You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I couldn't finish this book, the pacing was much too slow and nothing happened in the first half that I did slog through. This is saying a lot since I do not like to leave books unfinished. Maybe one day I'll go back and re-read it if I feel the urge, but I highly doubt it.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A delightful, fast read. Fanciful and historyish (though neither fantasy nor historical).
Mosca Mye's love for the printed word is only match by her feelings for her homicidal goose, Saracen. With mixed motivations and shifting intentions, this village girl is well on her way to becoming an unintentionally skilled confidence artist.
Mosca Mye's love for the printed word is only match by her feelings for her homicidal goose, Saracen. With mixed motivations and shifting intentions, this village girl is well on her way to becoming an unintentionally skilled confidence artist.
To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting how this story went, but it was a good surprise. We follow Mosca Mye as she tries to escape her dreary life by hooking up with Eponymous Clent. Clent tries to ditch Mosca at every turn, but the girl is resourceful and learns a secret bout Clent that makes her valuable. With this information, Mosca falls in with several dangerous groups, all who want to take out the other. And just when you think you know who is right and who is wrong, Ms. Hardinge throws you a curve.
I was sucked into this old English world where no one can be trusted and everyone has a secret. Serasin the Goose has to be my favorite character, but Mosca came in a close second. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure or mystery. Four stars for Frances Hardinge.
I was sucked into this old English world where no one can be trusted and everyone has a secret. Serasin the Goose has to be my favorite character, but Mosca came in a close second. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure or mystery. Four stars for Frances Hardinge.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a ride! I picked this up based on a recommendation from Leila at Bookshelves of Doom, and once again, she's right on the mark.
It's a little hard to classify this book. It feels like a typical fairy tale setting, but there is no magic. It feels like medieval England, but it's not really historical fiction because it's set in a version of medieval England that didn't actually happen. Maybe it's alternate history? *shrug* Ah, well, whatever it is, it's really enjoyable.
Mosca is just a great character all around. She's feisty, resourceful, completely bent on getting an education, and yet still has a vulnerability that makes her approachable. I love the evolution of the relationship between Mosca and Eponymous Clent. The book has many layers and unravels, sometimes slowly and sometimes at breakneck pace, with lots of twists and turns I didn't always see coming.
I really love the worldbuilding in this book. The history about the Birdcatchers and the various guilds vying for power just fascinated me. I suppose any author would enjoy writing about a society where the printed word and those who control it wield such power. :D
The names in this book entertained me greatly, and I loved the religious element added into how people name their children.
I am just waiting to dive into the second book. Hooray for more Mosca Mye!
It's a little hard to classify this book. It feels like a typical fairy tale setting, but there is no magic. It feels like medieval England, but it's not really historical fiction because it's set in a version of medieval England that didn't actually happen. Maybe it's alternate history? *shrug* Ah, well, whatever it is, it's really enjoyable.
Mosca is just a great character all around. She's feisty, resourceful, completely bent on getting an education, and yet still has a vulnerability that makes her approachable. I love the evolution of the relationship between Mosca and Eponymous Clent. The book has many layers and unravels, sometimes slowly and sometimes at breakneck pace, with lots of twists and turns I didn't always see coming.
I really love the worldbuilding in this book. The history about the Birdcatchers and the various guilds vying for power just fascinated me. I suppose any author would enjoy writing about a society where the printed word and those who control it wield such power. :D
The names in this book entertained me greatly, and I loved the religious element added into how people name their children.
I am just waiting to dive into the second book. Hooray for more Mosca Mye!
Fly By Night is the debut of British author Frances Hardinge and was published in 2006. Since then, it has occupied three years running as one of my all time favorite middle grade fantasies. And it just made my review late.
You see, I was paging through my copy in search of quotes to incorporate into this review. Before I knew it, I started re-reading this book. I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop.
I reread it again tonight in one sitting, while the blank blogger new post screen glared at me accusingly. But I don't regret it; it was about time I reread Fly By Night. I haven't for about a month or so, and for me that's been far too long.
While I was reading this time around, I dogeared every page with something quotable or well-written on it. I had to stop after I'd dogeared more than 10 pages in a short section of the book. The truth of the matter is that Fly By Night is extraordinarily well-written. The 483 perfectly-wrought pages occupy a special place in my reading-heart.
The main character Mosca Mye, a "ferrety-looking girl with unconvincing eyebrows" is both irrepressible and sharp-tongued, defiant and canny. Perhaps best of all, she harbors a love for the written word. As readers, we know that Mosca never intended to burn down her Uncle's mill. In fact, all she remembers is "seeing the wretched lamp sketch a faint letter in white smoke shortly before the dry stems around it started to black and a hesitant flamed wavered first blue, then gold."
