The Skylark’s Sacrifice

The Skylark’s Sacrifice is the second volume of a duology set in the steampunk world of the Benne and the Klonn who have been at an almost futile war for ten years. Robin, 17 and a captain in the Benne Air Patrol, was captured after being shot down over enemy lines. She escapes at the end of book one, The Skylark’s Song. (www.cmreviews.ca/node/1221 ) Robin is a Sealie, considered to be from the lowest class in her world. Now she is on the run inside an enemy city, Lylon. During her escape, her captor, the Coyote, whom she had come to have serious feelings for, may have been killed or captured. She had told him her name was Skylark.

Robin falls in with a group of local rebels led by Rosa, a madam in an expensive pleasure house in Lylon. They plan to use the rocket pack Robin escaped with to sabotage the Klonn war effort. Wanted posters depicting the mysterious Skylark are put up across the city. During a mission, she re-connects with the Coyote, now calling himself Velph, and their romance rekindles. Injured, he insists on hiding his identity from the rebels. The locals, while against the war, are not united in how much effort they should put into stopping it. Adventure mixes with first love and ends in their marriage. Robin comes to decide that the only way to end this war is to kill the King of Klonn. This sets the way for the grand finale that, although it results in the death of Eobin’s new husband, Velph, it brings about a satisfactory resolution to the tale.

Written from the point of view of Robin, the novel occasionally bogs down in internal dialogue and angst and contains passages of fairly explicit romance. The ending contains a couple of twists.

The Skylark’s Sacrifice, a well-written tale of adventure and romance, touches on serious issues such as race and class as well as the futility and horrors of war.