The Shivered Sky

Imagine waking up naked in the middle of a vast beach with no ocean in site. Not only do you not know who you are - but you have no clue if you are dead or alive - in heaven or hell. Then others begin arriving in the same condition. So starts the Shivered Sky by Matt Dinniman. The world of the Shivered Sky is not heaven or hell - it is another existence altogether. Cibola, the city of Angels has been overrun with demons from other worlds. The billions of Angels are caught unawares and the city is lost one fateful day. The war is over and the Angels are trying to just survive. Our wayward humans; Indigo, Gramm, Dave, Ricco, and Hitomi find themselves thrust into this war without knowing whose side to fight on. The Demons attack them, but the Angels treat them like slaves. Confused about all this, our gang realizes nothing is as it seems. Luckily, this group has been given possession of an awesome weapon, periscepters. These weapons look like a simple flashlight, but the light blasts from them disintegrate any Demon in its path. Periscepters have `true light' which destroys Demons but is harmless to Angels and humans. The war between the Angels and Dominion controlled Demons escalates with our human's caught in the middle. Shivered Sky is not what it seems. This Dark Fantasy is extremely engaging with an original story line. Each chapter brings more understanding of the world and its inhabitants. The ending is climatic and a complete surprise. Cibola is an amazing city with incredible buildings with unknown characteristics. Dinniman has created a diverse, imaginative world that will entertain you just with its descriptions. Another interesting aspect of the Shivered Sky is that God is missing. The book is not about any religious theology, but about the struggle to survive and learn from past mistakes. God is missing for a reason that will become apparent towards the end of the book According to the author's website, Matt Dinniman currently resides in Tucson, Arizona with his wife and family. He is the senior editor at Artichoke Down Press, and has had many occupations throughout his life. He has worked as a pizza delivery driver, a security guard, an EMT, a private investigator, an editor, a telephone psychic, and an obituary writer--and that's just the beginning. His award-winning fiction and non-fiction has been published all over the world. The Shivered Sky is his first novel.

Indigo wakes up completely naked and alone. She doesn't know where she is. Others some just appear and after some discussion they discover they have died and woken up in Heaven. Heaven has been destroyed by demons. A prophecy speaks of fours humans will come to regain Heaven. The surviving angels believe these humans are the ones spoken of in the prophecy. Problem: there's five of them, not four. One of the humans isn't who they seem. Dinniman takes a huge risk with this book that could have failed miserably. It takes a lot of guts to write about heaven in such a way that mirrors the Christian heaven but also eviscerates all of the church's teachings at the same time. Someone else mentioned Tom Clancy in their review. That is a very appropriate comparison. I would call this Tom Clancy with *heart* and compassion and genuine wonder and terror. This book starts as a story about a girl who is "lost" but eventually finds herself only after understanding what happened between herself and her father. This very heart-wrenching story of one's relationship with their father is baked into this huge conflict of angels versus demons. While Indigo and her companions travel through what used to be heaven, another story unfolds and we meet several characters with several threads and storylines weaving together to create a rich tapestry. In the end this is a dual story of war. It's war on the biggest scale possible. (At one point there are trillions of demon and angel soldiers facing off in one of the best-handled battle scenes I've ever read in fantasy. Think the epic battle at the climax of Return of the King. Make it so the battle covers the entire country.) It's also about internal conflict. Every single character is struggling with something. This is where Dinniman flies above other genre writers. Had this been a book set in the civil war it'd be an Oprah book. Well done and deserves my highest praise.

One by one five humans from Earth are taken naked to a deserted beach and it is only as each one regains their wits that they realize they have died and gone to Heaven. However, Heaven is not the place of their dreams but a battle zone where demons are in control and pockets of angel resist trying to stem the tide of defeat. Nowhere in the realm is the Creator and the demon armies are very well organized making slaves out of humans.The five humans find an underground tunnel that will take them into the woods near Cibola, the citadel of angels, now run by varying demon armies. While in the tunnels they find perisceptors, weapons of light that can kill the demons but only one of the humans can wield that weapon with skill. When the angels see perisceptors they begin to believe that the humans are part of the prophecy that will restore the true order in the Heavens.The angels resent the humans and blame them for the present situation. This is not a typical good vs. evil work of speculative fiction but a case of wishing for the lesser evil is to triumph and win the war. The five humans all have a specific role to play and are the true stars of THE SHIVERED SKY because they are willing to fight for the light no matter how much they are hated and reviled. The demons will remind readers of the enemy in wartime. Matt Dinniman is one hell of, make that heavenly, fantastic storyteller.Harriet Klausner

I really enjoyed this book because it was so different than the standard fantasy. However, as a Christian, I was left feeling very uncomfortable. Especially with the biggest part of the plot, that Heaven has been abandoned by God. But I just couldn't put it down. For that I have to give 5 stars with some warnings. Despite all the good reviews I think a lot of people will read this and not like it at all. If you take offense to fiction that strays from what the Bible teaches you'll find this blasphemous. If you're someone who prefers traditional fantasy you won't like it either. There are a lot of parallels between Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of Time series in this but the author writes and structures like someone who has read a lot of Tom Clancy novels. And Horror. The result is a technothriller with Angels versus Demons instead of Americans versus Russians. But there is a gore element too, and there are scenes where humans are treated like livestock and it will be sickening to people who don't like horror. Strangely, some of the most compelling moments in the book are set during flashbacks when the characters remember their deaths or the stuff with Dave which I can't give away without ruining the best part of the book. Also, the scenes of war where there are billions of angels fighting billions of demons are chilling. You feel like you're there, and for that it was worth the 500 pages alone. I would love to see a movie made of this. No one has mentioned the demons in their reviews. There are two demons Ko and Ungeo that are followed throughout the book, and they are very real characters. Ko especially who has a very tragic storyline. I cared more for him than any of the humans or angels. If you like war novels, fantasy novels and horror novels, you'll love this. If you dislike any one of those three, or if you don't like books that require a glossary (there's a big one in the back that was very helpful) you might want to stay away.

I didn't know quite what to expect when I read this book. War in heaven? I was intrigued. What I got was a well thought out exploration of myth and fable. Dinniman displays an enviable knowledge of world religions to bring us the most nightmarish devils and demons at war with the nine orders of angels. The characters are incredibly solid, the battles perfectly depicted. Some of the horrific scenes in the demon's marketplace are unforgettable. And you think the angels are the good guys? You'll have to read it and see.