A review by agathe_athena
Plague Birds by Jason Sanford

3.0

In the far, far future, thousands of years after the collapse of civilization, the remainder of humanity are gene-modded humans living in small villages, watched over by their village AIs. Plague birds are AI-bonded humans who roam the world and keep the peace, often quite harshly. Most people fear the plague birds, and Crista more so because she saw one kill her mother. But when a dying plague bird comes to her village, Crista finds herself bonded to the plague bird’s AI in order to save her village. Now, Crista must find out the truth about the mysterious and powerful group that is killing plague birds, but also find the truth about how her mother died. The truth she uncovers will be bigger than anything she imagined.

This was an interesting far future sci-fi/fantasy hero’s quest. The world-building is really interesting, which is good because that’s mostly what the book is. The plot is very standard hero’s quest, and there is a mystery which keeps things moving forward. But the protagonist has very little agency, just stumbling from one discovery to the next with lots of help from overly powerful friends, and everything fits together just a little too neatly to discover that the protagonist is the Chosen One.

3.5 stars because the world-building is very interesting, but rounded down because too little agency and leans a bit too heavily on tropes.