I feel like there are so many dystopian novels out there, and many of them are mediocre at best. How many different ways can you create a divided world that needs saving? I thought Skyward Inn was one of those novels, but it is much better. There is a lot of world-building going on. Basically, an alien race called the Qitans are at war with humans, and the protagonist Jem runs the Skyward Inn, which is basically a safe house from the Qitans. Though there is plenty of conflict within the book as you would expect, there is also a whole lot of philosophy going on as well. It will really make you think, especially since the circumstances of this world kind of mirror some of the conflicts going on in our world in the present day. The one thing that was hard to read, for me at least, was humans being forced to quarantine. Considering I read this during the covid-19 pandemic, it was not easy to read about it in a book. I want to escape to another world, not read about people being quarantined against mystery illness. If you can get past that part though, you will be rewarded with a very interesting read about belonging, acceptance, and othering among other topics.

Jemima got pregnant and left home for some kind of intergalactic war, came back but remained an outsider, tending bar at the Skyward Inn with a Qitan partner, named Isley. Jem's son's name is Fosse Davey, but they don't much know each other. Her brother Dominic is now de facto council leader, he leads community meetings where his nephew Fosse takes minutes about ongoing projects, incoming residents, and an encroaching pandemic. Another alien arrives wearing a broken spaceship like a suit, and whose connection to Isley makes Jem jealous. Something in the graveyard is grabbing onto mourners; insidious squatters are taking over rural property; there are grotesque nightmares in sleep, and waking atrocities as the mutating illness advances. There's a lot going on at the Skyward Inn.

DNFed at 50 pages.

This is definitely a case of 'it's not you, it's me'. I think Skyward Inn is a lovely and unique book that will appeal to lots of readers of literary sci-fi, but it wasn't one that ended up clicking with me.

It's a slow burn, something I don't usually mind, but I couldn't find myself connecting to the characters or their stories.

As I work through my TBR, I am DNFing at a much more brutal rate and Skyward Inn got the chop. However, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a lyrical sci-fi novel.

“Skyward Inn” by Aliya Whitely. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: SciFi/Dystopian. Location: Southwest England and the planet Qita. Time: Future. Note: This book appeals to lovers of philosophical, literary, slow-paced SciFi. If you don’t enjoy those, this may not be the book for you.-
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In a dystopian future, Earth (controlled by The Coalition) is connected to the planet Qita by a space gate. But the Western Protectorate (located in what was once the Devon countryside) has kept itself separate to preserve the old ways. The Skyward Inn is where Protectorate residents come to relax. Run by Jem (a human who served on Qita) and Isley (a Qitan), they offer the time and space-altering Qitan Jarrowbrew.-
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Author Whitely uses elegantly sparse language to tell the story from two somewhat surreal perspectives- Jem, the former space traveler, and Fosse, the unhappy, isolated son she abandoned. As an unknown disease spreads across the worlds, the author sucks us in with questions of love and attachment, individuality vs. community, belonging vs. conflict.-
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Expect the first half to develop slowly. As the disease spreads, the narrative speeds up. Don’t expect answers, the residents of Earth and Qita are not ready for clearly defined answers. For me, it was an amazing book, the kind one wants to talk about with like-minded friends. It’s not an easy read because it is full of sadness and regrets. It’s 5 stars from me and I’ll keep thinking about it for a long time. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.🌵📚👩🏼‍🦳”

This was another DNF for me, it was no type of book. I thought I was going to like it but I ended up only reading up until page 40 and I couldn't get back into it.

NetGalley gave me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the West Country in the UK the village life almost echoes back to a Thomas Hardy novel but obviously much more modern (although in a community avoiding technology). A stranger comes to town. And then more. Both ways. Because in this time and place Devon and all of Earth are one side of the Kissing Gate, on the other side of which is Qita. Whiteley has refreshingly created a world in which things pretty much did hit the brink but solutions have allowed village life to continue. People can recall leaving the village as if they were there and the reader gets to experience Qita this way. I keep comparing ‘Skyward Inn’ to other narratives precisely because it breaks so many moulds. The mother who joined the army of sorts and came back, the son raised by his uncle (the upstanding member of the community), the peaceful aliens... the closest I can recommend is the Southern Reach trilogy for an idea but of course it is entirely its own thing with less sense of dread!

‘Skyward Inn’ is about loneliness, about place, about choices, and about ideas about those things.

Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris (Rebellion) for providing an ARC - I've never read anything like Skyward Inn. It's very well-written, slow-burning, and just plain weird. It left me feeling a bit confused.

