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Great Ship #4
The Memory of Sky
Diamond is an odd little boy, a seemingly fragile child -- who proves to be anything but. An epic story begins when he steps into the world his parents have so carefully kept him from, a world where gigantic trees each house thousands of humans and another human species, the papio, rule its far edges. Does Diamond hold the promise to remake one species and, perhaps, change all of the Creation?
624 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 19, 2014
Under the appearance of a classic science-fiction story, The Memory of the Sky is one of the most usual novels I have ever read. From the world and the characters to the way it is written and it plays with reader’s mind, this book is an extremely immersive, strange and alien experience. Some people say that this novel is not as good as Reed’s short fiction. It’s true that the American writer is maybe a little too ambitious and tries to do way too many things in the book than is humanly possible to truly explore, even in a 600 plus pages novel. But a novel doesn’t need to be as clean and as perfect as a short story, and even if The Memory of the Sky fails in some of the things that it tries to achieve, it is one of the most memorable works of fiction you’ll ever encounter.
A word of advice: Read it like me, a book a month, because I think that this trilogy works better if you don’t read it as a whole in one go.
A word of advice: Read it like me, a book a month, because I think that this trilogy works better if you don’t read it as a whole in one go.
August 13, 2016
Imagine a vibrant, noisy world in which trees hang from the sky and humans dwell in their trunks, where sunlight and monsters drift up from the mysterious demon floor far below. Into this chaotic order, a child is born, a child who has the ability to remember any fact, to subtly alter his form, to heal from any wound. His very humanity is a gift, a promise of a future where his descendants are a little closer to immortal and invincible. The child is a precious, invaluable, terrifying prize--for whatever district or whatever people can claim him. But like any power that can be avariciously hoarded, the child's very potential may be enough to tip the world into apocalyptic destruction.
I have to admit that I'm one of those shallow readers who is seduced by cover-art, and between Memory of Sky's gorgeous artwork, evocative title, and appealing blurb on Netgalley, I was sold. The description made the story sound like a childhood adventure, a romp in a beautiful and creative world, a cozy, fluffy read.
It isn't.
Independent of the nature of your preconceptions, The Memory of Sky is not what you think it is. While at times it seems to be the story of the adventures of a special boy or a coming-of-age tale or a war story, the narrative undergoes abrupt and disconcerting shifts. It is not exactly hard scifi or space opera or high fantasy. The closest I can come is an incredibly creative story of speculative fiction, marked by an unusual yet absorbing writing style, and a world that is simultaneously uncomfortably close and disturbingly alien to our own.
The world is a vibrant, noisy place where every movement follows some infinitely intricate, ordered plan. The enormous batlike leatherwings swoop between the enormous trees that hang from the sky, ducking around the industrious treewalkers who scamper up the tree-ramps and into the dwellings within the trunks. Far away from the majestic bloodwood trees that house the palaces and universities and markets in the treewalkers' District of Districts, the stolid papio, the landwalking cousins of the treewalkers, toil amongst the vast coral beds. Farther below even the papio, some adventurous treewalkers ride the winds down towards the demon floor, the bottom of the earth, the mysterious hot place from which light and rain and the monstrous coronas emerge.
The writing style is peculiar, yet oddly vivid. After an initial adjustment, I found myself savouring it; I loved how it tempered my perspective of the world; I thought the style was as peculiar and unbalancing and vivid as the story itself. I think the aspect that I loved most was the way that Reed was able to construct a definition of normality that deviated so sharply from our own. As far as I can tell, Diamond is more human in appearance, and the treewalkers are peculiarly simian from our perspective. Reed manages to perfectly capture treewalker perspective, to portray a world where trees hang from the sky and light comes from below, where arms are longer and feet are nearly prehensile, as utterly natural. Even the tiny details--the way that the people count in recitations and days rather than hours and years--added a new dimension to the world.
