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kltemplado's review against another edition
3.0
Not as interesting as the first one, but still entertaining
cherithe's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great sequel to Updraft. It answers my main question from the first book but leaves enough for a follow-up without feeling like a tease or a cliffhanger (even though it sort of is). I'm never really a fan of series that change narrators, but I liked getting things from Nat's point of view and I can see why she chose him as the pov for this story. Definitely looking forward to what comes next.
boogy_'s review
3.5
I like this one a bit less than the first but it’s still solid. The last 1/4 picks up and leads into an insane ending. Out of the three, this is my least favorite just because of how much the plot drags. Nat is also a bit irritating but it’s easy to look over that.
feelingferal's review against another edition
2.0
I was really disappointed in this book after how much I loved the first one. The conflict was too diffuse and Nat was not nearly engaging enough as a MC.
lorialdenholuta's review against another edition
4.0
I found Cloudbound a little more sedate than Updraft, due to the shift in who's telling the story. Nat's 'voice' isn't as dynamic as Kirit's narrative in the first book, I feel.
However! I have nothing but praise for the storyline. We continue on where Updraft left off, and to my delight, we delve into mysterious places I have been itching to learn more about. And wow, did I. I'm most definitely ready for Horizon now.
However! I have nothing but praise for the storyline. We continue on where Updraft left off, and to my delight, we delve into mysterious places I have been itching to learn more about. And wow, did I. I'm most definitely ready for Horizon now.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
2.0
Just no. A book has to be more than just cool. This one definitely has cool bits. But the endless running , the endless fighting stopped being interesting way before the end. And by the time we get to the big reveal, I didn't believe it and I didn't care. I wanted this all to make sense - and sure I'm sure it can be explained, but that doesn't make it better. So no. And unless I see some surprising reviews, I doubt I'll read a sequel if one were to appear.
snazel's review
3.0
As with the first book, I found the story of What Is Up With The City the most compelling plot. There is also politics, but that was just horrible and distressing so I focused instead on BONE CITY. And based on the previous book and this one, I thought I knew what was going on with the city.
I didn't.
Or rather, I got half of it right, but the half I didn't get is INCREDIBLY DISTRESSING.
Next book next book next book NEXT BOOK.
I didn't.
Or rather, I got half of it right, but the half I didn't get is INCREDIBLY DISTRESSING.
Next book next book next book NEXT BOOK.
aphelia88's review
2.0
I really enjoyed the first book, [b:Updraft|18464362|Updraft (Bone Universe, #1)|Fran Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442426865s/18464362.jpg|26121406], and I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, I think Wilde's decision to change narrators from Kirit to her friend Nat was a mistake. In Updraft, Nat was an interesting character: despite his father's tragic death from knowing too many Spire secrets, he was irrepressibly curious and determined to uncover the secrets of the City.
As this book starts, Nat is obsessed with proving his worth as a newly elected Junior Councillor, apprenticing under the trader Doran Grigit (the one Kirit was supposed to apprentice with in the last book, before she failed her wingtest). The City is being torn apart by tension, as the Tower folk blame the remaining Singers for the City's troubles. The Council wants to sentence the Singers to be thrown down in the clouds at a Conclave to reverse their bad luck.
But Nat is terribly indecisive, bouncing from contradictory thought to thought, often on the same page! Although he grew up like a brother to Kirit, he cannot forgive her "betrayal" when she was forced to joined the Singers. He hates Kirit, he loves Kirit, he doesn't believe Kirit, maybe he believes Kirit? She's skytouched, crazy. She makes too much sense. She is trying to save the City. He loves the City, the City is fine, the City is corrupt? No, the City needs saving!
You get the idea. It's exhausting. He just decides something and then changes his mind AGAIN. The pacing is also very problematic. It was a little jittery in at times in Updraft - suddenly it would shoot forward, or backward, like a missing frame. I thought it was stylistic, to increase the tension, and maybe that is the case - but it is too often utilized here, to the point that some parts of the narrative seem unfinished and disjointed, more like a skeleton draft not fleshed out.
The story drags terribly too. The first 3/4 could have been condensed to 1/4, mostly by cutting down on Nat's constant internal narrative and painstaking flight formation information. The ending is a HUGE cliffhanger, which is unfortunate as this was billed as a "companion" novel to the "standalone" Updraft - only to turn out to be the middle book of a trilogy!
When events finally pick up, when Nat and his group go below the Clouds, further than any before, to try retrieve proof of corruption in the Council, it seems almost anticlimactic.
Major issues:
1. The treatment of Dix: the corrupt Councillor tries to kill them all multiple times. She is killing the City by draining the Heartbone from the broken Spire. When it's clear that she will not stop and she double-crosses the group at their last attempt at negotiation below clouds, Nat and company have several chances to kill her. They do not. Why? She cannot be reasoned with, she will not stop trying to take over the city, and she is determined to kill them - why leave her in a position to do it all again? Although they leave her injured, it's obvious that she will come back to attack them again in the future. This series is far too dark for typical YA, and the characters are not children who have never killed before - although they persist in acting like it, for no apparent reason.
