Customer Reviews

The Burning Skies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

BURNING SKIES deftly builds on the foundation Williams laid out in his debut novel, MIRRORED HEAVENS. Williams reuses his cast, a group composed almost wholly of characters who never doubt that the end justifies the means.

In MIRRORED HEAVENS, Williams teased readers with the Throne, the President of a militaristic America; a man so paranoid that even his own Praetorian bodyguards don't know what he's up to. Now we get a peak at the kind of man who can command the loyalty of the ruthless soldiers and assassins responsible for preserving order.

BURNING SKIES goes in a few different directions; some of them follow-ons from the first novel and some of them seemingly tangential, coming out of nowhere. Within the context of a creative, rather diabolical series of set pieces, characters brush against metaphysics and levels of technology not even mentioned previously. In other books I'd consider this to be a loss of focus, but I suspect Williams is once again lulling me into a false sense of security...

I can't wait for the next book- and you certainly shouldn't wait for this book. Get off the fence, pick it up, strap yourself into your reading chair of choice, and get ready...you're in for a fun ride.

It's the 22nd century, and the technology on Earth has progressed far past what any of us could imagine. People are now hybrids with computers, and the land you inhabit isn't nearly as important as the zone your mind is on. Which makes it a great target for hacking by terrorists. The Autumn Rain, in this case. They're out to destroy both the two superpower zones, along with the leaders who control them. Claire Haskell, the world's best razor, now sets out to warn the President of the United States, Andrew Harrison, of this treachery, before it's too late. But it's not long before she gets apprehended by the President's right hand man (known as the Hand) and joins forces with his men to save the President and the world as they know it. But is everything really as it seems?

Burning Skies, by David J. Williams, is the second book in the Autumn Rain trilogy. It was promised to be a book you could read alone, though, without having read its prequel, Mirrored Heavens. While it certainly was a thrilling book on its own, I feel like I missed out on so much back story by not reading the first book, especially towards the end. It seems that so much is left unsaid because it's already been said in another place. Since I haven't read the first book, though, I'm not sure whether this is a case of the author being so familiar with the world he created that he assumes everyone knows as much as he does, or if the world was really thoroughly created in the first book.

The characters aren't defined well enough in this book to really differentiate them. Many of the names are similar, and first names, last names, and nicknames are all interchanges throughout the book. The Operative is also Carson, Claire is Haskell and the Manlishi. The book is also written in such a way that it's sometimes very difficult to determine exactly who is speaking at any given time.

There's also the matter of the summary being very misleading. It seems as though everything that's mentioned on the back cover is done by the end of the first part, then completely turned around again after 20 pages. It's also not about Claire Haskell, though she does have a prominent role. So little attention is given to her in comparison to the other plot lines running through the novel that I'm left feeling unsatisfied at the end.

As far as the conspiracy goes, it's a convoluted mix of different loyalties sprung throughout the novel, which is the way Williams intended for it to be. It's enough to grab your attention for sure, but you may have to put the book down a few times to catch your breath at times as well.

I'm torn as to whether I want to read the first book or not; I feel as if I'll understand Skies better if I do, but it may be just as difficult to understand even with that background knowledge. Maybe after I get through a few lighter reads I'll chance Mirrored Heavens.

I was looking forward to these 2 books: The mirrored heavens & The Burning Skies. A big reason was his previous work: Homeworld was one of the games which really grew on me back in the late 90-ies and mostly because of the story. but it seems that david let's himself of the leash a little bit to much now he's calling all the shots..

The world he paints is very believable: the used tech is not that far off what we're capable of now. but the plot and the main characters keep on twisting and turning in both books: right when you think you've figured it out, somebody is once again not who he seems and that... get's annoying and strangely also predictable. the author get's himself (repeatedly) in a mess and only due to a plot or character twist the story can continue. after 10 times you can spot the next one from very far away.

I also had an issue about the intense amount of infighting: it seems that the world david paints is not only on the brink of a new WW bit also on the brink of several civil wars... if they're not already under way. Also the amount of bodies which get thrown before the readers feet numbers in the ridiculous levels: he's describing several covert ops/black ops but when you burn down a whole city or important piece of (irreplaceable) infrastucture the covert part is... not so covert anymore.

One last one: david has the strange habit to stop the action with a line like: "did you see that? crap!" and then continues from a different POV or story arc only to pause that one with the same kind of line and continue with the first. that's ok when there are 2 or even 3 povs/story arcs. but this trick gets used all the time in all the POV's and all the story arcs which makes it at times hard to see what's truly happening.

His description of the "zone"(future internet) and how it looks for a wired razor (hacker) is a little bit out there, but that's the beauty of SF: the author makes it up and time will tell if it stays the fiction part or gets promoted to the science part...

but strangely despite these annoyances and remarks.. I wanted to continue, because the world which david shows us is (like i said before) believable, and you can only marvel about the ways he describes the space elevator(coming down), the europa platform, the helios platform, the cities on the moon or even the earthshakers(tanks is the best description I think). I could truly see them in my minds eye. I wanted to know where the journey ends.

