Jack Scatter is an ordinary teenager with the normal concerns that come with life in a small farming community: school, his job, and a long-distance relationship with Sarah. Sarah Rogers is smart, ambitious, and wants a role in saving her world’s endangered species. But their home towns are on Cirrus, a planet-sized space station, where they uncover a scheme by Pieter Reynard to bring about a technological apocalypse, and they’re launched on an adventure that spans two worlds.
This lively and surprising story may strike readers as all-too-plausible as Harvey seizes their attention from the opening pages, kicking off a fast-paced thrill ride as Jack, Sarah, and Ethan race to thwart evil intentions before the terrible prophecy can come to pass. Daring high-tech escapes while the bad guys closely follow will engross readers, and the heightened sense of good and evil is evident on every page—which will stir readers to keep pages turning and invest in the outcome. Still, the bad guys are depicted in shades of gray, rather than black-and-white evil, adding a nuanced layer. Also engaging: clever new technologies like emotion detectors, which offer as many opportunities for affecting character moments as they do suspense.
Harvey does a masterful job of world-building, easily pulling readers into the compelling tale. His gift for characterization gently demands that readers fall in love with his brave cast of characters, while his able plotting adds weight to the tale. The story ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger—will our protagonists save Earth, Cirrus, or both?—and Harvey ably leaves readers eager to see what’s next. While ostensibly written for young adult readers, this clever tale could reel in their parents and other adults as well.
Takeaway: Lively YA apocalypse building to a resonant cliffhanger.
Comparable Titles: Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, Kass Morgan’s The 100.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Following the prophecy of Isaac Newton that the world would end in 2090, a group of seers called ‘The Travellers’ have decreed that the apocalypse is imminent. Two teenagers who live on the planet sized space station Cirrus now must play their part in trying to save the world.
On Cirrus, the world-sized space station that produces a quarter of Earth’s food, the teenage Jack Scatter lives in a small farming community. He has spent thousands of hours talking to his girlfriend Sarah Rogers online. She lives in a different part of Cirrus and they’ve never actually met in person. Centuries earlier Sir Isaac Newton had prophesied that the world would end in 2090. As the date grows ever nearer a group of people called The Travellers, psychics with telekinetic powers who can remember the future, have decreed that the world will end within the month. This is an event to be known as ‘Newton’.
Pieter Reynard, a Traveller, has his own version of the apocalypse that he is seeking to implement. Reynard is a major player. Using old Earth wealth he was one of the multi-billionaires who’d built the space station. He’s made himself immensely rich and has no intention of letting that go. Jack and Sarah uncover his plan and must try to thwart him. But Reynard is not alone in his plotting. Can either Earth or Cirrus be saved?
John Harvey’s BROKEN SKY is the first book in ‘The Chronicles of Cirrus’ series and it is a fast paced YA novel that is cleverly structured and full of action. Harvey’s world building and ability to invoke a sense of place is wonderful. The space station Cirrus, almost a surrogate Earth, is incredibly detailed and its purpose and methods entirely believable. Harvey’s future uses wormhole technology to cover travel and transportation across the vast distances between Earth and Cirrus. This technology has been utilized by corporations for everything from telecoms to clean water supply. When contrasted with the pollution and ecological damage that the author reveals to have befallen Earth this reliance on future science and off-planet solutions for human survival is highly credible. Jack and Sarah are both engaging heroes with their youthful passion, in particular Sarah’s green ambitions, proving at least a temporary match for the wicked industrialist Reynard. It’s a familiar YA story in many ways, the classic take down of the oppressor by feisty teens, but it is exceptionally well done. And note too the impressive fantasy art space station illustration on the book’s cover.
John Harvey's BROKEN SKY is a terrific, action packed YA novel that is imaginative, carefully structured and driven by entertaining characters. A winning start to ‘The Chronicles of Cirrus’ series.
In John Harvey's Broken Sky, we're introduced to Jack Scatter and his group of friends. Jack lives on an immense space habitat called Cirrus, largely courtesy of wormhole technology, which has revolutionized travel, supply chains, and virtually every aspect of human life. Even people's phones have tiny wormholes connected to water reservoirs, allowing for on-the-go drinking water whenever it's needed. Unfortunately, not all is as idyllic as it might seem.
