Customer Reviews

Show Me the Sky

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

 

 

This is a masterpiece. Once you have finished, you start again, because it has so many layers, themes and linkages. The book is about quests for a person, for sense and meaning, and, deep inside, about mothers.

Show Me the Sky is divided into four Parts and an Epilogue. The principal characters are a fanatical British cop from the Missing Persons Bureau, a Kurt Cobain-type UK pop star called Billy K, who has gone missing a year earlier, a love-struck British biker in Australia, a juvenile runaway and car thief in England in the 1980's, and a Fijian stowaway, who returns to his native land in 1834 in the company of British missionaries. They have all ran away from something.

How do these people connect? Each Part begins with an update of the quest for Billy K by James (Jim) Dent, the policeman, from wherever he is. We get to know pop star Billy K only through transcripts and magazine articles. Nelson Babbage (in Fiji named Naqarase Baba) records his return voyage from England to Fiji and his subsequent problems in elegant early 19th century English in his journal. The hapless biker Cal's story takes the form of a long, poetic, increasingly desperate and hallucinatory love letter to his new girlfriend Monique. The young offender's account is a manuscript written by young James ("Most people call me Jimmy"), who turns out to be the policeman, who also writes the Epilogue, 20 years after his brush with the law.

There are also memorable minor characters such as a deprived missionary, a murderous ex-convict deported to Australia, the pop star's body double, a scheming band manager and an American pimp in Mombasa. The book romps through the UK, Australia, Russia, Fiji and Kenya without a let up. Thanks to the author's masterful dropping of clues, all characters and themes become connected, somehow.

This tightly-structured book is compulsive reading. Each character has his own voice and register, providing utmost credibility to the whole as well as the parts. Sex, drugs & rock and roll, murder, cannibalism and violence, the quest for truth and the lures of hypocrisy, whether to go on or run away from a life, are among the themes. They are cleverly knitted into a tight fabric of a book that sweeps you away.

Nicholas Hogg is a worthy companion of writers of earlier kaleidoscopic novels such as David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami. Find out yourself what a rich and fantastic debut this is.

It's quite hard to believe that this is Hogg's first novel. It's exceptionally good for a first book, the four story-lines tied together with amazing skill and perfect timing. I love the crisp prose; and there were passages I had to re-read aloud to enjoy fully the richness and flow of the language. Marvelous.

I was amazed to find out that this is Nicholas Hogg's first book. I picked up this book by accident and was immediately drawn in by the crisp and eloquent prose. I found myself being deftly swept along in the narrative which takes us around the world through several intricately woven together story threads. Tying together numerous plot lines is something I find few writers can do with much success, yet Hogg masterfully accomplishes this and more. As I came to the final pages, I was wishing this one didn't have to end! I highly recommend this book and I hope we don't have to wait too long for more from this writer.

One year has past since rock and roll superstar Billy K vanished while walking and reading along a Cornish cliff. London Detective Inspector James Dent has led the frustrating investigation that is gong nowhere. Rather than cold case the inquiry, he takes a fresh look based on the clue that Billy K was reading the 1834 journal Show Me the Sky by London based missionary Nelson Babbage nee Naqarase Baba of Fiji. The cop follows Nelson's travels to Australia with plans of going on to Kenya and Fiji but he vanishes in the Outback.

Also disappearing in the Outback is English biker Cal Smith, who vanishes after crashing his motorcycle. Dent seeks Smith, who he thinks might be Billy K or at least know where he is. If that fails he will continue following Nelson's trail.

The concept is exciting, but the execution is difficult to follow as men simply vanish with revelations late explaining the common why. The story line is at its best with the nineteenth century journal extracts especially when Nelson goes home as a missionary. The key male characters are developed so that the audience can understand their universal anguish. Although somewhat convoluted, SHOW ME THE SKY is an intriguing character study.

Harriet Klausner

I agree with the previous review. This is book is a captivating achievement for a first novel, or for any novel. The parallel story lines are woven together in a way that draws the reader in, and they stand alone in interest. My favorite narrative is that of a young Fijian missionary "journal" written in the 18th century. The prose brings with it a unique sense of time and place. Contrasted with today's fast paced, globalized world, this piece of the novel reflects a sense of history, while the others echo the many contrasts of the various countries where the story unfolds. This book is a terrific read.

A friend gave me this book for my birthday and I HATED it! It was way too overblown and high-falutin' for my taste, and the plot was totally, unnecessarily confusing and convoluted. I put the darn thing down three quarters of the way through and never picked it up again because I completely stopped caring about the shallow, pretentious characters and their ridiculous fates. Total garbage - STAY AWAY!