You know what it felt like reading this (and the previous one)? an episode of 24. Very entertaining and (after 7 seasons or in this case: by the second book) very predictable. but despite the predictable part you're going to watch again next week to see Jack play (and win) the impossible odds.

Will I tune in for the 3rd book? yup. Go jack! save the day!

ps: check the accompanying website: [...] it contains (needed?) background.

Burning Skies is the sequel to The Mirrored Heavens , part of the Autumn Rain Trilogy. So if you haven't read The Mirrored Heavens, stop now and go look up that book first. The Autumn Rain Trilogy takes place 100 years in the future in the year 2110. The political climate of Earth is tense with the US and the Eurasian Coalition basically in a standoff state as the true global powers. To ratchet up the tension, a new highly sophisticated terrorist group known only as Autumn Rain have made their presence known by orchestrating the destruction of the Phoenix Space Elevator, part of the events of The Mirrored Heavens.

Burning Skies picks up with the search for Autumn Rain in high gear and follows a cast of characters that are basically futuristic special ops agents. There are the Razors, which are agents that specialize in running the "Zone". They play havoc with an enemies defenses and run interference for their counterparts, the Mechs. The Mechs are the true firepower wielders. Wearing high tech powered armor suits and toting enough ordinance to ruin anyone's day, they do the bulk of the fighting while the Razor manipulates events more indirectly.

I don't want to go into the storyline, I think that should be something the reader gets to experience firsthand. I will just say that David J Williams writes in a style that lends itself to intensely fast paced action and the pages turn at an almost alarming rate. There are times were his structure will seem somewhat terse, or maybe clipped, and that may be off putting to some readers. But I personally feel that it lends itself to the chaotic mess that the characters are constantly dealing with. The action is fast and furious and the writing style really puts a punctuation on that. There are very few places where you can easily put the book down without convincing yourself to read "just one more section". In the end, it's a thrill ride with a ton of twists and turns and one mother of a cliffhanger. Fortunately for anyone reading this now, the final book, The Machinery of Light, is now available.

The Autumn Rain Trilogy could be generalized as a blending of cyberpunk like Neuromancer, political military fiction like Tom Clancy and an equal dose of sci-fi. It's a fantastically fast paced thrill ride that is hard to put down.

Everything in this book--the length of the scenes, the quick jumps
from character to character, the way the scenes are structured--is designed to
make the book MOVE! And that's the sense you get from the very first page.
The pace is fast, with multiple plot threads to follow through multiple
characters, all woven together and meshing by the end. In fact, the entire
first two-thirds of the book is really one long scene, with every twist and
turn you could think of (and some you didn't) coming into play.

"The Burning Skies" is the sequel to "The Mirrored Heavens" and
pretty much picks up four days after the events in the first book. I'd suggest
you read the first book before diving into this one, or the action won't make a
whole lot of sense. The terrorist group Autumn Rain continues to harass the
world, this time on the Europa Platform, a neutral territory that contains New
Zurich and New London . . . along with a safe house for the U.S. President.
And that's the target: the President. And who is loyal and who isn't as the
fighting escalates is what drives most of the tension throughout the novel.

And this is also the book's major drawback: the question as to who is doing
what for what reason and why makes it nearly impossible to know who's "good"
and who's "bad." I didn't know who to root for, and the twists and turns
became so convoluted that I ended up simply sitting back and not trying to
figure out who was doing what to whom. Part of the problem was that the twists
and turns were so numerous, but another part of the problem was how David J.
Williams kept the motivations, etc, hidden by having oblique references to what
was really going on at the end of a scene before jumping to another POV
character. This has the effect of increasing the tension . . . but also the
confusion because there is never a straightforward answer to all of the many
questions. And when it's used too much, it can get annoying.

So, in the end, it was an enjoyable ride, but it would have been MORE enjoyable
if I'd known who to root for and had been able to follow all of the twists and
turns. Will I buy the third book (titled "The Machinery of Light" I
believe, coming in May 2010)? Yes. I'm definitely intrigued by the story, the
world that David has created, and the outcome of all of the twists and turns.
There's some spectacular worldbuilding here, and some interesting characters.

In The Mirrored Heavens, I was introduced to David J. Williams' intricately devised political, social, and technological conflicts - the tensions between East and West, the tensions between mech and razor, and the terrifyingly capable terrorist group, Autumn Rain, in the middle of it all.

The second novel in the Autumn Rain trilogy is The Burning Skies. (Note: The finale, The Machinery of Light, comes out next year and Dave promises to go all-out!) While Williams has written Burning Skies to be accessible to all, it definitely helps put things in perspective to have read Mirrored Heavens first. I'll do my best to avoid spoilers for those who have not yet read either.

Williams fully demonstrates his ability to bring you almost-irritatingly close to figuring out what's really going on, while withholding just enough information to keep you questioning your assumptions until he really wants you to know for sure. The parallel stories in Mirrored Heavens start to come together in Burning Skies, only to find that they really were intertwined all along and in ways a reader would hardly suspect. I'm one of those people who prides myself on being able to figure out the plot of a movie early on, so it's a lot of fun for me to go through the rollercoaster and still enjoy a few surprises at the end.

