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The Shivered Sky

The Shivered Sky

Dark FantasyFantasy
Pages
452
Published
2003
Language
English

Synopsis

Five strangers wake on a vast, featureless beach with no memory of how they died. The place is Cibola — city of angels — but the angels have been losing ground to demons for longer than anyone can remember. Indigo, Dave, Hitomi, Rico, and Gramm arrive at the worst possible moment: dead, confused, and carrying weapons they don't understand. The periscepters they've stumbled across are artifacts of legend, and every surviving angel and every encroaching demon wants them. With God absent from this realm and an ancient prophecy pointing directly at the five newcomers, the survivors must choose between the warring powers of an afterlife gone wrong — or forge a third path before the sky itself comes apart.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkTenseAtmosphericThought-Provoking
QuestSurvivalMorally GreyFound FamilySacrificeFish Out of Water

Genres

Dark Fantasy Fantasy

About the author

M
Matt Dinniman

Matt Dinniman is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, best known for the LitRPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl. The son of a US Army soldier, he has described himself as a military brat and moved frequently as a child; he later studied at the University of Arizona and took creative writing classes at Pima Community College in Tucson, re-enrolling in the same workshop repeatedly and crediting its group critiques as formative to his development as a writer. He published fiction through sm...

Characters

IndigoProtagonist

One of five humans who wake in Cibola with no memory of their death; becomes the de facto leader as the group navigates an afterlife fractured by demonic invasion.

DaveSupporting

Quick-witted and skeptical, Dave functions as the group's conscience as the five newcomers discover the periscepters and what they mean.

HitomiSupporting

Quiet and perceptive, her instinct for danger proves invaluable in a realm where every faction sees the newcomers as pawns.

RicoSupporting

Brash and combative, Rico's willingness to fight is both the group's greatest asset and a constant liability in a realm that rewards subtlety.

GrammSupporting

The eldest of the five, Gramm brings a steadying presence to the group even as the realm's warring powers close in.

All characters in The Shivered Sky

Frequently asked questions

  • Is The Shivered Sky part of a series?

    Yes — it's the first book in a three-book series of the same name. The complete trilogy is also available as an omnibus edition. Start here and read in order.

  • Is the setting heaven or hell?

    Neither exactly. The realm is a third existence called Cibola — city of angels — that operates by its own rules. Angels and demons are present, but this is not a religious afterlife in the theological sense.

  • Do I need to be religious to enjoy this?

    No. The book uses angels and demons as fantasy archetypes in a dark fantasy framework rather than adhering to any religious doctrine. The focus is survival, identity, and war rather than faith.

  • Is this connected to Dungeon Crawler Carl?

    No. The Shivered Sky is a standalone dark fantasy series with no connection to Dinniman's LitRPG work. It was written years earlier and is a very different reading experience.

  • How dark is the content?

    Very dark in tone. Characters die, the setting is hostile, and the protagonists spend most of the novel disoriented and outmatched. Violence is present throughout, though the book is more atmospheric than gratuitous.

  • Does it end on a cliffhanger?

    The first book reaches a natural stopping point but does not resolve the trilogy's central conflict. Most readers move directly to book two.

  • What is a periscepter?

    A periscepter is a powerful ancient artifact in the world of the novel — weapons of legend that the five human newcomers accidentally uncover, immediately making them targets for every surviving faction in Cibola.