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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I feel like there was way too much in this novel. It would have made a fantastic three-book series. I couldn't keep track of the secondary characters and certain things required more time than was given. The last 100 pages I was mostly super annoyed and then incredibly touched by the ending, which just made me frustrated that I couldn't feel that way throughout. Some really good things here, but not given the requisite room to breathe.
Patricia está más cómoda con la naturaleza que con las personas, los pájaros tienen mejor conversación, así que no encaja en el colegio salvo por Laurence un friki de la tecnología que tampoco encaja. Su amistad será puesta a prueba años después en el enfrentamiento definitivo entre magia y tecnología para salvar al mundo de la destrucción.
Imaginativo, divertido e interesante. Lo he pasado bien leyendo el libro, algún tramo no me ha convencido del todo, sobretodo con el paso de los años.
Imaginativo, divertido e interesante. Lo he pasado bien leyendo el libro, algún tramo no me ha convencido del todo, sobretodo con el paso de los años.
I mostly enjoyed reading this book, but was utterly disappointed with the ending.
Bom, nem acredito que cheguei ao fim desse livro. E o pior é que acho que ele não é pra mim. Passei a maior parte "encalhado" nele, esperando alguma coisa acontecer e incapaz de ler outras coisas (aí pode nem ser culpa do livro, mas enfim), só que nada acontecia; várias coisas aconteciam, mas nada acontecia. Não dá nem pra chamar o que acontece no fim de anticlimático porque a sensação é de que nada levou a nada.
Não acho que isso seja culpa de ninguém, não acho que seja um defeito da história, mas infelizmente não me cativou. Quero ler mais coisas da Charlie pra ver se é o estilo dela ou se isso só acontece aqui. Talvez dê certo na próxima.
Não acho que isso seja culpa de ninguém, não acho que seja um defeito da história, mas infelizmente não me cativou. Quero ler mais coisas da Charlie pra ver se é o estilo dela ou se isso só acontece aqui. Talvez dê certo na próxima.
This is not a conventionally written book, so it may not appeal to everyone. I liked the juxtaposition of fantasy and science fiction elements. I really liked that Anders didn't feel the need to chronicle every last second of the two protagonists' lives. We've all read multiple books about wizarding schools, so a few hints dropped here and there were enough to get the idea of what Patricia went through. We also skipped Laurence's college experience which I'm sure would have also been a retread of other books. What we do have are the pivotal moments where these two people intersect at various points in their lives, even if some of those interactions are somewhat cliched and predictable. The book has a definite conclusion, although there are plenty of loose ends that could be explored in a sequel.
Damn. That was a weird love conquers all narrative.
“Loose ends are cool... Loose ends mean that you are still living your life. The person who dies with the most loose ends wins.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky
What do you call a near-apocalypse story with witches and the modern-day equivalent of the mad scientist–the tech bro? Would you call it fantasy or would you call it science fiction? Either way, it's a dance of genres performed by Charlie Jane Ander's All the Birds in the Sky.
Laurence is a prodigal techno whiz wishing to make an impact on a world that had gotten in the habit of ignoring him, and Patricia is a young witch who feels like she's never able to do enough while all her magical peers warn her that she's doing too much. After a failed assassination when they're children, they grow up to become some of the most powerful figures in magic and science. And also the harbingers of the end of the world.
Genre is a tricky element for a story to juggle. If you throw away all the tropes and conventions–say a romance novel as lush and steamy as a quarterly earnings report–then readers are going to feel let down. As an author, you're playing with their expectations, but not in a good way. However, if the plot is a checklist of a genre's greatest hits then there are certainly more exciting and creative books that someone could spend their time with. All the Birds in the Sky meshes, blends, and plays with genres to call back and echo other novels, but the resulting story is unlike anything I've read before. If you tried to follow the easy blurb format of X crossed with Y, you'd have to mix enough letters to come up with a sort of alphabet soup.
Initially, Anders sets out her story like a contemporary fairy tale. Her protagonists would fit well in any Roald Dahl story updated for the 21st century. Both Laurence and Patricia feel more tangible and real than their collection of tropes. Honestly, they aren't even always likeable as the story progresses. They can be selfish, stubborn, defensive and brash–sort of like actual people. Too often, characters–especially leads–are forced to be virtuous for the sake of keeping readers engaged and on their side. Unless you're promised an anti-hero, or if there's another character to tie your moral ship to, it's almost an unwritten expectation that your heroes are going to be the good guys. Sure they may mess up, but it's usually for a good reason, and everything comes out fine in the end. Anders lets Patricia and Laurence run the gamut from hero to villain
As one of the main characters lives and breath technology and the other clings to the old woodsy hippie ways, All the Birds in the Sky naturally spends most of its time in San Francisco. But it's not the Frisco of 2021. Instead, it's one that teetering even closer to a complete climate collapse than the one of our world. What's troubling is how close it resembles the real city. Think of it more like the Frisco yet-to-come rather than a sci-fi vision conjured up for the story's sake. The devastated resemblance to our reality is chilling and hits closer to home now than when the book was first published in 2016.
