Skybound By Lou Iovino - What Would Happen If The Earth Stopped Spinning? Here's One Possibility

 Skybound by Lou Iovino

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Skybound is an apocalyptic Sci-FI novel exploring the events following the appearance of a mysterious object appearing above the Earth and apparently causing a complete breakdown of the laws of physics. This event, as one might expect, throws the entire planet into chaos as people speculate the nature of the object.

Overall, I found Skybound an entertaining story with a lot of strengths and a few weaknesses. I liked the characters and their development; they are people I grew to care about and what happened to them. I liked the story for the most part.

What I call weaknesses are just some personal, nit-picky stuff that I will not dwell on because the story is worth a read.

Life in Franklin, Colorado, goes along as usual. Two lifelong friends, Father Michael Williams and Deputy Jimmy Bell, have coffee and pie at the Crispy Biscuit Diner when Father Williams finishes confession.

At nearby Peterson Air Force Base, a class of students from the high school is taking a tour guided by Noel Williams. Her job is to track and adjust the orbits of communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

In low earth orbit, the International Space Station under the command of Yanez Prescott continues research in its labs.

Life goes on normally until a peculiar, giant object suddenly appears above the Earth and the planet stops spinning on its access. Chaos breaks forth as Father Mike's church collapses, the diner burns catches fire, Noel sees the satellites she is in charge of drifting out their orbits, and so does the ISS.

The result is a fight for survival and to understand what has happened.

The major strength of Skybound is its characters. There are no superhumans among them. They are all people who are believable and can care about. Most of them do their best to cope with the situation, while some have a few problems. Of all the principal characters, my favorite was more in a supporting role as opposed to being a major character.

Aster Meekins (aster is the Greek word for star) is one of the students on the tour of Noel's lab at Peterson AFB. At first, she is quiet and unassuming. She is a science nerd and not one of the popular kids in school. Mostly self-taught, she becomes important in the story as an assistant to Noel as events unfold. She is smart and knows her stuff, but Aster also offers a lighter side to the story because of her teenage wisdom. I felt bad for her because she would have had a brilliant future as a scientist.

Another favorite character was Astronaut Yanez Prescott. She is not only the commander of the ISS, but she is also a military pilot, and a tough character when she needs to be. Her survival story is both heart wrenching and heroic at the same time. Following her from the station carrying what she thinks will be vital information on the object to the conclusion of her segment is compelling. 

My favorite point of plot in Skybound revolves around the relationship between Aster and Noel. They have to work together to keep the flow of information going in an old radio station. During that time, they develop a close friendship. There isn't a lot of humor in the story, but what there is happens mostly between those two.

I enjoyed this mostly character driven story. There was some questionable science in a few places, but then again, it seemed the object that appeared in the sky may have messed with physics and changed things significantly. My major reservation with Skybound was with the ending of the story. I will not spoil it, but I have to say it left me a bit unsatisfied and bewildered.

Other than that, I recommend it for the reasons I mentioned before. Fine, well-developed characters, good dialog, and interesting situations and puzzles to solve.

As I read, I couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt a lot like another book I’d read by Niven & Pournelle a while back.

It is a very good first novel.

Lou Iovino is a ten-year veteran of the comics industry. He is the co-creator of THE LAST WEST, a two-volume graphic novel available exclusively on Comixology. He has also written for Zenescope Entertainment on several of their flagship titles including ROBYN HOOD, VAN HELSING, GRIMM TALES OF TERROR and RED AGENT.

His debut novel SKYBOUND is available now at Amazon and on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

In days gone by, Lou taught basic, advanced, and technical writing and world classics at Rutgers University. He is currently teaching advertising at Villanova University.

He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Well, there it is...

Qapla!