 |   Author : David J. Williams Number of Pages : 416 Publisher : Spectra List Price: Our Price: $9.05 You Save: $5.95 (40%) Used Price : $4.80 |
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- ISBN13: 9780553385427
- Condition: New
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Product Description
In his electrifying debut, The Mirrored Heavens, David J. Williams created a dark futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time. Now he takes his masterful blend of military SF, espionage thriller, and dystopian cyberpunk one step further—to the edge of annihilation . . . .Life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters—her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Worse, the defeat of the mysterious insurgent group known as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that the group’s ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd century—but to rule all of humanity. And they’re starting with the violent destruction of the Net and the assassination of the U.S. president. Now it’s up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the systems of the enemy, to win this impossible war.
Battling ferociously across the Earth-Moon system, and navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for the Rain’s next move. But the true enemy may already be one step ahead of her.
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Customer reviews
Mirrored Heavens was just the overture... 
by .. Michael OMalley (Northern Virginia)
BURNING SKIES deftly builds on the foundation Williams laid out in his debut novel, MIRRORED HEAVENS. Williams reuses his cast, a group composed almost wholly of characters who never doubt that the end justifies the means.
In MIRRORED HEAVENS, Williams teased readers with the Throne, the President of a militaristic America; a man so paranoid that even his own Praetorian bodyguards don't know what he's up to. Now we get a peak at the kind of man who can command the loyalty of the ruthless soldiers and assassins responsible for preserving order.
BURNING SKIES goes in a few different directions; some of them follow-ons from the first novel and some of them seemingly tangential, coming out of nowhere. Within the context of a creative, rather diabolical series of set pieces, characters brush against metaphysics and levels of technology not even mentioned previously. In other books I'd consider this to be a loss of focus, but I suspect Williams is once again lulling me into a false sense of security...
I can't wait for the next book- and you certainly shouldn't wait for this book. Get off the fence, pick it up, strap yourself into your reading chair of choice, and get ready...you're in for a fun ride.
Hunting Autumn Rain by .. J. Kugler ()
In The Mirrored Heavens, I was introduced to David J. Williams' intricately devised political, social, and technological conflicts - the tensions between East and West, the tensions between mech and razor, and the terrifyingly capable terrorist group, Autumn Rain, in the middle of it all.
The second novel in the Autumn Rain trilogy is The Burning Skies. (Note: The finale, The Machinery of Light, comes out next year and Dave promises to go all-out!) While Williams has written Burning Skies to be accessible to all, it definitely helps put things in perspective to have read Mirrored Heavens first. I'll do my best to avoid spoilers for those who have not yet read either.
Williams fully demonstrates his ability to bring you almost-irritatingly close to figuring out what's really going on, while withholding just enough information to keep you questioning your assumptions until he really wants you to know for sure. The parallel stories in Mirrored Heavens start to come together in Burning Skies, only to find that they really were intertwined all along and in ways a reader would hardly suspect. I'm one of those people who prides myself on being able to figure out the plot of a movie early on, so it's a lot of fun for me to go through the rollercoaster and still enjoy a few surprises at the end.
While the descriptions of the tactical combat maintain their quick pace and appreciation for the absurd, especially in the banter between the characters, the utter devastation inflicted by Autumn Rain and those trying to stop them is much more apparent. In Mirrored Heavens, we see the destruction of a space elevator under construction and various other megastructures. However, much of that is depicted from the perspective of a detached observer, or someone fleeing in the wake. Everyone's attention in Burning Skies, however, is focused on the Europa Platform - an O'Neill-type habitat with millions of people and the largest structure in neutral space. When everything goes to hell, there is no escaping the carnage.
The leaders of the United States and the Eurasian Coalition have agreed to meet at Europa in a gambit to end the cold war between their nations and draw out Autumn Rain on a ground of their own choosing. But nothing is as simple as it seems, nor are any of the characters. There are plans within plans at every step of the game and the cliffhanger ending leaves you wondering just how far Williams will go in Machinery of Light...
A non-stop white knuckled ride! by .. Erik Huntoon (Naptown, IN)
Burning Skies is the sequel to The Mirrored Heavens , part of the Autumn Rain Trilogy. So if you haven't read The Mirrored Heavens, stop now and go look up that book first. The Autumn Rain Trilogy takes place 100 years in the future in the year 2110. The political climate of Earth is tense with the US and the Eurasian Coalition basically in a standoff state as the true global powers. To ratchet up the tension, a new highly sophisticated terrorist group known only as Autumn Rain have made their presence known by orchestrating the destruction of the Phoenix Space Elevator, part of the events of The Mirrored Heavens.
Burning Skies picks up with the search for Autumn Rain in high gear and follows a cast of characters that are basically futuristic special ops agents. There are the Razors, which are agents that specialize in running the "Zone". They play havoc with an enemies defenses and run interference for their counterparts, the Mechs. The Mechs are the true firepower wielders. Wearing high tech powered armor suits and toting enough ordinance to ruin anyone's day, they do the bulk of the fighting while the Razor manipulates events more indirectly.
I don't want to go into the storyline, I think that should be something the reader gets to experience firsthand. I will just say that David J Williams writes in a style that lends itself to intensely fast paced action and the pages turn at an almost alarming rate. There are times were his structure will seem somewhat terse, or maybe clipped, and that may be off putting to some readers. But I personally feel that it lends itself to the chaotic mess that the characters are constantly dealing with. The action is fast and furious and the writing style really puts a punctuation on that. There are very few places where you can easily put the book down without convincing yourself to read "just one more section". In the end, it's a thrill ride with a ton of twists and turns and one mother of a cliffhanger. Fortunately for anyone reading this now, the final book, The Machinery of Light, is now available.
The Autumn Rain Trilogy could be generalized as a blending of cyberpunk like Neuromancer, political military fiction like Tom Clancy and an equal dose of sci-fi. It's a fantastically fast paced thrill ride that is hard to put down.
Keeps you guessing and mixes things up like no other sci-fi series has before by .. Polter (Naples, FL USA)
Both books will keep you guessing and throw you right into the action from beginning to end, I found myself wanting to support The Operative's (Carson's) group from the first book and still do through this one .. you'll choose your own group or individual
What's nice about this series is there is no clear cut group anyone will be rooting for. Is The Rain really bad? The Americas? Euros? Asians? Spacecom? Razors (those with the ability to operate within the physical world and 'zone' - the networked world of the inevitable future...) - are they superior, well of course everyone would think so... of course there are those that are even something more than that.
Mankind will always evolve naturally or by helping nature along, but one thing is for sure, the utopia some may claim to seek will never satisfy mankind as a whole for what are we without our struggles?
If I'm not being clear enough while trying to be vague enough not to spoil anything, I apologize here in my first review, but I hope I've made you curious enough to check out these books, they are very much worth the ride, there's something for everyone, Williams' possible world of the future's possibilities are many, and I can't wait for the trilogy finale.
Fast-Paced Adventure by .. mavenmasm (Washington, DC)
Let me just say that I read this book without reading the first in the series, Mirrored Heavens. While I'm currently going back and reading Mirrored Heavens, I found that Burning Skies does work really well independently.
I think David J Williams does a nice job throwing you in the middle of it all without the reader feeling overwhelmed. I like the omnipresence and stealth nature of the terrorist group Autumn Rain, as well as learning more and more about Claire Haskell (arguably the main character). All in all this was a great book, and I cannot wait to find out what happens next.