All the Birds in the Sky

Every year, I hit a book that I really struggle to review and as a result, my reviews taper off. It's still early, but I'm pretty sure that All the Birds in the Sky is that book for 2017. To quote a friend, it's just really less than the sum of its parts, and that makes it really hard to discuss.

The first part was truly brilliant: a boy builds a two second time machine (only forwards, not backwards, of course) and a girl discovers that she can talk to birds and together they fight crime commiserate about being stuck in the wrong genre. In this part, the magical elements are so small, and brought into contrast with larger than life reality – super strict parents, super out-of-touch teachers, a guidance counselor/assassin – and together it's just really a special conversation about what it is that we're discussing when we write and read and reread coming of age teen magician books. I loved that they weren't like each other, but they clung to each other because neither of them was like anyone else. In a lot of key ways, it reminded me of my own relationship with my own best friend.

I liked the decision to skip over both of them coming into their own and go right to them as independent young adults. I thought it was brave to leave out any details of the Special Secret School for Witches. The tone of the next part lost some of the contrast of small magic/big life/quirky offshoots that are funny but not overpowering, but it was still riding on the strength of the beginning. Some of the ideas introduced were really clever (like the guy who turns into nature once he leaves his bookshop) and others fell a little flat for me (like the way witches were totally obsessed with not becoming too arrogant), but overall, I really liked the central tension between saving the world and saving humanity and found that compelling.

Then, holy non-sequitur, Batman! We enter a massive time jump, to stop one month in to have 1.5 pages of Patricia and Lawrence having sex, their social falling out and Lawrence's girlfriend both having been erased during the time jump. But no sooner do we turn the page, then there's another several months of time jump. If you have to stop your time jump in the middle to show your readers coitus, you're doing something wrong. But I probably should have just walked away, because after this, I felt that the characterization completely fell apart and a lot of the storytelling hinged on deus ex machinae and false dilemmas.

So, strong start, I'd like to see Anders' next work, but I probably won't reread this; at least not all of the way through.

DNF at 60%

I never DNF books but wow.. I just couldn't read this for a second longer.

It felt like a middle grade book but then it would hit you with extreme NSFW moments that reminds you this is a mature book.

this book feels like it was a book once but someone just scrambled the whole story and now chapters and paragraphs are out of order and doesn't make sense.

I wanted to love this book but I kinda fell short right at the end. However, the two protagonists: Patricia and Lawrence are beautifully written.

The book is split over 3 era's of our characters' lives. Firstly when they're young children where the world is huge and wonderous. Patricia in particular has her first adventure very early in the book, and in part I wondered if this was entirely in a child's imagination rather than happening to her.

The next era in the book Patricia and Lawrence are at (what I'd consider ‘middle school'), and frankly it's horrible. They're bullied and targeted across the board. I found this part of the book the hardest hitting, and probably closer to the reality I know and it made me sad for the characters. I also felt like there was no real growth from this period of the book and they were simply tortured for being different and that wasn't addressed (or I missed it).

Then the last era of the book the characters are young adults, Patricia a witch with more control over her powers (and yes, it seems that it wasn't her imagination back when she was a child), and Lawrence a full super nerd building a machine to save humanity.

The story feels like it accelerates in momentum, complexity and consequence as it progresses. It reads really well, and the sci-fi aspects are fun, complex and draw some interesting moral questions.

Except for me, the end just...kinda happened. I was following the story along, the world in the book was going to hell, level 10 dystopia stuff, and then all of a sudden the protagonists left alone, Patricia is following a pigeon to a tree, they have a weird conversation, she vaguely answers a question and then Patricia and Lawrence walk off together into the sunset (sort of) with a sense of hope and everything will be okay for them.

Yet the world is still collapsing (mother nature trying to course correct), witches (and wizards?) are blasting people into unknown realms, and intend to unleash The Unravelling (which we meet once and it's a horror show), and the scientists are pissed and building mega machines to blow away the witches. So that's all still happening and yet Patricia and Lawrence seem to be okay.

I was left feeling like I missed something crucial at the end of the book, because I felt like the characters were doom, but didn't realise it, and the world was going to die even though both Patricia and Lawrence intended to save it. So...yeah, I'm not sure.

I loved the characters, and the writing was great and really original, and quite biting at times. But the more I thought about the end of the story, the more confused I felt.

