Book Review: Sky City (The Rise of an Orphan Series Book 1) by R. D. Hale

Title: Sky City (The Rise of an Orphan series Book 1)

Author: R.D.Hale

ASIN: B00N5AKJXU

Publisher: Laniakea Publishing

Genre: Science Fiction/dystopian

Print Length: 137 Pages

Plot synopsis:

Arturo Basilides is an orphan living in the slums of Medio City – the capital of a nation ravaged by a war which was won by extremists. With a choice between slavery and disenfranchisement, he and his friends exist in a disconnected underclass which awaits the downfall of the elite class whilst struggling to fulfill normal romantic dreams.

When I started to read Arturo's Life in the Slums the first thing that came to mind was the 1963 classic A Clockwork Orange, which I read some years ago. But a few pages in I realised this is a very different novel. Like Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, Sky City is set in a nightmarish future, but while the situation of the protagonists is very unpleasant the story is scattered with humour and amusing quips. This is not the sort of genre that would normally attract me, but I was intrigued by the very positive reviews, so I bought the first novella in the series and I was not disappointed – I thoroughly enjoyed it. Two lessons arise from this (1) good reviews are important for promoting authors and (2) do not get too fixed on what you think you like to read. If you are generally not attracted to modern sci-fi and stories about dysfunctional societies this might be a good novel to try. Note is review covers only the first part of a 6 part series of novellas, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of them.

I originally posted this review on GoodReads.com in 2014 - adding it to my reviews website has reminded me to continue reading the other books in the series.

What others say.

On Goodreads.com (at the time of this edition of the review) there were 11 reviews (other than mine) of which 10 were rated 3* and above. A number of the reviews were very enthusiastic about the book.

On Amazon.co.uk there were 9 reviews (other than mine) all were rated as 5*.

On Amazon.com there were 17 reviews, all of which were 3* or above.

Other Books in the Series.