I really wanted to like the book, I did. But it just didn't click with me. There were parts that I genuinely like, but there were more that I didn't. I would probably enjoy it more if I wasn't so busy trying to follow and make sense of the plot and worldbuilding.

Story-wise, it felt all over the place, at times. I really struggled for two thirds of the book trying to see where the story is going or even what the book is about. There were some scenes and subplots that felt unnecessary, or at least didn't have to drag on as long as it did. The pacing and the jump back and forth between timeline also threw me off a bit.

I do like the last 10 percent of the book though, and for someone else, they will probably love the book. But personally, it just isn't for me.

I really tried to like this and finish it but then I remembered that my time is valuable and I don't need to finish boring stuff. It's really slow and I don't understand why I needed to know why Fosse masturbates in the shed; like that's not the sort of weird graphic detail that will endear me to the character or make me understand them more.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, and the chance to leave an honest review.

Jemima, a former militant in an interplanetary war, runs the Skyward Inn. A local pub/hotel in the rural Protectorate where all the residents come to gab and drink Jarrowbrew a Qitan beverage made by Isley, the resident Qitan that provoked different feelings amongst the patrons. Jemima is in love with Isley and vice-versa even though Isley has made it quite clear that there can be no physical affection. They spend their nights drinking Jarrowbrew after the barflies have made their way home and Isley listens to Jem reminisce about her time spent on his home planet.

All changes when a Qitan arrives at the inn and needs Isley’s help to repair her suit so she can return home. This incident seems to be the catalyst that ramps up the story. A mysterious disease is spreading through the Protectorate and while the Council defends the land from illegal immigrants and increases quarantine measures, Jem’s son Fosse runs away to join the military. He completes is training and goes to Qita to discover more about the race and research into how the humans from earth won a war without dropping a single drop of blood on both sides. Did humans really “win”?

This is a thought provoking and disturbing novel touching all aspects of humanity and community. All the characters are relatable and well developed and all in all it was a great read.

My only issue was I had a hard time picturing a Qitan and how their differences to humans. Other than that I loved it!

I'm not really sure what I think about this book. The prose lends this post-war, alien contact, bigotry, anti-technology, dysfunctional family, connection, body horror, coming of age narrative a dreamy quality. There’s also a slow ratcheting up of dread, and some revulsion, all served up in big glasses of brew.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review.

I’m always on the lookout for more SFF slice of life. Especially weird literary SFF slice of life. So when a friend brought this book to my attention, I knew I’d have to read it. And it turned out to be one of the most unique things I’ve found in a while – at the same time somehow a seamless blend of super chill sci-fi slice of life (slight Becky Chambers vibes anyone?) and something altogether more unsettling.

Jem and Isley – a human and a Qitan alien – manage the titular Skyward Inn. It’s a place where people from a small village in the Protectorate, a community of humans that rejects technological progress, can share a drink and exchange stories of the past. It all starts as a very quiet slice of life story, just Jem’s POV, in first person, alternating with that of her estranged teenage son, in third person, following their daily lives, but it slowly and seamlessly blends in an element of strangeness bordering on horror.

There is a very literary feel to it and the prose is absolutely stunning. Even though it’s a very short novel, it felt exactly as long as it needs to be. I loved how natural and gradual the change in tone felt – never jarring, and even though I’m a wimp who normally avoids horror like the plague and is especially sensitive to body horror, I wasn’t ever terrified or disgusted enough to stop reading. Creeped out, sure, but not in a way that’d be a dealbreaker.

In addition to that, it also touches upon complex family relationships, space colonization and how it affects communities, and personal autonomy. The tagline, “this is a place where we can be alone, together” is very on point. Only now I realise it hits another of my favourite tropes, books that take place after a big conflict is done and deal with its aftermath. It’s not a central plot since the focus is firmly on the characters, but it’s there.

Most highly recommended.

* Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris/Rebellion for providing an advance copy for review *
At some point in the not so distant future, a wormhole opens in Earth that gives it access to an alien civilization in planet Qita. After a tense initial encounter, Qitans peacefully surrender and let humans develop and extract resources from their planet. The story is told from the point of view of Jem, a human veteran of the Earth invasion of Qita, who now runs a pub in a village in isolationist England together with Isley, a Qitan veteran she met during her duty. Things start to change when an unexpected visitor from Qita appears.

Skyward Inn is a sci-fi first contact story that manages to be both intimate and all encompassing, in a way that reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin. It is a beautiful, thought provoking novel that explores loneliness and belonging, with highly memorable (although a bit disturbing) imagery. It challenges your assumptions <spoiler>(specially involving conquerors and the conquered)</spoiler> and does not spoon feed you answers; it can be unnerving at some points, but it is also peaceful. The book also touches on change; it is probably not a coincidence that in the wake of Brexit, the story takes place in a village belonging to the Protectorate - a segment of England that wants to go back to old times with limited technology, and chose to secede to avoid having contact with the aliens. The story moves very slowly, the focus is on developing the characters and their relationships, but it is worth sticking with it to enjoy an extraordinary ending.