Broken Sky features all the major elements of a thriller wrapped in excellent science fiction: a mystery (will the world truly end when Isaac Newton predicted?), a relatable hero, and a nemesis that wields seemingly endless power (Pieter Reynald, owner of the corporation Armenau). The best part, though, is that Harvey never strays from his sci-fi roots. His worldbuilding is wonderful, explaining how wormhole technology works in his universe, letting us explore the riches of Cirrus, and even giving us the proverbial sneak peeks at the havoc humanity has wreaked on Earth.
One element I truly appreciated about Broken Sky is the fact that its characters make sense within the context of the story. The teenagers look, think, and act like teenagers; the adults don't make incomprehensibly stupid decisions for the purpose of plot; and motivations, while often shrouded, are ultimately believable. Honestly, Harvey's writing was impressive not simply as a good indie book, but as a novel in general. His work can compete with some of the best that mainstream publishers are putting out in the sci-fi world. I'm reminded of another author who made the jump from independent to worldwide publishing industry icon: Wool author Hugh Howey.
The only downside to Broken Sky, if there is a downside, is that it's the first in a series of books. So some of the mysteries remain frustratingly unresolved at the end of the novel. However, Harvey's page-turner pacing, well-written dialogue, and sense of balance between action and explanation more than make up for that frustration. I think Broken Sky is truly deserving of my first 5-star review.
Pushing the boundaries of YA science fiction, Broken Sky by John Harvey is the spectacular first installment of the Cirrus Chronicles saga.
A young mechanical genius who prefers the company of machines far more than people, Jack Scatter is a classic sci-fi protagonist – an outsider youth with untapped but impressive skills pulled into an epic adventure that will decide the fate of two worlds. One of those worlds is Cirrus, a massive Earth-like space station positioned on the opposite side of the Sun, where Jack lives, and the other is humanity’s home world itself, which is prophesied to end in a matter of weeks.
When Jack’s Earth-bound friend Ethan becomes a pal on Cirrus, their reunion is cut short by an urgent message from Ethan’s mother warning them to hide and avoid detection. Little do they know that a homicidal plot to bring Earth to its knees is already in motion, and they might be the only ones who can stop a calamity. The planetoid-owning villain, Pieter Reynard, is not only experimenting with dangerous portal technology to transport weapons and explosives across the cosmos, but is also using his prophetic and telekinetic powers to pull off the apocalyptic scheme.
Family secrets, hidden powers, and intergenerational grudges dramatically unfold 190 million miles from Earth, as this unlikely band of disconnected heroes takes on the embodied greed of the ruling class. Caught up in a conspiracy much larger than themselves, Jack, Ethan, and the rebellious Sarah must outmaneuver the merciless Corpsec forces trying to silence them, protect their families, and reveal the sinister truth of what life would be in a post-Earth solar system.
Tapping into contemporary fears of escaping from a dying planet, rather than trying to fix it, this novel is a thrilling piece of fiction, as well as a dire warning. The author highlights people’s evolving cleverness in the face of increased surveillance, directly echoing the present day, while the novel embodies the belief that every system can be corrupted – or beaten. Sci-fi readers will be familiar with the conceits of this imagined future, but the story never feels tired or recycled, especially due to the inclusion of supernatural abilities of certain characters, such as the Travelers’ ability to “remember” their future.
The subtle details of this future Earth and the Cirrus space station make the narrative remarkably immersive; the book’s technology is still decades or generations ahead of the real world, but the plot is grounded in the theoretical science of ring worlds, Dyson spheres, 3D printing, artificial gravity, and quantum physics. The blend of various sci-fi and sociological themes is compelling throughout, but the real major emotional power of the book comes from sincerely believable characters with authentic flaws facing increasingly difficult odds.
There are certain scenes that drag, and some expositional sequences could be cut without compromising the world-building, but these sluggish scenes are few and far between. On a technical level, some light proofreading could catch minor spelling errors or misused words, but the prose is generally well-edited, and the story moves at a good pace overall.
An original mix of apocalyptic, visionary, and hard science fiction, Broken Sky is a strikingly good YA novel with myriad plotlines that weave into an unpredictable sci-fi thriller.