But the burning of the mill is not what's important to the story. The significance of that event is that on her way out of town, Mosca Mye attaches herself to one Eponmyous Clent, a flamboyant con-artist who loves words as much as she does. Clent is "plump, in a soft, self-important way" and he talks in a manner that suggests he rather enjoys the sound of his own voice. As far as I'm concerned, I love his dialogue. The words that come out of his mouth are both mesmerizing and wonderful.
I'd like to present A Portrait of Eponymous Clent in his own words: "I am master of the mysteries of words, their meanings and music and mellifluous magic."
Since Mosca is determined to do anything she can to learn words, she does everything she can to stick with Clent. Mosca thinks of words as something to be treasured; "She did not know what they meant, but words had shapes in her mind. She memorized them, and stroked them in her thoughts like the curved backs of cats. Words, words, wonderful words." Clent is her way into the world of adventure, and although he is untrustworthy and unscrupulously dishonest, the two make a a great duo as they traverse around the countryside, involving themselves with gloved felons, a bad-tempered ship captain, an under-the-weather highwayman, the Duke's sister, and the high-powered guilds that hold all the power in the realm. Mosca and Clent tread a fine line between conspiracy and capture.
But what a duo they make! Actually, not a a duo. I nearly forgot to mention Saracen, who I'd like to kidnap from the velvety pages of this story and make my pet. Saracen is a goose and Mosca's only friend. He also happens to be nothing short of devilish. I practically died from laughing when Saracen single-handedly commandeered a boat--captain and sailors still aboard--and when he won a fight against a civet. Saracen is priceless comic material--what's more funny than a deadly goose?--and much like other elements in this book, adds to the humor. For Fly by Night is quite a funny book, along with hordes of other charms it possesses.
Through it's entirety, Fly By Night holds such beauty in between it's pages that it's startling and wondrous and devastatingly brilliant, all at once. This book is so complex, so carefully crafted, that every plot line integrates seamlessly into the story. The Fractured Realm, the name of the world Hardinge creates, is three-dimensional and inventive, and readers will be transported into a world that's based of 18th century England; a world that's so intricately detailed that there is no doubt in my mind that it exists somewhere, if I could just find it. Hardinge has created something with elaborate political intrigue: three guilds vying for supremacy and a Parliament that has been debating over the next king for decades. The religious mythology of Beloved gods who occupy such niches as "She Who Keeps the Vegetable of the Garden Crisp" and "She Who Frightens the Harelip Fairy from the Childbed" is lovely. The culture and customs of this invented world are frankly amazing: floating coffeehouses, a town where water bleaches everyone's eyebrows, and a world where books are regarded with such caution that people are afraid to touch words that have not been approved by the guild.
Here are some favorite quotes:
"Everybody knew that books were dangerous. Read the wrong book, it was said, and the words crawled around your brain on black legs and drove you mad, wicked mad."
"The world is like a broken wrist that healed the wrong way, and will never be the same again."
"You, sir, are a romantic, and I'm afraid the condition is incurable. "
"If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog"
"To the east and west rose two spires, the city stretched between them. Behind a long pie crust of crumbling wall clustered a mosaic of roofs, and a great dome that seemed in the dull light to be glossy and ethereal as a soap bubble. To the west along the waterside unfinished ships bared rib cages of stripped wood the sky. The creak and crack of the shipyard was a faint as a cricket orchestra."
I''ll stop before I quote the whole book.
If there's any book that's a "reader" book, this is it. It's clear that Hardinge has a love affair with words herself, much as her starring duo does. Every effortlessly crafted paragraph, every sentence, every word, is evidence of this fact. This book will be a joy to anyone who revels in beautifully crafted language.
I'll say this now--as you've no doubt tired of my incredibly long-winded, rambly review-- it does not matter what age you are or what genres you like to read. It does not matter. If you are a reader--someone who delights in the art of the written word, who wants a book that will wow you, read Fly By Night.
You see, I was paging through my copy in search of quotes to incorporate into this review. Before I knew it, I started re-reading this book. I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop.
I reread it again tonight in one sitting, while the blank blogger new post screen glared at me accusingly. But I don't regret it; it was about time I reread Fly By Night. I haven't for about a month or so, and for me that's been far too long.
While I was reading this time around, I dogeared every page with something quotable or well-written on it. I had to stop after I'd dogeared more than 10 pages in a short section of the book. The truth of the matter is that Fly By Night is extraordinarily well-written. The 483 perfectly-wrought pages occupy a special place in my reading-heart.
