“The Book of All Skies” by Greg Egan

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Rating: 3/5 Stars

An interesting story about a journey of discovery though a world of many skies. Del, the main character, becomes custodian of a book discovered during an archaeological dig: “The Book of All Skies”. But it is immediately stolen. We then get an introduction to the world that Del lives in.

‘Hoops’ are found in Del’s world and when you pass through them, you are still on the world, but transported to a region that features a different sky, implying that the Hoops are a way to connect different regions of the universe together. But Del’s world is restricted: an impassable mountain blocks the path through the Hoops in one direction and in the other, the world ‘ends’ and the Hoops lead to an empty sky with no ground.

In the past, some people from Del’s land somehow made it through the mountains to a place called the ‘Bountiful Lands’ and people have been trying to find the path through again. But Del gets involved in an audacious scheme to bypass the mountains in another way: a journey that would eventually succeed but would be filled with dangers.

As we follow Del’s journey, we learn more about the world of the Hoops, including how it may have come about. Through a copy of “The Book of All Skies”, we would learn about the hubris of Del’s people in the past who though they could control the Hoops and how the world that Del knows came about. And we also learn about people who would reject any change to their way of life and would do anything, including killing, to keep the world the way it is.

The author has a website that contains more information on the physics of the Hoops.

Book read from 2021/09/21 to 2021/09/29