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sylviep's review
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
lynnguistics's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
araulsten's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
bbrilliantblue's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
saraishelafs's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating. A unique world and characters to match.
carolynf's review against another edition
3.0
This is a world where people live in bone towers that project above the clouds. No one has ever seen the ground, and from a young age people learn to handle wings to get from place to place. It is a little hazy how enough food and water is harvested for so many people, but that's not the point. The point is that the Singers (which defend the city against invisible monsters) are both respected and feared by society. There is a story about family and destiny and special gifts, but the overarching questions are what secrets Singers should be able to keep from the rest of society "for their own good," and how much can they justifiably game the system in order to keep their secrets and their influence.
snazel's review against another edition
I feel this book was not assisted by my reading it while sick. I'm bad at subtext at the best of times and now I have so many questions.
SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.
History?????? Architecture???????? Echolocation???????? Invisible-fleshed monsters??????? Clouds??!?!?!??!?!?!? INTENTIONAL INACCURACIES IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD??!?!?!?!?? SKY BLINDNESS??????!?!?!?!?!??!?! HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!? HOW WORK?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?! HOW???W?W?!?W?!?W?E?!?!?E?!?!?E?!?W?!?W?!?
Thank god there's a next book. I need to know more, ASAP.
Also I need sleep.
SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.
History?????? Architecture???????? Echolocation???????? Invisible-fleshed monsters??????? Clouds??!?!?!??!?!?!? INTENTIONAL INACCURACIES IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD??!?!?!?!?? SKY BLINDNESS??????!?!?!?!?!??!?! HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!? HOW WORK?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?! HOW???W?W?!?W?!?W?E?!?!?E?!?!?E?!?W?!?W?!?
Thank god there's a next book. I need to know more, ASAP.
Also I need sleep.
aphelia88's review against another edition
4.0
This was a book I bought blind off the bargain table, largely because of the mechanical wings on the cover. Updraft is the debut of a very promising author, with a world completely unlike any I've read before. Unfortunately, despite the carefully detailed cover art, it is a world that I found very difficult to envision and a little hard to get a feel for its mechanics.
The City surrounds the Spire, full of eerily secretive gray-robed, silver-tattooed Singers. The Singers are the City's Protectors - they keep it's history and help it prosper. They also administer the Laws, which all citizens grow up learning and singing by heart. Despite the respect they command, the citizens are afraid of the Singers and their mysterious special connection to the City.
The City consists of giant, growing bone towers that stretch far above the clouds below. Each tower is a world unto itself, and its citizens take the tower name as their own surname. The towers are strictly hierarchical, with the "luckiest" - the most powerful - citizens at the top, with the poor, ill and elderly - the "unlucky" - forced downtower with the Lawsbreakers into stinking, damp, crowded tiers.
Kirit Densira is coming of age, and soon to take her wingtest to win adult wings. Densira is a prosperous tower and her family has recently been promoted to their own newly-grown bone tier. Her only thought is being a successful Trader like her legendary mother Ezarit, flying between far flung towers and negotiating beneficial deals for herself and Densira tower.
This is a coming-of-age story, and would probably have been better marketed as YA (EDIT: This is YA, which explains a lot, even though I bought it in the adult fantasy section at Chapters! Oops). The towers are constantly under thread from skymouths - invisible, glass-toothed tentacled man-eating monsters. Yep. You read that right. They are difficult to fight, being as they are invisible and all. Her best friend, Nat, is hoping for a future as one of the flying archer warriors that fights the skymouths and keeps the city safe.
To save herself and her family, Kirit goes to the Spire as an apprentice, and uncovers old secrets that will change her life forever, along with new talents that could change her world.
The descriptions of flying are interesting and vivid - especially the night flying sequences, with special tricks for navigating - and the story feels very cinematic. However, Kirit is a bit of a cipher. Her behaviour early on is inexplicably stupid - she obviously knows better - but she grows up in a hurry and her stubborn determination is admirable, although not always understandable.
The ending is satisfactory and could almost standalone. The mystery of the Spire is very intriguing. I also have the next book, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the world.
The City surrounds the Spire, full of eerily secretive gray-robed, silver-tattooed Singers. The Singers are the City's Protectors - they keep it's history and help it prosper. They also administer the Laws, which all citizens grow up learning and singing by heart. Despite the respect they command, the citizens are afraid of the Singers and their mysterious special connection to the City.
The City consists of giant, growing bone towers that stretch far above the clouds below. Each tower is a world unto itself, and its citizens take the tower name as their own surname. The towers are strictly hierarchical, with the "luckiest" - the most powerful - citizens at the top, with the poor, ill and elderly - the "unlucky" - forced downtower with the Lawsbreakers into stinking, damp, crowded tiers.
Kirit Densira is coming of age, and soon to take her wingtest to win adult wings. Densira is a prosperous tower and her family has recently been promoted to their own newly-grown bone tier. Her only thought is being a successful Trader like her legendary mother Ezarit, flying between far flung towers and negotiating beneficial deals for herself and Densira tower.
This is a coming-of-age story, and would probably have been better marketed as YA (EDIT: This is YA, which explains a lot, even though I bought it in the adult fantasy section at Chapters! Oops). The towers are constantly under thread from skymouths - invisible, glass-toothed tentacled man-eating monsters. Yep. You read that right. They are difficult to fight, being as they are invisible and all. Her best friend, Nat, is hoping for a future as one of the flying archer warriors that fights the skymouths and keeps the city safe.
To save herself and her family, Kirit goes to the Spire as an apprentice, and uncovers old secrets that will change her life forever, along with new talents that could change her world.
The descriptions of flying are interesting and vivid - especially the night flying sequences, with special tricks for navigating - and the story feels very cinematic. However, Kirit is a bit of a cipher. Her behaviour early on is inexplicably stupid - she obviously knows better - but she grows up in a hurry and her stubborn determination is admirable, although not always understandable.
The ending is satisfactory and could almost standalone. The mystery of the Spire is very intriguing. I also have the next book, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the world.
jenno's review against another edition
2.0
Eh.. That was a waste. It's so cliché and a story I've so read before in many other ya fantasy novels. The world was kind of cool but really this wasn't good. And I will not continue on with the series.