Jeff Sexton
More Consistent Yet Less Grounded Storytelling Than Predecessor. When The Sky Falls, for all of its faults in rather clunkily combining two prior books into one, was a very grounded story of survival in both the immediate aftermath of an Apocalypse and several years later. Here, we continue not long after the events of Part 2 of When The Sky Falls leave off - indeed, seemingly just hours after the events of that book's finale.
And we wind up getting a far more consistent - if also much more fanciful - tale in this book. Without going *too* deep into spoiler territory, I'll say that some elements of the ending of When The Sky Falls are continued and continued quite effectively, but the newer elements of this tale are where it becomes far less grounded and much deeper into the realm of scifi than simply a post-Apocalyptic story. We get some versions of some answers to some questions, and we're left with a lot more questions... seemingly leaving room for Spangler to come back to this world, if the third time revising and rereleasing these stories is indeed the charm and sales truly increase such that this may be an option for him.
While When The Sky Falls had a few dusty rooms, this tale has a very different feel that taps into a very different but nearly equally visceral emotion - particularly in some more blatant moments. It is hard to describe this part while avoiding all spoilers, so I'll just leave it at that. I enjoyed this stretch and thought it well done, but admittedly it could be a bit much and perhaps a bit complex for some readers.
So come along for the ride and see what happens after the sky falls and when the dawn finally breaks. ;)
Very much recommended.