Nine Layers of Sky - Liz Williams Book Review

Enter a review
of your own!

Other books by
author Liz Williams

"Nine Layers of Sky"
Message Board

Review Summaries

" Bantam, Sept 2003, 5.99, 448 pp. ISBN 0553584995 The collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of hope for people like Elena. She had earned her degree in astrophysics and worked on earth on the construction of the MIR space station, hoping one day to go into space. Now she works at a cleaning woman in Uzbekistan selling black market goods across the border in Akazahstsn hoping to earn enough money so that she, her sister and mother can purchase visas that will allow them to settle in Canada. One day while crossing the border, she picks up a sphere that an ambulance driver dropped and takes it home with her. This action brings Ilya Muromyets into her life, an eight hundred year old man who is seeking death, but is always brought back to life by the Rusalka, beings from another dimension. Ilya was hired to find the sphere and bring it to the men who want it but once he meets Elena his plans change because the Rusalka are after her and he cares enough about her to want to keep her alive. In time, they learn that the sphere is a gateway to alternate Russia, one where dreams become reality and creatures of myth roam the forests. Many people are searching for this device and if they find them, they will kill Ilya and Elena and permanently seal the breaks between the worlds. Liz Williams is one of the bright new stars in the science fiction galaxy and one of her strengths is she never writes the same book twice. NINE LAYERS OF SKY is an action thriller with elements of fantasy and alternate history added to create an urban noir science fiction work that is fascinating to read. This work has cross-genre appeal and will add more readers to the author's growing fan base. Harriet Klausner "
Harriet Klausner, Resident Liz Williams Scholar

Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!

Overall Review

Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Romance Yes
Tech./$$$/Info hunt Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying - method of transportation
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Human/magical couple? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - computer programmer
Age: - long lived adults
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - an entire race
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Earth setting: - near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a fair amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - significantly more dialog than descript

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Superluminal by Tony Daniel
Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan
Time Stand Still by John Misak
Hunger Pangs by Greg London
Picoverse by Robert A. Metzger

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here) or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion

Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!

Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!

Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game

Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland 3/12/2010 3:47:50 PM

Star Trek Enterprise: Jolene Blalock on T'Pol and Star Trek Enterprise 3/7/2010 11:02:27 PM

Lord of the Rings: Why would Aragorn choose pig lips Arwen Evenstar over Eowyn? 3/5/2010 12:12:07 AM

Stargate (TV): Is Teyla's character racist against black people? 3/3/2010 11:07:08 PM

Stargate (TV): Why is Major Carter so Butch? 3/3/2010 11:00:12 PM

Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman: Why do fembots growl? 3/3/2010 10:49:55 PM

Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman: What was so great about the Six Million Dollar Man? 3/3/2010 10:41:43 PM

Doctor Who: Who was the most annoying of the Doctor's companions? 3/3/2010 10:25:55 PM

Doctor Who: Who was the best companion? 3/3/2010 10:20:36 PM

Charmed: Now that Piper Halliwell can blow things up, what use are Phoebe and Pru? 3/3/2010 9:54:57 PM

Newest slaves:
Judge Judy 5:30:58 AM
Michael Caine 5:29:33 AM
Mr. Peabody 5:27:29 AM
Peter Sellers 5:26:22 AM
Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) 5:24:22 AM
Burt Reynolds 5:23:28 AM
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa) 5:21:54 AM
Vanilla Domino (Kim Basinger) 5:16:28 AM
Timothy Dalton Bond 5:15:52 AM
Pierce Brosnan Bond 5:13:34 AM
All slaves
(click here)

Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)