2. The identity of the City: as I suspected from the first, the bone towers of the City are borne on the back of a being. At the end of the book, they all tumble out of the Bone Forest onto the back of the City - which turns out to be an old, dying, immobile monster. On a desert plain filled with younger, more mobile monsters. And yet the scale between the people and the beast seems off - are the people teeny tiny? And where can Wilde possibly go from here?
This was a very promising series that went totally off the rails for me with this installment. I would read the third book, just to finish, but I hope that the viewpoint switches back to Kirit. Nat has every reason to be anxious, but the constant panic, repetition and indecisiveness was painful, not thrilling. Although the whole cast of secondary characters eventually reassembled, the Singers - Wik, and the young twins Moc and Ciel, and even Kirit - were so downtrodden and ill that you did not get much interaction.
The highlight for me was the Scavenger Aliati, who chose to help them navigate below the Clouds, using folktales and legends long forgotten by other citizens. Nat turned out to be an unlikeable character who is incredibly selfish - it's his priorities and thoughts and feelings that matter, bar none. The City should be saved because he - finally - wakes up and decides it needs to be saved. It is hard to have any empathy for him, or his story. I really hope the final book is better!
As this book starts, Nat is obsessed with proving his worth as a newly elected Junior Councillor, apprenticing under the trader Doran Grigit (the one Kirit was supposed to apprentice with in the last book, before she failed her wingtest). The City is being torn apart by tension, as the Tower folk blame the remaining Singers for the City's troubles. The Council wants to sentence the Singers to be thrown down in the clouds at a Conclave to reverse their bad luck.
But Nat is terribly indecisive, bouncing from contradictory thought to thought, often on the same page! Although he grew up like a brother to Kirit, he cannot forgive her "betrayal" when she was forced to joined the Singers. He hates Kirit, he loves Kirit, he doesn't believe Kirit, maybe he believes Kirit? She's skytouched, crazy. She makes too much sense. She is trying to save the City. He loves the City, the City is fine, the City is corrupt? No, the City needs saving!
You get the idea. It's exhausting. He just decides something and then changes his mind AGAIN. The pacing is also very problematic. It was a little jittery in at times in Updraft - suddenly it would shoot forward, or backward, like a missing frame. I thought it was stylistic, to increase the tension, and maybe that is the case - but it is too often utilized here, to the point that some parts of the narrative seem unfinished and disjointed, more like a skeleton draft not fleshed out.
The story drags terribly too. The first 3/4 could have been condensed to 1/4, mostly by cutting down on Nat's constant internal narrative and painstaking flight formation information. The ending is a HUGE cliffhanger, which is unfortunate as this was billed as a "companion" novel to the "standalone" Updraft - only to turn out to be the middle book of a trilogy!
When events finally pick up, when Nat and his group go below the Clouds, further than any before, to try retrieve proof of corruption in the Council, it seems almost anticlimactic.
Major issues:
Spoiler
1. The treatment of Dix: the corrupt Councillor tries to kill them all multiple times. She is killing the City by draining the Heartbone from the broken Spire. When it's clear that she will not stop and she double-crosses the group at their last attempt at negotiation below clouds, Nat and company have several chances to kill her. They do not. Why? She cannot be reasoned with, she will not stop trying to take over the city, and she is determined to kill them - why leave her in a position to do it all again? Although they leave her injured, it's obvious that she will come back to attack them again in the future. This series is far too dark for typical YA, and the characters are not children who have never killed before - although they persist in acting like it, for no apparent reason.
2. The identity of the City: as I suspected from the first, the bone towers of the City are borne on the back of a being. At the end of the book, they all tumble out of the Bone Forest onto the back of the City - which turns out to be an old, dying, immobile monster. On a desert plain filled with younger, more mobile monsters. And yet the scale between the people and the beast seems off - are the people teeny tiny? And where can Wilde possibly go from here?
This was a very promising series that went totally off the rails for me with this installment. I would read the third book, just to finish, but I hope that the viewpoint switches back to Kirit. Nat has every reason to be anxious, but the constant panic, repetition and indecisiveness was painful, not thrilling. Although the whole cast of secondary characters eventually reassembled, the Singers - Wik, and the young twins Moc and Ciel, and even Kirit - were so downtrodden and ill that you did not get much interaction.
The highlight for me was the Scavenger Aliati, who chose to help them navigate below the Clouds, using folktales and legends long forgotten by other citizens. Nat turned out to be an unlikeable character who is incredibly selfish - it's his priorities and thoughts and feelings that matter, bar none. The City should be saved because he - finally - wakes up and decides it needs to be saved. It is hard to have any empathy for him, or his story. I really hope the final book is better!
novelinsights's review
5.0
I was very happy with this continuation of the trilogy. The world-building was expanded in exactly the way that I was hoping it would be, and while I was initially hesitant about the change in perspective from Kirit to Nat, I think it was the right choice for this specific story. The plot was similar to that of the first book in the sense that it's about politics and secrets being withheld from the public, though it was a little bit less predictable. In general, though, it's the unique worldbuilding that really attracts me to these books.