Beyond the Hallowed Sky begins with a mystery and a scientific discovery. Brilliant scientist Lakshmi Nayak receives in the post a letter from an unknown source in Kabul. That is strange enough, but when Lakshmi looks at it, she finds a mystery equation.
Nayak discovers that the letter has been sent to her by herself. It contains equations that suggest that Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel is possible. Excitedly, Nayak checks the formula, which appears to work. However, when sharing with her established peers, instead of being lauded, Nayak finds herself attacked, both professionally and personally.
The story then moves forward three years and broadens to take in the consequences of this through other character’s perspectives.
The reason why Nayak’s discovery was not well-received globally was that FTL travel was not new, nor as revolutionary as she/we thought. China, Russia and the US have actually known about FTL for decades but kept it jealously as a secret. Any scientist who has by chance discovered the concept has conveniently gone quiet or even disappeared. Nayak herself goes into hiding in Scotland.
This allows the reader to observe the future political situation. As Nayak escapes to Scotland, we find that much of Europe (including Scotland) and the US are part of a Union, whilst Britain steadfastly adheres to the Alliance, a grouping of countries including India. In addition, there’s the Co-ordinated States made up of Russia, China and their dependencies. As today, none of these groups trust each other, which has led to a complex Cold War type scenario.
What the reader then discovers is that, unknown to most, scientists have travelled in secret to other Earth-like planets using FTL. The novel then goes to the planet Apis, where scientist Emma Hazeldene is part of a scientific research expedition. Emma and her colleagues have been on Apis for over fifteen years, although they are not the only people there. Defectors and deserters known as Exiles also live a shadowy existence away from the scientific base. Emma and her colleagues discover and make contact with an alien lifeform, although the Exiles have been there first.
Back on Earth, John Grant was an active participant of the revolution known as the Rising. Now a submarine builder on the Clyde, near the Alliance Faslane defence base. His son Myles is newly returned to Dunoon from university, his partner Ellen is working on building the Nordzee Barrier across the North Sea, a consequence of dealing with climate change. Whilst working there, Grant sees a submarine disappear in front of his eyes, which suggests that there’s something going on.
We then take an abrupt left turn to Venus, where Cloud City hovers above the planet. Here Union and Alliance live together exploring Venus’s surface. Much of this part of the book is focused upon Alliance Secret agent Marcus Owen, who is also a human-form robot, who goes to Venus on a mission – to ensure that the scientific communities do not uncover a major secret on the planet’s surface.
As usual, Ken does a good job of juggling these different characters and perspectives before having them interlink. Ken’s stories usually reflect political and social issues as well as the science fictional ones, and so it is here. The different viewpoints give us a mosaic picture of the future and are, by turns, exciting, mysterious and dangerous. Throughout all of this, though, there are a number of key themes underlying the character’s actions. There are some interesting consequences of Climate change, COVID-like epidemics and a Union Artificial Intelligence named Iskander that has integrated itself into social norms are all involved in this future setting.
Socially there’s much talk of movement, migrants and refugees, with various characters moving to different places by choice or by being forced to move, which clearly echoes current earth-bound issues today, but unlike some recent novels Ken doesn’t hammer the points home repeatedly. They’re there but not overstated.
As this is the first book in a trilogy, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to find that there is a fair amount of scene setting in the novel, although to be fair it never feels particularly forced. As this is the first book of a trilogy, don’t expect everything to be resolved, but by the end things are motoring along nicely. The ending is exciting and brings much to an appropriate point, whilst also setting up elements to be continued in the future books.
Big themes, alien contact, a range of people and planets, political manoeuvring, social commentary – it’s all here. Beyond the Hallowed Sky is the work of a proficient writer who brings us a view of an intriguing future with a diverse range of characters. Great read, and a series I look forward to continuing.
Beyond the Hallowed Sky by Ken MacLeod
Published by Orbit Books, November 2021
ISBN: 978 0 356 51479 8
Review by Mark Yon
