The executive summary: yes, it is a love story, a literary fiction, a work with magical realism, a fantasy.
This book has romantic drama and beautiful imagery. It is also an alternate future book, where society and peoples' belief systems have taken a turn into something very different from what we have today. For one thing, they have a pagan religion as the predominant creed, and no mention of other religions. Arden, our hero, has had to live with trauma since he was a child, because the woman who served as his mother figure was sacrificed to the gods in what was supposed to have been a double sacrifice. She let go of his hand at the last minute, so he was not put to death. For a while, the society and its priests (all female) didn't know what to do with him. However, by the time he reached adulthood, they had figured it out. He was, by then, living the life of a "toiler", doing largely outdoor, blue collar work, with a group of other men in what was clearly the laboring class.
If you're willing to suspend disbelief, the idea of a mortal man who has a relationship with a woman from the fictional cloud realm, and is saved from capture and potential death as a fugitive by means of some unexplained supernatural ability to be transported there, and transformed from a solid mortal man into one of the less tangible cloud people has its merits. It also has some interesting alternate world/future technologies that (at least to me) are not clearly explained, but perhaps for some people that is part of the fun. This does render the choice of cover imagery mysterious. While a cloud- themed cover and author bio picture with clouds are certainly appropriate here, the relevance of a giant vacuum tube with a silvered end and containing a storm cloud with lightning have me scratching my head.
There wouldn't be much of a novel if tempests were contained by such means. The human sacrifice took place because to the people on the surface of the planet, a " war in heaven" had occurred, wherein a more powerful new god had routed some of the old gods, and the religious authorities wanted to win the favor of the new god.
Arden's miraculous escape to the cloud realm was very far from the end of his troubles. What Arden didn't know when he decided to throw in his lot with Estra, the Cloud Lady, was that her ex was Inglis, another cloud person who was owner and pilot of a giant storm cloud, who was believed to be a god by those on the planet below. Cloud Lady's ex reacts by shooting thunder bolts at him.
Eventually, he finds it necessary to build and arm a rival storm cloud to survive the continued attacks by Inglis. Alas, his mind becomes as narrow and warlike as that of his rival...
This book has romantic drama and beautiful imagery. It is also an alternate future book, where society and peoples' belief systems have taken a turn into something very different from what we have today. For one thing, they have a pagan religion as the predominant creed, and no mention of other religions. Arden, our hero, has had to live with trauma since he was a child, because the woman who served as his mother figure was sacrificed to the gods in what was supposed to have been a double sacrifice. She let go of his hand at the last minute, so he was not put to death. For a while, the society and its priests (all female) didn't know what to do with him. However, by the time he reached adulthood, they had figured it out. He was, by then, living the life of a "toiler", doing largely outdoor, blue collar work, with a group of other men in what was clearly the laboring class.
If you're willing to suspend disbelief, the idea of a mortal man who has a relationship with a woman from the fictional cloud realm, and is saved from capture and potential death as a fugitive by means of some unexplained supernatural ability to be transported there, and transformed from a solid mortal man into one of the less tangible cloud people has its merits. It also has some interesting alternate world/future technologies that (at least to me) are not clearly explained, but perhaps for some people that is part of the fun. This does render the choice of cover imagery mysterious. While a cloud- themed cover and author bio picture with clouds are certainly appropriate here, the relevance of a giant vacuum tube with a silvered end and containing a storm cloud with lightning have me scratching my head.
There wouldn't be much of a novel if tempests were contained by such means. The human sacrifice took place because to the people on the surface of the planet, a " war in heaven" had occurred, wherein a more powerful new god had routed some of the old gods, and the religious authorities wanted to win the favor of the new god.
Arden's miraculous escape to the cloud realm was very far from the end of his troubles. What Arden didn't know when he decided to throw in his lot with Estra, the Cloud Lady, was that her ex was Inglis, another cloud person who was owner and pilot of a giant storm cloud, who was believed to be a god by those on the planet below. Cloud Lady's ex reacts by shooting thunder bolts at him.
Eventually, he finds it necessary to build and arm a rival storm cloud to survive the continued attacks by Inglis. Alas, his mind becomes as narrow and warlike as that of his rival...
