Sky's Edge

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Sky's Edge is a fictional planet located in the 61 Cygni system and appears in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe.

In the Revelation Space universe, Sky's Edge is the only planet to be settled by a generation ship. The planet's history is described in the book Chasm City. Before the invention of lighthugger ships, a flotilla of five generation ships (Santiago, Brasilia, Islamabad, Palestine and Baghdad) travelling at eight percent of light speed was deployed from Earth to 61 Cygni, each with 150 waking crew and just over one thousand cryogenically frozen colonists (know to the crew as momios, as a Spanish-based calque of the word mummies). The planet was named after Sky Haussmann, a man who caused the Santiago to overtake the other ships and arrive first at Sky's Edge by jettisoning half of the frozen passengers, and who was later (seemingly) crucifed for his crime.

Upon arrival at Sky's Edge, the populations of the generation ships went to war with one another, the colonists of the Santiago settling in the South and the colonists of the two other surviving ships living in the North. During the course of the journey, Sky, as captain of the Santiago, had alienated the other two ships and hostilities eventually escalated into war when they landed. The war apparently lasted until the point at which the human population of Sky's Edge was destroyed by the Inhibitors.

Sky's Edge is described as relatively backwards compared with some human worlds (though few core worlds are mentioned in anything but passing references in the novels), as it possesses little in the way of high technology and few can afford things such as the immortality treatments readily available elsewhere in colonised space. The war raging on Sky's Edge is the reason for this, the planet apparently exports little but a few biological products harvested from its extensive jungles due to its industries being devoted to the war and so trading ships only stop by about once a decade, usually after being snubbed by traders in more lucrative markets. The people of Sky's Edge rarely buy anything but weapons from the Ultra traders. Only Nueva Valparaiso has remained relatively unscathed by the war, because it is the site of a space elevator which is destroyed during the events of Chasm City; this is run by the cult of Sky Haussmann.

The ecology of Sky's Edge is superficially earthlike, as it includes recognisable plants and animals but it is said to be metabolically incompatible with Earth flora and fauna, causing fatal anaphylactic shock in any creature or person who tries to consume it.