Falling Sky

August 4, 2014
This solid and memorable debut is set in a world where a disease has turned most people into quasi-zombies called Ferals. Those who retain their faculties eke out a living in secluded communities or in the sky, scavenging what they can from the ruins of the previous civilization. Scavenger Ben Gold, captain of the airship Cherub, occasionally transports scientists who are trying to understand and cure the Ferals. When his ship is stolen by pirates, he’ll stop at nothing to get it back. He acquires a few reluctant allies and infiltrates the flying city of Gastown, where disturbing revelations force him to make a profoundly difficult decision regarding his future. Khanna’s vision of a ruined world, populated by human monsters on the surface and desperate survivors in the air, is bleak but compelling. Ben is a flawed, selfish hero in the spirit of Han Solo, always on the lookout for number one until a greater cause catches his conscience. Though the pace drags a little, this postapocalyptic adventure is a fine start to Khanna’s career. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

October 15, 2014
Blogger and short story writer Khanna turns his sights to the skies in this debut novel.Life in the Sick isn't easy. In post-apocalyptic America, the Bug has changed life as we know it, turning ordinary humans into insane slavering cannibals known as Ferals. The Bug that burned through the world of the Clean (as our time is known) has left only a few precarious human settlements behind, settlements frequented by airship pilots known as zeps. In one of these settlements, a place improbably named Apple Pi, a band of determined scientists led by a woman named Miranda continues to research the Bug at great risk to the community, believing it can still be cured. Into this world comes lone wolf Ben Gold, a dirigible pilot with a gun in his holster and a chip on his shoulder ("you don't need much else," he says). Ben doesn't believe in Miranda's scientific mission but somehow believes in Miranda personally. Hired to keep Miranda safe during her foraging missions among the Ferals, Ben is torn between the strange loyalty he feels toward her and his own fatalistic sense that her mission is doomed: "We are all Life's bitches, until Death steals us away." But when Apple Pi is raided by airships from a mysterious Viking colony known as Valhalla, which drops contagious Ferals on the unsuspecting scientists, Ben is forced to go on the run. The raiders steal Miranda's research-along with Ben's dirigible, The Cherub-and to get it back, and find out what Valhalla is up to, Ben makes an increasingly implausible and dangerous series of decisions in an effort to redeem himself. It's post-apocalypse as Western, only done first and better in Firefly. A fast and mindless adventure story adding little that's new or exciting to the genre.

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Starred review from September 15, 2014

Ben Gold flies salvage missions for an outpost of scientists, trying to help keep virologists such as Miranda safe from both raiders and ferals as she tries to come up with a cure for the Bug. His vehicle of choice is his dirigible, The Cherub, and it's also his home, his legacy, and the only thing he really cares about. When raiders attack the scientists' base and steal The Cherub, Ben will do anything to get it back, but somewhere along the line he discovers he has other things to live and fight for. VERDICT Postapocalyptic sf is a heavily traveled genre, as is steampunk, but debut novelist Khanna combines both quite well here, as the airships help to keep humanity safe from the infected ferals on the ground in a world where the action never stops, leaving room for more adventures. [Previewed in Eric Norton's sf/fantasy feature, "A Multiplicity of Realms," LJ 8/14.--Ed.].

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