Review of “Soar a Burning Sky” by Steven Michael Beck

Score: 93+/100 (9.3+ out of 10)

Mankind's negative impact on the Earth has been considerable. Plastics pollute our oceans. Greenhouse gases have pummeled our ozone layer. Resources are constantly being depleted and even wasted. Not only are we hurting the Earth, but we're hurting ourselves, depriving future generations of a healthy planet and future. Meanwhile, as this book reminds us, we're ruining the habitats and lives of all sorts of incredible creatures throughout the world including amazing bugs, birds, mammals, and fish.

We can do better!

Soar a Burning Sky by Steven Michael Beck is a reminder of that. It emphasizes humanity's impact on their planet and the unique, irreplaceable animals that inhabit it. It challenges us to consider what is and what could be by presenting us with two very different worlds: Earth (if we stay the course now and continue to ruin the planet) and EonThera—a marvelous world parallel to Earth that's co-dependent on its survival.

This book follows Max, Woo, Danny, and Piper who are summoned to the aid of EonThera and Earth via an alluring dragonfly sent by T'Aura, a lynx/feline-like shapeshifter who, as a kind of protector or guardian, is concerned about the survival of the two realms. T'Aura is a prophesied figure known as the “Nether Child” who stands as the realms' hope against a powerful, coming threat, that of StormWing--King Lor Vecca—who is part-Sauron, part-Henry VIII, and part-Hexxus from Ferngully.

Similar to Hexxus, StormWing is the personification and manifestation of mankind's worst and most reckless characteristics. He is power-hungry, greedy, selfish, and ruthless. However, strangely, we wouldn't quite call him pure-evil. There's something frighteningly understandable, relatable, and familiar about him, and that's perhaps the point. StormWing is like the many politicians, lobbyists, and oil corporations who champion the drill, baby, drill ideology. There's actually some sense to this ideology, especially in the short term. However, what happens to our planet 100 years from now? 200 years from now? A thousand years from now? Will the planet still be livable then?

Our choices and actions have consequences. Shouldn't we start making good decisions today?

This book is similar in both thematically and content-wise to several that we've read, particularly Dyami and the Gobi Crystal by Maria Hoshaw and Dar & Earth I & II by Athena Kaiman. All of these books feature two mirror dimensions or worlds: Earth & a magical realm of some sort. All of these books feature an angelic/fairy-like female protector looking out for these worlds and having to convince humanity to do the right thing, mainly to stop polluting, releasing greenhouse gases, and depleting natural resources. All of these books feature either subtle or explicit calls to combat climate change, global warming, and/or human-caused pollution and resource depletion.

However, Soar a Burning Sky seems to set itself apart and stand out in one key way: its emphasis on animals and wildlife. This book focuses heavily on the different creatures that live on Earth (and EonThera) including bugs, bugs, birds, mammals, and fish. There's even a dinosaur (spinosaurus) in here!

Something we appreciated about this book is how it actually confronted a lot of the common fears and phobias that people have of certain kinds of animals. For example, spiders and snakes are commonplace in this book. These are two of the most feared animals in existence. However, the narrative of the book reminds us that all life on the planet has value, meaning, and—shockingly—even beauty. Yes, that applies to spiders, snakes, and—when they were around—dinosaurs. Don't forget that bugs, as scary as they are to some people, are a source of food for various other creatures. Snakes come in all kinds of colors and sizes. Some are brilliant and vibrant. Many are completely harmless.

This book reminds us that we share a world with these creatures and that many of them are more afraid of us than we are of them. In a lot of ways, we're the big, scary, destructive, deadly creatures, not the other way around!

Now, this book does suffer a little bit from being so heavy-handed. It can also drag quite a bit, especially with so many major and sub-major characters (rather than one or two). There's also a lot going on. Not only do we have the central issue with T'Aura and StormWing going on, but we have sky pirates, Seneca's issues, Li Fang's issues, whatever was going on with the pseudo “domesticated” spinosaurus, and all-around wildness and wackiness. Indeed, this book gets pretty wild and wacky.

It also seems to get really overly-detailed and into the weeds about scientific information, especially zoology, meteorology, and biology. For example, there's this part where the author just starts talking a lot about lightning for some reason, and it seems to drag and drone on and on, interrupting the pacing. There are times when the book just generally seems to lack focus. Part of that is just shifting focus between all of these major characters.

We thought this was a book about shapeshifters, like Animorphs, experiencing what animals in nature experience while on the way to solving a problem, but that aspect just got so overshadowed by everything else that was going on that it became secondary.

However, this book does have one other saving grace (aside from its great concept and message): the writing.

There are some beautiful passages in this book. For example:

“The rain gives birth to the rivers, that gives birth to the oceans, that
gives birth to the land, that gives birth to the sky, that gives birth to the rain . . . “

This passage emphasizes the cyclical nature of, well.. nature.

“Trust the Ticking...A sense of resolve worked its way through her chest, down her arms, and into her fingers. She needed to decide and decide now. While there was still time. It was time to trust something other than fear.”

“...doctors stopped counting when the stitches reached a hundred.”

"...something so monumentally important can be held aloft by something so fragile.”

“Because we need each other, that's why. It's that dependency that gives harmony to the song of our existence.”

​This book has yet to be released.