Every Sky a Grave

By: Jay Posey

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

This first in a “fresh new sci-fi” (Jason M. Hough, New York Times best-selling author) series follows a powerful woman who can destroy planets with a single word but is suddenly faced with an adversary that threatens the entire known universe.

Far in the future, human beings have seeded themselves amongst the stars. Since decoding the language of the universe 8,000 years ago, they have reached the very edges of their known galaxy and built a near-utopia across thousands of worlds, united and ruled by a powerful organization known as the Ascendance. The peaceful stability of their society relies solely on their use of this Deep Language of the cosmos.

But this knowledge is a valuable secret, and a holy order of monastics known as the First House are tasked with monitoring its use and “correcting” humanity’s further development. Elyth is one such mendicant, trained as a planetary assassin, capable of infiltrating and ultimately destroying worlds that have been corrupted, using nothing more than her words.

To this end, Elyth is sent to the world Qel in response to the appearance of a forbidden strain of the Deep Language that was supposed to have died out with its founder over seven hundred years prior. What she finds on the backwater planetoid will put her abilities to the test and challenge what she knows of the Deep Language, the First House, and the very nature of the universe.

©2020 Hollis Posey Jr. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio. All rights reserved.

Only 3 Stars?

I love Sci-fi and fantasy but I feel like so many of the books I have picked up are just terribly written books. There are so many great ideas and concepts in them but they are just horribly executed in so many ways. Things like clunky and badly written prose, unlikely or nonsensical decisions and actions from characters, and a poorly thought out plot causing plot holes or choppy pacing. I am pretty critical of books and rarely rate one higher than ⅗ stars. "Every Sky a Grave" is not one of those books.

I have a 3 Star review because I don't trust reviews with 5 or 1 stars. I always go for the 3 Star reviews to see what people like or dislike.

At first I thought this book was going to be in the same vein as the "Machineries of Empire" and "Imperial Radch" series with it's far future humanity and progressive technologies. While it does have some of that, it turned out to be more like "The Broken Earth" trilogy but mixed with a lot of philosophy. The book has many Christian overtones but without seeming cheesy or preachy. That, along with many of the author's (Jay Posey) word choices and phrases, make me think he has a background in a Christianity.

Excellent!!! This book gets a 10/10 in every category except for the narrator. She was very acceptable but I noticed something about her voice would occasionally pull me out of the story. But narrator preference is very subjective.

After finishing this book I immediately purchased the hard cover from Amazon. 'Every Sky A Grave" will be going into my small library of printed books as a favorite.

Transcendent

This book is simply transcendent. So many ways it can speak to you and everyone will come away changed for the better in some way, shape, or form. Such a powerful novel!

Simple and Incredible

Breathtaking, vast, sweet, and punctuated by intense and wonderfully choreographed action. Posey’s best so far. I am in awe.

it's okay

The story is okay, but you get the feeling that you jumped into the middle of things. The book seems more cerebral than I like in a book. The society in which the story is set not completely flushed out which has given it an appearance of a phantasm lurking in the back. It's a galaxy spanning civilization, and yet not much is mentioned of the technology or even the surroundings. This makes a good outline or a story arc with just couple of the details flushed out. Really it needs more work.

Fantastic story from Jay Posey once again

Exciting, complex, enticing. I loved every second of it. Pay attention to the details, you will not regret it.