Diamond, the main protagonist, is aptly named. Like the almost-forgotten diamonds of the lost human world, he is a precious object whose very presence has the potential to inspire terrible greed that in turn erupts into fierce conflict. Yet Diamond's very peculiarities create a (most likely intentional) distance between the characters and the reader. The story itself starts out bright and cozy, yet abruptly drops into depressing tragedy. Because of their pain and their sheer strangeness, I had difficulty connecting with the characters. However, the worldbuilding was so creative, so fascinating, so simultaneously vividly detailed and mysterious, that I kept reading. If you're a hard scifi reader, this might not be the best fit--certain aspects of the worldbuilding seemed problematic to me, and personally I'd classify it as speculative fiction rather than scifi. Also, although I didn't realise it until later, this is apparently the third book in a series, so it is entirely possible that aspects of the story that I failed to understand would be comprehensible with sufficient background. While the central mystery remained unresolved for me, I still found it oddly satisfying; even if I don't really understand everything, I have the sense that the world is solidly constructed and that the answers are out there. To tell the truth, I was thoroughly enchanted by the disorienting changes in perspective, the enigmatic events, and even my sheer bewilderment.
The best word I can use to describe The Memory of Sky is "different." While it is far darker than the books I usually read, and while aspects of the plot feel both inevitable and tragic, I loved the way that it kept me on edge, always searching for the clues that would help me to unravel the world.
Excerpted from my review on booklikes.
~~I received this ebook through NetGalley from the publisher, Prime Books, in exchange for my honest review.~~
I have to admit that I'm one of those shallow readers who is seduced by cover-art, and between Memory of Sky's gorgeous artwork, evocative title, and appealing blurb on Netgalley, I was sold. The description made the story sound like a childhood adventure, a romp in a beautiful and creative world, a cozy, fluffy read.
It isn't.
Independent of the nature of your preconceptions, The Memory of Sky is not what you think it is. While at times it seems to be the story of the adventures of a special boy or a coming-of-age tale or a war story, the narrative undergoes abrupt and disconcerting shifts. It is not exactly hard scifi or space opera or high fantasy. The closest I can come is an incredibly creative story of speculative fiction, marked by an unusual yet absorbing writing style, and a world that is simultaneously uncomfortably close and disturbingly alien to our own.
The world is a vibrant, noisy place where every movement follows some infinitely intricate, ordered plan. The enormous batlike leatherwings swoop between the enormous trees that hang from the sky, ducking around the industrious treewalkers who scamper up the tree-ramps and into the dwellings within the trunks. Far away from the majestic bloodwood trees that house the palaces and universities and markets in the treewalkers' District of Districts, the stolid papio, the landwalking cousins of the treewalkers, toil amongst the vast coral beds. Farther below even the papio, some adventurous treewalkers ride the winds down towards the demon floor, the bottom of the earth, the mysterious hot place from which light and rain and the monstrous coronas emerge.
The writing style is peculiar, yet oddly vivid. After an initial adjustment, I found myself savouring it; I loved how it tempered my perspective of the world; I thought the style was as peculiar and unbalancing and vivid as the story itself. I think the aspect that I loved most was the way that Reed was able to construct a definition of normality that deviated so sharply from our own. As far as I can tell, Diamond is more human in appearance, and the treewalkers are peculiarly simian from our perspective. Reed manages to perfectly capture treewalker perspective, to portray a world where trees hang from the sky and light comes from below, where arms are longer and feet are nearly prehensile, as utterly natural. Even the tiny details--the way that the people count in recitations and days rather than hours and years--added a new dimension to the world.
Diamond, the main protagonist, is aptly named. Like the almost-forgotten diamonds of the lost human world, he is a precious object whose very presence has the potential to inspire terrible greed that in turn erupts into fierce conflict. Yet Diamond's very peculiarities create a (most likely intentional) distance between the characters and the reader. The story itself starts out bright and cozy, yet abruptly drops into depressing tragedy. Because of their pain and their sheer strangeness, I had difficulty connecting with the characters. However, the worldbuilding was so creative, so fascinating, so simultaneously vividly detailed and mysterious, that I kept reading. If you're a hard scifi reader, this might not be the best fit--certain aspects of the worldbuilding seemed problematic to me, and personally I'd classify it as speculative fiction rather than scifi. Also, although I didn't realise it until later, this is apparently the third book in a series, so it is entirely possible that aspects of the story that I failed to understand would be comprehensible with sufficient background. While the central mystery remained unresolved for me, I still found it oddly satisfying; even if I don't really understand everything, I have the sense that the world is solidly constructed and that the answers are out there. To tell the truth, I was thoroughly enchanted by the disorienting changes in perspective, the enigmatic events, and even my sheer bewilderment.
