When the Sky Falls
A gripping post-apocalyptic survival thriller
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
A gripping post-apocalyptic survival thriller
Ratings1
Average rating5
Poisonous clouds spill from the sky and erase the sun. Buildings collapse. Communications fail. Corrosive fog consumes everything in its path.
Emily Stark flees her crumbling home with baby sister Sammi and shelters with a shellshocked band of survivors. As she tends the injured and risks her life gathering supplies, she is keeping a secret… her father, her hero, caused this disaster.
Fifteen years later. Against all odds, Sammi has grown up in the suffocating darkness and found love with soulmate Declan Chambers. When their hopes of a life together are jeopardised by mutiny in their commune, they slip past the guards and seek a life beyond its walls.
But burning fog isn’t the only danger to face them in the wilderness. A savage gang called The Outsiders attacks anyone who crosses their path, even snatching children from their parents’ arms.
Emily lost her young son to The Outsiders and she fears for her sister’s life beyond the commune. Not knowing where Sammi could be in the darkness, Emily has only one chance to save her: her father. Only she knows he has the power to return sunlight to earth, and only she knows where he is: deep inside the machine that churns the dark skies to acid.
Can Emily find her father and make him reverse the catastrophe he caused? And will Sammi and Declan’s love be enough to survive in the brutal fallen skies?
Reviews with the most likes.
Explosive Opener Leads To Survival Epic. One of the first things you need to know about this particular (now) duology of When The Sky Falls and When The Dawn Breaks is that this is now the third time this story has been revised and repackaged - thus, when it feels like the book suddenly switches gears and becomes seemingly an entirely different book at around the 2/3 mark or so... that's because in its original forms, it *was* a second book at that point.
But taking that into consideration and reading this duology back to back, effectively reading what was formerly a four book series all at once, feels a bit like reading a shorter version of Douglas Adams' epic five volume romp through space in The Hithhiker's Guide To the Galaxy... but in a far more grounded, survival scifi type story. As with The Complete Hitchhiker though, this story actually works quite well in this form.
Part I has the explosive opener reminiscent of the opener of Brett Battles' SICK, the opening salvo of his seven volume epic apocalyptic survival series PROJECT EDEN, and in some ways - the mall scenes in particular, but also some of the scenes between the opening and that point - really challenge Battles as to which is truly the more compelling story.
Part 2 of this text is set a bit "down the road" from the events of Part I. The Apocalypse has effectively happened, and the survivors have set up what civilization they can. Here, the story becomes more of an exploration-survival story, where we learn how the world has changed from the one we know... and how humanity, in many ways, never really changes much.
While Part I has its heart wrenching moments and makes the room a bit dusty at times in certain ways, Part 2 manages to twist these things a touch and do a bit of its own thing - which is why it can be jarring to read it in the same book as Part I - but also manages to up the stakes a bit in its own way, before finally leaving the reader almost literally begging for the continuation of the story - now to follow in When The Dawn Breaks, with both books being released together.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.
Featured Series
2 primary booksDark Skies Apocalypse is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2024 with contributions by B.R. Spangler.
