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charonlrdraws's review against another edition
1.0
Giving this 2.5 stars it started out great but after the first three chapters well it just drags on and on also the author over uses the words "Caeli-Amur" way too much and found myself sighing a great deal due to that so here's something for you to do every time the words "Caeli-Amur" is mentioned take a shot you know the drill.
I will not be continuing with this series either really disappointed as it had so much promise of a decent story but it just failed in making it worthwhile.
I will not be continuing with this series either really disappointed as it had so much promise of a decent story but it just failed in making it worthwhile.
bpopovska's review against another edition
2.0
This book started off very strong, and then it just went down hill up to the very end.
The overall premise and the world are quite interesting, and I think that that is what drew me into the book, but it somehow failed to deliver on its promise of awesomeness. The writing was lyrical, but at the same time very dry, and the lengthily descriptions started to really bug me after a while.
The character building was practically non existent, no one had a distinct voice, and I can't honestly remember encountering a more bland set of characters, ever.
The whole book is a pale shadow of what it could be, having been re-written from scratch. I think this is what bothers me most, I can see the potential in it, but at the same time I had to press myself to finish it. I think I even invented a new method of skim-reading.
2 stars, only for its 'potential'.
Wouldn't recommend it.
The overall premise and the world are quite interesting, and I think that that is what drew me into the book, but it somehow failed to deliver on its promise of awesomeness. The writing was lyrical, but at the same time very dry, and the lengthily descriptions started to really bug me after a while.
The character building was practically non existent, no one had a distinct voice, and I can't honestly remember encountering a more bland set of characters, ever.
The whole book is a pale shadow of what it could be, having been re-written from scratch. I think this is what bothers me most, I can see the potential in it, but at the same time I had to press myself to finish it. I think I even invented a new method of skim-reading.
2 stars, only for its 'potential'.
Wouldn't recommend it.
edgeworth's review against another edition
1.0
Rjurik Davidson’s debut novel takes place in a semi-industrial fantasy city, populated by an array of different creatures, magicians, disgruntled factory workers and corpulent elites. New Crobuzon – um, I mean, Caeli-Amur – is on the brink of political revolution, as the injustices of the ruling class can no longer be tolerated by the characters who populate the pages of Iron Council – uh, that is to say, Unwrapped Sky.
I’m always in favour of fantasy branching out from the stale genre of Tolkienesque medieval Europe. But the hand of China Mieville lies heavy on Davidson’s shoulder.
The fundamental core of Unwrapped Sky is political rebellion: the unrestrained power of Caeli-Amur’s political Houses and the attempts by several characters to overthrow them, as part of a band of rebels unimaginatively named “seditionists.” Davidson’s failure to give them any sort of political ideology robs Unwrapped Sky of quite a bit of depth, and in some ways it became symbolic to me of the failure of the novel as a whole. It’s all schisms and strikes and power plays within the seditionist leadership; it reminded me of student politics. Getting excited about that stuff is fine when you’re handing out pamphlets or arguing with other first-years at RMIT, but not so much when transferred onto a fantasy world which needs a bit of weight and depth to it. I cannot bring myself to care about the fate of characters raging against the vaguely-defined tyrannies of some cartoonish fantasy tyrants, especially when those characters are dull in the first place.
Davidson’s prose doesn’t help. Like most fantasy fiction it’s bloated waffling, stilted dialogue and excessive exposition. He never trusts the reader to infer anything, but instead spells out all his characters’ thoughts and feelings and regrets and reflections on every single page – the sort of thing that turns a passable novel into a tedious slog. A decent editor could have cut 150 pages from Unwrapped Sky and greatly improved it. I keep saying this is par for the course in fantasy fiction, because it is, but just once it would be nice to be praising a fantasy author for being concise instead of giving one yet another pass because I don’t expect anything better.
I’m always in favour of fantasy branching out from the stale genre of Tolkienesque medieval Europe. But the hand of China Mieville lies heavy on Davidson’s shoulder.
