“Skyward Inn” by Aliya Whitely. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: SciFi/Dystopian. Location: Southwest England and the planet Qita. Time: Future. Note: This book appeals to lovers of philosophical, literary, slow-paced SciFi. If you don’t enjoy those, this may not be the book for you.-
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In a dystopian future, Earth (controlled by The Coalition) is connected to the planet Qita by a space gate. But the Western Protectorate (located in what was once the Devon countryside) has kept itself separate to preserve the old ways. The Skyward Inn is where Protectorate residents come to relax. Run by Jem (a human who served on Qita) and Isley (a Qitan), they offer the time and space-altering Qitan Jarrowbrew.-
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Author Whitely uses elegantly sparse language to tell the story from two somewhat surreal perspectives- Jem, the former space traveler, and Fosse, the unhappy, isolated son she abandoned. As an unknown disease spreads across the worlds, the author sucks us in with questions of love and attachment, individuality vs. community, belonging vs. conflict.-
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Expect the first half to develop slowly. As the disease spreads, the narrative speeds up. Don’t expect answers, the residents of Earth and Qita are not ready for clearly defined answers. For me, it was an amazing book, the kind one wants to talk about with like-minded friends. It’s not an easy read because it is full of sadness and regrets. It’s 5 stars from me and I’ll keep thinking about it for a long time. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.🌵📚👩🏼‍🦳”

This was another DNF for me, it was no type of book. I thought I was going to like it but I ended up only reading up until page 40 and I couldn't get back into it.

NetGalley gave me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the West Country in the UK the village life almost echoes back to a Thomas Hardy novel but obviously much more modern (although in a community avoiding technology). A stranger comes to town. And then more. Both ways. Because in this time and place Devon and all of Earth are one side of the Kissing Gate, on the other side of which is Qita. Whiteley has refreshingly created a world in which things pretty much did hit the brink but solutions have allowed village life to continue. People can recall leaving the village as if they were there and the reader gets to experience Qita this way. I keep comparing ‘Skyward Inn’ to other narratives precisely because it breaks so many moulds. The mother who joined the army of sorts and came back, the son raised by his uncle (the upstanding member of the community), the peaceful aliens... the closest I can recommend is the Southern Reach trilogy for an idea but of course it is entirely its own thing with less sense of dread!

‘Skyward Inn’ is about loneliness, about place, about choices, and about ideas about those things.

I really wanted to like the book, I did. But it just didn't click with me. There were parts that I genuinely like, but there were more that I didn't. I would probably enjoy it more if I wasn't so busy trying to follow and make sense of the plot and worldbuilding.

Story-wise, it felt all over the place, at times. I really struggled for two thirds of the book trying to see where the story is going or even what the book is about. There were some scenes and subplots that felt unnecessary, or at least didn't have to drag on as long as it did. The pacing and the jump back and forth between timeline also threw me off a bit.

I do like the last 10 percent of the book though, and for someone else, they will probably love the book. But personally, it just isn't for me.

I really tried to like this and finish it but then I remembered that my time is valuable and I don't need to finish boring stuff. It's really slow and I don't understand why I needed to know why Fosse masturbates in the shed; like that's not the sort of weird graphic detail that will endear me to the character or make me understand them more.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, and the chance to leave an honest review.

Jemima, a former militant in an interplanetary war, runs the Skyward Inn. A local pub/hotel in the rural Protectorate where all the residents come to gab and drink Jarrowbrew a Qitan beverage made by Isley, the resident Qitan that provoked different feelings amongst the patrons. Jemima is in love with Isley and vice-versa even though Isley has made it quite clear that there can be no physical affection. They spend their nights drinking Jarrowbrew after the barflies have made their way home and Isley listens to Jem reminisce about her time spent on his home planet.

All changes when a Qitan arrives at the inn and needs Isley’s help to repair her suit so she can return home. This incident seems to be the catalyst that ramps up the story. A mysterious disease is spreading through the Protectorate and while the Council defends the land from illegal immigrants and increases quarantine measures, Jem’s son Fosse runs away to join the military. He completes is training and goes to Qita to discover more about the race and research into how the humans from earth won a war without dropping a single drop of blood on both sides. Did humans really “win”?

This is a thought provoking and disturbing novel touching all aspects of humanity and community. All the characters are relatable and well developed and all in all it was a great read.

My only issue was I had a hard time picturing a Qitan and how their differences to humans. Other than that I loved it!

I'm not really sure what I think about this book. The prose lends this post-war, alien contact, bigotry, anti-technology, dysfunctional family, connection, body horror, coming of age narrative a dreamy quality. There’s also a slow ratcheting up of dread, and some revulsion, all served up in big glasses of brew.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review.

I’m always on the lookout for more SFF slice of life. Especially weird literary SFF slice of life. So when a friend brought this book to my attention, I knew I’d have to read it. And it turned out to be one of the most unique things I’ve found in a while – at the same time somehow a seamless blend of super chill sci-fi slice of life (slight Becky Chambers vibes anyone?) and something altogether more unsettling.

