Above the Lower Sky [Hardcover]

Tom Deitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

Experiencing strange events during a rare Irish hurricane, an American expatriate, a Native American dancer, and a beautiful marine biologist are united in a battle that will determine the fate of civilization. By the author of Windmaster's Bane.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the first half of the next century when Native American tribes have seceded from the U.S. and Ireland has been united, Dietz's enthralling futurist tale knits together seemingly unrelated events: the brutal murders of humans and the slaughter of dolphins. In the Aztlan Free Zone in Mexico, where the tribes conduct diplomatic affairs, Thunderbird O'Conner, cultural attache to the Kituwah (Cherokee) Embassy, discovers the body of a vagrant who's been skinned alive. After extricating himself from police interest (here, Mounties are contract peace enforcers), he and his friend, Stormcloud Nez of the Dineh (Navaho) Embassy, investigate. Meanwhile, marine biologist Carolyn Mauney-Griffith, seeking to discover why killer whales are systematically decimating nearby dolphin pods, suffers a serious underwater accident and is declared dead; she comes back to life, however, in an ultramodern hospital. The mysteries intensify when Carolyn's brother, Kevin Mauney, arrives from Ireland and tells of a selkie murdered as he was disclosing a conspiracy against mankind and dolphins. Despite some clunky prose (and an overdependence on italics for emphasis) Dietz (Windmaster's Bane and the Soulsmith trilogy) offers some intriguing, if rather implausible, premises for a 21st-century culture.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

After some years writing consistently competent fantasy paperback originals, Deitz has been promoted to hardcover with a novel that skates (or perhaps one should say swims) along the border between fantasy and sf. It is set in a future in which New Age values have largely prevailed, as well as multiculturalism to such an extent that even dolphins and killer whales have homelands. Unfortunately, the result has not been universal peace. Conflicts start among the two aforementioned cetacean races and proliferate from there. The resultant story is thoroughly engaging and quite witty, provided readers neither take it seriously as a New Age manifesto (which it is not) nor are so phobic about the New Age they can find no humor in any presentation of it. Readers situated between those extremes, however, ought to find and enjoy the book. Roland Green

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1ST edition (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688137164
• ISBN-13: 978-0688137168
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,732,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars it is the shznit., March 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Above the Lower Sky (Paperback)

Tom Deitz has definetly got me hooked with this brilliant novel. The man is a GENIUS, and I'm not just saying that cause I know him.

5.0 out of 5 stars An enchanting story from a master storyteller!, November 14, 1998

By 

KitchenSharkMama "MicahBina" (NC,, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Above the Lower Sky (Paperback)

The story of Kevin, Carolyn and Thunderbird is an enthralling one. An engrossing read that leaves you wanting more...as with other works by Mr. Deitz, this story can stand alone. Powerfully and extremely well written, you will find yourself unable to put it down. Well worth the time and money!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Say Whaaa?, April 10, 2008

By 

J. W. Henderson "Byronic Hero" (My Car) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Above the Lower Sky (Hardcover)

If you like tecno-magic, maybe this book might appeal to you. Typically, I steer clear of this kind of story anyway, but I read it while studying dolphins AND Native American history at the same time. Yet, try as I might, I just could not get into this piece of garbage. I finished it in an attempt to find redeeming qualities, but I honestly found none.

Here are the problems I had with this book:
*Under-realized land developments. It's all high-tech, nifty gadget-housing and such, with little to no regard for existing structures. There's no grit to the locations, which I suppose makes sense for an idealized world.
*Idealism. There is little to no movement for Native American tribes to come together and break from the USA. All the tidbits about negotiations and politics and whatnot float on a pipedream that has little to do with the real world--past, present, or the near future in which this book is set.
*Characters. This is simple: the characters bored me to tears.
*Magic. I have a fairly open mind. I bought the book knowing that magic would play a decent role. Here's the problem: it doesn't play much of a role until later on, and it plays into the ideal world scenario. Only, it becomes nauseatingly ironic. Without going into spoiling details (for those of you not convinced by this review), let us just wonder, out loud if you wish, if magic would grant past peoples an advantage over invading peoples. Or if, at some point in our history, there would be record of some ancient magic that has survived in one form or another in order to be pertinent to the plot. The problem here is that the book hints at neither, presumably to ignore the issue altogether and hope the reader never wonders.

For a story of magic set in the futre, I never really felt that I was in the future (near or other), or any sort of magic. There's a bit of bloodshed, though, so if you're into gore I suppose you might get a kick out of it.