Bibliotica.com
In many ways, Mark Packard’s debut novel Rip the Sky is a war story. Actually, it’s a war story on many levels. There’s the literal war that the main character, Billy Worster, fights in Viet Nam. There’s the mental war between the PTSD he suffers as a result of his experiences in the jungle. There are the chemical war Billy fights against the drugs and alcohol that make his pain recede. And there’s the metaphysical one, fought not just by Billy, but also by the Judge whose fate is tied to his: Madeline Johnston, the battle for forgiveness of self and others, the fight for a clear conscious and an easy mind.
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I read this book straight through in one evening (then skimmed it a bit later so it would be fresh for this review. ... But the story is brilliant both as a piece of literature, and as an object lesson in two things: the resilience of the human spirit, and the need to better care for our military veterans.
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The Plain Spoken Pen.com
"Mark Packard has given us a parallel universes story that isn’t quite like any other I’ve read. It reminds me a bit of The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter in that some universes are good, some are decidedly not. But unlike the protagonist in The Long Earth, Billy seems quite unaware of what causes him to fly. He can tell when a flight is coming on, but he doesn’t seem to be able to control it or trigger it.
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The story touches on some pretty heavy topics: PTSD, the horrors of war, addiction, family dysfunction and betrayal, learning how to forgive others and oneself. Faith also plays an important role in the story.
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The ending was genius in my book...Packard crafted a closing that left me wondering and brought a tear to my eye. This doesn’t read like a debut novel, and I hope to read more from Mark Packard in the future.
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Read the full review here.