The main character Mosca Mye, a "ferrety-looking girl with unconvincing eyebrows" is both irrepressible and sharp-tongued, defiant and canny. Perhaps best of all, she harbors a love for the written word. As readers, we know that Mosca never intended to burn down her Uncle's mill. In fact, all she remembers is "seeing the wretched lamp sketch a faint letter in white smoke shortly before the dry stems around it started to black and a hesitant flamed wavered first blue, then gold."
But the burning of the mill is not what's important to the story. The significance of that event is that on her way out of town, Mosca Mye attaches herself to one Eponmyous Clent, a flamboyant con-artist who loves words as much as she does. Clent is "plump, in a soft, self-important way" and he talks in a manner that suggests he rather enjoys the sound of his own voice. As far as I'm concerned, I love his dialogue. The words that come out of his mouth are both mesmerizing and wonderful.
I'd like to present A Portrait of Eponymous Clent in his own words: "I am master of the mysteries of words, their meanings and music and mellifluous magic."
Since Mosca is determined to do anything she can to learn words, she does everything she can to stick with Clent. Mosca thinks of words as something to be treasured; "She did not know what they meant, but words had shapes in her mind. She memorized them, and stroked them in her thoughts like the curved backs of cats. Words, words, wonderful words." Clent is her way into the world of adventure, and although he is untrustworthy and unscrupulously dishonest, the two make a a great duo as they traverse around the countryside, involving themselves with gloved felons, a bad-tempered ship captain, an under-the-weather highwayman, the Duke's sister, and the high-powered guilds that hold all the power in the realm. Mosca and Clent tread a fine line between conspiracy and capture.
But what a duo they make! Actually, not a a duo. I nearly forgot to mention Saracen, who I'd like to kidnap from the velvety pages of this story and make my pet. Saracen is a goose and Mosca's only friend. He also happens to be nothing short of devilish. I practically died from laughing when Saracen single-handedly commandeered a boat--captain and sailors still aboard--and when he won a fight against a civet. Saracen is priceless comic material--what's more funny than a deadly goose?--and much like other elements in this book, adds to the humor. For Fly by Night is quite a funny book, along with hordes of other charms it possesses.
Through it's entirety, Fly By Night holds such beauty in between it's pages that it's startling and wondrous and devastatingly brilliant, all at once. This book is so complex, so carefully crafted, that every plot line integrates seamlessly into the story. The Fractured Realm, the name of the world Hardinge creates, is three-dimensional and inventive, and readers will be transported into a world that's based of 18th century England; a world that's so intricately detailed that there is no doubt in my mind that it exists somewhere, if I could just find it. Hardinge has created something with elaborate political intrigue: three guilds vying for supremacy and a Parliament that has been debating over the next king for decades. The religious mythology of Beloved gods who occupy such niches as "She Who Keeps the Vegetable of the Garden Crisp" and "She Who Frightens the Harelip Fairy from the Childbed" is lovely. The culture and customs of this invented world are frankly amazing: floating coffeehouses, a town where water bleaches everyone's eyebrows, and a world where books are regarded with such caution that people are afraid to touch words that have not been approved by the guild.
Here are some favorite quotes:
"Everybody knew that books were dangerous. Read the wrong book, it was said, and the words crawled around your brain on black legs and drove you mad, wicked mad."
"The world is like a broken wrist that healed the wrong way, and will never be the same again."
"You, sir, are a romantic, and I'm afraid the condition is incurable. "
"If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog"
"To the east and west rose two spires, the city stretched between them. Behind a long pie crust of crumbling wall clustered a mosaic of roofs, and a great dome that seemed in the dull light to be glossy and ethereal as a soap bubble. To the west along the waterside unfinished ships bared rib cages of stripped wood the sky. The creak and crack of the shipyard was a faint as a cricket orchestra."
I''ll stop before I quote the whole book.
If there's any book that's a "reader" book, this is it. It's clear that Hardinge has a love affair with words herself, much as her starring duo does. Every effortlessly crafted paragraph, every sentence, every word, is evidence of this fact. This book will be a joy to anyone who revels in beautifully crafted language.
I'll say this now--as you've no doubt tired of my incredibly long-winded, rambly review-- it does not matter what age you are or what genres you like to read. It does not matter. If you are a reader--someone who delights in the art of the written word, who wants a book that will wow you, read Fly By Night.
So I picked this book up from the local used bookstore. It was in the young adult fantasy section and after reading the summary I thought that I would really enjoy this book. However, I can say that this is not quite what I would call fantasy. It would fall more under an adventure/mystery story in my opinion. There are no mythical creatures or magic or anything really fantasy related, which I am so used to in fantasy novels and that is what I have come to enjoy.
