bookdragonism 's review for:

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao

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although i absolutely loved both of the protagonists and the angst that comes with a marriage in crisis, i can't say that i liked this book enough to be invested in its sequel. i admire the imaginative world-building and the complexity of the magic system, but the execution of the story itself was not entirely satisfactory to me. i just feel like so many things happened in this book, especially at the second half, that i couldn't keep up with what was happening. maybe that's just a me problem, but i couldn't help but get whiplash when things got too intense too fast without proper buildup whatsoever. if the mysteries of this world were unraveled more slowly, i would have appreciated this story better. instead there was too much info dumping on the second half, crowding my brain with one revelation after another.

overall, a promising high fantasy that could have been more fleshed out. you may or may not love this, but it's worth a shot. the audiobook narrators were pretty good too.