Book Review | Skyward Inn

Title: Skyward Inn
Author: Aliya Whiteley
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing
Published: 16th March 2021
Genre: Science fiction,

Rating: 3/5 stars
 

Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita. But safety from what?

Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars. Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.

Did humanity really win the war? -Goodreads

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for the digital ARC of Skyward Inn.

I was intrigued by the description of this book, it’s not necessarily what I would normally pick up, but it sounded too interesting to turn down. This is a very interesting sci-fi novel, it seems to jump between genres. Sometimes it reads as a fairly simple sci-fi, then the next moment its like a literary fiction novel. Literary fiction isn’t a genre I read often at all, and I do think that it was this that may have reduced my overall enjoyment of the novel. It was an enjoyable read, but was missing a certain something that makes a novel special for me.

This novel is a moral and philosophical sci-fi read which honestly I just found to be a wee bit too much. The intentions and messaging the author was trying to convey about humanity and the cycle of life and death was just a bit too heavy for the novel. The messages were too deep for the novel to carry I felt, and as such it floundered about in the middle, unable to be any specific thing.

I also struggled to connect to any of the characters in Skyward Inn. We follow the perspective of a number of characters, and honestly I didn’t feel anything for any of them! As a result I didn’t really get drawn into the story, and I honestly wasn’t really bothered about any of them.This really drew me out of the story a bit, just being unable to actually care for the characters.

I wish we had been given more backstory about the world and the setting of the story. I do understand why it wasn’t focussed on, it wasn’t really the purpose of the story, but nonetheless it made it difficult to place the story and its purpose within the world. The reader is left trying to scrape a background together from clues dropped throughout, which I feel was a missed opportunity to give us more background, and better cement the themes of the novel.

Overall I thought this novel was ok. It’s not my normal sub-genre of science fiction novel, and as such I am not that surprised that I didn’t love it as much as I could have. If you enjoy Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation trilogy, I would give this novel a try!

Buy the novel from Waterstones here!