A review by ianbanks
Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge

5.0

"That is a very charming story, Mosca. Never tell it again."

I hate animal sidekicks. People writing about animal sidekicks very rarely dwell on details like feeding, caring for, cleaning up after them or just the obnoxiousness that some animals can have.

By themselves, of course, animals are great. Pets are fantastic. But, much as I love them, I would never consider them an equal partner in my adventures.

Well, except maybe Eric (1999-2008) - now there was a cat...

The point of this meandering is that there is an animal sidekick in Fly By Night. And he is obnoxious and messy and holds things up but that is part of his appeal. And he plays several important parts in the story that you stop thinking of him as an anthropomorphical piece of wish-fulfillment and start thinking of him as a proper character.

Which is part of the joy of this book: it's a story about revolution in a side-step world based loosely on England about three hundred years ago but with more boats, kites and coffee shops. It's a world that feels vivid and lived-in, with enough backstory to feel real and not so much that it feels crowded and completely foreign. It's also the story of Mosca, daughter of a disgraced author, who escapes her unhappy life and becomes part of an adventure that her father helped start.

But it's not just an adventure story: this book celebrates language and bookishness and the power of words and ideas to change a society and inspire people to be their best. It also has some fantasically quotable dialogue and a refreshing picture of a person who is exposed to the machinations of those higher in status and sees a new way of looking at the world around them without turning into a whinging snowflake. And it has some great characters: alongside Mosca is her travelling partner, con artist and part-time revolutionary Eponymous Clent; the unhappy wedding assistant known as The Cakes; Captain Blythe the celebrated highwayman; Linden Kohlrabi, the mysterious facilitator of circumstance who Mosca comes to depend on far too much, and many, many others, some of who are only on the page for a short while but are never less than memorable. There are many minor characters in Ms Hardinge's book, but no small parts.

However, it all comes back to Mosca who is the major player in the events of this novel. And she is great: fierce, tough, unyielding, intelligent - and smart with it, she smashes through obstacles and earns the respect of the reader because of the way she handles problems as well as the compassion she shows for other people, regardless of their standing. She also learns from other characters and situations and applies what she learns in a way that feels real and organic rather than imposed as a "character moment."

Which probably leads to the only real problem I had with this book: we spend so much time with Mosca that the rare times we get to see things from other character's way of thinking feel a little unbalanced, as though some scenes are only included because there was no way that Mosca could have witnessed them. They aren't badly written scenes by any stretch of the imagination, just so rare that they really jump out at you as being different to the rest of the story. But it's a minor problem to have in a book that is so rich in other elements.