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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Heavy Sky by Alex O. Harb begins with Toryn Skyheart of the Windclaw Tribe setting out to restore a failing islet, through skies and icy terrain, to recover a vital heartstone. On a separate course, Lina Ryven survives the destruction of her aircraft, forming a tentative alliance with Kip Saroven, a skilled engineer with some shady connections. Together, they traverse storms, floating islands, and a hidden ocean, finding remnants of advanced technology and fractured civilizations. Alongside Nora Hertzig and Marvin Thale, they face imprisonment and political maneuvering while mapping underground networks. As surface and aerial missions intersect, the necessity of protecting critical ecosystems, stabilizing regions, and maintaining supply lines amplifies, with their coordinated efforts being the make-or-break in the balance of the archipelago and the survival of life and tech across the Storm-bound world.
Alex O. Harb’s Heavy Sky is an ambitious first installment in the speculative Stories of Azoria series, and we gain a strong sense of the world Harb creates. The author constructs an extensive setting that is complete, quite literally, from top to bottom, sky to underground. I liked seeing all the politicking through scenes like Toryn and Nora moving through the Holy Sovereignty’s hidden corridors, and skyscapes as Lina pilots through the air. Lina is, hands down, my favorite character. The absolute love of all things oil and mechanical is a brilliant subversion of gender tropes. The narrative moves between daily routines with the workings of secret societies, from the Mushroom Syndicate to the Church of the Archives, and every single reveal offers a new environment of established history. The attention to the mechanics of flight, trade, and underground passageways is on point. Overall, Heavy Sky is an excellent launchpad into a series that I look forward to following.