That being said, I only give this novel three stars, not because it was a bad book, but just because it wasn't too interesting and wasn't what I expected. It is a lot different than other books I have read.
Even though I didn't enjoy it I know for sure that others will, especially if you like reading books about books or reading. So I will discuss all the great aspects of this book.
The story was very interesting, yet possibly a little to complex for younger readers. There is a city called Mandelion, which is being run by a parliament, but is really run by the various guilds within the city who all have their own responsibilities. It was difficult to figure out how all the guilds interacted among each other, their responsibilities, and who were the good/bad guys. There is also a Beloved for each day/night of the year and whatever day the child was born they would be named after that Beloved. Mosca is born under "Goodman Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jams and Butterchurns" and so she was named Mosca, which is Spanish for fly. I thought this was very different and also kind of confusing with all the different names of the Beloved and what the represent. Additionally, there are rules against reading anything that does not have the right seal and is not approved by the Company of Stationers. All written material is controlled by them, so no one else is allowed to print anything. The story revolves around people wanting to be able to read, write, and learn, but not being able to!
I didn't enjoy the plot too much just because it was a little too complex for a young adult book and too political for my taste. However, I did like the idea of the book, just not how it was executed.
The characters are great! I really enjoyed Mosca and her goose is awesome! I thought Mosca was a great character. She learned to read from her father and wants to read everything she can find. However, since most material is banned, there isn't very much that is interesting. She really has a passion for reading and wanting to learn, which is a great character in a book for younger children. She also doesn't always do the right thing, but does what she believes to be right. I thought she was a terrific character.
I also liked Eponymous Clent. I wasn't ever sure if he was really a bad or good person and if he would ever end up harming Mosca. He also loves words and reading, so he is a great companion for Mosca as she escapes from her uncle to go to Mandelion.
The writing in the book was fantastic! I loved how it was written and some of the words used are great for young adults to build their vocabulary. I know I had to look some of them up!
This would be a great book for young adults or adults who love fiction, mystery, adventure stories, or politics. If you really like fantasy and don't like other genres much, then I wouldn't suggest reading this book. Do give it a try if it sounds interesting to you! If you do like it there is a sequel! It is a great story, but just not a book for me, which is why I only give it 3 stars.
That being said, I only give this novel three stars, not because it was a bad book, but just because it wasn't too interesting and wasn't what I expected. It is a lot different than other books I have read.
Even though I didn't enjoy it I know for sure that others will, especially if you like reading books about books or reading. So I will discuss all the great aspects of this book.
The story was very interesting, yet possibly a little to complex for younger readers. There is a city called Mandelion, which is being run by a parliament, but is really run by the various guilds within the city who all have their own responsibilities. It was difficult to figure out how all the guilds interacted among each other, their responsibilities, and who were the good/bad guys. There is also a Beloved for each day/night of the year and whatever day the child was born they would be named after that Beloved. Mosca is born under "Goodman Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jams and Butterchurns" and so she was named Mosca, which is Spanish for fly. I thought this was very different and also kind of confusing with all the different names of the Beloved and what the represent. Additionally, there are rules against reading anything that does not have the right seal and is not approved by the Company of Stationers. All written material is controlled by them, so no one else is allowed to print anything. The story revolves around people wanting to be able to read, write, and learn, but not being able to!
I didn't enjoy the plot too much just because it was a little too complex for a young adult book and too political for my taste. However, I did like the idea of the book, just not how it was executed.
The characters are great! I really enjoyed Mosca and her goose is awesome! I thought Mosca was a great character. She learned to read from her father and wants to read everything she can find. However, since most material is banned, there isn't very much that is interesting. She really has a passion for reading and wanting to learn, which is a great character in a book for younger children. She also doesn't always do the right thing, but does what she believes to be right. I thought she was a terrific character.
I also liked Eponymous Clent. I wasn't ever sure if he was really a bad or good person and if he would ever end up harming Mosca. He also loves words and reading, so he is a great companion for Mosca as she escapes from her uncle to go to Mandelion.
The writing in the book was fantastic! I loved how it was written and some of the words used are great for young adults to build their vocabulary. I know I had to look some of them up!
This would be a great book for young adults or adults who love fiction, mystery, adventure stories, or politics. If you really like fantasy and don't like other genres much, then I wouldn't suggest reading this book. Do give it a try if it sounds interesting to you! If you do like it there is a sequel! It is a great story, but just not a book for me, which is why I only give it 3 stars.
Just wasn’t connecting with the characters; and I didn’t really see where the story was going, or what was even happening.