The fundamental core of Unwrapped Sky is political rebellion: the unrestrained power of Caeli-Amur’s political Houses and the attempts by several characters to overthrow them, as part of a band of rebels unimaginatively named “seditionists.” Davidson’s failure to give them any sort of political ideology robs Unwrapped Sky of quite a bit of depth, and in some ways it became symbolic to me of the failure of the novel as a whole. It’s all schisms and strikes and power plays within the seditionist leadership; it reminded me of student politics. Getting excited about that stuff is fine when you’re handing out pamphlets or arguing with other first-years at RMIT, but not so much when transferred onto a fantasy world which needs a bit of weight and depth to it. I cannot bring myself to care about the fate of characters raging against the vaguely-defined tyrannies of some cartoonish fantasy tyrants, especially when those characters are dull in the first place.
Davidson’s prose doesn’t help. Like most fantasy fiction it’s bloated waffling, stilted dialogue and excessive exposition. He never trusts the reader to infer anything, but instead spells out all his characters’ thoughts and feelings and regrets and reflections on every single page – the sort of thing that turns a passable novel into a tedious slog. A decent editor could have cut 150 pages from Unwrapped Sky and greatly improved it. I keep saying this is par for the course in fantasy fiction, because it is, but just once it would be nice to be praising a fantasy author for being concise instead of giving one yet another pass because I don’t expect anything better.
xan_van_rooyen's review against another edition
4.0
Rjurik Davidson certainly has an incredible imagination which resulted in some epic world-building, an interesting cast of characters and laid the foundation for a complex fantasy series.
***time to write a real review***
I met Rjurik at two separate cons over the summer, but long before that I spotted his book in a warehouse-sized bookstore in South Africa. The cover immediately snagged my attention and I made a note of the title to get on Kindle (I was traveling at the time and didn't want the extra weight of the hardcover). A few weeks later, I met Rjurik and couldn't believe I was in the presence of the very author whose work I couldn't wait to read!
Cut to the actual book. I started reading Unwrapped Sky with certain expectations: 1) Minotaurs 2) epic fantasy. This book didn't quite meet my expectations on point 1 and thoroughly exceeded them on point 2.
This is not a book about minotaurs. Minotaurs are part of the world, but they're not quite the major presence I anticipated.
This book is epic fantasy and then some. The world is a rich tapestry of magic, technology and steampunk elements. This is where the book truly deserves 5 stars. The settings are original and vivid to the point where I could smell Caeli-Amur and hear the sounds of the market-place. I loved the blend of technology and more typical fantasy elements, although I can see how this book that straddles the science-fantasy genre might leave science fiction fans wanting more tech and fantasy fans annoyed by the very presence of tech. The only comparison I can draw is perhaps Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy in terms of tech + fantasy.
Onto the characters. I'll admit I wasn't a huge fan of the three separate POVs and seemingly disconnected story threads but of course, the author weaves these three narratives together and in the end I wanted to spend more time with each character, characters who were all morally ambiguous. There are no clear cut heroes here and so if you're expecting to find a Jamie Fraser, Richard Cypher or similar love interest come swashbuckling hero, you might want to look elsewhere. What this book does deliver is complex characters - male and female - foregoing many of the usual fantasy tropes while avoiding a lot of the medievalish mindset, especially regarding women's rights, which I found particularly refreshing.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to future installments in this genre-defying series.
***time to write a real review***
I met Rjurik at two separate cons over the summer, but long before that I spotted his book in a warehouse-sized bookstore in South Africa. The cover immediately snagged my attention and I made a note of the title to get on Kindle (I was traveling at the time and didn't want the extra weight of the hardcover). A few weeks later, I met Rjurik and couldn't believe I was in the presence of the very author whose work I couldn't wait to read!
Cut to the actual book. I started reading Unwrapped Sky with certain expectations: 1) Minotaurs 2) epic fantasy. This book didn't quite meet my expectations on point 1 and thoroughly exceeded them on point 2.
This is not a book about minotaurs. Minotaurs are part of the world, but they're not quite the major presence I anticipated.
This book is epic fantasy and then some. The world is a rich tapestry of magic, technology and steampunk elements. This is where the book truly deserves 5 stars. The settings are original and vivid to the point where I could smell Caeli-Amur and hear the sounds of the market-place. I loved the blend of technology and more typical fantasy elements, although I can see how this book that straddles the science-fantasy genre might leave science fiction fans wanting more tech and fantasy fans annoyed by the very presence of tech. The only comparison I can draw is perhaps Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy in terms of tech + fantasy.
