Book Review | Under the Empyrean Sky | Chuck Wendig

Title: Under the Empyrean Sky
Author: Chuck Wendig (web | twitter)
Series: The Heartland Trilogy #1
Genre: Dystopian YA
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Publisher: Amazon Children’s Publishing
Release date: July 30, 2013
Source: ARC from BEA

Summary: Corn is king in the Heartland, and Cael McAvoy has had enough of it. It’s the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow ? and the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it. As captain of the Big Sky Scavengers, Cael and his crew sail their rickety ship over the corn day after day, scavenging for valuables, trying to earn much-needed ace notes for their families. But Cael’s tired of surviving life on the ground while the Empyrean elite drift by above in their extravagant sky flotillas. He’s sick of the mayor’s son besting Cael’s crew in the scavenging game. And he’s worried about losing Gwennie ? his first mate and the love of his life ? forever when their government-chosen spouses are revealed. But most of all, Cael is angry ? angry that their lot in life will never get better and that his father doesn’t seem upset about any of it. Cael’s ready to make his own luck . . . even if it means bringing down the wrath of the Empyrean elite and changing life in the Heartland forever.

Friends, when I first heard of this book–a dystopian that features genetically modified CORN and PIRATES–I was pretty excited in a “WHOA. The corn goes after people?!” mind = blown kind of way. UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY, the first book in Chuck Wendig‘s Heartland Trilogy, is full of things I’ve never encountered before in my reading, as well as new spins on some of my favorite dystopian elements. It has a great tone, characters with lots of personality, and an interesting world that has me completely intrigued. Like lots of other first books in a series, this one has some growing pains sometimes, but all in all, I was big a fan.

So UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY in a nutshell: It’s a future America that is ruled by the Empyrean, rich people who live on floating cities that roam the skies. On the ground, there is the corn. It’s a modified strain (yes, “strain” is actually pretty apt) of corn that has basically taken over the Earth. It grows everywhere and attacks people and can’t be eaten. It’s also the only crop the Empyrean lets the people grow. Life on the ground kind of sucks, too. People are poor, they rely on the Empyrean for what little they have, and in this depressed environment, there is precisely one carrot: Each year, one family is chosen to leave the ground and get an all-expenses-paid permanent upgrade to one of the Empyrean flotillas. Also in this environment, we have those pirates I mentioned before. They’re basically scavengers who roam the corn in their flying landboats looking for loot to sell on the black market. This is where we find our fearless MC, Cael, the captain of his own pirate ship. During one of their corn raids, Cael and his crew discover something that could change everything they know about life in the Heartland. DUN DUN DUNNNNN.

One of the first things I noticed about UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY was the voice. None of the characters mince their words or speak in riddles. They’re frank and plain-spoken and they swear. There’s very little proper about their speech, but it goes a long way to setting the tone for the world they live in and the daily struggles of their life in the Heartland. Also–and maybe this is superficial of me–but I love it when characters in books swear, because even in made-up worlds, it seems more real to me. People I know in real life swear, so it’s that much easier for me to relate to characters in books who do the same. /rant on profanity

Anyway, the centerpiece of UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY is Cael. He’s prickly and confident and ballsy. I mean, he’s a PIRATE. But he’s also in love with one of his crew members, Gwennie, and they sneak around on the sly because Heartlanders aren’t supposed to fraternize until they’re matched in this big ceremony, which just so happens to be coming up for Cael and Gwennie. I got a distinct old hippie vibe from Cael’s father, but not hippie in the “I used to be a stoner and hitched a ride to Woodstock in a VW van” kind of way. More in the mellowed out “stick it to the man” protester kind of way. Cael’s relationship with him is so so. His relationships with lots of people are so so. He’s a little brash sometimes, and not always the super nicest person, but I liked him a lot. He definitely needs to do a little work on his people skills, though.

There are a few dramatic threads running through Chuck Wendig‘s book, and some of them definitely take priority in UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY, while the others seem to be setups for the next books. You can tell which threads are which, so sometimes it seems like things happen randomly and then have no or not enough explanation. (There’s a bit with Cael’s sister that comes to mind, but this one is one of the more intriguing setups for going forward.) The main one, though, surrounds Cael and the discovery he and his crew make in the corn, and his ongoing and subsequent pissing matches with the mayor’s son, and the climax is pretty legit.

I mentioned up top there that UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY features some elements that I don’t usually read about, and I really enjoyed the world Chuck Wendig built. The whole sentient corn thing kind of killed me, and the Depression-era vibe I got from the Heartlanders life was well-realized. We didn’t really get a good look at life on the flotilla’s but I have  a feeling that’s coming in the next volumes. The glimpses we got through what the Heartlanders know and some of the characters we met made me think that the flotillas are both completely different from Heartland life and not as amazing as the Heartlanders think they are.

As far as beginnings of new series, friends, you can’t go wrong with UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY. It’s a clever, refreshing dystopian with memorable characters. The world is interesting and the ending is pretty strong in terms of setup for book 2. I haven’t read any other books by Chuck Wendig, although I have several on my TBR, but UNDER THE EMPYREAN SKY is a great place to start.

Check out some other reviews of Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig!

Nicole @ The Geek Girl Project: “I’m glad I decided to go ahead and read it because it was one of the most imaginative, enjoyable books I’ve read in some time.”

Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy: “In many ways this was a good old-fashioned adventure story about protecting the little in life that you own and keeping those you love safe.”