The best word I can use to describe The Memory of Sky is "different." While it is far darker than the books I usually read, and while aspects of the plot feel both inevitable and tragic, I loved the way that it kept me on edge, always searching for the clues that would help me to unravel the world.
Excerpted from my review on booklikes.
~~I received this ebook through NetGalley from the publisher, Prime Books, in exchange for my honest review.~~
September 20, 2023
More of a generous 3.5. I loved the start, the world & the ending was good. But this needed better editing.
August 15, 2016
I read this book always waiting to see how it would tie in to the previous two, and when it finally did I was left confused and a little dissatisfied. It's not a bad novel, and I think if I had gone into it without the expectations set up by the previous entries, constantly waiting to see how the characters and settings were relevant to the Great Ship and its captains, I think I'd have enjoyed it more. So to enjoy The Memory of Sky this is my advice: Consider it a stand-alone and not a sequel. It starts slow but it features a crowd of strongly-written and very interesting characters, and a setting that was deliciously unintuitive to wrap my head around.
November 23, 2014
Way too long and way too obtuse. This is really three books, but only the first two are worth reading, and the second has all the failings of the third book. Reed could use a really good editor, and a focus on communicating with the reader.
April 17, 2018
I hesitate ...
I’ve read and been haunted (in a good way) by a growing number or Robert Reed’s novels and shorter works. It’s not unusual for me to feel a bit disoriented at times by the often implicit nature of his story telling. In The Memory of Sky, the characters are unmistakably unique and their struggles well described, playing out over a world so rich and so richly different than anything almost anyone could imagine. Yet ... yes, yet the story that was so intricately woven seemed to loosen more and more toward the end. The Four, or the Twelve if the Eight-in-One is given its due, had but a tentative mutual relationship at best by the end; how could they create much of anything together when two or three (and maybe four) had acted or threatened to act to annihilate one or more of the other self-healers by spraying the brain in small pieces far and wide? What did they have to do with what was implied as the new, better world coming into existence? A bridge was missing. What did they think about or feel toward these children in this new world?
I’ve read and been haunted (in a good way) by a growing number or Robert Reed’s novels and shorter works. It’s not unusual for me to feel a bit disoriented at times by the often implicit nature of his story telling. In The Memory of Sky, the characters are unmistakably unique and their struggles well described, playing out over a world so rich and so richly different than anything almost anyone could imagine. Yet ... yes, yet the story that was so intricately woven seemed to loosen more and more toward the end. The Four, or the Twelve if the Eight-in-One is given its due, had but a tentative mutual relationship at best by the end; how could they create much of anything together when two or three (and maybe four) had acted or threatened to act to annihilate one or more of the other self-healers by spraying the brain in small pieces far and wide? What did they have to do with what was implied as the new, better world coming into existence? A bridge was missing. What did they think about or feel toward these children in this new world?
September 4, 2019
Marketed as a Great Ship trilogy in one volume, the "novels" are more novella length and, like Iain M. Banks' excellent Inversions is a stealth Culture novel, where you have to tease out the few links to the rest of the series, this is kind of a stealth Great Ship book. It can be read either in the context of the Great Ship or it can be read as a standalone since it takes place entirely within a much smaller part of the Great Ship (which is never specifically mentioned). But that's relative. The locale is huge enough by itself. Reed engages in some remarkable world building here and the results are fascinating. His prose style is wonderful and the science is clear. Engaging from the first page, the tension ramps up and the last (and shortest) "novel" (The Great Day) is impossible to put down. I read The Great Day in one session, feverishly turning pages. This is real "sense of wonder" stuff, every bit as much as the other Great Ship works. Reed maintains his status as one of the great writers of New Space Opera.
July 11, 2017
The first 2/3 of this book was a real page-turner. I found myself trying to figure out not only who but what the protagonist was. I thought his journey from innocent child to runaway to protected treasure to evil monster was interesting, as was the political system and antagonist leaders. But somewhere after the first half of the book, things began to fall apart. I felt that the protagonist and some of the minor characters did things that were completely out of character for them. Other characters who had seemed real just dropped off the page and were only used as cardboard cutouts from that point on. Additionally, it was a lot of writing (and reading) just to stay in place. I did read all the way through, but wish it had been cut by a third or had a better payoff at the end. Still, the first part of the book was really good.
