To be perfectly honest, I picked this book up because I've had a feeling recently that for a fan of the SFF genre, I read a lot of books that would come under the third letter but not so many for the first two - my hope for 2021 is to try and make it a little more even, though it's tricky at times.

The basic premise of Skyward Inn is that a group of people have seceded in the part of the UK which used to be Devon, deciding not to engage with the ongoing technological changes occurring around them, even as humanity is encountering alien life on the planet of Qita. Despite this, one of the Qitans is living in the Protectorate now, working at the eponymous drinking establishment, where a lot of the locals pride themselves on being accepting. He's here because Jem, who runs the pub, met him on Qita after running away from her responsibilities (including a small child, left in the care of his uncle) and signing up for 10 years away. Encouraged by consumption of 'brew', a hallucinogenic liquor produced by the Qitans, Jem recounts her experiences there as part of the narrative.

Alongside this, we get the life of Fosse, her teenage son who also chafes at the restrictions imposed by the Protectorate and longs for adulthood and independence. His longings are more violent though and culminate in a murder of one of the newcomers who have taken over an abandoned farm and refuse to leave. Like his mother before him, Fosse ends up on Qita, discovering more about the way things work on that planet and what it means for Earth. The locals he left behind are suffering from an odd disease, one that lets them meld with others, and we discover partway through that this is something commonplace to Qitans.

There's a bit of messing around with the timeline going on too, which I found a little annoying to be honest - at one point Jem is experiencing what her son is doing on Qita even though he isn't actually there yet, through her bond with the Qitans now in the Protectorate. Skyward Inn turns out to be one of those books that leave me feeling 'well, okay, so now what?' and not something I'd bother to re-read as it's a little unfulfilling for my tastes.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher and Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book as a palate cleanser after some really disappointing science fiction and sure enough this was much more my speed. Which is to say a literary novel that deals with really important socially relevant themes, set in a futuristic world, specifically, a world where people have mastered space travel and discovered a new planet Qita and the lovely easygoing peaceable Qitans.
Anyone with even passing familiarity of the past is aware how such stories usually end…with genocide. Occasionally, one turned into a quaint family based food themed celebration, even. But this time, things don’t quite follow that scenario, wherein lies the singularly original spark of this novel.
On Earth the story takes place in remote moorlands of the Western Protectorate, an insular community living their lives as free of modernity and technology as possible, following a split from the mainland on ideological basis. The locals disagree with the direction the world has taken and think they can be happier on their own, you can’t help but think of Brexit, especially with the location. Skyward Inn is the local pub, operated by Jem, a local woman who has traveled to the stars and back and now returned with her soulmate, a Qitan named Isley. The community has more or less learned to accept him, wary as they are of aliens, primarily due to his cooking and brewing skills and everyone’s more or less uniformly hooked on his alcoholic beverage, the origin of which is going to be a special delight to discover later on.
The story is told from dual perspectives, of Jem and her teenage son, whom her brother has raised. They are not close, but in a community this small and isolated, they are never far from each other either. That’s basically the entire theme of the book. Everyone connection, between Jem and her son and her brother and Isley, between the neighbors, the locals and eventually the Qitans…it all deals with aloneness and togetherness, in every aspect of the concept, including some imaginatively alarming ones.
In fact, the book gets quite trippy with it after a while, but eventually does come through with shining colors toward a disturbingly epic sort of an ending. A logical if only otherworldly (in every way) conclusion. It’s a sort of thing that is impossible to talk about without giving the plot away, so I won’t. Suffice it to say, it’s very original and very surreal. The sort of thing that makes it possible to sum up the novel in one sentence, but also one that very effectively delivers its message. It’s almost like a sci fi fable, in fact that’s how I’d describe it.
Interesting, different, imaginative, melancholy, poignant…it’s certainly worth a read. Very nicely done for a debut. Not too long, not too indulgent and very well written. Not the fastest paced story, but it wasn’t meant to be, the book reads fairly quickly though. And leaves you with a somewhat dazed aftereffect, a strangely compelling surrealistic work of art that demands an audience to shout its message. A very original take on that old why can’t we all just get along nugget. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Sabía cuando empecé a leer Skyward Inn de Aliya Whiteley que me adentraba en un tipo distinto de ciencia ficción del que estaba leyendo últimamente, más intimista y pausado. Creía que era lo que necesitaba en ese momento para cambiar de tercio y dejar un poco de lado las novelas repletas de acción que pocas veces invitan a la reflexión.


Es cierto que Skyward Inn está escrito de una forma bella y tranquila y que expone temas muy importantes como la necesidad de pertenencia a una comunidad y la identidad propia, pero lo hace mediante una metáfora un tanto forzada para mi gusto, con una aproximación poco sutil e incluso algo basta en el aspecto físico.

El libro está narrado en primera persona a través de los ojos de Jem, una humana que tras alistarse en el ejército y cumplir su servicio en las estrellas, vuelve a su lugar de nacimiento en Devon, en un protectorado que intenta reproducir una idílica vida pretecnológica, sin implantes y basada en el trueque. El elemento disruptivo con el que vuelve es Isley, uno de los aliens a los que se iba a enfrentar la Tierra, con el que mantiene una relación amorosa platónica por estricta petición del propio Isley. Una vez de vuelta en la Tierra, inaugura una taberna donde se sirve un tipo especial de bebida fermentada por Isley, que parece tener capacidades alucinatorias en los humanos.

Mediante flashbacks provocados por la ingesta de esta bebida y diálogos interiores vamos conociendo la historia de Jem y de la comunidad en la que se ha aposentado, así como la de Fosse, su hijo al que dejó atrás al cuidado de su hermano. Esta parte de la historia transcurre de una forma demasiado lenta, aunque permite anticiparnos en cierta medida a lo que está por venir.

La autora utiliza la figura alienígena para hacernos reflexionar sobre el miedo, justificado o no, a lo extraño. Y mediante las relaciones interpersonales nos hace comprender el delicado equilibrio que existe entre la necesidad de pertenencia al grupo y la individualidad, tanto en el aspecto de relaciones amorosas como en otro tipo de relaciones. Pero hacia el final de libro, las tornas van cambiando y lo que antes se dejaba vislumbrar de una forma más sutil y delicada ahora se muestra en todo su esplendor y casi casi horror. Me temo que no he llegado a terminar de conectar con la obra y estoy segura de que a otro tipo de lector podrá llegar a encantarle la novela, pero en esta ocasión la ciencia ficción más social no era para mí.