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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Part Harry Potter, part The Magicians, part Seveneves. Magic and technology, nature and institutions, love and destruction. I think the first part goes a little too long, creating a distinctively YA feeling, but once Patricia and Laurence are adults, the story has a much greater impact.
This book was a really mixed bag for me but ultimately didn't land. The division and intersection of technology and magic was an interesting premise, and some of the writing was spot-on - but a lot of it struck me as outrageously awkward and silly. I can see how some might love it, but it wasn't for me.
Another read for my Nebula/Hugo bookclub. And let's be honest here, a dud. I probably would have dnf'd this if I was left to my own devices, but I actually do try to finish things for the bookclub, so I powered through. It helps that it was short.
This book features Patricia, a witch with a unique connection to nature, and Laurence, a scientist with the ability to create artificial intelligence in his closet. The first third deals with their childhood days, before they've come into their powers, and when they are being relentlessly mistreated by everyone around them. The remainder of the book follows them as they meander through life in a world that's slowly falling apart, and covers their fumbling attempts to save it.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised by how much I disliked this one. I thought it might not be for me. I mean, read that summary. Does that not sound like pseudo-literary fiction disguising itself as genre? Well, maybe that's just me. But that was kind of my expectation, and it was even more fulfilled than expected. I felt like at least 50% of this book was pretty much pointless. I think it was meant to build the characters, but it didn't really do a lot for me. I found basically everyone in this book unlikeable, up to and including Patricia and Laurence. For me, that tends to be the death knell of my enjoyment in a book. One of my major purposes in reading is to connect with the characters, and when that doesn't happen...Well, I am generally not happy.
The first third of the book was probably my favorite part. I was finding the tongue-in-cheek writing readable, and I liked the set-up of the world. I even had mild affection for Patricia and Laurence. However, I also despised how every single adult human was a terrible person. Just irredeemable, to the point where I would have liked to kill them all. Especially the parents - I think that with the prospect of being a mother soon upcoming, I am much more sensitive to terrible parents, and this book featured some of the worst that I've seen in recent years. I actually put this book down for at least a week after this section, and in the natural course of things, this is probably where I would have just given up. I didn't want to pick it back up. At all.
But I did, and I was treated to a section that I liked even less. Without going too deep, Patricia and Laurence meet again as twenty-somethings, and then nothing happens. ...OK, that's not fair. Relationship drama happens. Interpersonal drama happens. Lack of communication happens. Yup, all of my favorite things. This was the part that reminded me most of literary fiction. Also, it bored me out of my mind.
The ending, such as it was, was much too rushed. The most happened, but it got the least screen time. I didn't really understand the choices that a lot of the side characters chose to make. In particular, the scientists. Just. What? Does not compute. I did like the way some of the things from the first section played back into the ending. That was mildly fun. But it was definitely a case of too little, too late for me. I was just out of patience, soldiering through for the sake of finishing.
So yeah, very much not for me. I am glad I tried it, though, and I might check out some of Anders' future works.
This book features Patricia, a witch with a unique connection to nature, and Laurence, a scientist with the ability to create artificial intelligence in his closet. The first third deals with their childhood days, before they've come into their powers, and when they are being relentlessly mistreated by everyone around them. The remainder of the book follows them as they meander through life in a world that's slowly falling apart, and covers their fumbling attempts to save it.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised by how much I disliked this one. I thought it might not be for me. I mean, read that summary. Does that not sound like pseudo-literary fiction disguising itself as genre? Well, maybe that's just me. But that was kind of my expectation, and it was even more fulfilled than expected. I felt like at least 50% of this book was pretty much pointless. I think it was meant to build the characters, but it didn't really do a lot for me. I found basically everyone in this book unlikeable, up to and including Patricia and Laurence. For me, that tends to be the death knell of my enjoyment in a book. One of my major purposes in reading is to connect with the characters, and when that doesn't happen...Well, I am generally not happy.
The first third of the book was probably my favorite part. I was finding the tongue-in-cheek writing readable, and I liked the set-up of the world. I even had mild affection for Patricia and Laurence. However, I also despised how every single adult human was a terrible person. Just irredeemable, to the point where I would have liked to kill them all. Especially the parents - I think that with the prospect of being a mother soon upcoming, I am much more sensitive to terrible parents, and this book featured some of the worst that I've seen in recent years. I actually put this book down for at least a week after this section, and in the natural course of things, this is probably where I would have just given up. I didn't want to pick it back up. At all.