Jem and Isley – a human and a Qitan alien – manage the titular Skyward Inn. It’s a place where people from a small village in the Protectorate, a community of humans that rejects technological progress, can share a drink and exchange stories of the past. It all starts as a very quiet slice of life story, just Jem’s POV, in first person, alternating with that of her estranged teenage son, in third person, following their daily lives, but it slowly and seamlessly blends in an element of strangeness bordering on horror.

There is a very literary feel to it and the prose is absolutely stunning. Even though it’s a very short novel, it felt exactly as long as it needs to be. I loved how natural and gradual the change in tone felt – never jarring, and even though I’m a wimp who normally avoids horror like the plague and is especially sensitive to body horror, I wasn’t ever terrified or disgusted enough to stop reading. Creeped out, sure, but not in a way that’d be a dealbreaker.

In addition to that, it also touches upon complex family relationships, space colonization and how it affects communities, and personal autonomy. The tagline, “this is a place where we can be alone, together” is very on point. Only now I realise it hits another of my favourite tropes, books that take place after a big conflict is done and deal with its aftermath. It’s not a central plot since the focus is firmly on the characters, but it’s there.

Most highly recommended.

* Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris/Rebellion for providing an advance copy for review *
At some point in the not so distant future, a wormhole opens in Earth that gives it access to an alien civilization in planet Qita. After a tense initial encounter, Qitans peacefully surrender and let humans develop and extract resources from their planet. The story is told from the point of view of Jem, a human veteran of the Earth invasion of Qita, who now runs a pub in a village in isolationist England together with Isley, a Qitan veteran she met during her duty. Things start to change when an unexpected visitor from Qita appears.

Skyward Inn is a sci-fi first contact story that manages to be both intimate and all encompassing, in a way that reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin. It is a beautiful, thought provoking novel that explores loneliness and belonging, with highly memorable (although a bit disturbing) imagery. It challenges your assumptions <spoiler>(specially involving conquerors and the conquered)</spoiler> and does not spoon feed you answers; it can be unnerving at some points, but it is also peaceful. The book also touches on change; it is probably not a coincidence that in the wake of Brexit, the story takes place in a village belonging to the Protectorate - a segment of England that wants to go back to old times with limited technology, and chose to secede to avoid having contact with the aliens. The story moves very slowly, the focus is on developing the characters and their relationships, but it is worth sticking with it to enjoy an extraordinary ending.

Clever and unsettling, speculative sci fi with a philosophical flavor. Unlike anything I've read before. Brilliantly written and complex. Multidimensional world building and character development, This novel paces itself to build it's world and develop it's narrative.

Jem owns the Skyward Inn, along with Isley. The two are friends, despite the war between their kinds, Qitans and humans. But one day another Qitan arrives, Won, and things start to change.

I had a bit of a hard time following this at first, but the story engaged me and I was soon invested in the stories of Isley, Jem, and Fosse. This explores various ideas including belonging, individuality, and colonialism and really made me think about my views on each of these concepts. It's told in a variety of timeframes and POVs which added to the confusion that various characters felt.

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it.

This was such a strange book, I don't think I've read anything like it before. The environmental discussion mixed with the mystery of what is changing around people is fascinating. The way the author wrote had me thinking so much. I love this type of sci-fi novel, and I can't wait to read more of Whiteley's works. Each character was uniquely complex, and although you understood their motivations often enough, there were still parts of them that were closed off. It was interesting and weird.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for an advanced copy of this book.

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley is a hard book to review properly. The story takes time and the readers attention first to figure out the world and the character's place in it, plus what is happening off page and where the story wants to go. The pace at first seems slow, shifting narrative views and not really sharing what is going on. However steady progress allows the reader to fill in the blanks, though some questions are answered easier than others. The characters don't grow on you, more that they become understandable as the setting becomes clearer. The story might be slot for some readers to stay with, but I found it well worth the challenge.

Despite finishing this a few days ago, I genuinely can’t decide what I thought of it. I enjoyed reading it. Loved the concept of it. The storyline and theme is unique. I liked the dystopian style world left behind after an alien war. The “brew” is an utterly fascinating drink.
But something about the novel is unsettling. I’m not sure if it’s that I have so many unanswered questions at the end, how thought provoking it is or if I just didn’t click with it.

Skyward Inn introduces readers to the Western Protectorate, a small part of Devon that's rejected the fast evolving modern world outside of its walled borders, a world where people use AI implants and travel to distant planets. The people inside the Protectorate have chose a simpler life instead, growing their own food, building their homes themselves, and relying on nothing from the outside. It's here that we meet Jem, a woman who grew up in the Protectorate, but left her home for years to travel to the distant world of Qita, where humanity had begun expanding.


During her time on Qita she met and fell in love with one of the world's inhabitants, Isely. Veterans from both sides of a small war that never was, they found friendship and comfort in each other, and Isely returned to Earth with Jem once her tour was finished. Now the two of them run the Skyward Inn, a small tavern overlooking the village where Jem grew up, a village she no longer really feels a part of. Having worked hard for the locals to accept Isely, and still working to reforge her relationship with her estranged son, Jem's life is thrown off course when another Qitan who knows Isely arrives at the Inn, asking for their.

