The Sky Is Falling

The Sky Is Falling is a science fiction novel by Lester del Rey, first published in 1954.

After dying in a terrible accident at a building site, Dave Hanson finds himself being brought back to life in a world where magic is real, and where the sky is breaking apart and falling. And he is expected to put it back together again. Will he be able to save this strange world, and his own new life?

Computer engineer Dave Hansen is transported from Earth to a world reminiscent of Ancient Egypt, where the rules of science and physics are replaced by the rules of magic. Hanson was summoned to help save the world's sky from collapsing. The sky is a literal dome that arches above the world, with the sun and stars not massive celestial bodies trillions of miles away, but smaller lights that move about within the dome of the sky.

Hansen must find a way to reconcile his scientific knowledge with the magic of his new world and thus prevent the sky from falling, and then discover a method to return to Earth.

The first and shortest version was published in Beyond Fantasy Fiction in July 1954 under the title No More Stars with the pseudonym Charles Satterfield. It first appeared in book form in 1963 with Badge of Infamy as Two Complete Novels in a Galaxy paperback original. The first book-length version was published in 1973 by Ace Books.

Total Running Time (TRT): 3 hours, 14 min. Reading by Karen Savage.

Lester del Rey (1915 - 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books.

Del Rey was awarded the 1972 E. E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (for the Skylark) by the New England Science Fiction Association and a special 1985 Balrog Award for his contributions to fantasy, voted by fans and organized by Locus Magazine. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 11th SFWA Grand Master in 1990.