Onto the characters. I'll admit I wasn't a huge fan of the three separate POVs and seemingly disconnected story threads but of course, the author weaves these three narratives together and in the end I wanted to spend more time with each character, characters who were all morally ambiguous. There are no clear cut heroes here and so if you're expecting to find a Jamie Fraser, Richard Cypher or similar love interest come swashbuckling hero, you might want to look elsewhere. What this book does deliver is complex characters - male and female - foregoing many of the usual fantasy tropes while avoiding a lot of the medievalish mindset, especially regarding women's rights, which I found particularly refreshing.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to future installments in this genre-defying series.
cupiscent's review against another edition
Setting it aside at page 142, because I'm just got getting to grips with the style - which is quite bald and a step removed from the emotion of the characters - and it's making the events and characters distant and dull for me. Which is a shame, because there are a lot of interesting elements to the world, but I want to feel the characters living them, and it's just not happening.
thiefofcamorr's review against another edition
Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.
To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.
soless's review against another edition
So at the end of the book, Davidson uses the title as a metaphor for potential, and really the entire book could serve as that. It has so much unrealized potential, both in beautiful language and interesting setting. Unfortunately, the plot gets lost, there's too much repetition, and it should have been about 200 pages shorter. Still, I'm interested to see what Davidson has in store for the next installment.
abookishtype's review against another edition
2.0
Rjurik Davidson's Unwrapped Sky should have been catnip for me. There were minotaurs and sirens, mysterious alien creatures, trapped gods, and an ancient city on the brink of revolution. Davidson lavished words on his settings, but I found many of the characters—especially the chief antagonist—to be strangely erratic. Character motivations are vague or absent. This is the beginning of a series, so the ending is unsatisfying; it just sets things up for the next book. There were parts that I enjoyed, but it didn't make up for the flimsy character development.
Read the rest of my review on A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review on A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
danaichristopoulou's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A marathon, not a sprint.
I've been diving in and out of the streets of Caeli-Amur for several months now. At first I didn't quite know what to make of Unwrapped Sky. I think as readers we've gotten used to faster gratification and sensationalism and this book doesn't do either. It's not a character-driven novel either; if anything, it's the city of Caeli-Amur, with its winding streets, inequality and mesmerising secrets under its surface, that's the true MC of the book.
I've seen several other reviews comparing Davidson's work to 19th century Russian literature and I think this is not an inaccurate assessment. This book will challenge your perception of what modern fantasy should look like. You may decide to stick with it — or not. I did. I don't think it's a book for everyone, but I think that those who take the plunge will probably find themselves changed afterwards.
I've also seen other reviews call this book "communist". I don't know the writer or his political inclinations, but I can definitely see a Marxist perspective shining throughout, affecting anything from interpersonal relationships to the fabric of reality itself. But at the same time, as we're examining the actions of a group or seditionists, there's a healthy dose of criticism as well and some remarkable insights on the human condition.
Finally, I have to agree that the book cover, although beautifully illustrated, is a bit irrelevant to what's actually going on in the book. This is not a story about a girl and a minotaur. This is a story of a city, sitting on the bones of another city, haunted by beings from another realm — and the people who live and die on its streets, believing their way is the only way.
I've been diving in and out of the streets of Caeli-Amur for several months now. At first I didn't quite know what to make of Unwrapped Sky. I think as readers we've gotten used to faster gratification and sensationalism and this book doesn't do either. It's not a character-driven novel either; if anything, it's the city of Caeli-Amur, with its winding streets, inequality and mesmerising secrets under its surface, that's the true MC of the book.
I've seen several other reviews comparing Davidson's work to 19th century Russian literature and I think this is not an inaccurate assessment. This book will challenge your perception of what modern fantasy should look like. You may decide to stick with it — or not. I did. I don't think it's a book for everyone, but I think that those who take the plunge will probably find themselves changed afterwards.
I've also seen other reviews call this book "communist". I don't know the writer or his political inclinations, but I can definitely see a Marxist perspective shining throughout, affecting anything from interpersonal relationships to the fabric of reality itself. But at the same time, as we're examining the actions of a group or seditionists, there's a healthy dose of criticism as well and some remarkable insights on the human condition.
Finally, I have to agree that the book cover, although beautifully illustrated, is a bit irrelevant to what's actually going on in the book. This is not a story about a girl and a minotaur. This is a story of a city, sitting on the bones of another city, haunted by beings from another realm — and the people who live and die on its streets, believing their way is the only way.