The Sky People

This is not one of Stirling's best books, but it's quite pleasant to reread occasionally.The best part of it is the scenario, which he's thought out carefully and in some detail; the descriptions of landscape, wildlife, and technology are generous.After which, the story and the characters seem rather perfunctory: competent, but somewhat half-baked, as though he spent all his energy on the scenario and then thought, “Oh, I suppose I'd better throw in a story and some characters to go with it.”It's a decent enough story, but he has the ability to do better. In fact, the sequel to this book ([b:In the Courts of the Crimson Kings 1723945 In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (Lords of Creation, #2) S.M. Stirling https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312049912l/1723945.SY75.jpg 1721343]) is better than this one.I think the Lords of Creation series was intended to be at least a trilogy, but apparently the first two books didn't sell well enough to justify the writing of the third. The alternative-Venus and alternative-Mars that he imagined are wonderful, but they deserve great stories to go with them, and these stories are quite good in their way, but they fail to live up to their settings.