Bright of the Sky

The Universe Next Door

Over at SciFi.com’s Sci Fi Weekly, Paul Di Filippo gives an A to Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky: Entire and the Rose: Book 1. He predicts the work will catapult Kay to the next level, due to “a bravura concept bolstered by fine writing; lots of plausible, thrilling action; old-fashioned heroism; and strong emotional hooks.”

Paul goes on to compare Kay’s work to the “planetary romances” of writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Edward Hamilton, with a shout out to recent works in this vein like Chris Roberson’s Paragaea. “Kenyon’s conceptual leap provides an environment conducive to prolonged Odysseus-like wanderings among exotic places, cultures and sentient beings. And she has a fertile enough imagination not to disappoint in this regard, conjuring up vivid races, ways of living and sights.”

But, he says, Kay is also “working in the Big Dumb Object territory exemplified by such past masters as Larry Niven, Bob Shaw, Greg Bear, Paul McAuley and, more recently, Karl Schroeder,” with the unusual cosmology of her invented world, the Entire.

And finally, he applauds her prose when he says, “Kenyon exhibits a clever narrative structural bent as well…. the mark of a fine writer.”

He ends with a comparison to Philip Jose Farmer’s World of Tiers books. So, like, what are you waiting for?

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Breaking Out the Bright

Although I’m still waiting on my own copies (suspense = killing me), I see that Amazon is now listing both Joel Shepherd’s Breakaway and Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky as available to order, which means that you can now, you know, order them. But also that they are about a week away or so (if not sooner), from showing up in stores everywhere. (Regarding Bright of the Sky, signed copies are available from A Book for All Seasons.)

Meanwhile, if I may be forgiven for the reminder/plug, Publishers Weekly said of Breakaway, “Beneath the glitz of snazzy weaponry, unstoppable heroes and byzantine political machinations is a very real struggle about the nature of humanity and trust.” While, in their starred review of Bright of the Sky, they said, “Kenyon’s deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building will have readers anxious for the next installment.”

I’m really, really anxious to see this one in the flesh (see above aside about suspense), as we used a silver treatment on the title we’ve not used before, eye-catching and appropriate to a mysterious river that factors in Kay’s story.

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Kay @ the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

Bright of the Sky author Kay Kenyon has just returned from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association trade show in Portland, Oregan.

As she writes, “Recent reports of the death of independent booksellers are way overstated. I just came back from a trade show of independent booksellers, and I can testify that hundreds of its members would be greatly surprised to learn that they are dead.”

Here is Kay at a well-attended signing:

And here is Kay with Janet Lee Carey, YA author of Dragon’s Keep.

Kay says, “80% of all books are still bought in brick and mortar bookstores–so no, it’s really, really, not all online these days. You might not have much influence on the clerk at the big box store, so if you’re an author, I say get to know your local indies.” For those in her neck of the woods, she recommends A Book For All Seasons in Leavenworth, WA and Village Books in Bellingham, WA.

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Author Appearances: David Louis Edelman & Kay Kenyon

David Louis Edelman is making the following appearances, including a reading at the famous KGB Bar, for his critically-acclaimed Infoquake:

*March 21 KGB Bar/New York, NY Fantastic Fiction Series, 7 pm ET
*April 20-22 Penguicon/Troy, MI
*May 5 Annapolis Book Festival/Annapolis, MD
*May 25-27 Balticon/Baltimore, MD
*July 5-8 Readercon/Burlington, MA

Kay Kenyon will be signing copies of her forthcoming sci-fantasy epic, Bright of the Sky,on the following dates:

*Apr. 15 A Book For All Seasons/Leavenworth, WA 1-3 pm
*Apr. 17 Read it Again Books/Wenatchee, WA 7 pm

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Keeping Things Real Bright

Monsters and Critics’ Sandy Amazeen on Justina Robson’s Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1:

“Worlds overlap in unexpected ways … in this action-packed futuristic sci-fi that will appeal to techies and fantasy fans alike. Tension between the characters is credible even if the premise is a bit farfetched and it’s fun watching Black grow into her new self as she confronts magic in ways few other humans have managed in this first of the Quantum Gravity series.”

Meanwhile, Booklists’ Regina Schroeder on Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky: Entire and the Rose: Book 1(emphasis mine):

“In the future conjured by the first book of The Entire and the Rose, megacorporations control Earth, and only the best and brightest get company jobs. Titus Quinn was on his way, though, until he piloted a Minerva corporation colony ship through a network of black holes. The ship disappeared. Believed dead, Quinn showed up six months later on a distant planet that no transport had visited in years, with disjointed memories of a parallel universe in which the sky is fire. There he lost his wife and daughter, also the ship. In hope that the place will provide a safer alternative for interstellar travel, Minerva sends him back. Once there again, Quinn becomes embroiled in strange politics and faces terrible choices and the emerging, awful memory of what he did during his last stay in the Entire. In a fascinating and gratifying feat of worldbuilding, Kenyon unfolds the wonders and the dangers of the Entire and an almost-Chinese culture that should remain engaging throughout what promises to be a grand epic, indeed.