Clever and unsettling, speculative sci fi with a philosophical flavor. Unlike anything I've read before. Brilliantly written and complex. Multidimensional world building and character development, This novel paces itself to build it's world and develop it's narrative.

Jem owns the Skyward Inn, along with Isley. The two are friends, despite the war between their kinds, Qitans and humans. But one day another Qitan arrives, Won, and things start to change.

I had a bit of a hard time following this at first, but the story engaged me and I was soon invested in the stories of Isley, Jem, and Fosse. This explores various ideas including belonging, individuality, and colonialism and really made me think about my views on each of these concepts. It's told in a variety of timeframes and POVs which added to the confusion that various characters felt.

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it.

This was such a strange book, I don't think I've read anything like it before. The environmental discussion mixed with the mystery of what is changing around people is fascinating. The way the author wrote had me thinking so much. I love this type of sci-fi novel, and I can't wait to read more of Whiteley's works. Each character was uniquely complex, and although you understood their motivations often enough, there were still parts of them that were closed off. It was interesting and weird.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for an advanced copy of this book.

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley is a hard book to review properly. The story takes time and the readers attention first to figure out the world and the character's place in it, plus what is happening off page and where the story wants to go. The pace at first seems slow, shifting narrative views and not really sharing what is going on. However steady progress allows the reader to fill in the blanks, though some questions are answered easier than others. The characters don't grow on you, more that they become understandable as the setting becomes clearer. The story might be slot for some readers to stay with, but I found it well worth the challenge.

Despite finishing this a few days ago, I genuinely can’t decide what I thought of it. I enjoyed reading it. Loved the concept of it. The storyline and theme is unique. I liked the dystopian style world left behind after an alien war. The “brew” is an utterly fascinating drink.
But something about the novel is unsettling. I’m not sure if it’s that I have so many unanswered questions at the end, how thought provoking it is or if I just didn’t click with it.

Skyward Inn introduces readers to the Western Protectorate, a small part of Devon that's rejected the fast evolving modern world outside of its walled borders, a world where people use AI implants and travel to distant planets. The people inside the Protectorate have chose a simpler life instead, growing their own food, building their homes themselves, and relying on nothing from the outside. It's here that we meet Jem, a woman who grew up in the Protectorate, but left her home for years to travel to the distant world of Qita, where humanity had begun expanding.


During her time on Qita she met and fell in love with one of the world's inhabitants, Isely. Veterans from both sides of a small war that never was, they found friendship and comfort in each other, and Isely returned to Earth with Jem once her tour was finished. Now the two of them run the Skyward Inn, a small tavern overlooking the village where Jem grew up, a village she no longer really feels a part of. Having worked hard for the locals to accept Isely, and still working to reforge her relationship with her estranged son, Jem's life is thrown off course when another Qitan who knows Isely arrives at the Inn, asking for their.

Skyward Inn is a strange story, one that mixes together old ways of life, of remote rural living, with alien worlds and the fear of the alien and the unknown. It takes a very familiar, simple way of life that most readers will be familiar with, that some might even desire to pursue (no more social media, offices, or commutes sounds wonderful) and begins to add strange elements that alter this dream existence into something very different.


Despite presenting two opposing ways of life, the quiet life that shuns technology and another where travel to the stars is possible, the book isn't really about that. It doesn't ask big questions about which way of life is better, or if there needs to be a balance between the old way of the world and the future; instead, it focuses on the people in the story, and asks questions about what it means to be human. The book is concerned about relationships, how people connect, and what it means to be a part of each others lives. 

I feel like I'm struggling to describe the book, but I think that's part of what makes it a really interesting read. It's not a simple story. It raises questions and themes through metaphor. It bends time and perception in ways that you wouldn't expect, and the story doesn't follow a path that you expect. I'm sure that if you were to read it you would have a different experience of it than I, because it felt strangely personal, like the author had managed to get inside my head and was making me examine my own relation to the world and what certain things meant to me.

Skyward Inn might not be for everyone, it has a very leisurely pace, and twists narratives together in unusual ways that might not be to everyone's tastes, but if you like the strange, if you like stories that are multi-layered and get under your skin, this is probably something that you'll really like. With strong, well defined characters, and some big questions on the very nature of what it means to exist, Skyward Inn is a book that will get you thinking.