Sky Village
posted in series, book challenge, middle grades, science fiction, book review, fantasy, children's literature |
Sky Village Book 1 (Kaimira) by Monk & Nigel Ashland (2008)
“Human hatred for meks and beasts ran deep…After decades of war followed by only a few years of uneasy peace, humans had learned to stick with their own kind.”
In a post-Trinary War world, Earth is populated with meks (machines), beasts, and humans. With meks and beasts constantly warring and pillaging, it’s all humans can do to find a place to call home. Some are laying low on ground or underground and others have taken to the sky.
Mei is one of those who (reluctantly) takes to the sky when her father sends her off to live in the Sky Village. Hovering high above China, the Sky Village is a community tied together through a maze of interconnected hot-air balloons and a shared history; Mei is forced to do some serious adjusting–both in her balance and in her life outlook. Half a world away in what remains of Las Vegas Rom fights his own demons (literally). In an attempt to save his sister, he enters the Demon caves where he finds himself embroiled in a gladiator-style competition against demon hybrids for the entertainment of the masses.
With Mei above Earth in China and Rom below Earth in Las Vegas, the two find themselves joined through the Tree Book. The Tree Book is a book of stories and other wonders that that their parents have always guarded. They have never before seen inside its pages. Now with their parents absent from their lives, Mei and Rom take the Tree Book into their own hands and find each other. In their friendship, they develop a certain sense of stability in the midst of a world of uncertainty. In the Tree Book, they find the beginnings of answers to their past and more enigmas about the future.
Mei and Rom discover that they are both carriers of the Kaimira gene–a genetic mutation endowing them with characteristics of human, beast, and machine. The Kaimira gene provides an intriguing basis for the plot for this story and for the future of the series.
In Sky Village, the Ashlands combine elements of future story, fantasy, survival, adventure, identity, and culture. The series reminds me a bit of Philip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles (Mortal Enginesand the like). Although Reeve’s series is aimed at a slightly older audience than the Kaimira series, both grapple with ideas about Otherness and possible ways of interacting with those who are different from ourselves.
Takeaway quote: Mei’s mother once told her, “If you know your enemy as you know your friend…then there is hope your enemy will become your friend.”
*review based on an advance reading copy