As far as science fiction is concerned, the similarities to our contemporary world are one of the weightiest aspects of the novel. Of course, the magical influence is another matter, but Laurence's cabal of young tech geniuses and their desire to save the planet through mastery and sheer force of will reminds me of some of the radical tech-driven solutions to our current climate crises. The solutions devised by Laurence and his friends don't seem as far-flung or wild as I wished they would.
Magic acts as the counterweight to the digital app-driven society that Patricia and Laurence live in. The details are never laid out, and other than some helpful sketches of magic's rules peppered throughout the novel, most is left to the reader's imagination. This worked for me. Especially with science living in such close quarters, over-explaining the supernatural world could make it come across as another field of science with more quirks thrown in. Instead, magic is treated with the awe and mystique that sets it apart from the world we know. As with Laurence and Patricia, it's when the two forces blend that things get interesting.
Instead of writing Oryx and Crake and the Witch of the Woods, Ander's creates a world and novel wholly its own, yet weird, hopeful, sad, and disturbingly realistic.
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky
What do you call a near-apocalypse story with witches and the modern-day equivalent of the mad scientist–the tech bro? Would you call it fantasy or would you call it science fiction? Either way, it's a dance of genres performed by Charlie Jane Ander's All the Birds in the Sky.
Laurence is a prodigal techno whiz wishing to make an impact on a world that had gotten in the habit of ignoring him, and Patricia is a young witch who feels like she's never able to do enough while all her magical peers warn her that she's doing too much. After a failed assassination when they're children, they grow up to become some of the most powerful figures in magic and science. And also the harbingers of the end of the world.
Genre is a tricky element for a story to juggle. If you throw away all the tropes and conventions–say a romance novel as lush and steamy as a quarterly earnings report–then readers are going to feel let down. As an author, you're playing with their expectations, but not in a good way. However, if the plot is a checklist of a genre's greatest hits then there are certainly more exciting and creative books that someone could spend their time with. All the Birds in the Sky meshes, blends, and plays with genres to call back and echo other novels, but the resulting story is unlike anything I've read before. If you tried to follow the easy blurb format of X crossed with Y, you'd have to mix enough letters to come up with a sort of alphabet soup.
Initially, Anders sets out her story like a contemporary fairy tale. Her protagonists would fit well in any Roald Dahl story updated for the 21st century. Both Laurence and Patricia feel more tangible and real than their collection of tropes. Honestly, they aren't even always likeable as the story progresses. They can be selfish, stubborn, defensive and brash–sort of like actual people. Too often, characters–especially leads–are forced to be virtuous for the sake of keeping readers engaged and on their side. Unless you're promised an anti-hero, or if there's another character to tie your moral ship to, it's almost an unwritten expectation that your heroes are going to be the good guys. Sure they may mess up, but it's usually for a good reason, and everything comes out fine in the end. Anders lets Patricia and Laurence run the gamut from hero to villain
As one of the main characters lives and breath technology and the other clings to the old woodsy hippie ways, All the Birds in the Sky naturally spends most of its time in San Francisco. But it's not the Frisco of 2021. Instead, it's one that teetering even closer to a complete climate collapse than the one of our world. What's troubling is how close it resembles the real city. Think of it more like the Frisco yet-to-come rather than a sci-fi vision conjured up for the story's sake. The devastated resemblance to our reality is chilling and hits closer to home now than when the book was first published in 2016.
As far as science fiction is concerned, the similarities to our contemporary world are one of the weightiest aspects of the novel. Of course, the magical influence is another matter, but Laurence's cabal of young tech geniuses and their desire to save the planet through mastery and sheer force of will reminds me of some of the radical tech-driven solutions to our current climate crises. The solutions devised by Laurence and his friends don't seem as far-flung or wild as I wished they would.
Magic acts as the counterweight to the digital app-driven society that Patricia and Laurence live in. The details are never laid out, and other than some helpful sketches of magic's rules peppered throughout the novel, most is left to the reader's imagination. This worked for me. Especially with science living in such close quarters, over-explaining the supernatural world could make it come across as another field of science with more quirks thrown in. Instead, magic is treated with the awe and mystique that sets it apart from the world we know. As with Laurence and Patricia, it's when the two forces blend that things get interesting.
