An uncomplicated tale, set in a future colony. The crew of the colony ship, rendered immortal by a wonder drug, have set themselves up as (in theory) benevolent gods, with the rest of the colonists spread out in a world where artificial transparent sky-layers separate layers of different altitude and aerial density, each with its own pre-scientific cultures. Invention is held in check by the gods and their semi-educated priesthood through the dictum "thou shalt not know too much". In the Middleworld, between the gods and the Neathings, Signi, a young "Norse" fighter, conducts an adventure among devious slave-merchants, half-naked warriors, and squabbling nobles, where the sky-ships sail across the transparent skin enclosing the nether world. Empire-building, rupture of the membranes, discovery of specially adapted races in the netherworld, and revelations of the nature of the gods ensue.

Though the scenario of a layered world is picturesque, and the set-up clearly foreshadows Gene Wolfe, it provides the setting for a fairly basic early medieval war-story in a manner hovering somewhere between Edgar Rice Burroughs and Conan the Barbarian, with much detailed strategy, the hasty invention of chariots and other pre-modern technology by a convenient Archimedes-figure, and the sudden acquisition of martial prowess among disparate and unwarlike peoples, and some love-interest thrown in.

All in all, a pleasant light read in the old-school style.

MB 5-ii-2013 ( )