaving Zhi devastated and uncooperative. They found that none of them had any memory of their past other than some nightmares. Once armed and suited up the 'Death Dealers' began the more than 100 floor climb up the bunker to begin their mission to examine the surface to determine whether humans could survive there. The last of ten teams, they had to find a way to survive on the red, dessert surface of a world with two moons.

No memories other than scary dreams of death and destruction, these characters are terrific. Even without memory to guide them, and a cranky AI named Kaia who offered no help, the Death Dealers were on mission with many questions, but no answers. This is another amazing storyline brought to us from a master storyteller. I can't wait to dig into the series which I'm sure will develop from this novella! Amazing! This is a great read!
96 reviews
July 27, 2023
A kind of interesting military/colonization adventure on an alien planet with life forms that act as an immune system to keep humans from settling. The soldiers come out of cryo with imperfect memories that slowly fill in over time. They climb 100 floors up a silo to find earth a deadly wasteland and their mission is to collect data for scientists to evaluate repopulation. They have a Maori AI, a couple scientists, and some expert soldiers. When they venture out flying starfish that are immune to laser rifles and a fast acting lethal fungus/worms. There are cyborg enemies at the other base. Turns out everyone on the team except maybe the head scientist are cyborgs and their memories are intentionally incomplete and they're not on earth but another planet with terraforming potential. The commander decides humanity doesn't deserve the planet so he turns on everyone but his 2nd in command turns on him to save the humans. He and the scientist send a message to earth that the planet is inhospitable, get in the colony ship, and take off for another potential planet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Calvin.
253 reviews6 followers
August 10, 2023
An interesting start

This is the first book I've read from this author. Overall it was pretty good. With it being a novella, it was over pretty quickly. I think it probably could have been written as a full book with some more detail. There is clearly a lot of backstory and history that occurs prior to this novella, and I'd be interested to read that. There were quite a few times where characters ask a question, and either get a vague or no answer at all, but don't bother following up. Clearly this was done to continue the mystery of what is going on. The earthquakes are never fully explained, but the big reveal about who or what the main character is, is pretty apparent about halfway through.
Profile Image for Joshua Del Toro.
138 reviews82 followers
September 6, 2023
Full disclosure, this is the first Nicholas Sansbury Smith novel I have picked up. I can without a doubt say it will not be my last! From the writing style to the character development everything was done so well. As the story processed I kept getting more on the edge of my seat, needing to know what happened next. Then at the big reveal, oh my word! By the end of the book I was not ready to part with these characters. I need a book 2 right this second. In the meantime I will likely binge read one of the author's other series. Seriously, if you like science fiction that leans towards military SciFi mixed with planet exploration, you need to pick this book up ASAP!

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC!
Profile Image for Trisha.
1,087 reviews17 followers
September 16, 2023
When a squad of soldiers and scientist’s wake up from cryro sleep and can’t remember who there are and why they are there, they start to explore where they are. It seems they are in an underground bunker but why and where should they go and what to do, but when they figure out their bunker is falling apart fast they know they don’t have much time to make the decision.
I love these militaristic dystopian books. This on has a decent group of characters and most work together well. But it is the suspense and twists that hooked me, not to mention voice actor Edoardo Ballerini makes this story seem as though you are in it with Stryker and his squad. This was a fun audiobook and I hope I can get more.

Profile Image for Witch-at-Heart .
1,575 reviews21 followers
September 19, 2023
Savage Skies was a great short audio Novella. The story pulls you in right away and evolves quickly without much backstory. Which in this instance works great because you find out information as the novella progresses and doesn’t waste valuable time on developing a plot. You are thrown right into an already moving timeline and it flows well despite the lack of history between characters. As with any Novella there isn’t much time to fully flesh out a novel’s worth of information it’s just a quick taste of the story and what you can expect from the series. I enjoyed it and the narrator did a great job with the characters and held my attention. If you like a short fast moving space opera I suggest giving it a try.
Profile Image for Jonnie.
816 reviews
February 16, 2024
I thoroughly enjoy military ops books and like some science fiction, so I thought I would give this one a try since it is so short. I was hoping it might lead me to a new genre. This wasn't my cup of tea. I don't read a lot of sci-fi so that is probably one reason this book did not "wow" me. My sci-fi reading is more along the lines of Dune, The Martian, Contact, Hail Mary Project, etc.

I liked that some characters believed the human race didn't deserve to survive because of what humans had done on earth. Yet, I couldn't quite buy into the overall story. Stryker and Red were decently developed characters in a short novella. I wavered between 2 and 3 stars, but went with 2 stars. I decided if this became a series, I would not read the next book.
Profile Image for Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime.
5,640 reviews329 followers
August 22, 2023
If prolific author Nicholas Sansbury Smith doesn't extend this novella to become a long-running series [as, for example, his HELL DIVERS Series], I will Cry Me an Apocalypse! I over-the-moon adored this! My imagination is busting at the seams: SAVAGE SKIES contains so many of my favorite themes and tropes and there are so many adventurous directions [like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure!] to sprout new stories and different versions! I can think of a few just from the last chapter plus the Epilogue! I can't wait to continue this breathtaking Post-apocalyptic mechaventure!!
Profile Image for Reads_Must .
960 reviews13 followers
May 13, 2025
Savage Skies
Sci-Fi
Nicholas Sansbury Smith
⭐️⭐️⭐️

• war • deception • clones •

This book was an ok read but it didn't blow me away.