Instead of writing Oryx and Crake and the Witch of the Woods, Ander's creates a world and novel wholly its own, yet weird, hopeful, sad, and disturbingly realistic.
A very interesting premise that got too wrapped up in gigantic plot turns and petered out its intriguing characters by the ending. Three and a half stars, rounding down to three.
“We don’t need better emotional communication from machines. We need people to have more empathy. The reason the Uncanny Valley exists is because humans created it to put other people into. It’s how we justify killing each other.”
I picked this one up from my library at school. Normally, they aren't too good at having fun free-reading books. It's normally all military related or academic. When I saw All The Birds in the Sky, I was very excited because it was on my to-read list. Man, it was so not what I was expecting.
My Rating: B+
My Thoughts: Typically, the books about the apocalypse go something like, "Chosen one takes on evil bad guy in order to prevent doomsday", but this one is completely different. It's about the battle between magic and technology and what happens when they collide. There is a clear divide in both sides and their methods of trying to save the world. Many of the arguments are a "greatest good for the greatest number" vs. "the natural order of how things should be". While both are very intelligent people, they are influenced very heavily by those around them, which leads to a lot of problems.
What I Liked: The characters relationships seem very real. There is a variety of characters and none are Mary-Sues, they all are a little off their rocker honestly. I think that the writing style was beautiful. The fact that this novel was so different from anything else I've ever read made it likeable in general. I can't even tell you what genre I would put this in because it covers so many bases. It starts out with the two ain characters Patricia, a witch, and Lawrence, a genius, as children and the founding of their relationship. Both are bullied and picked on in the way that middle school is. Then it jumps to when they are both Adults meeting again, both involved in trying to save the world, but so unsure of themselves and their role in all of this. Their vulnerability is captivating at parts of this novel.
I was also really intrigued by the battle between nature and machines. It comes down to a question of is the apocalypse is coming, do we just save the human race? Or the whole planet? The animals? Do we abandon ship? Very interesting.
What I Disliked: The characters are almost child-like. It felt like they didn't have a back bone and could be pushed around so easily. They don't have the typical heroic bravery that most protagonists tend to have. Sometimes the plot jumps around or doesn't cover al the bases leaving the reader feeling unsatisfied. It will be interesting to see if more people try to write this style of book and how they compare.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if you're looking for something a little bit different, This will be right up your ally.
Is this book on your to-read list? Who is the real champion, nature or machines?
-Leah
I picked this one up from my library at school. Normally, they aren't too good at having fun free-reading books. It's normally all military related or academic. When I saw All The Birds in the Sky, I was very excited because it was on my to-read list. Man, it was so not what I was expecting.
My Rating: B+
My Thoughts: Typically, the books about the apocalypse go something like, "Chosen one takes on evil bad guy in order to prevent doomsday", but this one is completely different. It's about the battle between magic and technology and what happens when they collide. There is a clear divide in both sides and their methods of trying to save the world. Many of the arguments are a "greatest good for the greatest number" vs. "the natural order of how things should be". While both are very intelligent people, they are influenced very heavily by those around them, which leads to a lot of problems.
What I Liked: The characters relationships seem very real. There is a variety of characters and none are Mary-Sues, they all are a little off their rocker honestly. I think that the writing style was beautiful. The fact that this novel was so different from anything else I've ever read made it likeable in general. I can't even tell you what genre I would put this in because it covers so many bases. It starts out with the two ain characters Patricia, a witch, and Lawrence, a genius, as children and the founding of their relationship. Both are bullied and picked on in the way that middle school is. Then it jumps to when they are both Adults meeting again, both involved in trying to save the world, but so unsure of themselves and their role in all of this. Their vulnerability is captivating at parts of this novel.
I was also really intrigued by the battle between nature and machines. It comes down to a question of is the apocalypse is coming, do we just save the human race? Or the whole planet? The animals? Do we abandon ship? Very interesting.
What I Disliked: The characters are almost child-like. It felt like they didn't have a back bone and could be pushed around so easily. They don't have the typical heroic bravery that most protagonists tend to have. Sometimes the plot jumps around or doesn't cover al the bases leaving the reader feeling unsatisfied. It will be interesting to see if more people try to write this style of book and how they compare.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if you're looking for something a little bit different, This will be right up your ally.
Is this book on your to-read list? Who is the real champion, nature or machines?
-Leah