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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
In its delicate task of balancing sci-fi with fantasy. All the Birds in the Sky does an admirable job. Lots of interesting detail is sprinkled throughout to help the world feel as believable as it can, and there are some fun, unique ideas - like the silly, wonderful 2-second time machine - that are treats for fans of genre fiction.
However, the jumps through time, though they help us hit important moments in the lives of the characters, also made it difficult to participate in their growth. Often, it seemed the character development happened off the page, and though getting invited to see it later is better than nothing, it wasn't quite as satisfying as seeing it for myself.
Add to that minor quibbles with the writing style (in particular, many colloquialisms on the part of the narrator didn't land for me), and you get a book that is enjoyable enough, but doesn't quite hit the mark as well as I'd like.
However, the jumps through time, though they help us hit important moments in the lives of the characters, also made it difficult to participate in their growth. Often, it seemed the character development happened off the page, and though getting invited to see it later is better than nothing, it wasn't quite as satisfying as seeing it for myself.
Add to that minor quibbles with the writing style (in particular, many colloquialisms on the part of the narrator didn't land for me), and you get a book that is enjoyable enough, but doesn't quite hit the mark as well as I'd like.
I didn't find myself particularly liking the characters or the book. Maybe the characters were to cliche. That being said, I also had a hard time putting it down.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
solid fantasy book, but lost me a bit toward the end.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2024: A fiction book by a trans or nonbinary author.
In the opening chapters I was sure that this would be a 5* review. I loved the ✨vibes✨ and the basic concept. Two middle-school outcasts find each other out of desperation for some companionship. He is a tech wunderkind who turns his smartwatch into a 2-second time machine and builds a supercomputer in his closet. She is a witch who can talk to birds, or so the birds told her before her powers disappeared again and she's desperatlely trying to get them back. As they get older, their paths diverge and the world teeters on the brink of environmental disaster (this part was terrifyingly realistic!) - can either of them save the world, themselves, or each other?
Later in the book the pacing got quite saggy which let it down. We spent an inordinate amount of Laurence's chapters with Serafina, all of which added no real value to the story for me and just felt like wheel-spinning.
That said, I really liked the schools of magic, their history and how they related to each other. The actual magical powers were also interesting and felt well-built. The tech stuff was neat too.
A real shame the book skirted so close to 5 stars and didn't stick the landing, but it's a really positive 4 stars. First-world problems, really
In the opening chapters I was sure that this would be a 5* review. I loved the ✨vibes✨ and the basic concept. Two middle-school outcasts find each other out of desperation for some companionship. He is a tech wunderkind who turns his smartwatch into a 2-second time machine and builds a supercomputer in his closet. She is a witch who can talk to birds, or so the birds told her before her powers disappeared again and she's desperatlely trying to get them back. As they get older, their paths diverge and the world teeters on the brink of environmental disaster (this part was terrifyingly realistic!) - can either of them save the world, themselves, or each other?
Later in the book the pacing got quite saggy which let it down. We spent an inordinate amount of Laurence's chapters with Serafina, all of which added no real value to the story for me and just felt like wheel-spinning.
That said, I really liked the schools of magic, their history and how they related to each other. The actual magical powers were also interesting and felt well-built. The tech stuff was neat too.
A real shame the book skirted so close to 5 stars and didn't stick the landing, but it's a really positive 4 stars. First-world problems, really
slow-paced
Patricia has know since she was a little girl that magic exists. Her lonely existence was buoyed by this fact, even without her being able to access that magic. Patricia's friendship with her classmate, the enigmatic super genius Laurence, will not just lead her to the magic she so desperately wants, but it will put both of them on a trajectory that will pit two warring factions against each other in the possibly disastrous scramble to save the world.
I grabbed this from the thrift store because it 1. had birds on the cover and 2. had won the Nebula Award. It is a genre-defying story, in some ways, with crazy science fiction pitted against witches and spells. Our two main characters are complicated and often not genuinely likable but they are interesting in ways that intrigued me. There were some interesting ethical ideas here about WHO gets to decide how to save our dying earth and what losses are a cost worth paying. It went so much slower than I'd have thought - by the end it felt cohesive enough but for some reason, until the last maybe 15% of the book, it felt like a slog despite my curiosity and enjoyment. My twelves year old son asked me about it just now and when I described my feelings he said to me, "So it was high-key mid?" And I think he might be right.
This was one of those books where I needed to know what happens next, but I also didn't want it to end.
Meh. Thin for such a weighty topic. Is it sci-fi or Fantasy or fairy tale? It can't quite decide. Heavily influenced by Harry Potter and its ilk, the plot pretty much overrides everything else. Lots of exposition and not a lot of character development. Unlike writers such as Atwood, this author didn't really create a rich world. Not well written.
Pretty good
Thoroughly enjoyable magical adventure. Pace slows somewhat in the middle but the ending delivers. Interesting combination of magic and science, which makes a refreshing change from pure fantasy / sci-fi
Thoroughly enjoyable magical adventure. Pace slows somewhat in the middle but the ending delivers. Interesting combination of magic and science, which makes a refreshing change from pure fantasy / sci-fi
I just did not get into this book. On the surface I should have loved it (I love fantasy, sci-fi, YA) but the characters felt flat to me, the story never drew me in.