Kay Kenyon
Author of Bright of the Sky
About the Author
Series
Works by Kay Kenyon
Castoff World 3 copies
The Last Wave 2 copies
Navy Brat 2 copies
The Book of Faces 2 copies
The Forge Of Xen'drik 1 copy
La ciudad sin límites 1 copy
Dobcheck Lost In The Funhouse — Author — 1 copy
Cyto Couture 1 copy
The Space Crawl Blues 1 copy
Associated Works
Shine: An Anthology of Near-future, Optimistic Science Fiction (2010) — Contributor — 138 copies, 7 reviews
Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction (2013) — Contributor — 70 copies, 5 reviews
Navigating The Golden Compass: Religion, Science & Dæmonology in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (2005) — Contributor — 61 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kenyon Overcast, Katherine L.
- Birthdate
- 1956-07-02
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Places of residence
- Wenatchee, Washington, USA
Duluth, Minnesota, USA - Education
- University of Minnesota
University of Washington - Occupations
- science fiction writer
fantasy writer
short story writer
urban planner
advertising copywriter - Organizations
- Broad Universe
- Short biography
- Kay Kenyon is the pen name of Katherine Kenyon Overcast. She majored in English literature at the University of Minnesota and went on to graduate studies at the University of Washington, hoping to become a writer. She worked as a model, an advertising copywriter, and an urban planner, which may have informed the worldbuilding in her science fiction/fantasy works. Her first novel was The Seeds of Time (1997). She published six stand-alone novels before embarking on a four-volume series called The Entire and The Rose: Bright of the Sky (2007), A World Too Near (2008), City Without End (2009), and Prince of Storms (2010). About a dozen of her short stories have been published in anthologies. Her work has been translated into several foreign languages. She lives in Wenatchee, Washington, and chairs the Write on the River writers' conference.
Members
Reviews
More riveting than I found [b: Bright of the Sky|127262|Bright of the Sky (Entire and the Rose, #1)|Kay Kenyon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388190943s/127262.jpg|993717] if only because the world building that slowed the pace of the first book has fittingly diminished here. The dynamics of this universe are so weird and cool, but there is an awful lot of traveling from here to there and not much really happens. Still, I found it an interesting and engrossing read because the sentients that inhabit the Entire are so well varied.… (more)
It was okay. It started out stronger than it finished, with space ships and interesting technology and a reasonably interesting society. The alien planet's society was also reasonably interesting, and the mystery involving what happened to the protagonist before and how it was gradually revealed was interesting. [spoiler]I did like the horse creatures that the daughter ended up with.[/spoiler]
But there were an awful lot of unpleasant characters in the book, both human and alien. [spoiler]The protagonist's insistence for most of the book that he was going to find his daughter and take her away from the only society she'd known since she was a child struck me as incredibly unrealistic and self-centered, even before we started getting some of the story from her viewpoint.] I just ended up not caring enough about any of them to want to bother to go get the next one. I'd read it if it came across my path, but I'm not interested enough to go find it. Too bad.… (more)
But there were an awful lot of unpleasant characters in the book, both human and alien. [spoiler]The protagonist's insistence for most of the book that he was going to find his daughter and take her away from the only society she'd known since she was a child struck me as incredibly unrealistic and self-centered, even before we started getting some of the story from her viewpoint.] I just ended up not caring enough about any of them to want to bother to go get the next one. I'd read it if it came across my path, but I'm not interested enough to go find it. Too bad.… (more)
I didn’t go into this expecting a spy thriller, but I probably should have. (I’d heard “superpowers” and “World War II” and “fans of Agent Carter and Captain America” and imagined a full-on superheroic battle.*) I liked it though, once my expectations adjusted. Didn’t love, because it could’ve been a bit more thrilling, but definitely liked.
Oh, it’s well-paced and well-written, with interesting characters and tensions and a good spread of espionage set pieces, but it also feels very much like a British drawing room drama. It’s an interesting angle to take a story like this, and proof that you can write a spy novel without constant action and by prioritizing female experiences, but … again, not what I was expecting. I wasn’t expecting multiple POVs either, but they helped keep the tension up, so that’s all right.
I did like Kim, who’s just clever enough to pull things off but naïve enough to get into trouble, and I liked how her subplots ended up meshing at the end. (I always like books that pull that off.) The subplot with Rose, her family’s developmentally delayed maid, is especially sweet and important, and everything between Kim and her father is … intriguing, let’s say. It’ll be interesting seeing how that, and Kim herself, develops as the series continues.
I also found the superpower-related world-building pretty neat, though a bit surface. They come from a unique event, they’re still new enough to the world to be mysterious, they’re not the usual slate of powers, and they’re not all solely good or solely evil, though Kenyon doesn’t shy from pointing out the darker and more disturbing sides all the same.
All the same, nothing really struck me enough about this to make it stand out or get me to rush out in a few months when the sequel drops. I suspect this is more a me problem more than a book problem, and there’s a decent chance I’ll pick the sequel up at some point, when I’m in the mood.
* Which is probably coming at some point in the series, mind you.
Warnings: Nazis, it almost goes without saying. Specifically, Nazi and similarly conservative views of homosexuality and mental disability, including slurs for the latter. One gay character, killed partway through for plot. Slight redemption of main Nazi character.
6.5/10… (more)
Oh, it’s well-paced and well-written, with interesting characters and tensions and a good spread of espionage set pieces, but it also feels very much like a British drawing room drama. It’s an interesting angle to take a story like this, and proof that you can write a spy novel without constant action and by prioritizing female experiences, but … again, not what I was expecting. I wasn’t expecting multiple POVs either, but they helped keep the tension up, so that’s all right.
I did like Kim, who’s just clever enough to pull things off but naïve enough to get into trouble, and I liked how her subplots ended up meshing at the end. (I always like books that pull that off.) The subplot with Rose, her family’s developmentally delayed maid, is especially sweet and important, and everything between Kim and her father is … intriguing, let’s say. It’ll be interesting seeing how that, and Kim herself, develops as the series continues.
I also found the superpower-related world-building pretty neat, though a bit surface. They come from a unique event, they’re still new enough to the world to be mysterious, they’re not the usual slate of powers, and they’re not all solely good or solely evil, though Kenyon doesn’t shy from pointing out the darker and more disturbing sides all the same.
All the same, nothing really struck me enough about this to make it stand out or get me to rush out in a few months when the sequel drops. I suspect this is more a me problem more than a book problem, and there’s a decent chance I’ll pick the sequel up at some point, when I’m in the mood.
* Which is probably coming at some point in the series, mind you.
Warnings: Nazis, it almost goes without saying. Specifically, Nazi and similarly conservative views of homosexuality and mental disability, including slurs for the latter. One gay character, killed partway through for plot. Slight redemption of main Nazi character.
6.5/10… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 31
- Also by
- 15
- Members
- 2,228
- Popularity
- #11,508
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 71
- ISBNs
- 56
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 4
The pace is a little methodical as well, so I was often distracted by newer, shinier books. Probably that contributed to my lack of understanding, but it wasn't entirely the reason it took a month and some to get through it. I'll read the next book at least, because while I wouldn't call the ending a cliff hanger, it is very clearly the very beginning of an arc and I'd like a little more closure.… (more)