Under the Empyrean Sky

Funny thing about unlikeable or likeable characters. They can make or break a story depending on what kind of story you're trying to tell. Generally for me, unlikeable is preferable. I'll take a petty, selfish, angry protagonist over an angel any day of the week.

So Under the Empyrean Sky has left me confused. I did not like Cael and it kept me from liking the rest of the book. I understood where he was coming from, why he thought the things that he did. I just could never bring myself to really root for him. Cael is painfully short sighted, and overly absorbed with a primitive idea of masculinity, in which he sees himself as provider, a bread winner, and a protector of the woman he loves. Nevermind the fact the world he lives him will never let him “win” anything, counts on his desire to be a dutiful worker so that he will keep his head down and not question the order of things, and that there is no room for a love story in a world that arranges marriage by luck of the draw at age seventeen. Not to mention, Gwennie can take care of herself.

I know that he thinks this way because of the world he was born into. He is very effectively brainwashed. But even as he gets an up close and personal account of the injustices of the Empyrean led world, his state of mind never really changes. He still thinks he's going to save the girl and maybe even grab the golden ring at the end. Not only that, but a lot of the conflict of the book is wrapped up in these distorted neuroses Cael has. His fight to keep Gwennie when the Empyrean arranges for her to marry his rival eats up good portion of the plot, and his belief that he can somehow earn a happy life through hard work and ambition ends up toppling the hard work of another, work that could have actually made a real change in their world. Like a good character, Cael is what drives the conflict of the story, but unfortunately for me it was in all the wrong ways.

Like any Chuck Wendig book, this is marvelously written, great prose and pacing that keeps your attention. I just felt like the conflicts were too small and petty for the breadth of the setting. This is one of those dystopias that kind of got to me. You'd think “corn-punk” wouldn't feel so credible, but a world where the establishment as turned the production of food (sort of, the corn in this story is largely inedible) into a weapon against its citizens? Not as far-fetched as you might think. And the way the Heartlanders bought right into it, dutifully fighting with each other over the scraps they were tossed, was painful to read. Cael is one of those people, and it looks like it'll be a while before he really sees the forest for the trees.