Book Review: Forsake the Sky

Book Review: 'Forsake the Sky' by Tim Powers

3 / 5 Stars

'Forsake the Sky' (217 pp.) was published by Tor Books in April, 1986, and features cover art by Boris Vallejo. It's a revised edition of the book 'The Skies Discrowned', author Powers's first novel, which was issued by Laser Books in 1976.

I picked up 'Forsake' after plowing through over 1,000 pages of fantasy novels ('Shardik', 'Well of Shiuan', and 'Fires of Azeroth'), and was intent on reading a novel that was short, devoid of orotund prose, and featured a simple, straightforward plot with an emphasis on action over characterization and atmosphere. In this regard, 'Forsake' delivered.

The novel is set in the far future, when the Galactic Dominion is in rapid decline and as a result, communication between member planets is atrophying. As technology becomes less accessible, the planet of Octavio has regressed to a 19th century level of civilization. Firearms are in short supply, edged weapons have come into prominence, and horsepower has supplanted the gasoline engine. What little interplanetary commerce still taking place within the Dominion is conducted by the Transport corporation, which seeks to co-opt - or coerce - planetary rulers into its service.

The protagonist of 'Forsake' is a young man named Frank Rovzar, whose father is the painter in the court of Duke Topo. When a palace coup engineered by the amoral Prince Costa interrupts a portrait painting session of the Duke, Frank and his father father resist the plotters, only to have the father murdered, and Frank arrested. Sentenced to a life of labor in the mines of the planet Orestes, at the spaceport, Frank makes a desperate try for freedom and succeeds. 

Frank's only option for a hiding-place from Costa, and his Transport allies, is the metropolis of Munson and its considerable Undercity, a warren of tunnels, passageways, and buildings where the alliance of the Subterranean Companions serves as the clandestine ruler.

Taken in by an Undercity aristocrat, Frank must prove his worth in a landscape of literal and figurative darkness. Schemes and intrigues abound in the torchlit corridors of the Undercity, and Frank's skill at swordplay regularly will be called upon to deter the conspirators operating against the Companions.

But as Frank and the Companions are to discover, the Transport corporation has no intention of letting the Undercity and its criminal enterprises operate with impunity. As punitive forays against the Undercity mount, Frank and is companions will have to decide if they want to risk death in a fight for freedom against the tyranny of Costa and Transport.............

'Forsake the Sky' is a traditional sci-fi adventure, with a Ruritanian flavoring derived from affectionate portrayals of swordfights, the enjoyment of fine liqueurs, pipe-smoking, gourmet meals, and conversations held in well-appointed drawing-rooms. One can see themes in this novel that author Powers later was to incorporate into such works as 'The Drawing of the Dark'. 

If you are a fan of action / adventure sci-fi, or the novels of Tim Powers, then you will find 'Forsake the Sky' a quick and easy read.