Skyward Inn is a strange story, one that mixes together old ways of life, of remote rural living, with alien worlds and the fear of the alien and the unknown. It takes a very familiar, simple way of life that most readers will be familiar with, that some might even desire to pursue (no more social media, offices, or commutes sounds wonderful) and begins to add strange elements that alter this dream existence into something very different.


Despite presenting two opposing ways of life, the quiet life that shuns technology and another where travel to the stars is possible, the book isn't really about that. It doesn't ask big questions about which way of life is better, or if there needs to be a balance between the old way of the world and the future; instead, it focuses on the people in the story, and asks questions about what it means to be human. The book is concerned about relationships, how people connect, and what it means to be a part of each others lives. 

I feel like I'm struggling to describe the book, but I think that's part of what makes it a really interesting read. It's not a simple story. It raises questions and themes through metaphor. It bends time and perception in ways that you wouldn't expect, and the story doesn't follow a path that you expect. I'm sure that if you were to read it you would have a different experience of it than I, because it felt strangely personal, like the author had managed to get inside my head and was making me examine my own relation to the world and what certain things meant to me.

Skyward Inn might not be for everyone, it has a very leisurely pace, and twists narratives together in unusual ways that might not be to everyone's tastes, but if you like the strange, if you like stories that are multi-layered and get under your skin, this is probably something that you'll really like. With strong, well defined characters, and some big questions on the very nature of what it means to exist, Skyward Inn is a book that will get you thinking.

This book grew on me. Our protagonists (Jem and her son, Fosse) both come across as continually sullen and petty, a pet peeve of mine. I give the son a pass because he appears to have some sort of autism spectrum issues, but Jem is just annoyingly sulky, whiney, and contrarian for most of the book. This character type annoys me so much that I almost quit about a quarter of the way through, but I’m glad that I didn’t.

The worldbuilding and slowly dawning realization of what is really going on make this a fascinating book. I can’t say too much without ruining the joy of discovery, but here’s the very basic setting: Some sort of interstellar gate has allowed humans to travel to another resource-rich planet, Qita, which they quickly gain control of due to the passivity of its monocultural inhabitants. Most of our story is set in a part of earth that has chosen to largely withdraw from modern society (very little technology, no space travel, etc.). There, Jem and her Qitan partner run the Skyward Inn, serving a Qitan brew that allows people to experience and share intense memories. The slowly unfolding story explores themes of identity, relationship, memory, and more.

The narration takes some getting used to as it jumps between first, second, and third person. Normally, I’d find this obnoxiously pretentious, but it makes sense in the overall framework of the book. Overall, if you don’t mind thoughtful, low-action sci-fi, this is definitely worth your time.

Welcome to the Skyward Inn ... not just a pub but really a meeting hall for locals to commiserate while imbibing the "alien brew" . The brew actually is addictive and warps time and space for its user. The pub is located in the Western Protectorate, an area that has succeeded from England and prefers to live without modern technology. The proprietors are Jem and Isley, an alien from Qita. Jem returned from the Quitan encounter with her "soul mate" Isley in tow. She abandoned her son Fosse to be raised by her brother, while she explored the stars with the "invading" Earth contingency. Rather than conquer the Qitans, they apparently reached an accord to share the resource-rich world. Even though Jem and her son Fosse now share the same small area they remain distant and aloof .... apparently this is the prevailing emotion of a large swath of the locals. A foreboding uneasiness and uncertainty pervades the narrative. In the background, there is talk of an expanding plague that leads to ever increasing size and necessity for quarantines.
Whiteley proves to astound with her masterful and lyrical prose. However, the pacing is extremely languid and is magnified due to lack of character development and growth. Although multiple themes (friendship, relationships, colonization, and coexistence ) are explored this is certainly not a compelling page-turner. Perhaps future novels will benefit from brisker pacing and richer character development.
Thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion & Solaris Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

As others indicated, reading about the inner thoughts of some of the characters was a little too detailed, and made this a challenging read. Simultaneously, I can give the author some props for going there. I think this could be an enjoyable read for folks that like maybe an edgier sort of sci-fi.

Whiteley has written a novel with a certain undercurrent of vagueness with a weird patina that coalesced at the conclusion.

Even with characters as the propelling force of this narrative there remains a certain obscurity in this novel. The reader is never sure of the motivation for each character and has to piece together a history based on the little that is revealed

What is known is the establishment of contact with an alien species, of founding a space outpost on said planet, trading and cataloguing the histories of the Qitan, and what appears to be the fragmentation of the connectivity that once permeated Earth.

The reader however is exposed to strained familial relationships: mother/son and sister/brother; the perception that is held of the Qitan, and an undefined and yearning between Jem and Isley, who own and run the Skyward Inn.

Memories are related in fragmented, piecemeal prose and even when details are given, there is a lack of emotion and cohesiveness that leaves the reader on the outside of the narrative.

Whiteley is able to keep her readers' barely satisfied and it is only at the end that the truth of this exchange is revealed and what a revelation it is.