June 15, 2017
This was a REALLY long and tedious book to read. It was an arduous journey to get to where it was obviously going to go before I started reading it yet it explained practically nothing. It took me almost 4 months of falling asleep reading this to finish it.
Where was that last chapter that actually explained things. I could have read 5 or 6 interesting books in the time I spend working on this one falling asleep too easily because I was never once enthralled to care about what was about to happen on the next page.
I can only imagine that there is another book forthcoming in 10 years or so.
Where was that last chapter that actually explained things. I could have read 5 or 6 interesting books in the time I spend working on this one falling asleep too easily because I was never once enthralled to care about what was about to happen on the next page.
I can only imagine that there is another book forthcoming in 10 years or so.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2018
I should have loved this book. It is very well-written and has the most amazing setting you can imagine: a giant forest growing upside down where the sun shines from below and rain falls upwards. Just describing this world evokes pure magic. But the book itself somehow squanders the magic. I’m not even sure why. Is it the detached, ironic style? Is it its sheer length? Is it the unsympathetic characters? I don’t know. Still, I’d recommend it just for the world it creates. It is part of a series, and I think I’ll take a look at the other books linked to it.
May 28, 2018
Interesting and well written. Part of a series call "Great Ship". I haven't read any of the others in the series and some of the story is a little confusing (especially the ending). The story concerns a world where the sun is down and people live in trees or on reefs. The strange arrival of some strange humans sets the stage for tragedy and violence. Recommended.
May 29, 2021
How have I not found Robert Reed before now????
I've read his short stories, for years, in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Loved every one.
I'm about to binge every Great Ship novel he's written now.
Pray for me. Lol
I've read his short stories, for years, in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Loved every one.
I'm about to binge every Great Ship novel he's written now.
Pray for me. Lol
May 23, 2017
A very good epic SF novel
For a full review, please go to http://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/ and follow me on Twitter @josenher
For a full review, please go to http://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/ and follow me on Twitter @josenher
March 5, 2019
As always with Robert Reed, an extraordinary & artful feat of imagination!
January 10, 2014
*Note: This is my husband, Seth's, review as he is helping me with my gigantic review pile.
Diamond is a little boy like most others. He likes his toy soldiers and making up his little boy games and epic battles with his soldiers and Mister Mister his stuffed doll. What makes Diamond is a little bit different than other little boys is hard to figure out at first. It could be his stubby legs and arms, or his little nose on his face. Or, it could be the fact that he can gouge open his face and pull his skin apart until he exposes his skull and not have a scar from it within a minute.
Diamond is a special little boy. His parents know this so they keep him locked away in a closet, until one day when they leave his closet open. He wanders out looking for his mother and shortly after leaving his house, embarks upon a fairly large expedition.
Turns out diamond isn’t the only special one in the world. There are several others that are special but not in the same way as he is. There’s King, who serves the Autarch, and then there is The Eight, who serve the Papio. They can regenerate like Diamond, but not nearly as fast as he does. King has a lot more body armor than the other two. The Eight are eight brains in one body. Rumors persist of a fourth floating around in the wild.
Any who, as far as fantasy/science fiction goes this wasn’t too bad of a story. Things were a bit confusing at first figuring out the way that the world worked, but once I sketched a little picture on a scrap piece of paper things began to make more sense. That might be something to add into the book if you’re reading this Robert Reed. I mean, if it hasn’t been thought of yet that is.
The book flowed well. I didn’t have much trouble when it switched perspectives on me. I know that’s a pet peeve of my wife, but I quite enjoy multiple views in a story. I recommend reading it while you watch the snow fall, and sip on some hot cocoa.
Diamond is a little boy like most others. He likes his toy soldiers and making up his little boy games and epic battles with his soldiers and Mister Mister his stuffed doll. What makes Diamond is a little bit different than other little boys is hard to figure out at first. It could be his stubby legs and arms, or his little nose on his face. Or, it could be the fact that he can gouge open his face and pull his skin apart until he exposes his skull and not have a scar from it within a minute.
