Greg Keyes' Footsteps in the Sky will be published by Open Road Media in May 2015.
Information about Greg Keyes:
Greg Keyes was born in 1963 in Meridian, Mississippi. When his father took a job on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, Keyes was exposed at an early age to the cultures and stories of the Native Southwest, which would continue to influence him for years to come. He earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Mississippi State University and a master's degree from the University of Georgia. While pursuing a PhD at UGA, he wrote several novels, including The Waterborn and its sequel, The Blackgod. He followed these with the Age of Unreason books, the epic fantasy series Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, and tie-in novels for numerous franchises, including Star Wars, Babylon 5, the Elder Scrolls, and Planet of the Apes. Keyes lives and works in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife, Nell; son, Archer; and daughter, Nellah.
Information about Footsteps in the Sky:
The pueblo people who landed on the Fifth World found it Earthlike, empty, and ready for colonization... but a century later, they are about to meet the planet's owners
One hundred years ago, Sand's ancestors made the long, one-way trip to the Fifth World, ready to work ceaselessly to terraform the planet. Descendants of native peoples like the Hopi and Zuni, they wanted to return to the way of life of their forebears, who honored the Kachina spirits.
Now, though, many of the planet’s inhabitants have begun to resent their grandparents' decision to strand them in this harsh and forbidding place, and some have turned away from the customs of the Well-Behaved People. Sand has her doubts, but she longs to believe that the Kachina live on beyond the stars and have been readying a new domain for her people.
She may be right. Humans have discovered nine habitable worlds, all with life that shares a genetic code entirely alien to any on Earth. Someone has been seeding planets, bringing life to them. But no other sign of the ancient farmers has ever been discovered - until one day they return to the Fifth World. They do not like what they find.
A REVIEW OF GREG KEYES' FOOTSTEPS IN THE SKY
Footsteps in the Sky is Greg Keyes' first novel. It has never been published before, so this is the first time that it will be available for speculative fiction readers and fans of Greg Keyes. This is nice, because Footsteps in the Sky is a good and well written hard science fiction novel. The publisher of this novel, Open Road Media, will also release Greg Keyes' Chosen of the Changeling fanatsy duology: The Waterborn and The Blackgod in e-book format in April 2015.
I think it's good to mention that Footsteps in the Sky requires a bit of intelligence and concentration from the readers, because the author doesn't explain every little thing to his readers. It's nice that he assumes that his readers can figure out a few things for themselves (it's possible that readers may be slightly confused about the first chapters of this novel, because it takes a bit of time to figure out where the happenings take place).
It's possible that certain readers and critics may criticize Footsteps in the Sky for not having anything new in it. I understand why readers and critics may feel this way, because this novel doesn't exactly contain anything new, but in my opinion they should pay attention to the entertainment values it has to offer, because the story is good and worth reading. The story contains popular elements that can be found in many sci-fi novels and stories, but in Keyes' capable hands these elements feel refreshingly invigorating and entertaining. Footsteps in the Sky is almost like a blast from the past because of its wonderfully old-fashioned approach to science fiction and scientific issues. It's an intriguing combination of space opera, science, culture, nature, Hopi traditions and aliens.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
- This novel begins with a quotation from the Hopi Origin Legend. Then the story shifts to Pela and Sand and how people live on the Fifth World. The people arrived there to terraform the planet and have gradually shaped the land. They wanted to return to the way of life of their ancestors who honored the Kachina spirits.
- The ancient farmers have been seeding the planets, but no sign of their existence has ever been seen by anybody. They have seeded the planets and brought them to life. One day they return to the Fifth World and they don't like what they see there. They're thinking about sterilizing and re-seeding the planet...
I enjoyed reading about the protagonist, Sand. It was interesting to read about her thoughts about what was going on, because she was a well-created and fascinating character. She was a woman whose mother, Pela, had died - her mother's death affected her life and actions quite a lot.
In my opinion Greg Keyes wrote perfectly about Sand's feelings and actions, because he seemed to understand her confusion and her life, and managed to make her a realistic character. This is nice, because many hard science fiction authors normally tend to write more about science and technology and write only little about the characters and their feelings (this is something that has often annoyed me in hard science fiction, because lack of good characterization easily makes the story flat).