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3 Pyr Titles @ the Library Journal

The Library Journal reviews three more Pyr titles, all recommended:

Kenyon, Kay. Bright of the Sky.
“Reminiscent of the groundbreaking novels of Philip K. Dick, Philip Jose Farmer, and Dan Simmons, her latest volume belongs in most libraries.”

Roberts, Adam. Gradisil.
“A picture of a possible future … that is both chillingly possible and dryly tongue-in-cheek. Fans of sf sagas will appreciate the attention to detail and engaging characters.”

Robson, Justina. Keeping It Real.
“…skillfully builds a seamless connection between sf and fantasy in this fast-paced series opener featuring a strong, action-oriented heroine and a unique world setting.” They go on to recommend the book to fans of both “contemporary culture” and “mature YA.”

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Sci-Fantasy Hits the Spot.

Fantasy Book Spot has posted a review of Justina Robson’s upcoming sci-fantasy, Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1) which they describe as being “ultra-edgy, explosively musicpunk,” adding “Robson crafts an adventure that is filled with legend, lore, love, and laughs with a steady hand. It both makes light of itself and takes things very seriously. To call the work anything but a ball of sheer originality would be an insult to pointy-eared elves everywhere.”

Their “quick take”: “An entertaining novel that junkets the reader on an adventure brimming with magical races, dangerous entities, and page-turning experiences, Keeping It Real is a blast.”

Meanwhile, SF Signal chimes in with a review of Kay Kenyon’s epic, Bright of the Sky: Book1 of The Entire and the Rose, giving it four stars and proclaiming the book is “a standout novel” and praising it’s “unique setting both physically and societally.” As they say:

MY RATING:

BOTTOM LINE: Bright Of The Sky effortlessly blends science fiction concepts and world-building with fantasy story telling to create a unique and intriguing whole.

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A Bevy of Reviews

Just back from Boskone to find a flurry of Pyr reviews in the in-box.

The Eternal Night is quite taken with the galactic yarn-spinning of Mike Resnick’s Starship: Pirate:

“Resnick does have a very definite style…If you like your sf to be space opera, if you like your sf gadgets to just work without needing an explanation of how, and if you don’t need to worry about the vast interstellar distances getting in the way of telling the tale – then Resnick is an author you should read.”

Then Ryun Patterson of Bookgasm finds John Meaney’s To Hold Infinity to be a “snapshot of a stunningly well-realized future that grabs hold and doesn’t let go…Meaney’s prose is tight and descriptive, and he avoids many of the pitfalls involved in getting ideas out of his head and into readers’. I’m no scientist, but the technology involved – though far-flung from today’s tech – never becomes so inexplicable that it might as well be magic, with a basis in networking and computer science. …a rather stunning book of ideas and imagination.” Despite liking the inside, Ryun is less than pleased with our cover and (to my amusement) offers this alternative.

The Cultural Gutter isn’t quite sure what to make of Chris Roberson’s
Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, which may stray too close to its pulp roots for their taste, though they note, “I give the book high marks for not compromising on its convictions. Chris Roberson clearly set out to tell an adventure story – a planetary romance, as the subtitle of the book would have it – and he always delivers.” Thanks also for the love they give to this blog!

And finally, I can’t tell you how happy I am to report that Publishers Weekly has given Kay Kenyon’s forthcoming Bright of the Sky a starred review! And here it is, complete with star:

At the start of this riveting launch of a new far-future SF series from Kenyon (Tropic of Creation), a disastrous mishap during interstellar space travel catapults pilot Titus Quinn with his wife, Johanna Arlis, and nine-year-old daughter, Sydney, into a parallel universe called the Entire. Titus makes it back to this dimension, his hair turned white, his memory gone, his family presumed dead and his reputation ruined with the corporation that employed him. The corporation (in search of radical space travel methods) sends Titus (in search of Johanna and Sydney) back through the space-time warp. There, he gradually, painfully regains knowledge of its rulers, the cruel, alien Tarig; its subordinate, Chinese-inspired humanoid population, the Chalin; and his daughter’s enslavement. Titus’s transformative odyssey to reclaim Sydney reveals a Tarig plan whose ramifications will be felt far beyond his immediate family. Kenyon’s deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building will have readers anxious for the next installment.”

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Bright of the Sky: From Illustration to Finished Book Jacket

We’ve just completed the dust jacket for Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky, the first book in an exciting new epic science fiction series coming from Pyr in April. Everyone is really happy with the cover, the illustration for which was already generating buzz as early as this past summer’s World Science Fiction convention. So I thought I’d use it to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while, which is to talk through the design process of putting a cover together.

