I’ve read stories where the characters were utter pricks and still finished the book because, and this is the crucial bit, they were interesting. That shouldn’t be a reason to stop reading a novel. Talking about Duncan and Swanny, they are unlikeable.

But then Duncan says something sexist or just plain stupid and the moment is lost. To be fair, there are moments, when Smith refers to the dragons and describes the burnt remains of the city, that the novel takes on a wistful tone, where we get the full impact of a society in decline, rotten to the core. But there’s no meat to the bones, none of the jokes or gags provide any great insight into the characters or the world. Their bizarre, indulgent, absorbed attitudes are meant to be a source of black humour, an echo to the decline of Rome, Nero playing the fiddle etc. The Sky Is Yours has a satirical tone, it’s having fun at the expense of the mega-rich, the 0.01%. It’s because I never felt I was in on the joke. Yes, I was drawn to the novel by the ecstatic comparisons to Infinite Jest, but the fact that it’s nothing like IJ isn’t why I’ve stopped reading. Having read more than half of The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith I have thrown in the towel. The introduction of two Dickensian urchins was the straw that broke my reading back:

Look, it’s possible something extraordinary and revelatory happens in the last third of The Sky Is Yours, but I don’t care to know. Having these awful people out of their air-conditioned, pampered environment is, at least, a change, even if it all feels very familiar. There’s some vague mystery about Abby, where she comes from and her ability to read the thoughts of animals, which I assume will be a focus of the second part of the novel, but really the most exciting thing to happen is having Duncan, Swanny and Abby escape to the broken, scorched, poverty-ridden part of the city after the Ripple mansion is attacked by looters and scavengers. The Ripples are obscenely wealthy, but they’re trapped by that wealth and the marriage between Duncan and Swanny, which takes forever to happen, is weighed down by the fact that Duncan and Swanny are – and this is an understatement – two very irritating people.

Aside from Dunk crashing into the garbage island – which is resolved relatively quickly – most of the story has centred around establishing the gilded-cage nature of the society. It’s taken far too long, nearly half the novel, for the plot to step into gear.

Chandler klang smith the sky is yours