The interaction between Sand and one of the seeders, Tuchvala, was handled exceptionally well and it was interesting for me to read about them. Because Tuchvala had taken the form of Sand's dead mother, her presence reminded Sand of her mother. This added a nice touch of tension and emotionality to the story.
Tuchvala was an interesting character, because she lived in a human body and had to learn new things. Although Tuchvala could pass for a human being, she was different from the other characters. Sand was almost like an instructor and protector to Tuchvala, because she told her how to do certain things (Tuchvala had a bit of problems figuring out how and when to act etc). Sand and Tuchvala were kind of dependent on each other and as the story unfolded they became incorporated into each other's lives in a fascinating way.
One of the best things about this novel is that the author examines the happenings from different viewpoints. This adds quite a lot of depth and tension to the story, because the characters differ from each other and have different motives for their actions (the terraforming humans have had disputes and disagreements and the world is not as serene and peaceful as it could be).
Reading about what the seeders thought about the Fifth World was fascinating. They had different opinions about how to proceed with their job, because they had two choices - they could either leave the planet alone because of the lifeforms that lived there or sterilize and re-seed the planet, because it was their job to grow planets and the colonists were not part of their original plans. The author wrote fascinatingly about the different opinions and science involved in re-seeding the planet and paid enough attention to details and science. He also wrote convincingly about colonisation and what was involved in it, but didn't go overboard with scientific information.
What happened between Alvar and Teng was handled well. In my opinion the author wrote surprisingly well about how they had sex and how they had different views about affection and sexual feelings, because Teng only wanted sex and nothing more. Sex seemed to be the only kind intimacy for Teng.
It was interesting that the author also wrote about references to bisexuality and left a few things a bit vague on purpose so that readers could decide for themselves what was going on. He approached gender and sexuality-based elements in a surprisingly fluent way and avoided excessive and tedious moralizing about sexuality and its different forms.
The author used Native American culture in an excellent way in the story, because he easily blended Native American beliefs and way of life with science fiction. I'm aware that this has all been done before in speculative fiction, but in my opinion the author wrote excellently about these issues and managed to avoid preaching.
Because Greg Keys wrote fluently and well about Native Americans, there was an intriguing anthropological dimension in this novel that is seldom found in modern science fiction novels. There are - of course - similar kind of stories out there on the market, but only a few of them have this kind of depth and understanding of culture in them.
One of the main reasons why the story intrigued me is that it had an emotionally engaging dimension that is often lacking from hard science fiction novels. As Tuchvala learned new things and came to understand life and how life adapted to changes, the exploration of her feelings was speckled with human emotions. For example, when Tuchvala thought about her Makers and if they were still alive or not, the whole scene was full of interesting human emotions.
Greg Keyes is a talented author who can write intelligent and genuinely interesting novels. He has built a believable and surprisingly human world that is tainted by problems that have been a part of human existence for a long time. He has also created a good and versatile cast of characters, and he easily shifts the narrative from Sand to the three sister farmers and other characters.
It's possible that this novel may not be to everyone's liking due to its contents and combination of different elements. I personally enjoyed this novel, because it felt fresh compared to many new sci-fi novels that repeat the same plot elements over and over again with huge amounts of insignificant sex and brutal violence. Don't get me wrong, I do like reading those kind of novels too when they're stylistic and well written, but I'm a bit fed up with sci-fi authors repeating themselves and using sex and violence to attract new readers and not paying enough attention to the story. Fortunately this novel differed from most new sci-fi novels, because GreG Keyes had ambition and was able to deliver an intelligent story to his readers.
In my opinion Footsteps in the Sky has tiny bits and traces of Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert and Robert Charles Wilson in it, but it's an original and fascinating novel that stands proudly on its own feet. It a classic hard science fiction novel that will appeal to readers who want to read old-fashioned and well written science fiction stories that lack the frustratingly annoying elements of many modern sci-fi novels. It's a perfect marriage of classic hard science fiction, human emotions and Native American culture. I give this novel 4.5 stars on the scale from 1 to 5 stars.
By the way, if you enjoy reading this novel, I strongly urge you to take a look at the author's fantasy novels (Chosen of the Changeling duology: The Waterborn and The Blackgod, and The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series: The Briar King, The Charnel Prince, The Blood Knight and The Born Queen) and The Age of Unreason series. They're excellent reading material for adult readers who want to read good speculative fiction.
My final words are:
Footsteps in the Sky is intriguing and well written science fiction for adults!