The pacing was slow to start with and the writing itself was quite choppy. I think the author was trying to portray how disoriented the characters were but it just made it difficult for me to stay engaged with the plot.

I liked the world building and the strange creatures that would attack the characters. I wanted to see even more of the planet though.

There was a good plot twist towards the end which surprised me.
Profile Image for Ronie.
Author 66 books1,245 followers
July 13, 2023
Really enjoyed this new world and its characters. The shorter format is interesting--and I felt quite accomplished getting through it in one day. Ha! All kidding aside--there's a reason NSS is at the top of my fave-authors list, and this novella is proof why. I care about the characters, even when he swings the unfathomable into their faces.
Profile Image for Mary Rowe.
2,620 reviews8 followers
July 15, 2023
haven’t been tempted to read sci-fi, tried this novella

Tantalizing introduction to a new universe and new possibilities.

Dire deeds set the stage for the deaths of several expedition members, confrontations with remaining survivors, and assistance from a holographic AI clone imbued with the essence of a deceased teammate able reboot, update and reintegrate data.
Profile Image for Anita.
50 reviews
July 25, 2023
What is their mission?

This novella is a fast paced, page turner of unending questions. The team must determine their mission, but how can they if their memories are gone? AI's are there to help, or are they? This is a must read for sci-fi readers or anyone who enjoys apocalyptic scenarios.
Profile Image for Sarah Janus.
16 reviews
July 28, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this visit to a new world. I was amazed at how drawn in I got after a shorter book. Nicholas Sansbury Smith writes great characters, and the new ones we meet in this Novela are no exception. In a short time I was leaning into their stories wanting to know more. Maybe, of we are lucky, well get to explore with this team again!
511 reviews
September 18, 2023
This story was pretty good, though I found some stuff that was inconsistent. For example, when the plan was revealed to send off the research info to their...headquarters(?), the team thought they were on Earth and that they were the only survivors...the last of the ten teams. I guess to is plausible that they thought there were humans elsewhere?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Thibaldo Manrique.
262 reviews1 follower
September 18, 2023
Pretty good

I understand that such a short book, a novella at best, can't have too many details or a big buildup. With that in mind, the story is interesting and the action non stop. A couple of scenes stretched my suspension of disbelief to its limits, but all in all an enjoyable read.
581 reviews2 followers
November 11, 2023
A different kind of book but worth while to read.

You are taken on journey that is way into the future , people are trying to find a way to survive. But when read more you will wonder is this really worth doing this much. The author did a good job with the book and you might enjoy it.
4 reviews
December 17, 2023
Savage skies

The book was a little different but works for me, other cool name for this military team ( death dealers) . the mystery of their location and how they found out they were not on earth and the were clones what kept the story plot moving along. I don't want give anything away for the next reader, but I enjoyed reading the book. Thank you Nick for another good story.
Profile Image for Sydney S.
1,223 reviews67 followers
April 25, 2025
It scratched the itch I had for this genre, and it was very short, which is what I wanted, but it wasn’t anything special. I think this is more my mom’s style. I’ll recommend it to her.

This is more like an extremely fast paced Battlestar Galactica + Alien (movie), and I was looking for something with more character development and survival aspects.
49 reviews
December 16, 2025
Really short.

Should we be going short form with our books now too??? Plotting has become lighter, tension has been dialed back, now we have shorties instead of full books as well?

It was decent, what little there was of it. Basic monster, mystery, and Armageddon book. Same audiobook narrator as the Silo series.
Profile Image for David.
22 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2023
Excited For This New Chapter of NSS Storytelling!

In the interest of fairness I should disclose that I’m an admirer of Nicholas Sansbury Smith and have read almost everything he’s written. So I’m excited he’s introduced a new universe of characters and created a completely original new adventure! Very well written! I’m looking forward to reading so much more!
Profile Image for Cody .
494 reviews4 followers
July 15, 2023
Just ok

I'm sure if NSS makes this into a series, it'll go on and on ,ad nauseum, just like all his others. Then spin offs of characters from this series. Then a pre- Savage Skies , called Augs vs Humans, the Beginning. Yada yada yada.
Yeah, no thanks!
Profile Image for Todd Oliver.
697 reviews10 followers
July 18, 2023
Seriously loved this short story. I think it would have made a great series, but I'll take what I can get from NSS! Awesome book! Definitely worth the listen! Edoardo Ballerini is a fantastic narrator
Profile Image for Barb Gunzenhauser.
55 reviews1 follower
July 20, 2023
What a great story

I don’t know how he does it, but Nick has another hit. I love all his series and ever time I think this is the best one yet. Just think that humanity has a second chance and hopefully has learned from the past. Great idea. Don’t know what your dreams are like Nick, but I love your imagination and your writing. Keep it up, Please!
7 reviews
July 19, 2023
A Decent Start

I’m a huge fan of NSS, so I was excited about this new series idea. It all seemed a little rushed (but that’s most novellas). Hopefully a 500-600 page full novel will work itself out.
Profile Image for Wancket Enterprises.
632 reviews6 followers
Read
August 7, 2023
Undecided

I'm unsure if this book is brilliant or if it is too weird for words.

I do know that it is well written like all of the books by Nick Smith and will be worth the read. Good job Nick.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews

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