But I did, and I was treated to a section that I liked even less. Without going too deep, Patricia and Laurence meet again as twenty-somethings, and then nothing happens. ...OK, that's not fair. Relationship drama happens. Interpersonal drama happens. Lack of communication happens. Yup, all of my favorite things. This was the part that reminded me most of literary fiction. Also, it bored me out of my mind.
The ending, such as it was, was much too rushed. The most happened, but it got the least screen time. I didn't really understand the choices that a lot of the side characters chose to make. In particular, the scientists. Just. What? Does not compute. I did like the way some of the things from the first section played back into the ending. That was mildly fun. But it was definitely a case of too little, too late for me. I was just out of patience, soldiering through for the sake of finishing.
So yeah, very much not for me. I am glad I tried it, though, and I might check out some of Anders' future works.
It had a few clever passages that I enjoyed, the author is certainly a talent with words but I didn't like the characters, the mood, or the overall story. So here we are.
4.5/5
This was very strange but I also really enjoyed it so there's that.
This was very strange but I also really enjoyed it so there's that.
It's a very weird book, and while I usually like weird, this one just wasn't for me.
Did not finish. I have ready every Nebula award winning novel so it really saddens me not to be able to finish this one. I just could not get into it. I didn't find either main character likeable. I couldn't discern a plot. I was bored and I did chores rather than pick it up.
You Can Also Find My Review Here
This is a book that has received a lot of advance praise and was brought to my attention thanks to Charlie Jane Anders’ excellent write-ups of pop-culture related stuff on one of my go-to websites, i09. So combined with all the positive feedback that All The Birds in the Sky seemed to be getting there was no way I wasn’t going to miss this fantasy, published by Titan Books, that deals with childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead, who parted ways following mysterious circumstances in Middle School. Could this have been down to the invention of a two-second time machine and the discovery of magical powers? Either way, both are now living in San Francisco and have travelled down different paths. Laurence is an engineering genius trying to stop a catastrophic breakdown whilst Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, a hidden academy for the magically gifted.
The concept is pretty interesting and the clash of science and magic provides an interesting hook for Anders’ novel which blends the ideas together very well indeed. It’s fun, imaginative and entertaining to read, as well as being easy to get through. Various science fiction and fantasy tropes are combined here, with the book managing to feature Laurence as the mad scientist and Patricia as the witch, and we watch as their relationship develops over the course of the novel. But the book thankfully manages to be far more rich and complex than that. Despite using familiar tropes on the surface it manages to feel at the same time incredibly unique and fun, with a strong sense of world-building and character development that doesn’t slow down the pace.
The characters, Patricia and Laurence, are solid and well developed, with their relationship having its ups and downs as we follow them from childhood to adulthood. It’s interesting to track how these characters at the core of the novel overtime as we explore their different paths and how they change. Anders puts character development over the plot and it really works, with some original, weird ideas that really make things interesting. In novels such as these the villains can often be pushed aside in favour of the character development but Mr. Rose is far from a weak antagonist – initially posing as a guidance counsellor, he is incredibly sinister and just so happens to be convinced that the end of the world lies in Patricia’s and Laurence’s hands.
All The Birds in the Sky is a smart, funny, imaginative and sometimes tragic standalone novel that serves as an excellent novel from Charlie Jane Anders and I really can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. This one is an early contender for one of my favourite novels of 2016, and whilst it may not be everyone’s favourite, it’s certainly something that deserves a look.
VERDICT: 9/10
This is a book that has received a lot of advance praise and was brought to my attention thanks to Charlie Jane Anders’ excellent write-ups of pop-culture related stuff on one of my go-to websites, i09. So combined with all the positive feedback that All The Birds in the Sky seemed to be getting there was no way I wasn’t going to miss this fantasy, published by Titan Books, that deals with childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead, who parted ways following mysterious circumstances in Middle School. Could this have been down to the invention of a two-second time machine and the discovery of magical powers? Either way, both are now living in San Francisco and have travelled down different paths. Laurence is an engineering genius trying to stop a catastrophic breakdown whilst Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, a hidden academy for the magically gifted.
The concept is pretty interesting and the clash of science and magic provides an interesting hook for Anders’ novel which blends the ideas together very well indeed. It’s fun, imaginative and entertaining to read, as well as being easy to get through. Various science fiction and fantasy tropes are combined here, with the book managing to feature Laurence as the mad scientist and Patricia as the witch, and we watch as their relationship develops over the course of the novel. But the book thankfully manages to be far more rich and complex than that. Despite using familiar tropes on the surface it manages to feel at the same time incredibly unique and fun, with a strong sense of world-building and character development that doesn’t slow down the pace.
