Rustle is a young scout in a tight-knit female warrior group of five. They're trained to be aggressive, quick thinking, obedient-though for what exact purpose they couldn't quite tell you. But somehow the group is falling apart now. The leader Shona turns out to be a traitor to them. Roku has disappeared. Rustle has failed to show her killing skills in a crucial test of courage, and is feeling quite separate from the others. Loo is a true warrior, ready and able for action of the most extreme kind, though Rustle's private yen for her has not dimmed. Solomon, the healer of the group, is a steady hand, but not even her stability can save them.
So when their StarPod is transported to the Living Lab, they all know that it's time to make a run for it, or else they'll be deplugged - finished, dead. It takes a lot of wit and energy, but eventually they make it to the outside of the great mountain where they've been raised and trained and programmed-and here for the first time they behold the big, big sky of the real world."
"What a great story. Most of the time I couldn't put it down."
— Resource Links
"The exceptionally talented and completely unique author, Kristyn Dunnion is back with a brilliant new Sci-Fi novel."
— The Kingsville Reporter
"The verve of her (Dunnion) language and the strong rhythms of her prose give this dystopic tale a vivid earthiness. . . The strength of the story is in the intimate, complex relationships Dunnion depicts as she shifts perspective from one character to another, and in her ability to make us see our Earth anew."
— The Toronto Star
"The language is easily accessible and enhances the believability of the fantasy world."
— Bureau County Republican
"Appealing to readers who appreciate the experimentation of language and the exploration of story."
— Canadian Children's Book News
"Big Big Sky is an incredibly difficult book to put down. Dunnion's narrative is fast-paced, and each pace brings a new challenge. . . This excellent novel is highly recommended for fans of science fiction and dystopian narratives."
— Curled Up With A Good Kids Book
"Highly Recommended."
— Hi-Rise Community Newspaper (Don Mills)
"Pushing the YA envelope about as far as it can go without being an actual mail bomb, Dunnion has put together something like a mix between Mad Max and the new Battlestar Gallactica. From Loo's first words, "Blaaty whafa, Rustle?!" the novel thrashes along with inventive invective that isn't quite foul, but obviously is. Buried in the gore, however, is a novel that is as poignant as any other YA story of deeply felt teen alienation, be it by new authors like Castellucci, or classic ones like S.E. Hinton. That it takes place in an Alien Nation just cranks it up a few notches."
— Montreal Mirror
Edited by Nalo Hopkinson. Hopkinson's novel Brown Girl in the Ring won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest. She has taken second place in the Short Prose Competition of the Writers' Union of Canada, and is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for Emerging Writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Locus Award for a first novel.
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