This was a surprisingly weird book. It's a mix of urban fantasy, light science fiction, nonsense and disastrous futures. There's an AI, witches and mad scientists (sort of...). There is romance. Childhood adventures. Nerdy hipsters. Birds and trees talking. There are philosophical discussions about life, universe and everything. A clash of magic and science.

It's one of those books that can't really fit in one genre box. It's multi-genre (if such a classification exists).
I enjoyed reading it mostly because of the unusual dialogues and crazy ideas. It reminded me a little bit of Douglas Adams's style (like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

The AI Peregrine was my favorite character. And in my head I was sure the AI was a female. But then later in the story I realized they actually called her with a masculine noun. Anyway, the genre doesn't matter at all, the AI was cool. I thought the best portions of the story were when Patricia and Laurence were having some existential discussion, like the end of the world.

At around 70% I thought the story dragged a little bit and it became a little depressing. But then the story picks up and extraordinary things happen.

It's an interesting mixed bag of magic and “sciency” near future story. To be read with an open mind.

This was a very good book. The dicotomy between the two characters and their similarities was a real draw. The author really builds a back story in an interesting and emotional way. I normally read scifi and this could fit into that but I think it also fits into what my wife finds more interesting to read which is definitely not scifi. There was more character and emotion here than I would normally pick out but I'm glad I picked this one up.

This book follows two friends starting in their childhoods, Patricia who has one foot in the world of magic, and Lawrence who has a genius for science and invention. The two, seperately and together face ever greater challenges, eventually a threat to the world itself.

I loved the book. The only negative was that I felt that Ms Anders was too good a writer.

I'll explain: Each section of the novel is written in a different style, one that is perfect for the age of the characters, so we see Patricia's early childhood in a fairy tale style of writing, her schooling in a YA style etc.

The problem is that it is done so well I sort of feel cheated, like I was given one bite of a delicious meal, then had it whisked away. Each section was SO GOOD I wanted more!

I would have been delighted to read an entire novel of little Patricia's adventures with the woodland animals (always trying to get home for bedtime!). Then an entire novel of a young witch's trials with her hyper-nerd buddy Lawrence as they amusingly avoid the plotting of the evil guidance councilor in Middle School...and so on.

Seriously - I would read that.

I loved the ending (no spoilers) but I did feel it was a bit rushed. I think that this was intentional as it seemed to be in an “action thriller” style to build tension and excitement. I did feel that it was chopping and changing far too much. I loved each bit of it, but a scene would just get going when the characters would have to rush off somewhere else.

I guess what I am saying is. Everything is good - just give me more! It seems that whatever style Ms Anders sets her hand to turns out well, so I look forward to reading more of her work in future.

This book is absolutely charming. I think that's the best adjective I can find to describe it. Written by Charlie Jane Anders of io9 fame, it reads with the speed and snark of an io9 article, but it also has a rich sense of both the fantasy and science fiction vault of tropes. Anders plays with these tropes, using them and suberting them to support what is essentially a Romeo & Juliet story if Romeo & Juliet both really loved their families and thought about the consequences of their rash actions and understood that being 13 is really not a time to make lifelong committments.

Basically, it's everything I love.

If I had to make a criticism, it would be that some of the pop culture references feel a little forced and stale already, and given that this book is set in the future, they just don't seem to make a lot of sense and forced me out of the story. It was, however, very easy to slip right back in to Patricia and Laurence's bizarre collision of worldviews, methodologies, and circles of allies. Anders weaves in a unique magic system that draws from folklore around the world as wel as a selection of near future technologies, all of which I want, making the bits between action scenes just as entertaining as the pivotal moments.

It's funny, sweet, heartbreaking, and thoughtful. A wonderful choice for fans of modern speculative fiction.

This fusion of magic and science didn't really work for me. Some of the characters' motivations aren't well explained, like what is the deal with Mr. Rose, really? The end sort of just fizzled out, and I found the last chapters to be a slog, which is the opposite of what a great book feels like, where you just don't want the story to end yet. Probably not going to recommend this book to anyone I know.

I am reviewing the Audible version of this book.

I really enjoyed this story, especially the character of Patricia. I found her character arc fascinating. I also enjoy a story where I can see some of the ending coming, but then, in a twist, it doesn't work out exactly as I thought it would. 