While the descriptions of the tactical combat maintain their quick pace and appreciation for the absurd, especially in the banter between the characters, the utter devastation inflicted by Autumn Rain and those trying to stop them is much more apparent. In Mirrored Heavens, we see the destruction of a space elevator under construction and various other megastructures. However, much of that is depicted from the perspective of a detached observer, or someone fleeing in the wake. Everyone's attention in Burning Skies, however, is focused on the Europa Platform - an O'Neill-type habitat with millions of people and the largest structure in neutral space. When everything goes to hell, there is no escaping the carnage.

The leaders of the United States and the Eurasian Coalition have agreed to meet at Europa in a gambit to end the cold war between their nations and draw out Autumn Rain on a ground of their own choosing. But nothing is as simple as it seems, nor are any of the characters. There are plans within plans at every step of the game and the cliffhanger ending leaves you wondering just how far Williams will go in Machinery of Light...

Both books will keep you guessing and throw you right into the action from beginning to end, I found myself wanting to support The Operative's (Carson's) group from the first book and still do through this one .. you'll choose your own group or individual

What's nice about this series is there is no clear cut group anyone will be rooting for. Is The Rain really bad? The Americas? Euros? Asians? Spacecom? Razors (those with the ability to operate within the physical world and 'zone' - the networked world of the inevitable future...) - are they superior, well of course everyone would think so... of course there are those that are even something more than that.

Mankind will always evolve naturally or by helping nature along, but one thing is for sure, the utopia some may claim to seek will never satisfy mankind as a whole for what are we without our struggles?

If I'm not being clear enough while trying to be vague enough not to spoil anything, I apologize here in my first review, but I hope I've made you curious enough to check out these books, they are very much worth the ride, there's something for everyone, Williams' possible world of the future's possibilities are many, and I can't wait for the trilogy finale.

In 2110 the North American Empire and the Eurasian Coalition are at war over who controls the asteroids revolving around earth. Both sides use cyber-warfare using "razors" to more than just hack the other side's systems. They also use ground "mech" warriors to kill the enemy. Peace seems out of reach because of the value of the inhabited asteroids. Neither side will compromise as that is a sign of weakness. Instead allies are distrusted because the golden rule is to do unto others before they do unto you; treachery is the norm as the hostilities go back and forth between a Cold and a Hot war.

U.S. counter cyber terrorism agent Claire Haskell has learned the hard way that a third group Autumn Rain has resurfaced with a new plan to rule humanity by destroying the Net, which should heat up the war between the alliances. They also plan to assassinate leaders starting with the American president. At least that is what Agent Haskell's memories insist will happen after she was betrayed from inside her agency and her lover is dead due to that treachery. She is not sure her recall is accurate or been placed in her mind because everyone knows Autumn Rain was eradicated (see THE MIRRORED HEAVENS).

The constant shifting viewpoints lead to a difficult futurisitc science fiction thriller to follow, but also enhances the concept of Machiavellian betrayals and treachery by friends as a normal way of life; trust no one not even mom. The story line is action-packed moving from the moon to the earth and in between and back as Claire and others play a deadly game of chess with the grandmaster not in sight. Fans of the first tale will enjoy this early twenty-second thriller, but newcomers need to read THE MIRRORED HEAVEN as much of what occurs in the exciting THE BURNING SKIES is built from that initial foundation.

Harriet Klausner

I really wanted to like this series (# 2 here). I like a good gun battle or combat as much as anyone else, maybe more. But Jeez Louise - lets blow up the ANDES Mountain Range, and destroy SOUTH AMERICA, lets, I dunno collapse the Atlantic ocean into a hole -- and that's not the main story even. I mean kill guys that get in your way, maybe even some more, gave you a look, but, hey, Williams' idea is, lets destroy every living thing, by the millions. Even that would not be so bad, except he then feels compelled to TELL you about each and every one. Even robots are homicidal psycho mass killers. And oh yeah there is a plot of some sort, but who cares, certainly not the characters in the story, they gotta kill or be killed, thousands of times each and nobody knows who is on what side cause they gotta scramble to blow more stuff up (having trashed the whole earth and the Moon) and don't even have their own real memories - do I still have mine? This guy is really, really PO'ed over something. So don't take it out on me, I pay for abuse, I expect something fun in return dude. If you lack the feeling of being tortured enough in your life, pay money for this whole series.

Let me just say that I read this book without reading the first in the series, Mirrored Heavens. While I'm currently going back and reading Mirrored Heavens, I found that Burning Skies does work really well independently.

I think David J Williams does a nice job throwing you in the middle of it all without the reader feeling overwhelmed. I like the omnipresence and stealth nature of the terrorist group Autumn Rain, as well as learning more and more about Claire Haskell (arguably the main character). All in all this was a great book, and I cannot wait to find out what happens next.