ARC Review: Take Back the Skies

Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Pic UK/ANZ)
Format Reviewed: Paperback
Publication Date: 5th June 2014
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 378
Reviewed by: Eugenia
My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
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Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya. She’s one of the privileged – she has luxurious clothes, plenty to eat, and is protected from the Collections which have ravaged families throughout the land.  

But Catherine longs to escape the confines of her life, before her dad can marry her off to a government brat and trap her forever. So Catherine becomes Cat, pretends to be a kid escaping the Collections, and stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. As they leave Anglya behind and brave the storms that fill the skies around the islands of Tellus, Cat’s world becomes more turbulent than she could ever have imagined, and dangerous secrets unravel her old life once and for all . . .

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I first saw this book I was pretty excited to read it. The synopsis made it sound like a steampunk/sci-fi adventure story which looked really promising. While unfortunately I didn't love this book, and there were some areas of the plot which didn't work for me personally, on the whole it was an interesting read, and something a little different from what I would usually pick up. When Catherine (Cat) Hunter, our former privileged and upper-class protagonist runs away from home and her tyrant of a father, she disguises herself as a boy to go aboard the 'Stormdancer'. On this skyship she is taken in by the crew and she soon discovers what the outside world outside her previously cushioned bubble is really like. The story goes on from there with a battle to free the oppressed commoners of the injustices they are facing and to finally 'Take Back the Skies'.

I know you shouldn't really compare books in terms of this factor, but after reading some really smartly written and beautifully flowing novels before this one, it just seemed a bit jerky for my liking. This was an ARC though, so some things may have changed in the final copy. It can be hard to explain this sort of thing, but after a while it just seemed to be waffling a bit without actually getting to the point. I don't want to sound too harsh, and there were some gems to be found, but on the whole this is probably the main issue for me. That being said, and I'm going to keep saying this - reading is wholly subjective and what doesn't work for one person may not be a problem at all for another.

The Cat/Fox dynamic didn't really work for me as a budding romance. I have seen other complain about the remarks that Fox made which could be considered sexist, and while this did annoy me to a certain extent, at least Cat stood up for herself most of the time with her witty side. I could see them as friends, but as something possibly more, it just wasn't working for me. She did sure blush a lot when she was even around him, which might have made it a cute, but passing crush.

One thing which I did find interesting was the world-building, which is essential for a novel in this genre. I found the futuristic setting with that historical touch to be quite interesting to imagine and read about. While there could have been more detail in some places to really cement the image in your mind, at least your imagination can fill in the gaps. The royal drama and 'aristocracy vs. the peasants' concepts are ones which you may have come across before in historical fiction, but placing them in this setting gives the plot a fresh perspective. Once you get into the slang and the characters using 'sprog' all the time, it can become quite an immersing read.

CONCLUSION

To finish off, although Take Back the Skies did have its few issues for me, I think that it does have its areas of appeal. If you are looking for some cyper-punk to shake things up a little in your reading regime then you might as well give this one a try and see where it takes you.