For starters, Bright of the Sky is science fiction, but it’s got a fantasy feel. Or at least a “fantastical” feel – in that it’s set largely in a pocket universe peopled with multiple strange creatures. It’s really exquisite world-building on Kay’s part, and I wanted a cover illustration that could sell the size, scope, scale of her imagination and the world that has sprung out of it. Kay and I talked over several possible illustrators before decided on Stephan Martiniere. Now, Stephan is no stranger to Pyr, and anyone who reads my blogs knows he’s one of my favorite illustrators working today, but in SF he’s known mostly – at least up to this point although it’s shifting – for his wonderful architectural visions, such as his work on Ian McDonald’s River of Gods. But in the case of Bright of the Sky, it was Stephan’s work outside publishing – particularly the wonderful outdoor landscapes and creature designs he did for the Myst computer games – that caught Kay’s attention and made her think he could communicate some of what she saw for her world. And did he ever come through, as the picture on the top-right attests.

Next enter Jackie Cooke, from Pyr (and parent company Prometheus Books’) art department. At this stage, it’s about trying all sorts of options. We say we’d rather experiment and then pull back then not try to begin with. So we went through a ton of font choices, placements, and colors. Unfortunately, that was many moons ago, and I don’t have those files anymore. But suffice to say we went through a wide range – including a vaguely Asian-brush stroke type front that seemed in concept appropriate to the Chinese-like culture of one of the races in Bright, but which was too heavy handed in execution to use. Also, I don’t mind admitting that, although the end result looks nothing like it, we looked to the cover of Dan Simmon’s Ilium as one source for inspiration, particularly in the way the bronzed, embossed font of Dan’s name communicated the epic feel of the work. Finally, we settled on the design you see to the left. The font, I think, communicates both a sense of grand culture and the imposing dignity you want for an epic, “masterful” work.

So that’s the image you see in our catalog, on Amazon, on the website etc… But one of the central landscape elements of Kay’s “Universe Entire” is a mysterious river called the nigh. The nigh isn’t made of water, but a strange quicksilver substance, about which I won’t say anymore because you, well, have to read the book for yourself. But that’s the nigh you see pictured on the cover. But the colors on this cover are muted, and so Jackie and I wanted a way to both grab more eyeballs and to communicate some of that quicksilver imagery from the book. She settled on the use of a silver mirror holograhic foil, a special effect offered by our jacket printer, Phoenix Color. Ah, but when you do special effect like embossing, special dyes and inks, foil, etc… you pay per square inch. And it ain’t cheap. So, for instance, a book with the title and author name both at the top in close proximity to each other would be cheaper than a book where the effects are placed at top and bottom, like, unfortunately, we have. (If you follow the link, you’ll notice that Ilium has embossed Dan’s name at the top, but not the title at the bottom. This is why.) So, word came back that the bosses were willing to spring for the holofoil on the title, but not the title and author’s name. (Which is still mighty generous, as the effect ain’t cheap and they could just as easily have said to do without). That meant we had to find another solution for “Kay Kenyon” at the bottom. So here we have some of the colors we tried. The rainbow effect on the title is Jackie’s attempt to approximate the holographic foil, since we can’t show it in a jpg, and she wanted me to be able to see how it might pick up on and reflect various colors from Kay’s name. Here, I admit that I liked the white, but was wisely outvoted by both Jackie and Kay (we tend to involve the authors in the process – no, this isn’t the norm.) The mauve was never a consideration, though a grey that echoed the look of the catalog version was. Eventually, however, we settled on a sand color that was also used in the subtitle as the best match. I’ll wait and show it when we talk about the rest of the jacket.

Which is now. Jackie nailed the back cover in one. I love the purple on black, as well as aligning the quotes top left bottom right. I think the whole effect is very dignified and goes a long way towards our intention of presenting what an “important” epic this work is. But, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the spine isn’t there. Sometimes, grabbing a cross section of the cover illustration can really work well. Othertimes, not so much. It just didn’t look – you know it – “epic” to me.So I suggest Jackie try a simple black spine. And maybe grab an image of that horse creature (called an Inyx) or those wonderful flying fish. I pictured placing this image at the top of the spine, but Jackie surprised me by putting it center and surrounding it in that stylish border motif she’d already devised for the subtitle:The flaps are added at this point to. Disregard the white spaces – they won’t be there on the final. So now we’re almost there, but we still need to add Kay’s picture, and Jackie felt the left flap – the grey one – was a little plain, so she decided to added a faded image from the cover to give it some texture. The result is our final dust jacket below, though, of course, you don’t see the effect of the holographic foil on the title. Right click it to see larger, as with all these, of course. And since this was a long post to put together, feel free to ooo and ahhhh.
Now tell me, does Bright of the Sky: Entire and the Rose: Book 1 look like a damn fine book or what?

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Kay Kenyon’s New Website: Virtually Yours

Kay Kenyon has a brand new website, Virtually Yours, which lives at www.KayKenyon.com. Very sleek, very cool, and I’m happy to see quite a few pages dedicated to her upcoming quartet, the Entire and the Rose, which begins this April with Bright of the Sky. There, Kay has put up detailed pages on the characters, geography and other features of her invented universe, as well as chapter excerpts from the novel. She’s also started a new blog, Kay’s Journal, one which has already set my ears burning (thanks, Kay). Naturally, I encourage everyone to check it out, the site, the blog and the book, including Kay’s previous novels.

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