Alyssa Bresnahan is the perfect narrator for this book, particularly for voicing Patricia, with all her neuroticism, and the birds, with all their singlemindedness. Patricia and the birds are, to me, the core of this book.

The story is a quirky coming of age story that continues on into the struggles of young adulthood. Our misfit protagonists in junior high manage to end up where they wanted to be, and, in many ways, they are still misfits trying to forgive themselves and, in the process, finally reconcile with who they really are. Although Patricia and Laurence are the protagonists, I feel that Patricia is written more fully than Laurence. This may be because the author is female and just couldn't fully inhabit the thoughts and motivations of a male character as well as she could a female.

I received this book in the dead tree format as a birthday gift, but I already had bought the audiobook. I am glad that I listened to the audiobook version first. I think I'll regift the other.

I selected this book because I found it on a 2016 year-end “best of list.” While I enjoyed it, I don't think it earns a “best of” for my library. The characters - Patricia (the magic-based woman) and Laurence (the science-focused man) are compelling and likable. Yet, I think it would be a far more interesting novel if the somewhat stereotypical gender roles were flipped - he as the witch (warlock?) and she as the scientific genius. Regardless, the plot is engaging, but I'd have liked a more brisk pacing to the story. It kept my interest throughout, but I wouldn't call it a page turner. And the narrative seemed odd in places, e.g. something significant to the plot would be described in just a sentence which felt out of the flow of the story. In the end, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think it lives up to the hype of a “best of designation” nor the ecstatic praise given by the reviewers quoted on the flap and back of the book.

Executive Summary: I found this book incredibly hard to read at times, yet somehow hard to put down at the same time. I tore through it in only a few days (fast for me) and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. 3.25 Stars. Maybe 3.5?Full ReviewI was familiar with Charlie Jane Anders from i09. I knew she had a book coming out this year, but I wasn't really planning to read it. I can't say why, probably because I already have so many other books I want to read.I was interested to see how this book would turn out. The answer for me was largely depressing. I spent a few years reading dark fantasy, before burning out on it. This isn't really in the same category, but it's definitely not what I'd consider a fun book.This seems to be a tale of two halves. I seem to have a few friends who like me found the first half of this book incredibly difficult to read through, and not very enjoyable, but found the second half better. Then there are others who seemed to love the first half and not the second. It goes to show you how books often speak differently to people.Laurence and Patricia were interesting characters, but hard to like at times. I was sympathetic to their horrible upbringing, but their actions often left me confused. They often seemed to make matters worse. Maybe it's because while I had my issues growing up, it was nothing like Ms. Anders subjects them too. I really feel bad for anyone who has a childhood remotely like theirs, and consider myself lucky that I didn't.Normally a book I read this fast would be an easy 5 star rating for me, but I found myself so conflicted for much of the story. I very much liked the idea of mixing magic and engineering. That's right in my wheelhouse. I would categorize this book as pure fantasy in a modern (or near future) setting though. The engineer may be based on sound principles (I can't speak to that myself), but you won't get much explanation about what Laurence and his friends are doing. I think that's for the best though. There is enough going on here without mixing hard sci-fi in too.I liked this book. I didn't love it. I really don't enjoy depressing stories, and I found this far more depressing than something like [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) Lev Grossman https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg 6278977], which is pretty up there too. I think if the first part of the story had been a lot less cringe inducing for me it would have been a solid 4 for me.I enjoyed the ending, though it felt a bit rushed. I would have liked more time spent on the “big reveal” rather than just the final few chapters. I saw part of it coming, but I think the ending might have been stronger if it was revealed a bit earlier on.Overall I think this is one of those books where people may enjoy one half more than the other. If like me you don't enjoy the first part, you might enjoy the second half better. I'm glad this was chosen for the March Sword & Laser because I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise. I will definitely pay more attention if Ms. Anders releases another book.

I think that maybe the greatest compliment I can give a book is that, if I had read it as a teen, it would have been one of my all-time favorites. This book falls wholly within that category. That doesn't mean that it's YA fiction; it was supremely enjoyable as an adult, and some if its content is decidedly grown-up. Anders has a fantastic sense of humor, reminiscent of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, and she has imbued this book with infinitely more humanism and empathy than the average sci-fi read. This book is so much fun, and I can't recommend it highly enough.