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Title: Every Sky A Grave
Series:
The Ascendance #1
Author: Jay Posey
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
302
Words: 115K
From Skybound.com &
Me
Far
in the future, human beings have seeded themselves amongst the stars.
Since decoding the language of the universe 8,000 years ago, they
have reached the very edges of their known galaxy and built a
near-utopia across thousands of worlds, united and ruled by a
powerful organization known as the Ascendance. The peaceful stability
of their society relies solely on their use of this Deep Language of
the cosmos.
But
this knowledge is a valuable secret, and a holy order of monastics
known as the First House are tasked with monitoring its use and
“correcting” humanity’s further development. Elyth is one such
mendicant, trained as a planetary assassin, capable of infiltrating
and ultimately destroying worlds that have been corrupted, using
nothing more than her words.
To
this end, Elyth is sent to the world Qel in response to the
appearance of a forbidden strain of the Deep Language that was
supposed to have died out with its founder over seven hundred years
prior. What she finds on the backwater planetoid will put her
abilities to the test and challenge what she knows of the Deep
Language, the First House, and the very nature of the universe.
Elyth
can't kill Qel due to the work of a man known simply as eth ammuin.
So her first task is to find and kill him. She fails. Then she finds
out that the Great House given the responsibility of dealing with
technology is using eth ammuin to gain the knowledge of the Deep
Language. So now she has to rescue him. Then she finds out that the
planet is under interdict and is going to be destroyed so she and eth
ammuin team up. They save the planet, Elyth realizes how shallow the
First House's knowledge really is and decides to go her own way.
I went into this book with some huge reservations. Posey had
abandoned writing his Outriders
series in favor of starting this. I also didn't realize this was a
start of a new series and thought it was a standalone. It works well
as a standalone but it isn't. I have to ask myself, why should I
trust him to finish this series when he's already shown he's more
than willing to stop writing a series just because he feels like it?
On the other hand, this is the same author who wrote the Legends
of the Duskwalker trilogy that absolutely blew me away.
Unfortunately, my reservations held more true than my cautious
optimism. There was nothing “wrong” with this book but it was
slow and I felt like I was reading about a space ninja experiencing
satori for the first time. I'll get into that in the next paragraph.
While I was reading this I kept having flashbacks to Way-Farer
and not in a good way. Way-Farer was good rousing fun that has kept
me entertained several times and every time I simply tear through it.
This? This was not rousing fun. It was plodding and I didn't tear
through anything. In fact, the 300 pages felt at least double that,
if not a bit more. The philosophizing that was interesting but
shallow in Way-Farer here is explored in depth and in all
seriousness, like Posey felt he had some message to convey. It was
ludicrous.
That exploring of transcendentalism'ish and satori and eastern
thought wouldn't necessarily been a bad thing but the first thing
after the book is done, in the author's afterward, is him thanking
Jesus. Eastern thought and Christianity are utterly opposed at the
basic level. While people continue to try to meld them in various
ways, the only way it works is if you butcher what the Bible teaches
about the very nature of God Himself and Jesus. It's not that I'm
opposed to Christians writing about things they don't believe in, but
the studied seriousness that Posey gave in this book, while
proclaiming Christ, was disturbing.
I realize I've been pretty harsh and yet still given this 3 stars. I
did enjoy reading the story, with all the issues mentioned
continually impinging on me and I didn't think it was bad writing at
all. It just wasn't up to the level of story telling that I fell in
love with in Legends of the Duskwalker.
I think I'll be passing on any more of these Ascendance books
and wait and hope that Posey eventually goes back and finishes up the
Outriders. I can wait, I've got plenty of books in my tbr.
★★★☆☆
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