Diamond is a special little boy. His parents know this so they keep him locked away in a closet, until one day when they leave his closet open. He wanders out looking for his mother and shortly after leaving his house, embarks upon a fairly large expedition.
Turns out diamond isn’t the only special one in the world. There are several others that are special but not in the same way as he is. There’s King, who serves the Autarch, and then there is The Eight, who serve the Papio. They can regenerate like Diamond, but not nearly as fast as he does. King has a lot more body armor than the other two. The Eight are eight brains in one body. Rumors persist of a fourth floating around in the wild.
Any who, as far as fantasy/science fiction goes this wasn’t too bad of a story. Things were a bit confusing at first figuring out the way that the world worked, but once I sketched a little picture on a scrap piece of paper things began to make more sense. That might be something to add into the book if you’re reading this Robert Reed. I mean, if it hasn’t been thought of yet that is.
The book flowed well. I didn’t have much trouble when it switched perspectives on me. I know that’s a pet peeve of my wife, but I quite enjoy multiple views in a story. I recommend reading it while you watch the snow fall, and sip on some hot cocoa.
February 14, 2014
There were many, diverse characters in this book. Each character was well written, and an individual; the author clearly took the time to develop each character. I found the characters interesting and intriguing. I found the story interesting and intriguing as well. But, unfortunately, not so the entire book.
Stories are supposed to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or so we are taught in school. But this book didn't. It had a starting point, and a stopping point; both of which were greatly disappointing. It may be O.K. to leave one of these two open, but not both. The middle I did enjoy. A good deal. But, with the very flawed start & finish, it simply left me frustrated. The book left too many unanswered or ambiguous questions, and the plot just left dangling.
Overall, I felt that it was simply incomplete. Whether due to the author wanting to follow up with another installment, or an inability to bring the story to a more understandable closing, or even my inability to puzzle it out, I've no way of knowing. The book should a good deal of promise; it just didn't live up to that.
Stories are supposed to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or so we are taught in school. But this book didn't. It had a starting point, and a stopping point; both of which were greatly disappointing. It may be O.K. to leave one of these two open, but not both. The middle I did enjoy. A good deal. But, with the very flawed start & finish, it simply left me frustrated. The book left too many unanswered or ambiguous questions, and the plot just left dangling.
Overall, I felt that it was simply incomplete. Whether due to the author wanting to follow up with another installment, or an inability to bring the story to a more understandable closing, or even my inability to puzzle it out, I've no way of knowing. The book should a good deal of promise; it just didn't live up to that.
June 26, 2022
I finally finished this novel after putting it down for a year. The great ship stories I’ve read, the first two anyway, have been wonderful but this was a convoluted mess that just lost me. Too much detail and too many interesting avenues not taken. End the ending, which could have been great, was awful. It’s a wonderful world of upside down and alternate evolution and mythology that is just too in love with itself. Won’t give up Reed though. Not yet anyway.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2014
I bought this on the back of liking Sister Alice so much.
This novel has the same fantastic writing but for some reason it dragged. I DNF, but have given it 3 stars just fr the skill of the author.
This novel has the same fantastic writing but for some reason it dragged. I DNF, but have given it 3 stars just fr the skill of the author.
September 19, 2014
Reed has invented a strange and beautiful inverted world, and peoples it with a species that is humanity redux. The revelations about reality are built slowly up from the zero-point of an infant isolated in a dark room all the way to the climax.
January 27, 2014
Couldn't finish. I'm about a 1/4 of the way through and its just not capturing my attention. If I do finish reading it one day, I'll update this review.
November 15, 2014
At times a bit of a mind bender but still an excellent read.
April 10, 2016
I like this. It was different with some interesting ideas.
July 10, 2014
The first and second parts were good. The third section didn't feel as wondrous and compelling.
March 29, 2015
I enjoyed this quite a lot until the end. The ending was just a little predictable and unrewarding. But very good overall.
July 28, 2016
Couldn't quite finish them off, the immortal protagonist kind of killed me on it, although I loved the world-setting of the three books.
"Every mind kept secrets, particularly from itself."
"Every mind kept secrets, particularly from itself."
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews