Fallen Skies
by Philippa Gregory
On This Page
Description
Lily Valance wants to forget the war. She's determined to enjoy the world of the 1920s, with its music, singing, laughter and pleasure. When she meets Captain Stephen Winters, a decorated hero back from the Front, she's drawn to his wealth and status. In Lily he sees his salvation - from the past, from the nightmare, from the guilt at surviving the Flanders plains where so many were lost. But it's a dream that cannot last. Lily has no intention of leaving her singing career. The hidden show more tensions of the respectable facade of the Winters household come to a head. Stephen's nightmares merge ever closer with reality and the truth of what took place in the mud and darkness brings him and all who loves him to a terrible reckoning. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Engrossing, fast-paced read. Starts very light, suggesting a perfect romance between a young, naive rising music hall star, and an older, distinguished gentleman returned from the First World War; however, the developments are much darker and dramatic than a simple love story. I was drawn in by Philippa Gregory's natural characters, bar one very disturbed central figure, and her subtle pacing of the story. The chapters build in suspense, yet do not skip on detail or introspection, and I found myself cheering Lily, and feeling defensive of secondary characters such as Rory Winters and Coventry, where I may have struggled with contrived situations and cliched behaviour in lesser novels. I've read other reviews that slam 'Fallen Skies' as show more too dark, but I think the disturbing background is what prevents this novel from becoming just another light, trite fantasy set in the past. An absolute masterpiece; I shall be reading more of Philippa Gregory's stories after this! show less
I'm a big fan of Philippa Gregory's historic novels about the Tudors, so I decided to try one of her non-Tudor novels. The description makes it sound like it's a romance novel and I don't usually go in for romance novels with their treacly sweet tropes about what love should be. But this book turned out to be filled with complex characters and an unusual love story.
Set in post-WWI England, Lily is a singer on the stage. A completely different class from upper-class and oh-so-proper Stephen. He woos her, she loves the attention. Her mum dies, she goes numb and goes along with Stephen's plans to wed because nothing fits anymore.
Lily's and Stephen's story is not the love story. Their story is the battle of wits between a strong-willed show more woman raised to be independent by her mum and a man broken by WWI, refusing treatment for his "PTSD", living in a home filled with mourning for the older brother who died first, with little love left for Stephen.
There's abuse, a dark hidden secret (and several smaller ones as well), a look at the changes taking place in society after the war, happiness, sadness and the never ending war between the classes.
Whenever I thought I had pegged where the story was headed, Gregory surprised me and took it in a different direction, much to my delight. So much fun to read, with an ending that settles several questions but raises a few more. What I want to know is, "what happened next?" show less
Set in post-WWI England, Lily is a singer on the stage. A completely different class from upper-class and oh-so-proper Stephen. He woos her, she loves the attention. Her mum dies, she goes numb and goes along with Stephen's plans to wed because nothing fits anymore.
Lily's and Stephen's story is not the love story. Their story is the battle of wits between a strong-willed show more woman raised to be independent by her mum and a man broken by WWI, refusing treatment for his "PTSD", living in a home filled with mourning for the older brother who died first, with little love left for Stephen.
There's abuse, a dark hidden secret (and several smaller ones as well), a look at the changes taking place in society after the war, happiness, sadness and the never ending war between the classes.
Whenever I thought I had pegged where the story was headed, Gregory surprised me and took it in a different direction, much to my delight. So much fun to read, with an ending that settles several questions but raises a few more. What I want to know is, "what happened next?" show less
I have a deep interest in World War I and I was intrigued by how that war overshadows the characters in this novel set in post WWI England. The absolute horror of the war is depicted in a series of flashbacks that become increasingly disturbing. Gregory keeps the suspense growing steadily. For me, the conclusion worked well and felt -- at the same time -- inevitable and surprising.
I found this book to be interesting, but disturbing at the same time. I did not like the shallow character of the protagonist Lily, but the story line was interesting from Captain Steven Winter's preoccupation with her. As the story progressed and Lily's character matured, I was drawn into the drama of two more evenly matched people. I think this was book was a challenging undertaking for the author.
Gregory has managed to create characters who are truly unsympathetic, including one of the most insipid teen-aged female protagonists I've ever encountered in literature. The point of of narrative seems to be: men, especially war-damaged men, are attracted to women (girls really) far beneath themselves in status, intelligence, wealth and experience.
True perhaps, but do we really want to read about what passes for introspection from such stereotyped characters?
True perhaps, but do we really want to read about what passes for introspection from such stereotyped characters?
When Stephen Winters meets Lily, a young theater singer, he thinks she’s just the woman he needs to make him forget about the horrors he experienced during WWI. Lily isn’t particularly attracted to Stephen, but after her mother dies, marrage -- despite threatening her suddenly promising career -- seems like the best of her very few options.
As a reader, I didn’t find many compelling reasons to like either Stephen or Lily, and found by the end of the book that I didn’t care what happened to either of them. Unfortunate, since I’ve enjoyed some others of Gregory’s works.
As a reader, I didn’t find many compelling reasons to like either Stephen or Lily, and found by the end of the book that I didn’t care what happened to either of them. Unfortunate, since I’ve enjoyed some others of Gregory’s works.
In post-World War I England seventeen-year old Lily Pears is just on the verge of breaking out of the chorus line into a career as a solo singer when she meets the older distinguished war hero Captain Stephen Winters.
Wracked by nightmares of the war Stephen sees Lily as his saving grace with her angelic face and voice. He desperately pursues her yet she can only see him as a friend and nothing more. While away on tour Lily suffers from a tragic loss and with no one else to turn to she marries Stephen and is whisked away to the family mansion where the sole occupants are Steven’s dour mother and invalid father.
As time passes Lily begins to bloom and breathe life into the previously glum household but Stephen finds that his nightmares show more haven’t stopped. If anything they are worse and the shocking truth behind his heroic acts is close to being revealed.
The book started off really slow and with just over 500 pages I almost threw in the towel with this one but I stuck with it and it actually picked up pretty quickly after Lily’s tragedy. Through the rest of the book I was almost too anxious expecting something more sinister to be just around the corner so I was a little disappointed when nothing horrible happened but still thought it was a moving story. (See how jaded we've become LOL)
Gregory writes historical fiction with such amazing detail that you can picture the settings and background with stunning clarity. I’m new to historical fiction so I don’t have a lot to compare it to but I thought this was a great book. show less
Wracked by nightmares of the war Stephen sees Lily as his saving grace with her angelic face and voice. He desperately pursues her yet she can only see him as a friend and nothing more. While away on tour Lily suffers from a tragic loss and with no one else to turn to she marries Stephen and is whisked away to the family mansion where the sole occupants are Steven’s dour mother and invalid father.
As time passes Lily begins to bloom and breathe life into the previously glum household but Stephen finds that his nightmares show more haven’t stopped. If anything they are worse and the shocking truth behind his heroic acts is close to being revealed.
The book started off really slow and with just over 500 pages I almost threw in the towel with this one but I stuck with it and it actually picked up pretty quickly after Lily’s tragedy. Through the rest of the book I was almost too anxious expecting something more sinister to be just around the corner so I was a little disappointed when nothing horrible happened but still thought it was a moving story. (See how jaded we've become LOL)
Gregory writes historical fiction with such amazing detail that you can picture the settings and background with stunning clarity. I’m new to historical fiction so I don’t have a lot to compare it to but I thought this was a great book. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
128+ Works 86,160 Members
Philippa Gregory was born in Nairobi, Kenya on January 9, 1954. She received a B.A. in history at Sussex University in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 18th-century literature from the University of Edinburgh in 1984. She has taught at numerous universities and was made a fellow of Kingston University in 1994. Her historical novels include: Wideacre, The show more Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Other Queen, The White Queen, The Red Queen, The Lady of the Rivers and The White Princess. She has also written several contemporary fiction works including Perfectly Correct, The Little House and Zelda's Cut. She adapted her novel A Respectable Trade, about the slave trade in England, into a four-part series for BBC television. Her script won an award from the Committee for Racial Equality. She won the Feminist Book Fortnight Award in 1990 and the Romantic Novelist of the Year Award in 2002. Her book, The Other Boleyn Girl, won the Parker Romantic Novel of the Year award and was adapted into a major feature film in 2008 starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. The White Queen was adapted into an original cable series on the Starz nertwork in 2013 starring Max Irons and Rebecca Ferguson. Her title The Kings Curse made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014. Her title, The Taming of the Queen, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. Her latest bestseller is Three Sisters, Three Queens. Gregory also writes children's books, is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, a frequent broadcaster for radio and television, and runs a small charity that builds wells in schoolyards in Gambia. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Lily Valance; Captain Stephen Winters
- Important places
- England, UK
- Epigraph
- Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habits, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now ... (show all)no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.--D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover , 1928
- Dedication
- This book is dedicated to Private Frederick John Carter of the 11th Scottish Rifles, who died at Salonika, 12th September 1917, aged twenty-four.
- First words
- Stephen's mouth was filling with mud, wet slurry pressed on his eyelids, slid into his nostrils like earthworms.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The war for both of them was finally over.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 631
- Popularity
- 45,853
- Reviews
- 16
- Rating
- (3.59)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 30
- ASINs
- 5
