cover image The Sky Lords

The Sky Lords

John Brosnan. St. Martin's Press, $18.95 (318pp) ISBN 978-0-312-05964-4

Centuries ago the Gene Wars destroyed much of the earth, and now a blight is ruining the little fertile land left. The village of Minerva must pay a yearly tribute in grain to the Sky Lord Pangloth , a mile-long airship, but the crop yield falls too low. Threatened with destruction by Pangloth , the villagers rebel but are beaten; the sole survivor, Jan Dorvin, daughter of the Headwoman, is taken on the airship as a slave. Thus begin the jeopardies of Jan, as she is moved from one danger to another, always rescued by a convenient, if not necessarily pleasant savior who is summarily removed before he can interfere with the next cliffhanger. Brosnan ( Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction ) fails to sustain tension in his plot and to evoke interest in its two-dimensional characters. (May)