The characters, Patricia and Laurence, are solid and well developed, with their relationship having its ups and downs as we follow them from childhood to adulthood. It’s interesting to track how these characters at the core of the novel overtime as we explore their different paths and how they change. Anders puts character development over the plot and it really works, with some original, weird ideas that really make things interesting. In novels such as these the villains can often be pushed aside in favour of the character development but Mr. Rose is far from a weak antagonist – initially posing as a guidance counsellor, he is incredibly sinister and just so happens to be convinced that the end of the world lies in Patricia’s and Laurence’s hands.
All The Birds in the Sky is a smart, funny, imaginative and sometimes tragic standalone novel that serves as an excellent novel from Charlie Jane Anders and I really can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. This one is an early contender for one of my favourite novels of 2016, and whilst it may not be everyone’s favourite, it’s certainly something that deserves a look.
VERDICT: 9/10
So I started out REALLY liking this book... and then the second half kind of killed a lot of what I liked and it all became a bit more messy and choppy than I would have liked. I really did want to see this having a splendid ending, becuase the beginning really filled me with hope, but ultimately I just didn't enjoy the second half of this and it was a let down.
In this story we meet two young children, the first is Patricia, a young girl who is told by a Tree that she's a witch...but she doesn't know how to BE one. We also meet Laurence, a young boy who is a computer whizz-kid, he knows all there is to know and has even made a mini time machine... Together, they are the misfits of the school, both bullied and avoided by the other children. They become friends more through necessity than through shared interest, but both are so unsual that they get along at first.
Then things start to get a bit weird, we see more characters and plots starting up and the story of each of our main characters skips in time. We get a few time shifts in this book, and sadly I felt that these were poorly handled, leaving a naive young character not to grow into an adult, but to suddenly be one. I felt as though we are really not seeing a good representation of the character growth of two such unique people, for me, it was a really big missed opportunity. They just didn't convince me as characters.
In terms of plot the second half of this book really lost me. When I say lost me I don't mean I didn't 'get' it, I mean that I just felt that there was a lot introduced which was unnecessary and the story didn't go in a direction I liked or expected. I felt that by the end of this I was really quite frustrated with the characters, their choices, and the book as a whole.
In terms of the writing, this book tries some interesting playing around with both SF and F troupes. We see magic and technology clashing together which I liked, and we see some quirky characters at first, however the actual writing itself I felt was fairly naive and did not feel as sophisticated as I wanted by the end of the story (becuase of how it develops).
Overall, I am sadly left feeling disappointed becuase I expected to like this and I thought that the start section was really good, but I just didn't leave the book with those same feelings. I will certainly try other work by Anders as I have a feeling her short work may be more to my taste and she did start with some good ideas, but for now this one gets a 2.5*s from me.
In this story we meet two young children, the first is Patricia, a young girl who is told by a Tree that she's a witch...but she doesn't know how to BE one. We also meet Laurence, a young boy who is a computer whizz-kid, he knows all there is to know and has even made a mini time machine... Together, they are the misfits of the school, both bullied and avoided by the other children. They become friends more through necessity than through shared interest, but both are so unsual that they get along at first.
Then things start to get a bit weird, we see more characters and plots starting up and the story of each of our main characters skips in time. We get a few time shifts in this book, and sadly I felt that these were poorly handled, leaving a naive young character not to grow into an adult, but to suddenly be one. I felt as though we are really not seeing a good representation of the character growth of two such unique people, for me, it was a really big missed opportunity. They just didn't convince me as characters.
In terms of plot the second half of this book really lost me. When I say lost me I don't mean I didn't 'get' it, I mean that I just felt that there was a lot introduced which was unnecessary and the story didn't go in a direction I liked or expected. I felt that by the end of this I was really quite frustrated with the characters, their choices, and the book as a whole.
In terms of the writing, this book tries some interesting playing around with both SF and F troupes. We see magic and technology clashing together which I liked, and we see some quirky characters at first, however the actual writing itself I felt was fairly naive and did not feel as sophisticated as I wanted by the end of the story (becuase of how it develops).
Overall, I am sadly left feeling disappointed becuase I expected to like this and I thought that the start section was really good, but I just didn't leave the book with those same feelings. I will certainly try other work by Anders as I have a feeling her short work may be more to my taste and she did start with some good ideas, but for now this one gets a 2.5*s from me.